I'm back...

[BrickandMortar]

Well, another UK season is over, and another season of heartbreak.

Here are my general thoughts:
- Cal is the GREATEST recruiting coach of all time, one of the worst X and Os coaches ever.
- Cal held up his end of the deal with his players. He wanted to get players to the NBA and did so VERY successfully.
- We should give Mark Pope a chance.
- It sucks we couldn't get a guy like Nate Oats, Eric Musselman, or Dan "The Man" Hurley

Hot take:
- Cal would've been successful if he had one more season, think we would've had a Final Four
- Mark Pope will become a really good recruiter within 5 years
- We will lose everyone but 1 or 2 of Cal's 2024 class, including Boogie Fland.

Let me hear your thoughts, I'll be here until the season starts again.

 

[R.O.T.Muckinfush]

Within 5 years!?!? LMFAO... he better be from day 1!

 

[SBKY]

We have been thinking for 10 years that Cal will get the final 4 next season. It wasn't going to happen.

Everyone for the most part is going to give Mark Pope a chance. 90% of people aren't crazy about it, but it's Mark Pope. I also feel if he fails, people won't blame him, they'll blame Mitch.

 

[UK90]

- Cal would've been successful if he had one more season, think we would've had a Final Four

Why would you think this? Our roster would almost certainly have been worse next year than it was this year. A significantly lower rated recruiting class. No returning senior stud like Reeves.

I think next year would’ve been an ugly mess.

 

[LexCatnOhio]

Well, another UK season is over, and another season of heartbreak.

Here are my general thoughts:
- Cal is the GREATEST recruiting coach of all time, one of the worst X and Os coaches ever.
- Cal held up his end of the deal with his players. He wanted to get players to the NBA and did so VERY successfully.
- We should give Mark Pope a chance.
- It sucks we couldn't get a guy like Nate Oats, Eric Musselman, or Dan "The Man" Hurley

Hot take:
- Cal would've been successful if he had one more season, think we would've had a Final Four
- Mark Pope will become a really good recruiter within 5 years
- We will lose everyone but 1 or 2 of Cal's 2024 class, including Boogie Fland.

Let me hear your thoughts, I'll be here until the season starts again.

Cal probably wasn’t going to the FF again in his tenure here. Maaaaybe if they got a defensive guru to help like they did with offense but my god if he couldn’t even crack the 2nd round with the group he had THIS year? I mean come on NCSt came out of our soft side of the bracket.

We are certainly gonna lose recruits but do we want those types of players that wanna shut it down with the 1st sign of trouble or have their agent with the coach tied in a leash? It could still happen in this changing CBB landscape but time will tell.

 

[BrickandMortar]

Within 5 years!?!? LMFAO... he better be from day 1!

Recruiting coach wise, better coach basketball wise

 

[wldktz1]

We have been thinking for 10 years that Cal will get the final 4 next season. It wasn't going to happen.

Everyone for the most part is going to give Mark Pope a chance. 90% of people aren't crazy about it, but it's Mark Pope. I also feel if he fails, people won't blame him, they'll blame Mitch.

Look at UConn, KU, UVA. They all won championships after following bad seasons and bad tournament losses. It wasn’t a progression from EE to championship in 3-4 years. That’s where we are at now.

 

[westerncat]

Cal was never going to see another final 4 again if he could not do it with the team we had this year. Cal is all about himself and nothing else. I can't see why some folks can't see this.

 

[BigBlueGuru]

Look at UConn, KU, UVA. They all won championships after following bad seasons and bad tournament losses. It wasn’t a progression from EE to championship in 3-4 years. That’s where we are at now.

That is really reaching and hoping. So, with that philosophy why didn't Cal have better seasons after the Covid Season or St. Peters loss? He had 2 years to correct it and didn't. We stayed the same for the last few years.

 

[Skyguyb27]

The next year will be better crowd always cracks me up “but it’s a too 5 class coming in”. Yeah just like all the others.

 

[revcort]

We have been thinking for 10 years that Cal will get the final 4 next season. It wasn't going to happen.

Everyone for the most part is going to give Mark Pope a chance. 90% of people aren't crazy about it, but it's Mark Pope. I also feel if he fails, people won't blame him, they'll blame Mitch.

Yeah, I was in that group as well. This loss to Oakland was like a punch in the gut this season. The loss to St Peter's in 2022 didn't have as much of an impact on me, but this Oakland loss changed my entire way of thinking about Calipari at UK. I had completely dismissed the post-covid debacle of a season in 2021. I thought of the St Peter's loss as a fluke in 2022. I was mad about the K-State loss in the 2nd round in 2023, but when I saw the team in July 2023 in Canada and loved what I saw, I was back to being hopeful again. But I think the Oakland loss was so impactful and changed me so dramatically because it removed the rationalization I had invented that St Peter's was a fluke, so it was like having those losses back to back for me. I couldn't say St Peter's was a fluke anymore, it was a failure of Calipari. And when that became clear, then my justification for the 2021 season was also gone. 4 straight years of inexcusable failure- that's what we just experienced.

Next year would NOT have been the year Calipari returned UK to the Final Four. The 6 freshmen he had recruited this season weren't as good as last season's team- the entire '24 high school class is worse. Dillingham gone. Reeves gone. Sheppard probably gone. You might get better defensively, but the offense would be the issue next year with his team. He had a golden opportunity with this 2023-24 group to get back to the Final Four and possibly win the championship and he loses to OAKLAND! And it's not a fluke. The "next year" thought holds no water anymore for me.

Calipari's manhood was taken in the 2014-15 loss to Wisconsin. His hunger to win left with the lifetime contract in 2019. His drive to represent and win for Kentucky (what little remained) left him during Covid. He started worrying more about players' physical and mental health (their feelings and confidence and NBA aspirations) more than winning games for UK, which was his job. And I think his schtick just wearing on people and the reactions from BBN and "the Bennies" took a toll on him as well.

Edit: Next season might have been the biggest debacle of all and the nastiness that would have resulted would likely have been the worst experience of all our BBN lives. The biggest favor Calipari did to UK and BBN was to just bow out. Saved us $33 million and allowed us to move on without huge embarrassments to all involved.

 

[NociHTTP]

ACCOUNT

 

[BrickandMortar]

ACCOUNT

Just because I haven't been active? You're funny.

 

[mrhotdice]

Well, another UK season is over, and another season of heartbreak.

Here are my general thoughts:
- Cal is the GREATEST recruiting coach of all time, one of the worst X and Os coaches ever.
- Cal held up his end of the deal with his players. He wanted to get players to the NBA and did so VERY successfully.
- We should give Mark Pope a chance.
- It sucks we couldn't get a guy like Nate Oats, Eric Musselman, or Dan "The Man" Hurley

Hot take:
- Cal would've been successful if he had one more season, think we would've had a Final Four
- Mark Pope will become a really good recruiter within 5 years
- We will lose everyone but 1 or 2 of Cal's 2024 class, including Boogie Fland.

Let me hear your thoughts, I'll be here until the season starts again.

5 star recruits that play for anything but the school are not worth the snot from my nose. This one and done bS needs to go away. Come to Kentucky to play for a kentucky coach. In the Pope we trust.

 

[DelkBowl]

Musselman?

 

[BrickandMortar]

Y

Musselman?

Yes. I wish we could've gotten him before USC.

 

[Panthur]

Cal is nowhere near the greatest recruiter of all time and except for John Wall be got absolutely faced whenever he went head to head recruiting against Krzyzewski. His first five years he got some very impressive hauls, but by sheer coincidence the minute rumors said he and Worldwide Wes had fallen out, Cal said goodbye forever to pulling in crown jewels and became the volume shooter of recruiters.

 

[Ukbrassowtipin]

Cal is nowhere near the greatest recruiter of all time and except for John Wall be got absolutely faced whenever he went head to head recruiting against Krzyzewski. His first five years he got some very impressive hauls, but by sheer coincidence the minute rumors said he and Worldwide Wes had fallen out, Cal said goodbye forever to pulling in crown jewels and became the volume shooter of recruiters.

K had a lot of busts too. His Zion class was really good.

Cal's last best class was 2017

 

[Panthur]

K had a lot of busts too. His Zion class was really good.

Cal's last best class was 2017

K definitely had a lot of busts. But I think for him those were more about him doing less with more. He didn’t seem to lose too many recruiting battles at the height of his career.

I agree about 2017.

 

[awf]

We have been thinking for 10 years that Cal will get the final 4 next season. It wasn't going to happen.

Everyone for the most part is going to give Mark Pope a chance. 90% of people aren't crazy about it, but it's Mark Pope. I also feel if he fails, people won't blame him, they'll blame Mitch.

90% ?