Irrelevant
- Thread starter gabbizon
- Start date
Pretty soon we will have commemorative popcorn boxes celebrating rare upset wins!
Kentucky Basketball has been a fading brand for far too long. No matter what you tell yourself, this is NOT anywhere close to where the program should be.
That’s what Mitch Barnhart has done to this program. The worst AD in our history. Who gives a f*** about volleyball or rifling?
A silver lining...if you ever wanted to try the legendary (and overrated, IMO) Rupp Arena soft serve ice cream, the lines will be much more manageable as the season progresses.
More known for ice cream than basketball now
And the UK fans who wish to shield Pope will use "parity" as their final trump card for why we shouldn't expect excellence.
They won't talk about our $22 million dollar salary base.
They won't talk about how we have the resources to pay a coach $10 to $12 million to come here.
They won't talk about how UConn and Duke are still crushing it in the portal era, or how if we had merely snagged our primary targets none of this would be happening.
They won't talk about any of that. Instead, they'll just mention the word "parity", and Pope will be protected by an imaginary pair of forcefields called naivety and enablement.
We are the laughing stock of college basketball
Mitch Barnhardt should be run out the state.
I only know of two pro-Pope posters who would say anything like that, bro. Complete red herring. One guy admits he’s happy if UK just makes S16s no matter how many losses and the other guy, even though I can’t stand him, I thought was a true fan but referred to UK basketball as just entertainment. Other than that, almost every pro-Pope poster is devastated and wants to return to full power. Just cut the BS strawmanning.
This is one of those times when the fanbase will have to just eat **** and like it. The fans behaved wildly when Cal was here at the end. Yeah a lot of the negativity was warranted but even still, yall psycho. People notice. It draws a lot of attention. Kentucky fans demand to be at the center of tv basketball universe. We gotta take the good with the bad
Parity has only applied to Kentucky to these jack***es. They completely ignored the UNCs, Dukes, Kansas still winning titles while Kentucky suffered, heard it even in 2007 when UCLA was going to multiple final fours and we were stuck with Gillispie.
Crazy thing is many of these people are Kentucky fans who appear to be parasocially connected to these coaches, whether it was Tubby or Cal or Pope. It’s freaking weird. You see this stuff on Facebook and Twitter pages with dozens of so-called fans demanding utmost loyalty to a guy making more money in a year than most of us will make in a lifetime.
Na give the next man a chance to be bad. This one has failed
Man screw all these coaches. I wanna win and win big. We as a fan base need change. Even looking at ourself as fans. Program is dead we gotta do something
You clearly haven't been around very long, and it's showing. Fans used that exact same excuse for Calipari at the end. They'll use it for Pope as well.
It was used routinely when NIL began. Pay closer attention. You're showing your ignorance as to what has actually been argued on this message board for the last five years.
why would you want to come to Kentucky? lets be honest (considering nobody gives a damn about your history)
Fan base doesn't need change in terms of standards. Sorry not sorry.
I haven’t been around that long, correct. Keep piling it on, friend. I’m ignorant, got a Hello Kitty profile pic to prove it. I just wish it wasn’t always a strawman of pro-Pope people as though there is literally no rationale to it. It’s not a fun day for any UK fan, including the people who want Pope to work out. Unless you believe they are cutting the cord this year, we have him another year no matter what. So why not try to at least not strawman the people that want to support the coach? I don’t know how many comments of “No Caleb Wilson but at least we will get another year of BG” type of stuff (as if that’s ever been the point) that it has to be. When I talk about people that have the anti-Pope view, you may not agree or like it, but I don’t try to create a bite-sized weak model of it to kick down. I try to earn my opinions for better or worse.
All fans are sick to their stomach and rightfully so
I've been pretty much defending Pope but it's kind of hard to do at this point. I hate it because I love the guy and I want him to succeed and not just for selfish reasons. But, there's not much I can say now. He's going to have to show us that he can turn things around. If he can't, I don't know if he should get a 3rd season. Injuries are understandable to a point but we shouldn't be this bad.
No we are not…media taking jabs at us while we are down is proof we are very relevant. Let me know when the media outlets have quit taking notice then you have a point but not till then
Honestly, the way this is going I would not be upset if they fired him and we move on. I just don’t see it happening, do you?
Get us while we are down because history says we won’t stay there long
We're already celebrating the S16 from 2024 (one where we got blown out), we're halfway there.
Celebrating and acknowledging are not the same. I’ve only seen one person who celebrates S16s on this site. Cmon bro.
No, they will give him the full season I'd imagine. And I think it would have to be Kenny Payne levels of bad before they decide not to give him one more year. That's just how Mitch rolls.
I think the number of pumpers on the board are coming down slowly. You're never going to convert Nitro or UKDumbass but the fan reaction at the arena was the most encouraging thing from the game tonight.
One of those posters said UK basketball is just entertainment. I’d not consider that a pumper —- that’s a why are you even here type of post.
I am a lifelong fan, but am objective to know this is now a legitimate question. You simply now HAVE to have convincing reasons for elite players to come to UK ...
Pooe got an extra year at $5MM for that lol. I really wish he would just go to Utah State after this season is over. He will not, because he has $20 MM still coming his way.
To me, the use of a S16 as a reason Pope had a "good" year in 2024 is "celebrating". There's plenty of people who have used that metric. Pope had an "OK" year, an "acceptable" year, and that was only due to the circumstances of the shortened recruiting cycle. If you think Pope's 2024 was "good", the 2015 year that everyone sees as a failure would be "great".
You should get credit for consistently hammering on the coaching. I still think the players suck (and c'mon, they do suck -- you saw the "impact" that savior #1 Jaland Lowe had), but now I think the coaching is as bad as the players. I used to think Pope was a good coach, but really no evidence proves that. Last year it seems like the "adjustments" were just Brea and Jax getting hot and Amari finding a way to focus properly -- nothing Pope did.
I think you may be missing the point on that. No Kentucky fan celebrates going 14-14 BUT we acknowledge that 14-14 was over performing in the 1990 season with Pitino’s Bombinos. No one is saying a Sweet 16 by its own merit is good. Rather given the situation, it showed he had promise as a coach here. Don’t oversimplify your opponent into absurdity. It’s better for both parties if you try to challenge the actual arguments. Now, I’m completely good with firing Pope at this point. Seriously, I just don’t see how it gets fixed at this level of panic and morale depletion. But if you wanna engage the point people make about the Sweet 16 last year, consider Pitino’s Bombinos.