Jack Pilgrim: Follow-up intel on UK Recruiting Struggles
- Thread starter r_SmoothRunner32
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so basically pope tells recruits the opposite of what they want to hear, + the jmi stuff
That 2nd point really pisses me off. Too many people on the program and fans trying to do things the "Kentucky" way, the old way, the legacy way... and thats why we are what we are at this point.
That antiquated line of thinking is far more detrimental to this program than the coach IMO. You cant move forward being stuck in the past. And this program is really trying to keep one foot firmly planted in the 90s and beyond.
That antiquated line of thinking is far more detrimental to this program than the coach IMO. You cant move forward being stuck in the past. And this program is really trying to keep one foot firmly planted in the 90s and beyond.
What an unmitigated failure this has all been!
Three things seem clear to me:
1. There are problems with Pope.
2. There are problems above Pope.
3. There are problems above Barnhart.
1. There are problems with Pope.
2. There are problems above Pope.
3. There are problems above Barnhart.
If Pope agreed to let the $22 million number be leaked, he needs to go.
“I've heard of coaches calling Kentucky's targets and telling them they'll say they offered something insane just to see how far Pope is willing to go to put more money in their pockets and open up cap space elsewhere for the kids they actually want”.
Pope’s gotta go
Pope’s gotta go
He openly bragged about having a high dollar roster. There were quotes.
You don't come to UK to learn on the job. Standard is too high here and blue bloods always run the risk of going stagnant. We don't have time for Pope to learn this stuff
He needed another 4-5 years at BYU. Brain fart let us all down. And it was probably a panic hire. Because of the swim team scandal.
If Pope was 33 or even 43, that would be one thing. But the dude is 53...and just now learning the ropes. That's not a recipe for success.
Maybe it was a panic hire but I also think Mitch has always loved the (bad) idea that a former player would come back and coach. It could've been John Pelphrey, could've been Travis Ford. Ended up being Pope.
He compared this roster to having a “beautiful Ferrari” at media day in October
He’s got this year and next. If not really good by then, time to cut bait.
UK basketball is so done. Wow! Truly heartbreaking to witness!
He's right actually. But you know something about Ferraris? They aren't for everyone.
They're hard to handle, they have blind spots everywhere, they require constant maintenance, they are eye-wateringly expensive, they have an insane amount of power that most people aren't used to.
A Ferrari should ideally have an elite driver behind the wheel.
Some guys are just better off driving a Toyota Camry...
This has always been very simple. Stop going too extreme in both directions. The programs sells so sell it, they also want the NBA so embrace it.
Wtf is so hard about this? We always did both, duke does both, UNC has always done both. Wtf would you abandon one or the other? Hey we’re a legendary program, you’re famous here, and we’re the place of the pros who wants you to to go in history as an NBA great UK player!!!!
why is this so damn hard?
Idk, I find that we do way too much in the legacy direction. At least for my liking. And you can do legacy things (jerseys, traditions, etc) while still putting the best team on the floor, even if they are NBA bound and have no ties to UK.
Recruiting is about gaining leverage. Tennessee and Alabama have no legacy leverage. Nobody on campus knows you. At Kentucky you’re famous. It’s a huge selling point but only when the money and everything else lines up.
“hey this is Kentucky now trip over your feet to come here for half the money and don’t dare speak of the NBA” is not going to help you even if you’re UK lol.
This has never been hard. Players want to play at these programs over nobodies of course. But everything needs to line up. Well we’re too far in one direction, again.
Welp. I’ve said all along it could not possibly have been twenty-two million dollars because Pope could not possibly have had twenty-two million dollars and been that stupid about how he spent it.
Looks like I’ve been the stupid one all along.
@Son_Of_Saul
Looks like I’ve been the stupid one all along.
@Son_Of_Saul
He leaned into it when numbers were being speculated during the summer. Essentially, Pope said he wanted the highest NIL, hardest schedule, best facilities, and coolest uniforms/gear.
It's completely blown up in the program's face, and frankly as a matter of operational security should have been something kept totally under wraps.
Holy crap. Even if an ounce of this is true then damn Pope has some soul searching to do to turn this around.
Pope is done guys, accept it and demand a new coach for next year. A GM doesnt fix anything, the bad reputation that Pope has in the recruiting and agent world wont be fixed with a GM because they know Pope is still the coach making the decisions. Once you get this bad reputation , you're done, there is no fixing it.
You all should know I've been defending Pope until 2 -3 weeks ago but this is it, its done. If it was just players walking all over him and not playing hard and eval mistakes he could learn from it but there is no learning from having a toxic and horrible reputation in the life blood of a program which is recruiting.
You all should know I've been defending Pope until 2 -3 weeks ago but this is it, its done. If it was just players walking all over him and not playing hard and eval mistakes he could learn from it but there is no learning from having a toxic and horrible reputation in the life blood of a program which is recruiting.
All we had to do was call pearl. That's literally all we had do. We would be in the top 5 today
If that's true next basketball season will be a rerun of the last football season. By that I mean everybody knowing the upcoming season will be bad and the coach will be replaced after the season but we have to endure that bad season before making a change because...change is scary and must always be put off as long as possible.
Just a baffling approach from Pope, who I really thought was smarter than that. “We’re Kentucky and we don’t do bidding wars” on one hand with star recruits, then overspending by crazy amounts on a collection of role players in the portal and leaking the $22 million figure for some reason, which only encourages the bidding war. Those two actions are so at odds with each other that it’s hard to figure out what the thought process even is.
I’ve been hesitant to call for Pope to be fired, but I’m afraid we may be in for a world of hurt soon with him recruiting like that.
I’ve been hesitant to call for Pope to be fired, but I’m afraid we may be in for a world of hurt soon with him recruiting like that.
They could call him today and offer him the GM job and he'd start crawling to Lexington before he even hung up the phone.
He did. It is his ego. He talks a big game. So much that the more you are around him, the more you tend to doubt his words. At least that’s what I have heard. But look- just in what we have heard- this team is the big blue Ferrari. Scoring distribution similar to 96. None of that is true/ and that is what he is telling us fans. You just can’t trust with 100% confidence anything he says.
Agents, recruits, fans, and players are seeing this. He has to GO now.
I don’t have a problem with a lot of that in the Pilgrim article. I even predicted it, just based on things Pope said and putting two and two together. It makes perfect sense considering how Pope views those recruiting attempts as the players filtering out and the fanbase seeing it as whiffs. Just gotta play some winning basketball and remind people why they were excited about this roster in the offseason. Most high school classes are not as strong as this past year’s AND I don’t believe you SHOULD want a freshman OAD as your best player. Portal has certainly been shown to have more success in recent times. Just gotta get it done on the court or job is over, perhaps as soon as Indiana.
Honestly it sounds like a really inexperienced coach getting tossed into the fire. Barnhart should’ve never put Pope in this position. This fan base isn’t patient enough to let someone learn on the job.
True or not...I can't for the life of me figure out why they thought it was a good idea to leak that number.
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