15:55
Says Mitch and JMI are doing a great job. Blames the NCAA for confusing rules.
Says Mitch and JMI are doing a great job. Blames the NCAA for confusing rules.
Mark Pope glazes JMI and Mitch
- Thread starter RunninRichie
- Start date
I have no problem with that. No matter what WE think of Mitch, that’s Pope’s boss. It’s a business.
They keep having to do this. All of a sudden we’re being gaslit non stop about MItch and how great he is and JMI. Not that I fault Mark, it’s his job. But it’s clear he knows the orders. Talk up Mitch and talk up JMI. The word is out and they’re trying to cover this the best they can. It’s not going to work, Mark.
Mitch Barnhart hired Pope without the requirements. Of course he’s going to want him there. Another AD not connected to Mitch will have a short leash on him. Mitch wants yes men, he pays them well to do that. So this isn’t unexpected.
Mitch Barnhart hired Pope without the requirements. Of course he’s going to want him there. Another AD not connected to Mitch will have a short leash on him. Mitch wants yes men, he pays them well to do that. So this isn’t unexpected.
JMI is doing great ! This roster is filled with star players.
17:46 he says other AD's are reaching out to ask Mitch for tips.
Nope, sorry. I know Mitch is his boss. But, If I were him. I'd tell everyone, JMI sucks. Do the best for this program. Paul Revere that MFer.
I'm to the point I don't even want to hear him speak. Has worn thin quicky.
He's just what Mitch wanted. A total yes man, who won't question the company line.
You mean the roster that the entire site almost universally glazed over? The same one that was preseason top 10 in every human poll? The same one that was preseason top 4 in KenPom? Yes, this roster was supposed to be good. We have injuries and chemistry issues. There’s no reason to keep retconning as though we trotted out a bad team. Sometimes good rosters don’t win. In my lifetime, I’ve watched the top high school class win 9 games in a season. I’ve watched an absolutely loaded top 3 preseason team with a ridiculous two-headed monster of Bogans and Prince underperform in 2002. I watched the 2023 team return the NPOY and an All-SEC point guard from a 2 seed national title contender become a disappointment and a 6 seed. Long before me, we had Pat Riley, Louie Dampier and Tharacz return from a National runner-up to go 13-13. Sometimes good talent doesn’t win.
Interesting twist to the cycle:
What will the update be if they lose to IU tomorrow night?
I don't think I've been this down in the dumps since probation.
- Pope bungles recruiting and loses games in a catastrophic start to the season.
- His camp blames JMI due to heat
- Inconvenient info about JMI and Barnhart comes out
- Pope loves JMI and Barnhart
What will the update be if they lose to IU tomorrow night?
I don't think I've been this down in the dumps since probation.
It's not a good roster. The talent isn't there. Our best player is Otega Oweh or Collin Chandler. Both of those guys would be 8th off the bench, on great UK teams. You can say, it looks good on paper. But, on the court is all that matters. Bruce Pearl and many others have said we paid for a bunch of backups. Mostly because Pope's actual talented targets all said no thanks.
Just because the media and fans glazed it, doesn't mean it's good. We had guys thinking Devin Askew was the best point guard in the class in 2020. The media also glazed the 2020 team. Boston and Clarke were comapred to Wall and Bledsoe.
Agree to disagree. You’re welcome to show me a link to where you said we have no talent in the off-season. Otherwise, what I’m saying has just as much validity as what you’re saying.
I get what you’re saying I’m in the side of I questioned these players saying they were role players and got BLASTED only by a few but still they didn’t like my opinion
We have talent. But not the talent that good teams have. Would Otega Oweh or Collin Chandler start on the 1996 team? 1998? 2012? 2017? 2010? How about 1978? What's our record against P4 squads? Even if we have turmoil, or piss poor coaching. If we had the talent you say, we'd be able to surpass that a bit. Hell, Calipari was able to hide his coaching by having overwhelming talent.
Also, some guys on here said the roster didn't look that good. And didn't fit Pope's system. They were laughed off the site.
"Nobody knows what the rules are" also "We will always err on the side of caution"
This program is so cooked. We are out here scared to get players based on restrictions Mitch and co. are making up. Insane. Just fire every single person that had any part of Pope being here, enabling Mitch to make the JMI deal, and start this thing over.
This program is so cooked. We are out here scared to get players based on restrictions Mitch and co. are making up. Insane. Just fire every single person that had any part of Pope being here, enabling Mitch to make the JMI deal, and start this thing over.
If you said it in the off-season I’ll respect your view on the matter. A lot of others did not do that.
Was the 1967 team talented? Was the 1976 team talented?
Remember when Mitch said we won't break the rules, in the stein presser? Now Pope is saying "We will always err on the side of caution". Meanwhile, other schools are totally bypassing the "rules". Because it's the wild west out here. UT even sued the NCAA and won. It reeks of Barnhart.
Agree that Pope isn't going to talk smack on his boss and the system in a public forum. That would be said behind closed doors.
My concern is the level he went to in praise. It was over the top and the majority of fans dont believe it. I doubt Duke or other top schools are reaching out on their methods unless the goal is to destroy and embarrass their program and legacy.
Because Pope actually believes it. This isn't company speak.
What Richie said.
IDK about most of this board -- I posted around a month before the Purdue exhibition that this roster sucks for $20M, and obviously it wasn't all agreement, but several people shared similar sentiments.
I really have no idea what the media and a lot of you saw in Oweh and the rest of these losers. I saw a guy that drives recklessly and misses layups. This was when he was "good". Yeah, he single-handedly beat SEC 14th ranked Oklahoma. So what -- we brag about beating Oklahoma in bball now? Dontaie Allen had 1 good game in his UK career, too.
If there aren't rules for the most part, why would you EVER handicap yourself in such a competitive field? Absolutely mind-boggling.
To err on the side of caution, obv.
Is tomorrow a must win game for Pope ? I know he won’t get fired but still…
If you were saying it before the season, I have no words for you. My issue is with the people who said this was an elite roster and now say there is no talent. It makes no sense. Outside of maybe Kam, we had enough film to know what every portal addition was when we brought them in. I contend we are a talented team, but we will never see the fruits of it, but I won’t argue with those who felt it wasn’t talented in the summer. To me, that’s being consistent and I respect it. Even though I disagree.
It's called blue glasses. That got knocked off when reality sat in. It's easy to watch tape on guys, who played at lower levels of basketball. Or in different systems under different coaches. And magically think, yeah when they get to UK, they'll be scoring 10ppg at least, shooting 40 from deep. Mo D will be grabbing 12 boards a game etc etc. But then reality sits in. And you realize it was all just blue koolaid. The blue koolaid is a real thing. Every off-season we drink it. It's just part of being a fan. You get homerism. You natrually want to hype the team. And think, this is the year.
Reaching out to find out what NOT to do.
I will say that I slurped the Boston/ Clarke team pre-season -- had visions of Monk/ Fox. So I am not going to pretend like I am some talent evaluation genius. Just never saw what the media saw in this team.
I don’t think Ken Pomeroy’s computer had blue glasses. You never did answer my question: Was the 1967 team untalented?
Louie Dampier
Pat Riley
Thad Jaracz
I don’t understand what there is to be cautious about in a way that gets you in trouble. These deals require approval now. If the clearinghouse doesnt like it or feel it fits the model, they won’t approve it. Everybody knows up front whether it’s cleared or not.
No accountability. Pope is the yes man that Mitch wanted.
The more we learn about how bad it is behind the scenes, faster we are becoming Indiana.
Are on the cusp of being irrelevant, while Uconn and Duke thrive.
Now I wonder if any other coach would come here because of how bad that JMI deal is? UGH.
I hate this. It's all about control and money.
I hate this for Pope, but the program is above him and what he did in 96.
The more we learn about how bad it is behind the scenes, faster we are becoming Indiana.
Are on the cusp of being irrelevant, while Uconn and Duke thrive.
Now I wonder if any other coach would come here because of how bad that JMI deal is? UGH.
I hate this. It's all about control and money.
I hate this for Pope, but the program is above him and what he did in 96.
I expected way more out of this roster and still think it’s not anywhere near as bad as they are, truly. With that said, I miscalculated how bad of a shooting team they really are, and several guys I thought would improve greatly didn’t at all. Some actually regressed. When you account for the regression and injuries, here you go.
Garrison - regressed
Oweh - regressed
Chandler - didn’t improve near enough
Noah - little improvement
Aberdeen - slight improvement
MO - non factor, slight improvement, injured
Lowe - looks worse than last season, regression
It’s a sht storm but had I known that was going to happen I would have said the team is bad.
To be fair to Pope if our roster is so poor then a lot of pundits, so called experts and coaches got it all wrong because we were regarded as a contender for a title.
The projected lineup of the below stacks pretty well on paper:
JL, DA, OO, JQ and MD.
The problem is injuries to a degree but the overall pieces dont fit together on the court and there are some obvious attitude issues and conflicts between certain players.
In addition Pope until recently was letting the team walk all over him ( at least it appears that way).
The recent articles on our recruiting failures and poor contract negotiations only add to the current debacle.
Also saying “we will errrr on the side of caution” and Mitch saying “we aren’t going to break rules” is being done to cover for failure. They want you to believe everyone else is cheating and we aren’t so that’s why we’re no good. It’s ********. It’s a cover for failures on all fronts. They want you to buy it and retain them and now they don’t have to produce because they’re the only ones following rules.
Get Mark out of here. He’s company lining this because he’s a yes man. He’s not protecting this program and he needs to be removed with Mitch. That did it for me. Mark will not survive here without Mitch and so he’s going to do whatever he wants. He’s not here to win he’s going to use this language to cover for himself and maintain his job while being terrible.
Kentucky better get serious or you lose your program. They all need to be removed if they are going to stick to this. They are actively conditioning this fanbase to be apathetic but still support and pay the money. Mitch is going all out on the language he’s been implementing since he got here. They want us average and okay with that. Get them all out
Get Mark out of here. He’s company lining this because he’s a yes man. He’s not protecting this program and he needs to be removed with Mitch. That did it for me. Mark will not survive here without Mitch and so he’s going to do whatever he wants. He’s not here to win he’s going to use this language to cover for himself and maintain his job while being terrible.
Kentucky better get serious or you lose your program. They all need to be removed if they are going to stick to this. They are actively conditioning this fanbase to be apathetic but still support and pay the money. Mitch is going all out on the language he’s been implementing since he got here. They want us average and okay with that. Get them all out
Read my above post. Nobody really got it wrong, the team is poorly coached and they regressed. They didn’t take the sophomore or junior leap. It is what it is.
Think it’s absolutely a must win game in the sense that the pressure is rising quickly. He needs some small positive news over the next few weeks before SEC play starts if there’s any hope of turning this season around.
No matter how you slice it, ultimately the blame falls on Pope. I’m just asking somebody to be honest about something for once. The constant regurgitation of this untalented roster nonsense needs put to the test. I have many examples of talented teams that stunk in Uk history and they’ve been coached by various types of coaches. The truth is injuries, chemistry and morale matter. It can cause a talented team to look like a very untalented one. I just want to hear someone be consistent about something.
Well that would be the worst case scenario for us. Its one thing not to trash your superiors in public but to actually believe this hype shows he's out of touch with reality.