They absolutely were. And their point guard had just quit the team. Both things can be true.
Pope-a-ganda
- Thread starter AllBall
- Start date
In the last 8 seasons, according to Kenpom, Pope had a better team than Cal in 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025.
It’s a coin flip who’s gonna have the better team next year. Maybe we have them fight it out in a steel cage.
It’s a coin flip who’s gonna have the better team next year. Maybe we have them fight it out in a steel cage.
To me....Pope is a dead man walking
1. This is similar to Mark Stoops trajectory was really bad, couldn't blame it on offensive coordinator (like he had done in past), were losing Deone Walker, both linebackers, some talented DLine, the QB was a mess, lost both talented WR, etc....But Stoops had a really bad contract that tied UK's hands (thank you Mitch)....Stoops tried to BS the fans with "we need to get back to our culture...running the ball, being physical", etc... Threw some money at Oline, got a crappy QB in portal and zilch talent in skill spots and a tiny Dline, etc...and it was apparent it was never going to work and ultimately UK fans got lucky Stoops crapped the bed vs. Vandy and UL....and UK ate the money and we got to move on to Stein.
2. Pope smells like a similar situation. Not as long tenured as Stoops....but the trajectory of the program with Cal's last 5 years and now Pope's 2 years....the program for bball is a similar trajectory of football last 5 years. And the look of future is bleak. Pope had no resume for this job and he's living down to reume at UK. Apparent flaws on defense gameplaning, getting team to play hard and recruiting appears to be a mess.. Warts and all....Oweh and Aberdeen were our best players quite simply (and both gone)......no recruits are on the horizon, Moreno is about teh only kid we can argue has bigger potential to improve....Kam/Chandler are good players and can incrmentally improve....We just spent 22M and there is a bleak future for UK getting to the level we expect.....
So we'll waste year on Pope year 3 just as we did with Stoops year 13.....Mitch has done a terrible job of late and apparently Capiluto feels no reason to shake things up.
1. This is similar to Mark Stoops trajectory was really bad, couldn't blame it on offensive coordinator (like he had done in past), were losing Deone Walker, both linebackers, some talented DLine, the QB was a mess, lost both talented WR, etc....But Stoops had a really bad contract that tied UK's hands (thank you Mitch)....Stoops tried to BS the fans with "we need to get back to our culture...running the ball, being physical", etc... Threw some money at Oline, got a crappy QB in portal and zilch talent in skill spots and a tiny Dline, etc...and it was apparent it was never going to work and ultimately UK fans got lucky Stoops crapped the bed vs. Vandy and UL....and UK ate the money and we got to move on to Stein.
2. Pope smells like a similar situation. Not as long tenured as Stoops....but the trajectory of the program with Cal's last 5 years and now Pope's 2 years....the program for bball is a similar trajectory of football last 5 years. And the look of future is bleak. Pope had no resume for this job and he's living down to reume at UK. Apparent flaws on defense gameplaning, getting team to play hard and recruiting appears to be a mess.. Warts and all....Oweh and Aberdeen were our best players quite simply (and both gone)......no recruits are on the horizon, Moreno is about teh only kid we can argue has bigger potential to improve....Kam/Chandler are good players and can incrmentally improve....We just spent 22M and there is a bleak future for UK getting to the level we expect.....
So we'll waste year on Pope year 3 just as we did with Stoops year 13.....Mitch has done a terrible job of late and apparently Capiluto feels no reason to shake things up.
Covid canceled the postseason in 19. However, 20 is referenced as the Covid yr bc we played in empty arenas and had a makeshift schedule.
You know what Pope would've done with a Reed or Rob?
Me neither, bc they didn't stick around to find out and he can't recruit similar talent.
Maybe take a minute to look it up before commenting. It helps. The 2020 post season was cancelled. But the 2019 team was very good as well. Finished 30-7 and was a two seed. Lost in overtime in the Elite Eight.
You're splitting hairs. 20-21 was the Covid year. Aim your condescending crap toward someone else, it'll help.
Wait thought,
That’s not fair either. NIL wasn’t around when Calipari came here. The roster and recruits were not all stolen by the previous coach either. Calipari did not walk into what Pope walked into. JMI or the LLC for recruiting wasn’t in place.
Truth is it’s impossible to compare the 2. But, if you did. Comparing Cals last two years here. To Popes first two would give you the best comparison. NIL and transfer portal were both in place for each.
You simply can’t compare college sports before NIL. To after NIL in any way, shape or form. It’s 100% different.
I agree with most but I didn't compare. They were comparing and I said their time frames were dumb. As far as I can tell, every plays by the same rules in each different era. Pope is failing in his era.
Tournament was played in 2019 and, in 2021. Not in 2020. Just giving facts. Sorry if you took the information in a way that was actually not intended.
Cal was failing here too in the NIL era.
Stoops was too. His downturn started with NIL.
Don’t worry though. Mitch says we have no problems. So. Must be all 3 of them.
Pope is also. I'm just ready to move on. Now we are just waiting for next year's tournament to end so we can save some bucks.
He was a bad hire from the start. We all had these big names or up and comer guys we thought we'd look at and nope, ended up with Mark Pope because Mitch is garbage.
There's at least 20 guys you could have thought of before you'd want to go to Mark Pope as your guy who had won ZERO NCAA Tournament games when we hired him.
Not sure why you would ignore it considering the Final Four consisted of two 1 seeds and a 2 seed. Three one seeds made the Elite 8. The best teams that season dealt with the same parimeters and were good the whole year.
Bud...Different states governed things different ways. Teams and universities handled things differently. It was all an absolute mess and nothing more than a money grab by the NCAA. That's all it was. If others choose to include it, go right ahead. Obviously Pope needs to include it to defend his two year results. If that makes Pope and the Popettes feel better, cool. If it makes those that want to crap on Cal's tenure (FTR, I wanted him gone at the end), cool. I wanted Cal gone badly at the end, but 2020-2021 have ZERO bearing on that in my mind.