Pope is cooked with this quote

[Ash Williams]

He's both right and wrong, but more wrong. If you find guys that want to be a part of something special, that recognize where the program used to be and want to get the program back to it, then yes those guys will be easy to teach. Problem is, like OP said, those glory days are so far removed from today. Hell, any footage you look at of those days look like it was recorded on 8-tracks (just kidding). Pope is just too damn nice to the players, IMO, and it affects how he manages the roster and how he coaches the game. Mark is wanting to relive the glory days, with guys who want to touch money.

You forgot to add, “but having said that, let’s wait until the off-season plays out before we get upset.”

 

[K_TIME]

With regards to number 2 tho did he really change or are those guys just of lesser quality than the guys he was pulling in at UK. Who were sure fire NBA guys.

I'm of the opinion Cal "pushed" anyone. I feel like he gave them info and they made the decision. Not surprisingly, 2012 and 2015 were our best seasons and in those years he did have people come back to school a 2nd year.

Briscoe Whitney Quade Green Livingston Wenyen TyTy Juzang etc. all those guys should have been college alit longer but left quicker under Cal

 

[Loucatfan30]

Reid Sheppard sends his regards.

If we are limiting ourselves to the KY kids we will be really good

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Briscoe Whitney Quade Green Livingston Wenyen TyTy Juzang etc. all those guys should have been college alit longer but left quicker under Cal

Some of those guys transferred. Juzang, green, and Whitney quit in UK midway through the season. I'm not sure u can blame Cal for that.

 

[Loucatfan30]

no I don't think so, I think Mark Pope may be the most honest and honorable coach we've ever had. I think his issue is he wants to mold the UK program into what he saw it as in 1996. Pope credits coming to Kentucky in making him the man he is today, and regardless of what you think about his coaching at UK, Mark, by all external accounts, is good example of what a man should be.

The problem is - he is fighting the new era of college basketball where an 18 year old will commit to your team for $1m dollars and then next week call you up and tell you he has a better offer from college X for $1.5m and you have to do better if you want him to come, and I think that is why we have a number of kids that are either Kentucky raised , returning or just threw a price out there, Kentucky met it and they didn't hassle with negotiating. Pope was reminding kids they had committed and they should honor their word or balking at asking prices of key players. I also think Pope had some loyalty to returning players that was misplaced when he could have upgraded the position.

For Pope to succeed next year, at a minimum, the first thing he has to do is target the players he wants in the portal and just go thru the give and take of negotiation.

The bad part of all this is at first, owning the $22m roster - even though everyone realizes that was an inflated lie created by someone, UK thought it was a recruiting advantage - but not its a nightmare because UK came up will short of what a $22m roster should do, the donors are pissed and won't give as much , in part thinking because UK has plenty of money to waste from someone else donating and players getting recruited by UK are just going to throw wild numbers out there expecting UK to just write a check.

Once that $22m number was thrown out, Pope should have denied it, laughed about it actually and said there is no way we spent that much money on NIL --even if UK did. You never want to be the highest priced house on the block

All that and much more. But he convinced Mitch and some of you he knew the assignment which he clearly does not. He sold you all and to me that is a con man. Snake oil salesman. If he is so honest and honorable he should resign. If he made a mistake telling people he knew the assignment then resign since he is so honorable. Otherwise keep the money so we all know we got a con man running the show.

 

[Loucatfan30]

It is an easy over reaction back to this Calipari mindset....but Cal didn't really get it right either at UK in the end....he pivoted a bit once he went to freaking Arkansas.
1. Acuff is a stuff and NBA guy for sure you need.
2. But this is the change....2nd year Billy Richmond, 3rd year Trevor Brazille, 3rd year DJ Wagner, 2nd year Karter Knox

UK for sure needs some NBA guys on the floor....but they need to be surrounded by a combination of experience, shooters, physical men to play inside (not Bradshaw, Ugo, Big Z, etc..).

Seconndly, Pope can get all the kids he wants...he has never shown an ability to coach a team to play their asses off night/in and night out. We come out with no sense of urgency a ton under Pope. He isn't a fiery motivator kids fear and execute for. That is the biggest part I dont' see changning

KSR and Mitch ran Cal off at the very worst time possible. He got great kids when he couldn't pay them. Then Duke, Kansas and Arizona started paying players families when UK couldn't pay them. Just look up all the benefits those Duke players families got. We could not do that. So we started getting guys like Ty Ty Washington instead of Zion. Now that players can get paid he will have the best players coming for less money and he will be keeping people that would have otherwise been leaving. If you want to blame someone blame Matt Jones and Mitch. They have set us back to levels we may not ever recover from.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Briscoe Whitney Quade Green Livingston Wenyen TyTy Juzang etc. all those guys should have been college alit longer but left quicker under Cal

I'm not sure we were winning any titles with those guys.

Same with this crop Cal has at Arkansas.

I think he was just incredibly fornuate what happened in 12 and 15.

 

[kfwa]

All that and much more. But he convinced Mitch and some of you he knew the assignment which he clearly does not. He sold you all and to me that is a con man. Snake oil salesman. If he is so honest and honorable he should resign. If he made a mistake telling people he knew the assignment then resign since he is so honorable. Otherwise keep the money so we all know we got a con man running the show.

He knows the assignment and he thought he understood the formula for it to succeed. He was wrong.

What he decides to do about it this summer will decide if he ever sees a 4th year at Kentucky