Pope is exactly what we needed

[Monday Nitro]

He's a great person, but he has Pitino inside of him on the court.

He wants to beat you by 60.
He wants to stack the deck with an embarrasment of riches and leave no doubt.
He works tirelessly.

Our rivals will puke in their mouth for a decade or two because they can't hate the man, personally. It'l be degenerating jealousy eating away at them.

 

[Farsight Clone]

I think so too. CCC took away UK's identity and Pope brought the Identity back.

 

[UKCowboys]

Great coach who will be here 20 years

 

[Uncle ByeBye]

Crazy to think the hate Pope got initially when it was announced. Reddit had a field day with this board lol.

 

[Littlecreek10]

Amen

 

[UKBB4Ever]

I think so too. CCC took away UK's identity and Pope brought the Identity back.

Yeah, 4 FF’s and a title has a way of doing that.

 

[Monday Nitro]

Yeah, 4 FF’s and a title has a way of doing that.

Imagine you loved it when they won at Rupp last year and Cal's "Superbowl of his career".

 

[theBlues]

He's a great person, but he has Pitino inside of him on the court.

He wants to beat you by 60.
He wants to stack the deck with an embarrasment of riches and leave no doubt.
He works tirelessly.

Our rivals will puke in their mouth for a decade or two because they can't hate the man, personally. It'l be degenerating jealousy eating away at them.

The only thing I'd disagree with is the opposing fans' hate; they will hate him for the winning and persistent optimism.

 

[RunninRichie]

@Jesse82 rent free, looking forward to you taking the watterson expressway back home to your bridge tent, in duh ville.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I'm trying to think what coaches id rather have than Pope.. and im honestly not sure there is any. Maybe dan Hurley, but I've cooled on him a bit, for his temperament if nothing else.

What Pope did with a rag-tag roster last year, and now a thorough beating of the #1 preseason team (exhibition or not) in year 2, is pretty remarkable.

We need to see more of course.. but theres a case to be made that Kentucky might have the best coach in the nation. Theres really not a lot of negatives I can find.

 

[Uncle ByeBye]

I was so disappointed with the hire for about 5 hours lol I had it in my head we needed Billy Donovan lol I got excited though real quick. The intro of Pope was so awesome to see in person .

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Pope is a good coach and seems like a great guy.

Tho he'll be judged just like any other UK coach before him. We'll see. Hopefully he has success here.

 

[Kentucky15]

I was so disappointed with the hire for about 5 hours lol I had it in my head we needed Billy Donovan lol I got excited though real quick. The intro of Pope was so awesome to see in person .

I was in Tolly-Ho with my wife and kids. She looked at me and smiled and said we got Pope!! I said got Pope for what? She like we hired him!! I slowly built up an anger that could absolutely not be contained and begin to go in, right in front of my 8 and 11 year old. I ripped Barnhart apart for about 20 minutes.

I go home and start looking into it. I spent the night studying the situation and what he was doing at BYU, I just hadn’t been paying attention. By the next morning I thought about Pitino era, my kids getting to be a part of that, his offense, and the chance we have to bring the 90’s era back in full swing at UK. I decided this was the right move after a guy like Calipari. It then seemed fairly quickly like most had gone through the same steps.

My wife and kids still today look at me when I say anything good about Pope and say “but you didn’t want him”. I’ll never live it down. I’ve explained it to them over and over. But they’re going to do it his entire tenure. It’s not that I didn’t want him. I love Mark always have since a kid. My main issue was he can’t recruit to the level we’ve been or need. Then I realized, this is NIL era. That aspect is gone. He can flat coach and is brilliant. Brand and money will bring him the recruits. But my family won’t let me live it down whatever.

 

[Littlecreek10]

Yeah, 4 FF’s and a title has a way of doing that.

Yeah, only four final fours and one title with abundantly more talent than any coach had in history. More like underachieved like no other.

 

[UKCowboys]

Yeah, 4 FF’s and a title has a way of doing that.

Pope will top that...

 

[Eastkybball]

It be awesome to see Rick back on the sidelines to help Pope. Highly doubt it but would be epic if he has something to do with Kentucky when he leaves St. John’s.

 

[Runt#1969]

I'm trying to think what coaches id rather have than Pope.. and im honestly not sure there is any. Maybe dan Hurley, but I've cooled on him a bit, for his temperament if nothing else.

What Pope did with a rag-tag roster last year, and now a thorough beating of the #1 preseason team (exhibition or not) in year 2, is pretty remarkable.

We need to see more of course.. but theres a case to be made that Kentucky might have the best coach in the nation. Theres really not a lot of negatives I can find.

I agree. For us, having CMP is a perfect fit. We are definitely back and moving forward at light speed with him here.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I was in Tolly-Ho with my wife and kids. She looked at me and smiled and said we got Pope!! I said got Pope for what? She like we hired him!! I slowly built up an anger that could absolutely not be contained and begin to go in, right in front of my 8 and 11 year old. I ripped Barnhart apart for about 20 minutes.

I go home and start looking into it. I spent the night studying the situation and what he was doing at BYU, I just hadn’t been paying attention. By the next morning I thought about Pitino era, my kids getting to be a part of that, his offense, and the chance we have to bring the 90’s era back in full swing at UK. I decided this was the right move after a guy like Calipari. It then seemed fairly quickly like most had gone through the same steps.

My wife and kids still today look at me when I say anything good about Pope and say “but you didn’t want him”. I’ll never live it down. I’ve explained it to them over and over. But they’re going to do it his entire tenure. It’s not that I didn’t want him. I love Mark always have since a kid. My main issue was he can’t recruit to the level we’ve been or need. Then I realized, this is NIL era. That aspect is gone. He can flat coach and is brilliant. Brand and money will bring him the recruits. But my family won’t let me live it down whatever.

Honestly I think anyone can be forgiven for not being enamored by the hire at first, and even for the first few months. We were striking out on guys that we thought would line up to be here. And while he was doing some solid coaching at BYU (Beating Kansas and holding it down in the Big12 as a Mormon School was impressive), he also sort of felt like a "legacy hire".. someone that almost felt like we were doing a favor for. Was he ready for this job? Could he handle the media and scruitny? Very fair questions when we were hoping to lure someone like Hurley away or grab Billy Donovan.

I remember this place was probably 95% against the hire. I liked it, but was cautious, because he was pretty unproven and he did lose opening round in the tournament. But I was very impressed what he was able to do in the Big12 with a roster that was clearly a step or two behind the rest of the teams in the B12.

However, I didn't think he'd be THIS good, THIS quick. No one did. I say it again, the case can be made that Kentucky wouldn't swap coaches with anyone. Uconn would probably say the same thing, and I don't blame them. But thats it. No one other school.. not UNC, Duke or Kansas is choosing their guy over Pope or Hurley (and even many others if we're talking about Hubert Davis).

 

[Goingfor9]

Honestly I think anyone can be forgiven for not being enamored by the hire at first, and even for the first few months. We were striking out on guys that we thought would line up to be here. And while he was doing some solid coaching at BYU (Beating Kansas and holding it down in the Big12 as a Mormon School was impressive), he also sort of felt like a "legacy hire".. someone that almost felt like we were doing a favor for. Was he ready for this job? Could he handle the media and scruitny? Very fair questions when we were hoping to lure someone like Hurley away or grab Billy Donovan.

I remember this place was probably 95% against the hire. I liked it, but was cautious, because he was pretty unproven and he did lose opening round in the tournament. But I was very impressed what he was able to do in the Big12 with a roster that was clearly a step or two behind the rest of the teams in the B12.

However, I didn't think he'd be THIS good, THIS quick. No one did. I say it again, the case can be made that Kentucky wouldn't swap coaches with anyone. Uconn would probably say the same thing, and I don't blame them. But thats it. No one other school.. not UNC, Duke or Kansas is choosing their guy over Pope or Hurley (and even many others if we're talking about Hubert Davis).

I need to see a ff and a championship defense before I will believe he is the right guy for the job. I’m happy he’s a Kentucky guy but concerned because we haven’t been to a ff in 10 - 11 years. We don’t have time for a 3 year experiment. There were far more qualified coaches Barney just took the easy path to hire a coach. I like mark I think the team he’s assembled should be a shoe in for a ff. I’m 100% behind pope but at the same time people keep saying “he knows the assignment”. Well it takes more than knowing. Let’s see if he can execute it. The defense and integrating that into his high powered offense is not going to be an easy task. It was encouraging to win that Purdue game in the 70s because to win the ncaa you gotta be able to run and win in the 100s and you have to be able and grind out games in the 60s. Popes big problem at byu was he would win some high scoring no defense games but then lose in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Kentucky15]

Honestly I think anyone can be forgiven for not being enamored by the hire at first, and even for the first few months. We were striking out on guys that we thought would line up to be here. And while he was doing some solid coaching at BYU (Beating Kansas and holding it down in the Big12 as a Mormon School was impressive), he also sort of felt like a "legacy hire".. someone that almost felt like we were doing a favor for. Was he ready for this job? Could he handle the media and scruitny? Very fair questions when we were hoping .

Honestly I think anyone can be forgiven for not being enamored by the hire at first, and even for the first few months. We were striking out on guys that we thought would line up to be here. And while he was doing some solid coaching at BYU (Beating Kansas and holding it down in the Big12 as a Mormon School was impressive), he also sort of felt like a "legacy hire".. someone that almost felt like we were doing a favor for. Was he ready for this job? Could he handle the media and scruitny? Very fair questions when we were hoping to lure someone like Hurley away or grab Billy Donovan.

I remember this place was probably 95% against the hire. I liked it, but was cautious, because he was pretty unproven and he did lose opening round in the tournament. But I was very impressed what he was able to do in the Big12 with a roster that was clearly a step or two behind the rest of the teams in the B12.

However, I didn't think he'd be THIS good, THIS quick. No one did. I say it again, the case can be made that Kentucky wouldn't swap coaches with anyone. Uconn would probably say the same thing, and I don't blame them. But thats it. No one other school.. not UNC, Duke or Kansas is choosing their guy over Pope or Hurley (and even many others if we're talking about Hubert Davis).

The key to the whole thing, and I was saying this the night of the hire after cooling down, was the change in recruiting in the NIL era. Pope is a great guy with an offense these dudes want to play, and he can pay them. Without the NIL, I don’t know if it would work or not. With the NIL how could it not? That sealed it for me. That’s why it’s working so quick. He’s brilliant and was groomed by one of the goats. He’s got the brand, and the money. Your program’s money recruits now.

It’s really important that we always hire guys who understand what they’re walking into. Barnhart seems to not ever get this through his head. Gillispie didn’t know and it didn’t fit. Tubby was burned from it and Barn wanted to retain him. Scott Drew was a bit taken aback, and his wife was a hell no. It cannot be stated enough how we roll in Lexington and the state. It’s not similar to many places in all of sports let alone CBB. It’s a fishbowl unlike many other places. Pope comes in getting it day one so it’s another reason it’s happening so quickly. He’s been around it so he gets it.

You add in some of these aspects and it’s the story. Florida basketball had an event after their national championship and maybe 500 people were there. We had 30K show up for a press conference. I’ve been in Lexington and doing UK things for over 30 years. I was even taken aback by it a bit. Understand this place is such an important thing it just can’t be understated. All reasons why it’s working how it is.

Now Pope is on a mission to secure the legacy of this program and bring everyone together. He’s got a tall order after Calipari. There were a lot of former players who felt neglected by his oversee and we can’t have that here. Pope was actually the perfect guy for this.

 

[Kentucky15]

I need to see a ff and a championship defense before I will believe he is the right guy for the job. I’m happy he’s a Kentucky guy but concerned because we haven’t been to a ff in 10 - 11 years. We don’t have time for a 3 year experiment. There were far more qualified coaches Barney just took the easy path to hire a coach. I like mark I think the team he’s assembled should be a shoe in for a ff. I’m 100% behind pope but at the same time people keep saying “he knows the assignment”. Well it takes more than knowing. Let’s see if he can execute it. The defense and integrating that into his high powered offense is not going to be an easy task. It was encouraging to win that Purdue game in the 70s because to win the ncaa you gotta be able to run and win in the 100s and you have to be able and grind out games in the 60s. Popes big problem at byu was he would win some high scoring no defense games but then lose in the 60s and 70s.

You sound like a legacy program guy, I am too. Nothing comes before that to me not a single player or anyone associated. We absolutely do not have time to screw around. However, we need to be a tad more patient with this one than I would have been with anyone else. You don’t get many opportunities in life to have one of your own leading the program. Let’s say it takes him 4 years to get to a final four. It takes a little while for it to click. He might hit 2 titles back to back in 6 years. Can’t afford to blow this opportunity. I say wait patiently and a tad longer than I would normally. Let’s make sure this isn’t going to work before we pull it. It’s the NIL now, one of these rosters is going to break through. Nobody wants to win and have the modern goat legacy here more than mark. I don’t believe in waiting around but this is different.