Pope Yes or No
- Thread starter jedwar
- Start date
Is it possible for you to make up your mind about Pope? One day you're thinking he's the best coach, next day you want him gone. I'm sure the fence sitting hurts
Honestly, not sure. First year wasn't bad. Injuries killed us. Second year is a total dumpster fire. Not sure how JMI plays into all this. It doesn't really matter though. Mitch will give him at least another year.
It’s wild how many of you spent last year talking down to anyone who said the Pope hire was trash from day one. Anyone who questioned the Pope hire from the start got belittled and dogpiled, told to shut up and fall in line. Funny how now they all are so loud and belligerent after spending all season dragging up old posts to dunk on people who saw the disaster coming. Fire CMP. Fire Mitch Barnhart. Clean house.
Find a quote of me saying he’s the best coach. I’ve been consistent that I don’t know but I want to see the whole product. I’ve always been consistent that I wasn’t sure about the defense but I support him.
However, now I feel like I have my answer defensively. I live by facts —- and it’s becoming clear —- this dude is still making the same tactical errors he was making in the first week of the season.
The first response to the Pope hire on here was the correct response. Then BBN collectively gaslit ourselves because Pope is one of our own.
I'm not sure about the 'No matter what' they just paid Stoops a real comfortable retirement, to leave football, and we are a basketball school ' Supposedly. So I'm not real sure about Pope's job security at Ky.
I hope he turns things around, and were talking very differently. But I don't think many of us believe that will happen
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I didn’t think he was the right hire but after he was hired I was hoping he would succeed. I’m done with him it’s time for a change! He’s in over his head!
No. Wasn't the right hire. Sean Miller would have been a better option even with the baggage he has
BCG had a better resume. He had only been coaching 5 years and already had 3 NCAA appearances, including one Sweet Sixteen.
I'm taking up for Billy Clyde FREAKING Gillispie...this is where we're at.
I wanted so badly for him to be successful. I just don’t see it happening now.
In fact, when we go 8-10 in the conference, and miss the tournament, he should be let go, and we go all in on Curt Cignetti.
Oats, Pearl, Golden, Sampson, Otzelberger, Pitino, or May.
In fact, when we go 8-10 in the conference, and miss the tournament, he should be let go, and we go all in on Curt Cignetti.
Oats, Pearl, Golden, Sampson, Otzelberger, Pitino, or May.
I would’ve voted maybe but something better happen soon to keep me from voting no. Win some games or get some big time commitments to give us hope for next year. Something, anything.
Heck no..........he is in over his head. Shame on Mitch! I have never been in favor of in season changes, but this is not "normal" circumstances. He literally looks like a deer in head lights and his mental state after these losses is concerning. He needs some time "away"....whatever that means for his future in the sport. "Kentucky is not for everybody". That includes coaching.
I voted Yes because I know he is getting another year unless he walks on his own.
its ugly now but its 1 year where I think he tragically built a team he can't fix no matter what he tries. my hope is that by the end of the season he will have learned a few things
1. don't hire friends as coaches
2. don't recruit players like you're bidding at a salvage auction
3. commit to a 7 -8 man rotation
4. have 2 ALL-SEC caliber point guards
If next year we don't have alot of optimism for the program with him as coach then its time to move on.
its ugly now but its 1 year where I think he tragically built a team he can't fix no matter what he tries. my hope is that by the end of the season he will have learned a few things
1. don't hire friends as coaches
2. don't recruit players like you're bidding at a salvage auction
3. commit to a 7 -8 man rotation
4. have 2 ALL-SEC caliber point guards
If next year we don't have alot of optimism for the program with him as coach then its time to move on.
btw, this is one of these reference points where if Pope does kill it or at least does well enough to return for a 4th year and eventually wins a national championship, some reporter will remind him of this poll showing 95% of the fans wanted him gone. He'll laugh about it and say I would have voted no too
but it still has to sting.
but it still has to sting.
It feels like NIL and the transfer portal have changed things. So many teams are basically starting over every year that it doesn’t really seem like coaches are able to really build something on a multi-year basis. Doesn’t help when you have multiple 2nd year coaches showing off successful teams while Mark Pope struggles on an alleged $20 million budget.
95% of Kentucky fans won't even see this thread and go onto other things two minutes after the game is over.
I'd give him a 3rd year but it's not looking good. Maybe we'll land a big fish now that we are once removed from Calipari. Pearl would have taken it since he loathes Calipari but not many others.
Will he ever be able to recruit at a high level?
Not only did he botch the single biggest nest egg any school in history ever had for recruiting, but now even if he improves his tactics he's got to deal with the new JMI contract PLUS the new revenue sharing tar baby and will probably never again have as much money available as he threw away last cycle.
I am one of the very few who does still trust his coaching ability. But he's got to have the players. Clearly he's got to have 2025 UK talent bare minimum to even bother rolling the dice on a roster.
So for me it comes down to will he somehow magically become able to bring in strong rosters with some top tier star power each season going forward. If he can and does, I'll still support him. If he can't or won't, he's never going to poop in that case so please get off the pot.
Not only did he botch the single biggest nest egg any school in history ever had for recruiting, but now even if he improves his tactics he's got to deal with the new JMI contract PLUS the new revenue sharing tar baby and will probably never again have as much money available as he threw away last cycle.
I am one of the very few who does still trust his coaching ability. But he's got to have the players. Clearly he's got to have 2025 UK talent bare minimum to even bother rolling the dice on a roster.
So for me it comes down to will he somehow magically become able to bring in strong rosters with some top tier star power each season going forward. If he can and does, I'll still support him. If he can't or won't, he's never going to poop in that case so please get off the pot.
I think he absolutely gets a 3rd year and if you don't have the ultimate belief in yourself, you don't get to where Pope is today.
He'll come back with a mentality that he can turn this around. My guess is he is going to buy a team of veterans with whatever money he has and fill the rest of the team in with bargain role players.
He'll come back with a mentality that he can turn this around. My guess is he is going to buy a team of veterans with whatever money he has and fill the rest of the team in with bargain role players.
I agree. I wanted Sean Miller, too. I told everybody I knew that he was who I wanted. Impossible for me to believe he wouldn't have walked down I-75 to take the job.
I think Pope's coaching style would not allow a Freshmen to flourish. Or maybe you could say his teaching style.
He needs experienced players who don't have to be taught basic fundamentals.
That said, today was a head scratcher - after losing to Bama 3 times in similar fashion and having a week to prepare, this team was not ready for a relatively simple offensive scheme by Bama , and its not like its a surprise - you could bring in game film from 3 years ago and use it against Bama. Oats plays the same style every year.
He needs experienced players who don't have to be taught basic fundamentals.
That said, today was a head scratcher - after losing to Bama 3 times in similar fashion and having a week to prepare, this team was not ready for a relatively simple offensive scheme by Bama , and its not like its a surprise - you could bring in game film from 3 years ago and use it against Bama. Oats plays the same style every year.
If we were playing hard and the game plan was solid, but the players just aren't as good as we thought then I would get behind another season no doubt. In the portal era you can definitely miss on putting a roster together it can happen. Guys just sometimes thrive in specific systems and that may not be your system. I just can't get behind the slow starts that plagued us last year, the blowouts, the weird game plans, the nothing but positivity even though EVERY successful coach holds their players accountable and shows a little bit of fire. Nate Oats would be 11-3 or 12-2 with this team. He would alter his offense and tailor it to the players. Pope doesn't know what to do. Hate it for him though.
Never liked the hire. The resume just wasn’t there. i.e. 53 year old head coach that never won an NCAA tournament game.
Pope was hired to placate a seething fan base. How could the vast majority of die hard fans not welcome and wish him well?
He was nowhere near ready for this stage and now, he’d be lucky to be hired by another BYU. This probably set him back while setting the program even further back from when Cal left. We would not have considered any other coach with his resume.
Year 1 was lightning in a bottle. The energy, the intensity, the excitement, those willed us to many wins. That and OO (whatever happened to that stone cold killer?).
I wish him the best, but he is not the right person for the job today. What kills me the most is we way overpaid him. He would have come here making what he was making at BYU. Why did we offer him so much??
He was nowhere near ready for this stage and now, he’d be lucky to be hired by another BYU. This probably set him back while setting the program even further back from when Cal left. We would not have considered any other coach with his resume.
Year 1 was lightning in a bottle. The energy, the intensity, the excitement, those willed us to many wins. That and OO (whatever happened to that stone cold killer?).
I wish him the best, but he is not the right person for the job today. What kills me the most is we way overpaid him. He would have come here making what he was making at BYU. Why did we offer him so much??
That was one of my biggest complaints . He got much better job and Mitch paid him a couple of millions more to take it. You would think that you would take an upgrade of an opportunity and not have to make that much more money.
Pope is a good man, but it's obvious that he is not ready for this job. What did Coach Cal used to say? "Kentucky is not for everyone". MB panicked after Scott Drew turned down the job, and he was so insistent on finding someone who is a polar opposite of Coach Cal that he went with the nostalgia bait route. I hated the hire when the news first broke. I just couldn't believe that this was the best we could do, a guy who had never won an NCAA tournament game before. As everyone has been saying, Pope didn't have the resume, and the only reason he was even considered for the job is because he played here. Even last year's Sweet 16 appearance felt like fool's gold, given the 12 losses. In some of our biggest wins, we had to come from behind after getting blown out in the first half, a common thing that he never gets his guys ready for the first half. This year we're losing the kind of games that we came back and won last season. That's a red flag and the terrible recruiting.
In my opinion, MB should have been patient and spoken with Billy D after the NBA season. Even if he still said no, there were other coaches out there who had a better resume than freaking Pope. Can you imagine someone like Pearl or Oats coaching here with all of that NIL money and all the other resources that UK can offer!
Last thing , it's wild how quickly BYU turned into an elite basketball program after Pope left. They were able to get the #1 recruit, and that will set things up nicely for them going forward. I see BYU fans thanking us for hiring Pope and that's embarrassing.
In my opinion, MB should have been patient and spoken with Billy D after the NBA season. Even if he still said no, there were other coaches out there who had a better resume than freaking Pope. Can you imagine someone like Pearl or Oats coaching here with all of that NIL money and all the other resources that UK can offer!
Last thing , it's wild how quickly BYU turned into an elite basketball program after Pope left. They were able to get the #1 recruit, and that will set things up nicely for them going forward. I see BYU fans thanking us for hiring Pope and that's embarrassing.
