Pope Yes or No

[Pygmy Sasquatch]

Ni

Are you looking for a shrubbery?

 

[TFCat11]

As many others have stated, Pope simply, with an emphasis on simply, CAN NOT have his second season come in under his first! He just can’t, not 10 years ago, and certainly not in the NIL era, where’s it’s been well publicized, fictitiously or not, that he spent the most $$$ of any MCBB team in the country!

Recruiting is in the gutter, Pope’s record against the top 25 is headed towards the gutter, and his SEC record by UK standards is in the gutter!

He didn’t have the resume for the job, he doesn’t have the killer instinct for the job, and he sure in the heck doesn’t have the personality or mentality for the job!

Just a complete embarrassment of an experiment this has been. Rip the damn bandage off, and hand the reins over to Brooks for the remainder of the season, and work behind the scenes on a grand slam hire in the interim.

 

[Vek96]

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.

Good post. I’ll admit, I was good with the hire, probably because it was someone other than Calipari. I thought Pope would grow into the job, and, he still might. However, starting to be some seriously bad signs.

1. Defense still sucks.
2. Still doesn’t have his best lineups in the game nearly long enough.
3. Offense looks clueless against good teams.
4. Can’t seem to land a recruit.
5. Always gets off to terrible starts against good teams.

 

[Vek96]

I’m not ready to say 1 subpar season is enough to condemn Pope. Part of the problem is having too many options and trying to placate everyone - fans included.

Get the roster rotation down to 8 or 9 players, solidify the offense, and watch the improvement.

Pope needs to let the players know that they need to please him, and not the other way around.