Yep. And Indiana didn't just win the natty and Cignetti took the Michigan job. It's a different time these days
That NIL was before the JMI deal and included some multi year deals, like Lowe's. He got paid for two years. Pope pushed that through before the court ruling. Remember? I do.
I mean Pope isn't going anywhere until 2027, even if then, but you'd have to make Tommy Lloyd say no.
Noledynasty2490
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All that increased parity. And lets look at the title winners in football since 2020.
2021: Alabama
2022: UGA
2023: Michigan
2024: Ohio state
2025: Indiana
Basketball:
2021: Baylor
2022: Kansas
2023 and 2024: Uconn
2025: Florida
Same as it's always been. If anything NIL and the portal has allowed big schools to poach mid major stars.
We had plenty of time to conduct a search. Most people expected last year to be a transition year regardless.
We got turned down by Drew and from what I have been told, Barnhart immediately pivoted to Pope. It was a stupid choice.
Big name college basketball coaches don't think like this. Win big and "fly under the radar" are oxymorons.
Drew didn't turn us down either. His wife didn't want to live in Lexington after visiting.
That is not what I said at all, I said at the time none of the elite coaches stepped forward
We had to get 12 guys within a matter of weeks. Not enough time. I wouldn’t stay stupid choice but maybe a rushed one.
If he didn't turn us down, he would be here. He said no, whatever the reason. And I am thankful for that. He's an awful coach.
Coaches don't generally submit an application or anything. The job of the AD is to reach out to them.
Pope had 0 NCAA tourney wins when he was hired. And hadn't shown an ability to recruit. His qualifications for fans, was a YouTube video on his offense and beating Kansas at home. And "he couldn't recruit at BYU because you can't drink and have sex. Wait till he gets to UK".
Most coaches would do the same. We have resources to pay, we can get a roster pretty easily.
There was no search. Mitch thought he had Drew locked up. For years. He was coach in waiting.
When Drew backed out Mitch was shocked and had no plan B.
He knew Pope would take the job so he called him.
That was the entire search.
There was some boosters feeling out Hurley’s people. But they would have had to convince Mitch if Hurley had interest.
Hurley used that to get a raise.
With a real search UK would have its pick.
The problem is who does the picking.
UK is the number 1 college basketball coaching destination in the world. And it’s not close.
The only reason UK settles is because of the AD.
True he didn’t have tourney wins but he does know this fanbase and what matters to us. Our fans were going through a civil war under cal and Mitch believed pope would bring us together. And look what he has done at Uk since he has been here.. when in his first year, some called it a transition year. Got us to a sweet 16 with a record in the amount of wins against top 25. Not a bad start. Then you have this year where we can come second in the sec get a double bye in the sect and maybe make a run in the ncaat with all the injuries he has had to deal with this year.
Since Few took over in 1999 (27 seasons ago), Gonzaga has certainly been a better program in terms of wins and losses, The Zags have also not had any bad seasons in that stretch (like we did in '19-'20). However, in terms of Sweet 16's or better, we are tied at 13 each (and have 1 NC to their none). Gonzaga is a great program under Few, but they also have an over inflated W/L % due to the week conference they play in. Numbers below show the final results (tournament success) is closer than you would think:
| Gonzaga | Kentucky | |
| Covid (No Postseason Held) | 1 | 1 |
| Missed Postseason | 0 | 1 |
| TBD (2025-2026) | 1 | 1 |
| NIT First Round | 0 | 1 |
| NIT Quarterfinal | 0 | 1 |
| NCAA Division I First Round | 3 | 3 |
| NCAA Division I Second Round | 9 | 6 |
| NCAA Division I Sweet Sixteen | 8 | 4 |
| NCAA Division I Elite Eight | 3 | 5 |
| NCAA Division I Final Four | 0 | 2 |
| NCAA Division I Runner-up | 2 | 1 |
| NCAA Division I Champion | 0 | 1 |
| Wins | 767 | 691 |
| Losses | 154 | 240 |
| Winning Percentage | 79.92% | 65.27% |
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Could get a roster sure.. but could they get a sweet 16 roster, play in the toughest conference of all time at a high level, and win all those top 25 games? Not so sure
The point was why would a legend Leave that spot, to come to UK though? People cant comprehend you dont leave once you have established yourself
Lol, are new UK coaches not allowed to bring their rosters with them to UK?
Just because Pope couldn't doesn't mean the same would apply for others. If we hired Golden, we may have another natty instead of a glorified sw16 that we've been to 45 times.
We can't get Hurley or Scott Drew. I don't THINK Billy Donovan wants to be in college. He would have come back to college already. I don't THINK Pearl wants to coach at this point in his life. Otherwise, he'd be coaching Auburn and they'd be better than they are. Everyone posts on here saying "You gotta make them say no." That's fine. They'll say no. So let's move the conversation along.
Beyond that, I think you could get a lot of really good coaches to say yes.
Dusty May
Oats.
Otzeleberger.
McCasland--worry he's a Texas guy
Byington
I think Lloyd probably wants to be out West. But I don't think it's out of the question.
I don't think Golden is completely out of the question either. He's from Phoenix, so no Florida connection. He strikes me as a big ego guy that wants to be the face of a blue blood program.
The Hurley problem was 1. He was already at location he preferred, and 2. He was already at a modern day blue blood.
Beyond that, I think you could get a lot of really good coaches to say yes.
Dusty May
Oats.
Otzeleberger.
McCasland--worry he's a Texas guy
Byington
I think Lloyd probably wants to be out West. But I don't think it's out of the question.
I don't think Golden is completely out of the question either. He's from Phoenix, so no Florida connection. He strikes me as a big ego guy that wants to be the face of a blue blood program.
The Hurley problem was 1. He was already at location he preferred, and 2. He was already at a modern day blue blood.
Agree, Few only leaves to retire form coaching. I do not blame him either. Not a realistic candidate!
Yes, they are allowed to bring talent with them. He got Jaxon to come. He didn’t get Saunders and that was a HUUUUGE loss, but Saunders wife plays into that. If he is single, he comes. Anybody else from that squad I wouldn’t want to have and a ton of people would say they don’t have UK talent.
Who is to say Pope can’t get a title here? Golden was at Florida for more than 1 year before his title, and pope went way further than Golden did in his first year at Florida.
I mean your boy cal took all of kentuckys recruits and roster pieces and barely made it to the sweet 16 And when he came to Kentucky took all of Memphis recruits, had guys return from kentuckys previous year and had John wall and Demarcus Cousins. All they could do was an elite 8. I firmly believe if pope didn’t have to play Tennessee for a third time.. he gets us to an elite 8. Just like cal with way less talent.
Two things are at work...Mitch will hire who he wants to hire. Second, its undeniable that UK has had a lot of their first and 2nd options have told them no.
It is also possible that besides Hurley, that MB reached out to Oats and other candidates representation and was told their client had no interest in being here. A lot of folks here were ready to fire Pope 9 games into season two after what was a good first season. If youre Gurley, Oats, Golden...why on earth would you leave a gig where you have job security for that?
People want to bash on pope for this year and not being dominant. That we will have a low seed this year. Do people forget that in 14 we were an 8 seed and in 11 we were like a 6 seed. Upsets can happen in the tournament. Thats what makes it great but just because you have a slow start and have a lower seed doesn’t mean you can’t win and go far. I will hope this team plays well down the stretch and see how far we can go even if we get a 6 or 7. Fact is pope can coach. Whether people believe it or not.
This! Isn’t he supposed to retire soon anyway?! Lmao either way, Few isn’t coming here. Exactly what you said, “why would he?!”
He had it made where he’s at. Not to mention, he basically built that Gonzaga program.
Pope will get 1 more year, no matter what. That would put Rick at age 75 after next season. We are not hiring a 75 yo coach.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s accurate. We did hire him coming off of a 33 win season, however. Thing with Cal is that he had always wanted to coach at UK. He had the demeanor to do it. Not that many guys out there like that.
LMAO at all these people who think we can just handpick a coach and get whomever we want. Yall just be like 25 years old. Anyway, it’s not true. The pressure to coach here is immense. Most coaches don’t want to deal with it. Especially if they already coach at a good program and/or a program with a good NIL setup.
I think it’s crazy UK fans don’t put Todd golden at the top of every list. Make him say no