Can any show a coach they would want to run this program that has not had a down year?
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- Thread starter Bill_the_cat
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Every coach has down years. If this were just a down year, I would be 100% defending Pope. I like being a contrarian anyway. It’s not just a down year.
This is a different era. There should be no down years except by coaches who can’t recruit in the portal or have poor NIL offerings. Maybe average or below average years, but not .500 record years like we’re heading towards.
We don’t just have to rely on high school recruits in this day and age.
If Pope was having a down year but had won conference regular season or tournaments and possibly has elite 8, final 4 experience I would be more patient. Pope has proven he can do anything other than have double digit loses each year.
I would not hire a football coach at any SEC school that has never coached in this league. I would not hire a basketball coach that has no experience at this level.
show me a coach that spent 22 mil on players that cant shoot-dribble-pass . Pope and his staff watched hours on every player before making the offers . Due to that fact he should be fired at the end of the season before we get the NIT invite
If it were only that. I love Mark, and I’m not 100% on wanting him gone after this season. I will wait until I see end result. I’m still holding out hope for some sort of improvement. But if we fail to make tourney, I may be ok with him being gone. Just doesn’t make sense what’s going on; and the recruiting piece is seriously concerning.
"Down year", LOL. It is far more than just a down year. He is in wayyyy over his head. Can't recruit high school kids, and can't construct a roster worth a damn with $22 million to spend, can't manage what team he does have. That is not just a "down year".
Icgaf about down years as long as someone can also have up years. Which is why I was 100% behind Pope (and still suspect his X and O problems are largely player basketball IQ-related) until I found out he was telling A-List recruits we weren’t getting into bidding wars because “we are Kentucky.”
Not to mention he has done ZERO adjustments to try and change the current situation, NATHAN. You know the definition of insanity, I do not have to remind anyone. When there is not ONE single positive thing a team does well, that is more than "a down year".
Its the consistency of Pope's failures including: We lose the same way we did last year, but this year its worse. Can't recruit yet. Leans too much into analytics. There are many reasons.
The reason is consistency. Nothing has changed.
Year 2 is supposed to show improvements.
If this year showed improvements, we didn't get blown out, quit in games and showed fight and hustle, most of this board would be more than willing to see what he can do in year 3. The problem is, he massively regressed and had some terrible consistent coaching blunders throughout the season. The most previous one, was the last play against the Mizzou game.
I read your post and tried to think of a coach and could not think of one.
Then I tried to think of a coach who had 22 million to use for NIL and could not think of one.
Then I thought is there any coach who has spent 22 million on players that are so unskilled in basic basketball that the coach even said publicly he was trying to make things simple and still they can not get it.
Then I tried to think of a coach who has all this NIL money, the facilities needed to succeed, a fan base that stands with their team, great boosters, and allows his team to consistently take the floor and look so unprepared and the only one I came up with is Mark Pope.
I hate this is happening to be truthful. I want Pope to succeed but it seems we are going backwards.
As much as I hate to say this, but we are looking more and more like IU everyday.
If he had any prior success as a coach, then I might call this a "down year".
this is a bad argument and we gotta get past it.
other coaches do not respect Pope or take him seriously
they see him bungling this massive opportunity
any coach worth his salt is salivating to come in and replace him
other coaches do not respect Pope or take him seriously
they see him bungling this massive opportunity
any coach worth his salt is salivating to come in and replace him
Silly to hire a coach and then be fine with a down year in his second season. Supposed to be improving the program but he has it in worse shape than before he was hired
Just take Pope’s win and loss record every year he was a head coach. That record is a down year every year for UK (or it was).
So if he had won one more game last year you would be good? Talk about reactionary lol
That’s a hard one to understand. This is why I posted the night he was hired that Mitch had screwed him, and he would be eaten alive here. He didn’t have the qualifications to be hired. But, he wasn’t going to turn the job down. Mitch just screwed him.
wouldn't it be three more games? we lost 12
it's really not reactionary. double digit losses every year is bad for UK. this was established when Tubby was fired for that very reason
What we need is a Captain Speirs to run into the heavy fire and relieve Mark and take the troops on in.
Absolutely, he’s coached the same this year as he has last year, the difference last year is he had some 5th year seniors and great 3pt shooters bail him out. Seems like everyone forgets last years team could not guard at all
Gotta build up good will for down years. Cal had some but he also went to multiple FFs and won a NC.
This is not a down year. This is a major coaching and leadership fail.
At least in recent memory, Jon Shyer hasn’t had a down year. He’s been good every year!
No not one more game, he didn’t just say elite 8. He said conference regular season and tournament. We weren’t even in the mix to win the conference last year
Nor do we have anyone coming in yet that gives us hope for next year. Doubtful we will in the hs ranks. Maybe the portal, who knows.
Look where he coached, lol. The first team had zero chance of making a tournament. The second team was BYU, and NIL didn't really get started until after he left. There are troublemakers on this roster, and won't be here next year. I bet he does very well out of the portal. He did last year considering the circumstances.
You do realize that bidding wars aren't going to be a thing too much longer? College sports are imploding. As a matter of principle he was correct.
Show me a coach that had a down year at a P4 legit basketball school because he missed on most key portal guys needed to run an effective offense and follows that up by getting zero recruits to sign on.
I bought in this was totally JMI but look at the whole picture. Pope missed on several portal guys that would have made a difference and loaded up on other teams 6th man.
I believe Pope can coach a good offense. I don’t believe he can get the guys needed to run it.
Pope went:
24-8
20-7
24-11
19-15
23-11
At BYU in order. It seems like a decent year (23+ wins) was followed by a down (to the previous year's standards) year. Then followed by another 23+ win season. They didn't get worse every year, but they regressed every year following a decent/solid year based on that small sample size.
