Gotta hold him to the standard. We’ve got too much legacy to protect and cannot allow anyone to hold it up. I’ve always been a protect the program guy over all. I was that way with Calipari and I’m that way today.
Every case is different, and the upside to Pope is so huge, it’s smart to give him a little more time than I would another coach coming in. Captain former champ, player, Pitino guy, he’s family and wouldn’t leave if it clicks. And if it clicks we’ve got the modern goat of Kentucky basketball as a former champ. It’s a story line that you can’t buy. It would add so much to what Kentucky means as a program.
So I’m going to give him longer. Calipari and Pitino both decided against being modern goats here in favor of other pursuits. I wanted badly for Calipari to straighten up. He really was the guy to carry this into the new era. Still makes me sick thinking of all those NBA guys, the Calipari brand, UK, it was a perfect situation. ugh.
But for UK the best thing to do is be a little more patient. Pope is still in a bit of an adjustment period. He’s changing his style to fit SEC basketball and he’s tinkering. We just can’t move on him too fast. If it ends up not working, one thing is certain for sure, Barnhart must go and cannot have anymore say in the basketball department. He’s got 1 real job and he’s not been any good at it especially if Pope doesn’t work. Retaining tubby at the end, against the Calipari hire, Gillispie, then a failed hire at the end of Calipari moved out. No way you should ever survive that if it happens. Not at a blue blood it would be horrible. Not to mention 1 title at UK after he was given the era directly after Pitino.
Pope also would be the protector of UK basketball moving forward for decades and decades. We need those guys in charge. Many of the older ones are dying and a lot of the newer alumni are NBA oriented. We need this to work for the programs future.
