I think that’s the point. They are relevant. We were relevant.
We Need To Accept that Old Kentucky is No Longer
- Thread starter GoneFishin916
- Start date
My point is, before mid 90s UConn was hot garbage.
Right before Saban came to Tuscaloosa, they were a blue blood running on hard times. Didn’t take long for the tide to roll again. We are going to be back to power, we care too much to let it die. People talking about apathy and I understand it. There’s still plenty of piss and vinegar from diehards to make sure we always have a comeback.
Agree but everybody is looking at that and saying why can’t Pope coach him to get him on the floor especially when the rest of the guard play(except Lowe) isn’t exactly lighting it up.
Pope making it easy to recruit against him.
We either believe in playing the best players or we don’t. Right now, one of the issues I have is that we aren’t playing the best players nearly enough. Pope can’t worry about next year —- if he can’t fix this there won’t be a next year, or at least not one without a fiery furnace and extreme toxicity. Dear Pope: start the best players and ask someone to give you defensive instruction.
Lowe
Oweh
Williams
Dioubate
Quaintance
Win with defense and rebounding, anyone who plays has to perform in those areas or they don’t get minutes. His job approval rating is tanking —- he can’t think about future anything. Win now.
The issue is why can’t he develop JJ enough to see the floor when his supposed best players get their *** kicked whenever they play a team with a pulse? That’s what recruits and opposing coaches will be asking and saying.
I would just pull up a chair next to my prospective recruit, pull up the laptop, open the game film when Jasper comes into the game. Then I would tap spacebar —- they would immediately see someone blow by him like he’s a fire hydrant. Then, they’d see him turn down a wide open shot. Then, they’d see him throw a pass diagonally backwards in a direction where the only person within reach is someone with another colored jersey which leads to a breakaway layup. None of that matters if Pope isn’t winning games and he won’t win them playing minutes to people who haven’t earned them. Pope needs to take the piece of paper he has his rotation plan written on, wad it up and throw in the trash. Play the best players until the wheels fall off and win some games before his dream job becomes a story he tells about what could have been.
Cool story. They had zero titles and FFs pre 1999. Meaning they’re a Johnny come lately. Not to mention, they’ve MISSED SEVERAL tournaments since 1999 as well. Like flat out didn’t even make it. UConn isn’t some world beater. More like an incredibly lucky program.
We’ve notched 3 championships in the last 45 years. LOL at sold our soul. We hired a coach who won a championship, when to 4 Final Fours, and 7 Elite 8’s. We didn’t sell our soul just because you have a personal vendetta against the man.
And even our most recent titles (and final fours) are too far back for today’s top prospects to remember. They’re more likely to think of UConn as a prestigious hoops school because they’ve seen it with their own eyes, it’s not just something they’ve heard old people talk about.
But, really, I’m not sure how much any of that matters anymore. Today’s recruits make their decisions based on money. The factors that used to matter in the old days (tradition, prestige, academics, facilities, geography, loyalties, etc.) no longer mean much.
Duke is still Duke. Why can’t Kentucky still be great?
I do think Carolina has taken a step back and it more of Indiana than their fan base would like to admit. UCLA is faaar gone. Kansas had fallen off a bit as of late, but I think that is directly tied to them not being prepared on how to handle NIL.
I do think Carolina has taken a step back and it more of Indiana than their fan base would like to admit. UCLA is faaar gone. Kansas had fallen off a bit as of late, but I think that is directly tied to them not being prepared on how to handle NIL.
Both UNC and Kansas will probably make big splash hires in the coming years while Kentucky fans scratch their heads wondering why we can’t do the same. The problem is our AD’s refusal to hire the best possible candidate. He’s done this twice now and Calipari was hired by someone else.
We might also have to accept that it now means less for kids INSIDE the state as well.
The social media/internet age has re-wired the way kids see the world. Local influences mean far less than they used to, outside influences mean far more.
There was once a time when being a Cat would’ve been considered the ultimate end all be all for a kid like Travis Perry. And he would’ve fought to keep that status even if it meant being a career bench player. But in today’s era, he couldn’t wait to get the hell out after only one season.
Better players = more wins. We just whiffed on high end talent. At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself of during these awful games.
Pope is partly responsible for this debacle. I do think it's fixable but probably not this year. 15-17 end of the day.
I think it's definitely part of it. I mean it's clear this team wasn't what a lot of people thought it would be from a talent level standpoint. And you'd like to think that in the future recruiting will pick up for Pope, he'll bring in more talent and we'll be ok.
Still even if that's the case........I feel like the days of domination are over in college bball. I feel like the playing field has been leveled quite a bit.
We'll still be ok. I just think from here on out it's going to be a lot tougher for UK.
How? No one spent more on NIL than Kentucky this year. Even when you include football teams which has a multitude of more players, most teams except maybe 4 or 5 were spending $20 million on their roster.
I would rewind about five years prior to the 1989-1990 season. UConn was a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament that year in 1990. That was Jim Calhoun’s first great UConn team. They lost on a last second shot to Laettner and Duke in the Elite 8.
Prior to that season though I think UConn was pretty much an unknown.
The NIL amount ...........who knows what the actual amount was. That number who knows if it's entirely accurate.
But lets say it is. So you spend the money wiser in the future. Clearly the talent did not match what we were paying compared to what others teams were getting with supposedly lesser funds.
If anything if we do in fact spend at the top, all the more reason to believe that recruiting will pick up and we should be able to reel in big time talent.
Yup, there are more teams scratching and clawing for the top. It’s not the 60's anymore where only 4 programs cared, so it's much harder now.
So, if you want to get to the front of the pack, you have to have advantages, right?
So, who out there has the ability to have advantages?
What would be a possible advantage one could have? Money perhaps? Facilities? Exposure? Support? Massive fanbase?
Know any schools that have, or can obtain any of those advantages?
Surely there isn't a school out there that could have all of those advantages simultaneously, is there? That's not possible, right?
I think we can all agree that being dominant is unrealistic, but really, all we want is to be a threat every year and cut down the nets at a pace that a modern blue blood should.
If UConn can do it, why can't we?
Apparently, aTm's fanbase is more effective than BBN.
Mitch Barnhart looks down on UK fans. No amount of discontent from fans would change his mind on something. He’s truly a despicable person.
Problem is that we don't have a big war chest to compete against other schools. Me and other people noted this before when NIL started. Kentucky is not a rich state and we don't have a lot of big donors. Our fanbase is also very working class and don't have money to donate to NIL all the time. It is hard for me to see UK doing well in this era due to these socioeconomic issues. The money just isn't there.
He’s actually not. He’s an awful AD. I’m glad you’re back though Kentucky15. I can tell it’s you and I wondered where the heck you went.
That has always been a huge worry of mine. Im not sure how UK/KY can compete in this new era, unless our fanbase and some of the bigger corporations in KY really fund the program.
So Kentucky being the team that is said to have had the highest NIL and spending $20,000,000+ is all BS?
I feel like we have no real idea what we are spending on this roster. We also dont know what others are spending either. I honestly find it hard to believe this program and donors were able to pull together $20mil for a 1-year roster. Miami? Michigan? USC? Sure. And not because I think those are neccesarily great programs.. but they have some combination of, enormous endowments, are near a real metropolis with massive marketing opportunities, or have rich alumni... or even all 3. I mean BYU is basically using an NBA owners money to find their team, its a drop in the bucket for him. Its funding his Alma mater so he can pay for wins that he will also celebrate... thats what a program is gonna need to make it in this NIL era.
UConn wasn't a threat to cut down the nets every year.
They missed the NCAA Tournament 5 times between 2015 and 2025.
Total BS. We just need to give Barnhart the treatment that was given to tubby and others in the way. Tradition is a big factor. If UK wants a coach they only need someone who can sell a little bit to show motivated hungry elite coaches what UK has done for 5 other coaches. We had a bad hire with Bcg and overcome it. Hell the ncaa tried to nail us in a coffin we came back. Using back channel bs is hs. You gotta get in front of these guys and most importantly you gotta pay up. Pay up to a point where bama isn’t going to pay Oates for instance. That guy was born to coach UK. Hes not a burbled guy meaning he doesn’t have UNCheat as a goal. He’s the cal of now. If we land this guy we turn around over night because he will have the sauce players want and he will have the backing of an army. That elevates every coach. You just have to sell it. Barney and the old guard are the impediment and high pressure needs to be put on this guy to move on and for UK to hire a Kentucky guy whose goal is winning. Not this let’s be great at everything but winning and sing koombaya
My point is, if UConn can win that many titles in 26 years, why can't we?
Of course we don't want to miss the tournament, but damn, if you nab that many titles and there is a transfer portal (something UConn didn’t have during those NIT years), you can be a legit threat every year at UK.
The Kentucky standard:
On average, since 1939, Kentucky makes the Elite Eight once every 2.25 seasons.
Kentucky makes the Final Four once every 5.06 years.
Kentucky wins the national championship once every 10.75 years.
Yeah, I just feel like if we ever got it rolling like UConn has, we could sustain it much easier than UConn did, because we put so much effort, support and resources into our basketball program.
I know some things happened at UConn to cause them to have so many down years (thank God), but if they can win titles at the pace they have since '99, we can certainly do it too.
We can at least compete for a conference championship every season. But it should be noted, while UConn missed the tournament 5 out of 11 years, they were also eliminated in their first tournament games in 2021, 2022 and 2025.
I would take back-to-back National Titles in a heartbeat but I'm saying the traditional blue blood as we knew is now dead.