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What AD would hire a coach at a place like Kentucky....

dynastydreamuk

dynastydreamuk

All-Conference
Nov 18, 2010
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Nothing wrong with pointing out the obvious.

I have been screaming this since the hire happened hoping it jinxs and Pope is the best coach of all time. But let's not kid ourselves... the instant reaction everybody had when it first happened was the correct reaction. Last year (his first season) was really fun and awesome with the little time he had to build a team... if this season is a clunker with all the NIL money... i mean come on.

The roster appears built poorly and we don't seem to have any elite players. Maybe JQ but he is yet to come back. Not enough shooters for popes system either. Chandler basically is out only consistent shooter.... Noah would be but can't really stay on the floor long enough to do the other things like defend in the SEC.
 
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JPFisher

JPFisher

Heisman
Jul 24, 2013
6,441
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nicky said:
Who had only TWO NCAA tournament appearances (lost both) in his 10 years of being a HC....?

Mitch Barnhart that's who 🤡

(Secretly hoping that my negativity backfires and we go on a monstrous run)
Click to expand...
What kind of poster creates an account in 2015, only has 26 posts to their name, and one of those posts is taking a fat dump on Pope?
troll GIF
 
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Phil_The_Music2

Phil_The_Music2

Heisman
Nov 29, 2010
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I'm sure it happens way more than you think. All coaches start somewhere. The reason coaches leave smaller programs to come to bigger programs is because it's a lot easier to win. Pope may or may not work out, time will tell. But it wasn't a terrible hire. We tried the big name coaches and they turned us down. Coaches that are already successful don't have much reason to leave where they are. Nate Oats came from Buffalo and had never made it past the second round. Jay Wright came from Hofstra and had never made it past the first round. Dan Hurley came from Rhode Island and had never made it past the second round. Todd Golden came from San Francisco and had never won a tournament game. Safe to say those are four of the best coaches in the country, and neither had done much before they were called up to a bigger program. The only coach I saw from my brief amount of research that found a high level of success before getting called up was Bill Self who had an elite 8 at Tulsa. It's very rare to find someone with much tournament success at lower level schools. That shouldn't be what you look for on their resume.
 
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JonathanW2

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I am not defending Barnhart, he's made a lot of mistakes. But does the OP know that:
- Duke hired a new head coach (Scheyer) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UNC hired a new head coach (H.Davis) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UL hired a new head coach (Kelsey) who had 0 NCAA-T wins (0-5)

Whenever you try to "hire within The Family" you are restricting yourself from the talent pool, hoping that the additional aspects of that pre-existing bond between the school/fanbase and new hire will make up for any other areas of lack of experience.
Pope had success, relative to where he was coaching (Utah St & BYU before BYU decided to spend big NIL).
 
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JonathanW2

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UKortho said:
Pope didn’t even have a regular season championship or a conference tournament championship (if my memory is correct) on his resume. Never developed an NBA player either. 0 players drafted (and that hurts recruiting).
Click to expand...
We all know that few players "are developed" in college. Most NBA players are identified before ever stepping foot on any campus, with very few of those not pre-identified coming from mid-majors. So, pretty much no chance he would have had one at Utah Valley in the WAC, or BYU in the WCC.
 
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U

UKortho

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Oct 13, 2015
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JonathanW2 said:
I am not defending Barnhart, he's made a lot of mistakes. But does the OP know that:
- Duke hired a new head coach (Scheyer) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UNC hired a new head coach (H.Davis) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UL hired a new head coach (Kelsey) who had 0 NCAA-T wins (0-5)

Whenever you try to "hire within The Family" you are restricting yourself from the talent pool, hoping that the additional aspects of that pre-existing bond between the school/fanbase and new hire will make up for any other areas of lack of experience.
Pope had success, relative to where he was coaching (Utah St & BYU before BYU decided to spend big NIL).
Click to expand...
I would argue that he wasn’t successful at BYU. He did worse than the coach that precedef him. Yes- understand the conference change.

BYU finished 5th, 5th, and 5th his last three years. And two of those were in the WCC. No conference championships, no regular season championships = poor hire.
 
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Forkman

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UKortho said:
I would argue that he wasn’t successful at BYU. He did worse than the coach that precedef him. Yes- understand the conference change.

BYU finished 5th, 5th, and 5th his last three years. And two of those were in the WCC. No conference championships, no regular season championships = poor hire.
Click to expand...
I don't know why it hadn't bothered anyone more to this point to see that BYU waited until Pope was gone to start spending on the program.

That's not a great sign.
 
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Phil_The_Music2

Phil_The_Music2

Heisman
Nov 29, 2010
3,075
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Forkman said:
I don't know why it hadn't bothered anyone more to this point to see that BYU waited until Pope was gone to start spending on the program.

That's not a great sign.
Click to expand...
Or, maybe they decided that if they wanted to keep coaches, they needed to start spending more money on the program.
 
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UKortho

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Oct 13, 2015
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Forkman said:
I don't know why it hadn't bothered anyone more to this point to see that BYU waited until Pope was gone to start spending on the program.

That's not a great sign.
Click to expand...
That’s right. It’s like most folks were horrified that he was hired. Then, when it was official, we all looked for signs of hope (modern offense, not using UK- playing for UK), etc. he said all the right things, and I want him to work out. Now, he had some big wins at BYU…and he has done the same here. But, in the end, I think my first thoughts were probably accurate.
 
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20MRoster

Senior
Nov 16, 2018
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Phil_The_Music2 said:
I'm sure it happens way more than you think. All coaches start somewhere. The reason coaches leave smaller programs to come to bigger programs is because it's a lot easier to win. Pope may or may not work out, time will tell. But it wasn't a terrible hire. We tried the big name coaches and they turned us down. Coaches that are already successful don't have much reason to leave where they are. Nate Oats came from Buffalo and had never made it past the second round. Jay Wright came from Hofstra and had never made it past the first round. Dan Hurley came from Rhode Island and had never made it past the second round. Todd Golden came from San Francisco and had never won a tournament game. Safe to say those are four of the best coaches in the country, and neither had done much before they were called up to a bigger program. The only coach I saw from my brief amount of research that found a high level of success before getting called up was Bill Self who had an elite 8 at Tulsa. It's very rare to find someone with much tournament success at lower level schools. That shouldn't be what you look for on their resume.
Click to expand...
All coaches don't get $5M a year when their career high point is losing in the first round to an 11 seed mid major.

Not Pope's fault, that is 100% on dumbass Barnie. Master of contracts and negotiations.
 
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2

20MRoster

Senior
Nov 16, 2018
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JonathanW2 said:
I am not defending Barnhart, he's made a lot of mistakes. But does the OP know that:
- Duke hired a new head coach (Scheyer) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UNC hired a new head coach (H.Davis) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UL hired a new head coach (Kelsey) who had 0 NCAA-T wins (0-5)

Whenever you try to "hire within The Family" you are restricting yourself from the talent pool, hoping that the additional aspects of that pre-existing bond between the school/fanbase and new hire will make up for any other areas of lack of experience.
Pope had success, relative to where he was coaching (Utah St & BYU before BYU decided to spend big NIL).
Click to expand...
Duke and UNC got to final 4s and get elite talent. Results are better than ours?

Jury out on Kelsey but he just stomped us so...
 
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2

20MRoster

Senior
Nov 16, 2018
324
556
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UKortho said:
I would argue that he wasn’t successful at BYU. He did worse than the coach that precedef him. Yes- understand the conference change.

BYU finished 5th, 5th, and 5th his last three years. And two of those were in the WCC. No conference championships, no regular season championships = poor hire.
Click to expand...
Correct - BYU was better before and after Pope. The guy before him got to an EE with Jimmer I believe. Talent prevails.
 
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Phil_The_Music2

Phil_The_Music2

Heisman
Nov 29, 2010
3,075
12,537
113
20MRoster said:
All coaches don't get $5M a year when their career high point is losing in the first round to an 11 seed mid major.

Not Pope's fault, that is 100% on dumbass Barnie. Master of contracts and negotiations.
Click to expand...
The op wasn't discussing salary. He was questioning the legitimacy of hiring a coach based on previous tournament success. I was responding to that. How much they should be paid is a totally separate issue.
 
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dlh331

Heisman
Jan 4, 2003
28,370
21,181
113
JonathanW2 said:
I am not defending Barnhart, he's made a lot of mistakes. But does the OP know that:
- Duke hired a new head coach (Scheyer) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UNC hired a new head coach (H.Davis) who had ZERO head coaching experience, not 1 single win
- UL hired a new head coach (Kelsey) who had 0 NCAA-T wins (0-5)

Whenever you try to "hire within The Family" you are restricting yourself from the talent pool, hoping that the additional aspects of that pre-existing bond between the school/fanbase and new hire will make up for any other areas of lack of experience.
Pope had success, relative to where he was coaching (Utah St & BYU before BYU decided to spend big NIL).
Click to expand...
Before last season, Todd Golden was 0-2 in the NCAAT
 
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rick64

rick64

Heisman
Jan 25, 2007
24,112
32,825
113
Just listened to the KSR hour 1 from todays show. MJ said he believes even more strongly now that Mitch is going to retire next year. The two candidates would be DeWayne Peevy or the deputy AD now at UK Marc Hill.
 
V

Verbal Kint II

Senior
Dec 23, 2022
767
811
93
nicky said:
Who had only TWO NCAA tournament appearances (lost both) in his 10 years of being a HC....?

Mitch Barnhart that's who 🤡

(Secretly hoping that my negativity backfires and we go on a monstrous run)
Click to expand...
Weird that you all were saying Pope was a great coach.
 
V

Verbal Kint II

Senior
Dec 23, 2022
767
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UKortho said:
Pope didn’t even have a regular season championship or a conference tournament championship (if my memory is correct) on his resume. Never developed an NBA player either. 0 players drafted (and that hurts recruiting).
Click to expand...
These frauds are getting exposed for their fake love.
 
blackcat714

blackcat714

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Apr 30, 2017
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20MRoster said:
All coaches don't get $5M a year when their career high point is losing in the first round to an 11 seed mid major.

Not Pope's fault, that is 100% on dumbass Barnie. Master of contracts and negotiations.
Click to expand...
Pope not going anywhere thanks to Mitch
 
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