What on Earth has happened?

[KentuckyFlyer]

What on earth has happened to Kentucky? We couldn't get any interest in the UK job when Cal left, so we settled for Pope. Now Pope is getting his clock cleaned on the court and on the recruiting trail. Should Pope not be here next year is there anyone with a pulse that wants to coach at UK? and are there any top tier recruits that want to play here? Seems like the Kentucky brand has finally run dry??

 

[Noledynasty2490]

When you rely on the portal so hard and you miss, it can get rough. As an FSU football fan, we've been portal dependent the last 2 years and look at us.

When you hit it looks good. When you don't, well.

 

Noledynasty2490

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[Catsfanjim]

Oh no we suck again.

 

[Wunky]

Idk what’s happened exactly, but I know this much… Kentucky fans deserve better. And they deserved better Cal’s last 10 year too.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

What on earth has happened to Kentucky? We couldn't get any interest in the UK job when Cal left, so we settled for Pope. Now Pope is getting his clock cleaned on the court and on the recruiting trail. Should Pope not be here next year is there anyone with a pulse that wants to coach at UK? and are there any top tier recruits that want to play here? Seems like the Kentucky brand has finally run dry??

Plenty of good coaches will line up for a 22 million salary cap.

 

[One2Three]

What on earth has happened to Kentucky? We couldn't get any interest in the UK job when Cal left, so we settled for Pope. Now Pope is getting his clock cleaned on the court and on the recruiting trail. Should Pope not be here next year is there anyone with a pulse that wants to coach at UK? and are there any top tier recruits that want to play here? Seems like the Kentucky brand has finally run dry??

Anyone who believes Mitch made a concerted effort to bring in an elite coach is deluding themselves. Scott Drew was his first and only selection. When that fell through he went after the first guy who would take the job and someone who he views as a “good Christian man”.

Remember that he hired a women’s basketball coach with a Final Four. Let this sink in: he put more effort in the women’s coaching search than he did the men’s.

 

[UKDC80]

They got the wrong coach. I like the guy but he’s too soft of a person to do this at this level. His ability to get the great players will also be his downfall. It sucks, but UK fans are just at the beginning of a grueling Pope tenure. Eventually the talk will be, you have to be careful hiring unproven alumni. I’m sick thinking about it.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

Anyone who believes Mitch made a concerted effort to bring in an elite coach is deluding themselves. Scott Drew was his first and only selection. When that fell through he went after the first guy who would take the job and someone who he views as a “good Christian man”.

Remember that he hired a women’s basketball coach with a Final Four. Let this sink in: he put more effort in the women’s coaching search than he did the men’s.

You really seem to hate Mitch for being a Christian, bro. There’s plenty of reasons to be mad, but this is getting weird

 

[megablue]

If Pope has the checkbook, why do the good players not come here ??

 

[Dward13]

When you rely on the portal so hard and you miss, it can get rough. As an FSU football fan, we've been portal dependent the last 2 years and look at us.

When you hit it looks good. When you don't, well.

This isn’t about talent or ability of individual players.

Michigan State doesn’t have better individual players. Kohler killed us. He’s not more talented than any center or forward on our roster.

There’s no semblance of team basketball on either end.

Michigan State looked like a D1 team(and not even that good of a team) and we looked like a bunch of D1 players, playing a pickup game.

And it’s even worse than the score because State had a bunch of unforced turnovers and the whistle was fair at worse if not a little on the friendly side.

 

[ChiefPaducah]

The short answer is we just aren’t that good. Will we improve, yet to be seen. Blame coaching, blame recruiting, blame effort, or blame player development. The answer begins and ends with we just aren’t a good team right now.

 

[ala_kat2]

I have no inside information but like some others, I wonder if Pope is just too analytical and not a good X and O coach and maybe too soft.

 

[Catlogic1552]

The short answer is we just aren’t that good. Will we improve, yet to be seen. Blame coaching, blame recruiting, blame effort, or blame player development. The answer begins and ends with we just aren’t a good team right now.

You had me at coaching.

 

[KYAnywhereEverywhere]

I've been told that Pope run his players to death in practice. That same person suspects that this team isn't taking too well to the relentless of it.

That said, there's just no chemistry with this team. I'm guessing there are a lot of conflicts going on behind stage.

 

[KentuckyFlyer]

They got the wrong coach. I like the guy but he’s too soft of a person to do this at this level. His ability to get the great players will also be his downfall. It sucks, but UK fans are just at the beginning of a grueling Pope tenure. Eventually the talk will be, you have to be careful hiring unproven alumni. I’m sick thinking about it.

Agree completely. I have to admit I was all for the hire at the time. Especially after it appeared that he coached us to a great win in last years champions classic. Can't believe the Mark Pope coaching tonight was the same man that coached that Duke game.

 

[cat tat2]

I’m thinking the team is dealing with internal issues and turmoil.

 

[One2Three]

I've been told that Pope run his players to death in practice. That same person suspects that this team isn't taking too well to the relentless of it.

That said, there's just no chemistry with this team. I'm guessing there are a lot of conflicts going on behind stage.

That might explain why we have so many injuries. Pope sounds more and more like BCG than I care to admit.

 

[Kentucky15]

What on earth has happened to Kentucky? We couldn't get any interest in the UK job when Cal left, so we settled for Pope. Now Pope is getting his clock cleaned on the court and on the recruiting trail. Should Pope not be here next year is there anyone with a pulse that wants to coach at UK? and are there any top tier recruits that want to play here? Seems like the Kentucky brand has finally run dry??

Dont buy the bs those coaches wouldn’t come here. We never offered Oats. Barnhart you can thank him for it. Oats was just saying that because he knew he wasn’t going to be offered and wanted to use it for recruiting and rep. He was never offered UK at all. Kentucky will get who they want when Barnhart isn’t here they don’t want to deal with the bean counter. Has nothing to do with Kentucky no more than UNC or Kansas down times have anything to do with that.

lol at the brand. The Brand is fine. We always recover. But your team?

18-40 and been a doormat. Kentucky never dies and never will.

 

[AllBall]

This isn’t about talent or ability of individual players.

Michigan State doesn’t have better individual players. Kohler killed us. He’s not more talented than any center or forward on our roster.

There’s no semblance of team basketball on either end.

Michigan State looked like a D1 team(and not even that good of a team) and we looked like a bunch of D1 players, playing a pickup game.

And it’s even worse than the score because State had a bunch of unforced turnovers and the whistle was fair at worse if not a little on the friendly side.

It was friendly to say the least. Teams who make more free throws than the opponent attempts win 90% of those games. Oh, not us!!!
Absolutely horrendous effort and execution.