Will Wade goes off on reporter
- Thread starter Possum
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Love that kind of moxie. Will Wade is a terrifyingly charismatic coach.
I can see why guys wanna play for him.
LOL, that's the fakest outrage I've ever seen, but his player probably appreciates it.
Will Wade would be a top choice for me if things end up not working out with Pope in a few years. He’s a dandy coach that would kill it here.
If I was the next reporter to ask a question, I would ask what could be done to help Darrion’s shooting and if he could be better than a damn good player and become a great player. Would Wade, pick up his pacifier and leave? 
What a jerk. Those guys are just doing their jobs.
Will Wade will NEVER coach at UK. Not a chance in hell
In all fairness, they said the same about Cal.
Cal didn't do half of what this joker did. I fail to understand why so many seem to admire this jerk.
It's the same theme. "Hire a dirtbag, any dirtbag,"
Calipari was a dirtbag, although it’s debatable.
Pitino was a dirtbag.
Rupp was a dirtbag.
Hall and Smith were not dirtbags.
I’d argue our three best coaches were varying degrees of dirtbag. Embrace it —- we are Dirtbag U —- but we are also the greatest college basketball program of all time. I’m not sad about it.
Yeah. I honestly thought the same about a dude that had never won squat at a mid major…but here we are.
Why does everyone say he is such a good coach. He is the most blatant cheater in recent memory, could care less about the guys playing for him , and is an abrasive a-hole. Just what UK needs , right?
I'm not sure if you were around at the time, but it was not an uncommon opinion on the forum that Cal was a cheater and was the slimy used car salesman of College basketball at Memphis. FWIW, Rick Pitino was accused of cheating as an assistant coach at Hawaii and was/is as abrasive as it gets. That's not even touching on what happened when he went to Louisville. Katina Powell, "To the ceiling," etc. And he won a title there too.
We've had some real ******** coach our program to a lot of success, so, purity tests don't seem well correlated with championship caliber Kentucky basketball.
We hired a guy who said all of the right things, and probably gave us the best opening press conference I've seen. He made big promises, and in year two is on thin ice.
Pope is not able to get it done on the recruiting front. You've got to be able to close the deal and get a mix of top talent on the floor to be competitive. We've got a few of those guys on the roster, with
JQ being head and shoulders better than the rest of our talent. But we don't have another player like him in the pipeline that I can see. We've missed on all the can't miss prospects.
Pope is just a religious snake oil salesman. That’s it. The religion and former player bought enough equity that the fanbase didn’t torch it all when he was hired. Mitch and the UK press machine went baited the fanbase with that presser. They basically preyed on the fans and the rabidness of the fanbase to try and sell a crap hire.
The only elite talent he’s signed was coming off major surgery and he had to overpay to get him. That speaks volumes.
Disgusting comment. Critique should be kept within bounds of professional performance. His religion has no more to do with his coaching than Bruce Pearl’s, John Calipari’s, Scott Drew’s, etc. I fail to understand why comments like this are allowed, as if they have any bit of value. No one is saying a word about Kevin Young being a Mormon and rightfully so —- it’s none of our business.
Bingo it takes an ******* to do this job… The ******** get the job done!! Nice guys finish last (and I’m not trying to be mean here ) and having choir guy coaches don’t cut it here!
Well, I’m not saying there’s any requirement on demeanor. I’m pushing back on the notion that there is a requirement for demeanor actually. Phil Jackson was a great coach —- he had a different style. I’m just pointing out that a coach being a “dirtbag” shouldn’t matter to Kentucky fans, at least not if we understand our history and can be honest about it.
JFC man, get out of your feels for a second. Religion was cited because it gives him equity in the Bible Belt. It has squat to do with coaching. I’m saying if someone that wasn’t religious spewed the same BS with the same crap results Pope has, the fanbase would’ve bounced him already. That’s it. Nice/religious people get slightly more rope from the WASP community. Which, btw, is a huge portion of BBN. I swear, you get off on getting offended sometimes. Chill just a bit.
I understand but I still hold my ground on why I said what I said about being an ******* is best fit here considering our history.
No, I’m not offended. I’m just calling it hypocrisy and it is. If he was killing it, like Kevin Young, you’d not be mentioning his religion. And, no, Mormonism doesn’t get you much equity in the Bible Belt — don’t know where you got that. I’ve committed to always being honest — and, as much as I like you, yes you regularly make bigoted comments about the man because of his religion. Does your lack of religion cause you to fail in coaching? Does that even seem like a reasonable question? Of course not — it’s a laughably absurd and ignorant question.
Calling him religious is bigoted? Good lord dude. He’s religious. Water is wet. If he were an enormous a$$hole and had these same results, he’d not have the rope he has. That’s it. I don’t think his religion has one damned thing to do with how well or poorly he coaches. I do, however, think being religious and a former player do buy him a bit of equity. That’s it. Nothing less, nothing more. If calling a religious man religious is bigoted, I’m guilty as charged.
I’ll ignore the reframing and agree with you on this one line:
“I don’t think his religion has one damned thing to do with how well or poorly he coaches.”
Agreed. Be it his X’s and O’s, his recruiting, his media performance, etc., there are many things for us debate about, regarding this man’s performance.
Im no more satisfied with year two than anyone so far, but there is still a lot of time. (Intentional segue from unrelated characteristics to coaching attributes.)
I didn’t reframe a thing. If you read it a different way, that’s a you issue. Try not to look for some underlying meaning. I don’t beat around the bush. If I thought Pope being religious affected his coaching, I’d say it.I’ll ignore the reframing and agree with you on this one line:
“I don’t think his religion has one damned thing to do with how well or poorly he coaches.”
Agreed. Be it his X’s and O’s, his recruiting, his media performance, etc., there are many things for us debate about, regarding this man’s performance.
Im no more satisfied with year two than anyone so far, but there is still a lot of time. (Intentional segue from unrelated characteristics to coaching attributes.)
Agreed, year two isn’t good. I don’t think it’s going to end well either. I’m basing most of that on Lowe not staying healthy. Hope like hell I’m wrong about both. I really like watching Lowe play and I really like it when the Cats win (duh).
I don’t think you’re wrong about that —- I also do not expect Lowe to make it through the whole season. And, yes, I think the season is over when it happens. I don’t think anyone on the roster can give what he can.
Big If, I think Pope will do well here.
This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen lately besides Pitinos speech at halftime.
2026 but starting to see traits of 90s attitude. Guess I was raised and coached different is why some won’t understand what I’m talking about. I had a coach who dgaf what parents or refs thought about his demeanor, he just wanted to win. Guy would grab my jersey, get nose to nose with me, and scream quit playing like a phkin poosy. It made me into a war machine on the court. Coaches can make or break a player and I’m sure glad he was my coach. Will Wade is a good coach!
2026 but starting to see traits of 90s attitude. Guess I was raised and coached different is why some won’t understand what I’m talking about. I had a coach who dgaf what parents or refs thought about his demeanor, he just wanted to win. Guy would grab my jersey, get nose to nose with me, and scream quit playing like a phkin poosy. It made me into a war machine on the court. Coaches can make or break a player and I’m sure glad he was my coach. Will Wade is a good coach!
No it doesn't alot of success coaches today aren't a!@h!@#$. Buddy Knight is dead
Did you listen or read the transcripts of the criminal FBI investigation he was deeply involved in. I did and I don't recall Cal being investigated by the FBI.
Pope can coach x and o,s. Jmi contract structure deflects Jimmy and joes and will stay that way until someone fixes it.
I’ll go ever further, Hall was not a choir boy and Smith wasn’t either but to a lesser degree. How Randolph Morris got eligible is amazing. . I think as they get older people tend to see them as more grandfatherly.