Kelsey Has Built Better Roster In Same Time

Be careful, the CMP defenders will come for you.

Fresh Fish said:

I was listening to MJ's postgame show and he said a couple of times that the good news is that UK won't play a team like UL many times this season. Since both coaches are in Year 2, that's an admission that Kelsey has built a MUCH more talented roster. The truth is that Pope didn't have the resume to even be a candidate for the UK job, much less be the choice. When you take that kind of chance and it works, you look like a genius. When it doesn't work, you look like a bum. I don't think a single other AD in America would've hired a resume like Pope's to coach a blue blood. Pope has a long runway to prove himself, but so far his recruiting, playing style and coaching style are concerning. Those issues are magnified when the arch rival coach is eating his lunch in all areas.

I will grant you that last night Louisville was the better team, played harder, and deserved to win the game. But didn’t we beat Louisville last year? Didn’t we go to the sweet 16 while they lost a home game of a first round tournament game? Isn’t it fair to say that Louisville did the same thing with hiring Pat Kelsey? What’s his resume look like? If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t mark popes team last year hold the UK record for most wins against ranked opponents? The bottom line is Louisville had 1 guy in Mikel Brown who was simply the best player on the floor. We didn’t play great and they did. At the end of the day we lost by 7 in our first true road game in a rivalry. The only thing pope hasn’t nailed is the recruiting, but that is likely changing with Stokes/Collins. It’s November 11th, RELAX!!!!

BRING HOME JON said:

Be careful, the CMP defenders will come for you.

I don't really care. I want him to succeed, but acting like he'd done anything to deserve this job is nothing but nostalgia and homerism. 8th place in SEC last year. We've already looked bullied twice this year after it happened multiple times last year. And now UL has built a much better team in the same amount of time. It isn't looking good.

Jmetry97 said:

I will grant you that last night Louisville was the better team, played harder, and deserved to win the game. But didn’t we beat Louisville last year? Didn’t we go to the sweet 16 while they lost a home game of a first round tournament game? Isn’t it fair to say that Louisville did the same thing with hiring Pat Kelsey? What’s his resume look like? If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t mark popes team last year hold the UK record for most wins against ranked opponents? The bottom line is Louisville had 1 guy in Mikel Brown who was simply the best player on the floor. We didn’t play great and they did. At the end of the day we lost by 7 in our first true road game in a rivalry. The only thing pope hasn’t nailed is the recruiting, but that is likely changing with Stokes/Collins. It’s November 11th, RELAX!!!!

All of those things are true. As I said, when you take a chance and hire someone without a resume commensurate with the job, you'll either look like a genius or a jackass. Kelsey in Year 2 has a stud freshman (Pope can't seem to get one) and a better team. It's early, but it's now trending like UL's chance on Kelsey is paying off.

Fresh Fish said:

I don't really care. I want him to succeed, but acting like he'd done anything to deserve this job is nothing but nostalgia and homerism. 8th place in SEC last year. We've already looked bullied twice this year after it happened multiple times last year. And now UL has built a much better team in the same amount of time. It isn't looking good.

I'm with you. I want him to succeed,I want him to win number 9 and on... But you're right, he got the job being the only alumni coaching at a decent level (definitely not elite). Kentucky media was frustrated initially when he was hired, and within 24-36 hours, they had spun it as a homecoming of one of our former champions. I said initially, I'd give him 3 seasons before I get overly critical... But that was also before I knew he was going to get a 20-22 million dollar budget in his second season. Steven Peake brought up a good point, we're going on 11 seasons without a 1 seed... Which was unheard-of prior to this abysmal stretch. Pope needs to get a dude and he needs to lock in a 1 seed to have a credible shot at number 9. Losing to little brother doesn't feel like we're getting a 1 seed.

Fresh Fish said:

All of those things are true. As I said, when you take a chance and hire someone without a resume commensurate with the job, you'll either look like a genius or a jackass. Kelsey in Year 2 has a stud freshman (Pope can't seem to get one) and a better team. It's early, but it's now trending like UL's chance on Kelsey is paying off.

So just because of the game last night you don’t think our program is in a better direction than before pope took over? The man in year 1 did what Cal hadn’t done in 5 years which was make it to the sweet 16. There wasn’t a team in the country beating Louisville last night with how they played, and we lost by 7 playing about as bad as we could. As I said before, RELAX!!!!

This is the best roster Kelsey is going to have. The only reason he got Mikel is because Kansas already had Peterson. If Peterson never existed then Mikel would be at Kansas right now.

ConnorR said:

This is the best roster Kelsey is going to have. The only reason he got Mikel is because Kansas already had Peterson. If Peterson never existed then Mikel would be at Kansas right now.

Ifs and buts.

Fresh Fish said:

Ifs and buts.

And there’s another one

I too have had thoughts multiple times last season and most recently last night of “is this really going to work with Pope?” He usually comes out with a performance relatively quick to change my mind, he can do that against Michigan St. I will say what I’ve said 100 times in this board. He needs to get an elite HS recruit sooner rather than later to prove he can get dudes. I think we all love Pope as a person and his offensive coaching abilities but love and being an alumni doesn’t give you an automatic bid to the Final Four.

That was literally Kelsey’s first signature win in his entire career as a coach. Chill tf out.

Jmetry97 said:

I will grant you that last night Louisville was the better team, played harder, and deserved to win the game. But didn’t we beat Louisville last year? Didn’t we go to the sweet 16 while they lost a home game of a first round tournament game? Isn’t it fair to say that Louisville did the same thing with hiring Pat Kelsey? What’s his resume look like? If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t mark popes team last year hold the UK record for most wins against ranked opponents? The bottom line is Louisville had 1 guy in Mikel Brown who was simply the best player on the floor. We didn’t play great and they did. At the end of the day we lost by 7 in our first true road game in a rivalry. The only thing pope hasn’t nailed is the recruiting, but that is likely changing with Stokes/Collins. It’s November 11th, RELAX!!!!

I think any partial person would take Kelsey’s resume over Pope’s with the name removed. He won like 6 conference titles in 9 or 10 seasons and was the lead assistant of a second weekend team that won back to back conference titles before that. I don’t like Kelsey at all, but the resumes aren’t even comparable.

Bill8576 said:

I think any partial person would take Kelsey’s resume over Pope’s with the name removed. He won like 6 conference titles in 9 or 10 seasons and was the lead assistant of a second weekend team that won back to back conference titles before that. I don’t like Kelsey at all, but the resumes aren’t even comparable.

Are you high?

VaHi_Cat said:

Are you high?

I’m just talking resume. They aren’t close. I don’t want Kelsey as our coach. I never liked him when he was at Winthrop, but he has had a good deal more success in the coaching ranks. That’s not a shot at Pope or me saying Kelsey will have a better run at UofL.

Bill8576 said:

I think any partial person would take Kelsey’s resume over Pope’s with the name removed. He won like 6 conference titles in 9 or 10 seasons and was the lead assistant of a second weekend team that won back to back conference titles before that. I don’t like Kelsey at all, but the resumes aren’t even comparable.

He was at college of Charleston. Let’s not act like that conference isn’t a one bid league and you’re really going to pull the assistant coach card? Kenny Payne was the lead assistant on one of the greatest runs in college basketball history here and left to win 8 games in 2 years.

Bill8576 said:

I’m just talking resume. They aren’t close. I don’t want Kelsey as our coach. I never liked him when he was at Winthrop, but he has had a good deal more success in the coaching ranks. That’s not a shot at Pope or me saying Kelsey will have a better run at UofL.

He had nice little runs at Winthrop and Charleston, but that does guarantee a thing. Pope has shown more success than Kelsey at the P4 level. Pope’s sweet 16 run last year is better than anything Kelsey has accomplished thus far. Y’all really need to walk yourselves back from from the ledge.

VaHi_Cat said:

He had nice little runs at Winthrop and Charleston, but that does guarantee a thing. Pope has shown more success than Kelsey at the P4 level. Pope’s sweet 16 run last year is better than anything Kelsey has accomplished thus far. Y’all really need to walk yourselves back from from the ledge.

I’m nowhere close to a ledge. I still support Pope and don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that he succeeds here. I genuinely hope he does. I think it’s also fair to question some of his moves and credentials. There are plenty of things to pile on Kelsey about, but his success as a basketball coach isn’t one of them. I hope he loses every game he plays there, but his background tells us that’s probably not the case.

Jmetry97 said:

I will grant you that last night Louisville was the better team, played harder, and deserved to win the game. But didn’t we beat Louisville last year? Didn’t we go to the sweet 16 while they lost a home game of a first round tournament game? Isn’t it fair to say that Louisville did the same thing with hiring Pat Kelsey? What’s his resume look like? If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t mark popes team last year hold the UK record for most wins against ranked opponents? The bottom line is Louisville had 1 guy in Mikel Brown who was simply the best player on the floor. We didn’t play great and they did. At the end of the day we lost by 7 in our first true road game in a rivalry. The only thing pope hasn’t nailed is the recruiting, but that is likely changing with Stokes/Collins. It’s November 11th, RELAX!!!!

You have to stop sense on message board. This is the place for hot takes and factless claims.

I want Pope to succeed but he wont until his defense puts pressure on opponents the way UL , UConn, Bama etc defenses do and the teams start being tougher and more focused because his first two teams fold to physical play

VaHi_Cat said:

He had nice little runs at Winthrop and Charleston, but that does guarantee a thing. Pope has shown more success than Kelsey at the P4 level. Pope’s sweet 16 run last year is better than anything Kelsey has accomplished thus far. Y’all really need to walk yourselves back from from the ledge.

What are you talking about? Pope had a total of 2 NCAA Tournament bids at BYU when he got the UK job. Kelsey had 5 NCAA Tournament bids with 2 different schools. I understand this is a homer board, but facts are facts. There were 25+ coaches UK could've hired with objectively better resumes than Pope. If he had played anywhere else, he wouldn't have gotten a sniff.

ConnorR said:

This is the best roster Kelsey is going to have.

PK has gotten superior talent to wherever he has coached. He's able to pull talent - he's proven it. So to say this is the best roster he's ever going to have is a pretty wild statement, unless you can see the future.

Something I do not understand. We have so many people that defend and justify everything about the basketball program, which has been mediocre the past year+, but when it comes to the football program, those same people are intensely critical of the football program and a coach who has achieved things here that haven’t been seen since the 1950’s. The basketball program has every advantage possible and a payroll second to none. Why are there so many that defend this coach and team?

JRS_SC said:

You have to stop sense on message board. This is the place for hot takes and factless claims.

It’s just crazy to me how one game on November 11th has this fan base up in arms.

LadyCaytIL said:

I want Pope to succeed but he wont until his defense puts pressure on opponents the way UL , UConn, Bama etc defenses do and the teams start being tougher and more focused because his first two teams fold to physical play

We put up 88 points last night on UL defense, and I’m not sure bama has ever heard of the word defense.