Make Pope Work

3-1 in the NCAA Tournament and counting I believe it’s going work out pretty well, pope keeps winning in March people will forget about November and December

He's smart. He's a good coach from the standpoint of making adjustments and calling plays. We have won more NCAA Tournament games in two years than we won in the previous 4 (not counting the tourney that didn't happen in 2020). I'll reserve judgment on recruiting for now.

Jamesw1988 said:

3-1 in the NCAA Tournament and counting I believe it’s going work out pretty well, pope keeps winning in March people will forget about November and December

We expect to be set up to win a title. We aren’t right now. (And I hope we make the final four but I still think this is true)

Pitino as a GM 🤣

You know what’d be a great idea? Wait until the end of the tournament when we’ll have 7 months to talk about all this stuff for the 100th time

Anon1678914505 said:

We expect to be set up to win a title. We aren’t right now. (And I hope we make the final four but I still think this is true)

Progress for year 2 would be an elite 8 because they made it to sweet 16 last season. And elite 8 is still possible.

Jn12 said:

You know what’d be a great idea? Wait until the end of the tournament when we’ll have 7 months to talk about all this stuff for the 100th time

Shit gets fixed in the offseason, Jerry.

Anon1678914505 said:

Great win! But

Stopped reading here

I’d feel good if he’d go to the eye dr and get some glasses so he can stop squinting.

Anon1678914505 said:

**** gets fixed in the offseason, Jerry.

It’s not the offseason yet you loser

Anon1678914505 said:

Great win! But this is on my mind and I want to tap into the collective insight and wisdom of the KS Board. Here’s the question: what makes you feel good about Pope next year? I’ll go first and let me say, as much as I like Pope as a person, I don’t see it working long term right now. Just being honest. 1. If he can’t connect with high school recruits and parents, send the coaches who can and WIN a few battles. 2. Get Pitino (or someone like him) to be GM and muscle up to JMI. They are blockbuster in a Netflix world and it (seems like) a HUGE issue. 3. Run a real portal strategy and get the best players that will also BUY IN and PLAY TOGETHER. 4. Adjust the shtick based on the players on the roster and build trust. If Tony Robbins doesn’t work, can it. (Our O is just ok bc of issues here, IMHO) 5. Control your emotions after games or don’t do interviews. It looks weak. Pope gets us, can draw up plays, knows stats, makes adjustments but there are otherwise HUGE gaps. He has to close them and close them fast to win back the full faith of the BBN. I hope he does. But I’m not holding my breath.

I saw the picture from the game today regarding the staff Pitino put together. It was ridiculous. Pitino had: 1) Herb Sendek 2) Tubby Smith 3) Billy Donavon Like, wtf?? That is an insane line up of coaches. Pitino also had others to that had NBA coaching careers, etc. like Jim O'Brien, who I don't really know, but I think it said he coached the Celtics. I agree that, maybe, Pope needs to put others around him that can make up for his weaknesses/gaps. Pope might need to stop being so loyal to certain people in order to hire the right person to cover his gaps. Like you said: - It's pretty clear Pope cannot relate to high school kids. He needs someone who can. - It's pretty clear that Pope can't negotiate/close. He needs someone who can. - Pope may not be the best judge of talent versus money required. He needs a better scout. (I mean this makes sense because Pope is focusing on coaching his team all year. He doesn't have enough time to do everything. He needs someone who can devote all their time to watching obscure teams to find the diamond in the rough.) - Pope might not be the best at putting together a team of players that fit his preferred coaching style. He needs someone who knows what Pope wants to run, and can also find the right player for his system. - Pope might not be the best judge of character. He needs someone who can analyze personalities to ensure the locker room is not a mess. If Pope lost today, I said I would change my opinion to wanting him gone, but they won, despite all the injuries and fan backlash through the year. I'm fine with another year, maybe two, but he needs to truly evaluate his staff and find the right people to add. One problem is that it's already too late for next season. Lastly, look back to Cal and the staff he put around himself. Early Cal wasn't successful just by himself. He put great people around him. WWW has always been attributed to him finding and getting the best high school recruites. Orlando Antigua was also good. Cal also had the other person whose name escapes (not Chinn Coleman, I don't think he was well liked.)

Genediesel said:

I saw the picture from the game today regarding the staff Pitino put together. It was ridiculous. Pitino had: 1) Herb Sendek 2) Tubby Smith 3) Billy Donavon Like, wtf?? That is an insane line up of coaches. Pitino also had others to that had NBA coaching careers, etc. like Jim O'Brien, who I don't really know, but I think it said he coached the Celtics. I agree that, maybe, Pope needs to put others around him that can make up for his weaknesses/gaps. Pope might need to stop being so loyal to certain people in order to hire the right person to cover his gaps. Like you said: - It's pretty clear Pope cannot relate to high school kids. He needs someone who can. - It's pretty clear that Pope can't negotiate/close. He needs someone who can. - Pope may not be the best judge of talent versus money required. He needs a better scout. (I mean this makes sense because Pope is focusing on coaching his team all year. He doesn't have enough time to do everything. He needs someone who can devote all their time to watching obscure teams to find the diamond in the rough.) - Pope might not be the best at putting together a team of players that fit his preferred coaching style. He needs someone who knows what Pope wants to run, and can also find the right player for his system. - Pope might not be the best judge of character. He needs someone who can analyze personalities to ensure the locker room is not a mess. If Pope lost today, I said I would change my opinion to wanting him gone, but they won, despite all the injuries and fan backlash through the year. I'm fine with another year, maybe two, but he needs to truly evaluate his staff and find the right people to add. One problem is that it's already too late for next season. Lastly, look back to Cal and the staff he put around himself. Early Cal wasn't successful just by himself. He put great people around him. WWW has always been attributed to him finding and getting the best high school recruites. Orlando Antigua was also good. Cal also had the other person whose name escapes (not Chinn Coleman, I don't think he was well liked.)

The thing about Pitino, he made his assistants into good coaches, he didn’t need them to make him a better coach. Pope is the opposite, he needs his assistants to support him and make him better.

Jason Hart and Alvin Brooks were supposed to be the guys on staff that would be great recruiters. We will see if Hart can still get us Stokes. But at the end of the day Pope has to be the closer. The program is stuck in a rut. Good enough to make the tournament and win a game or two but not good enough to compete for the SEC regular season or an elite 8. To me the goal every year should be top 3 in the SEC and being in the hunt for an elite 8. This year we were tied for 7th (9th seed in the SECT) and last year we were tied for 6th. Injuries played a part but they are not the full story. UK has the resources for Pope to put together a team that is one of the top 3 in the SEC. If next year is more of the same then UK should cut it's losses. I'm in wait and see mode. Lets see the roster Pope builds in April and then keep everyone healthy and see what happens in year 3.

Pope overachieved last yr, underachieved this yr(so far). He obviously made a mistake in roster construction. He irritates me with his automatic subs and his over analyzing of the game. He gets a 3rd yr to correct/build on his mistakes. IDT Stokes is a must have recruit, bit he is close. Pope has to rwbuild this roster.

JHSmith232 said:

It’s not the offseason yet you loser

You kiss your mother with that mouth? 😃

KapitalCat said:

Jason Hart and Alvin Brooks were supposed to be the guys on staff that would be great recruiters. We will see if Hart can still get us Stokes. But at the end of the day Pope has to be the closer. The program is stuck in a rut. Good enough to make the tournament and win a game or two but not good enough to compete for the SEC regular season or an elite 8. To me the goal every year should be top 3 in the SEC and being in the hunt for an elite 8. This year we were tied for 7th (9th seed in the SECT) and last year we were tied for 6th. Injuries played a part but they are not the full story. UK has the resources for Pope to put together a team that is one of the top 3 in the SEC. If next year is more of the same then UK should cut it's losses. I'm in wait and see mode. Let’s see the roster Pope builds in April and then keep everyone healthy and see what happens in year 3.

This part. Hart and Brooks are getting Pope in the room. Pope has to seal the deal. Unless the assistant coach is a close friend or relative, no kid is choosing to play at a school because of the assistant coach(‘s).

All pope does is keep winning in March he isn’t going anywhere because no cares about the zags game in December if you win in march. The main thing going into next season is building a healthy roster.

Anon1701560123 said:

The thing about Pitino, he made his assistants into good coaches, he didn’t need them to make him a better coach. Pope is the opposite, he needs his assistants to support him and make him better.

So you're saying Tubby and Donovan wouldn't be good coaches without Pitino? Edit: Fixing mistake of saying "with Pitino" to "without Pitino".

Genediesel said:

So you're saying Tubby and Donovan wouldn't be good coaches with Pitino?

No. I’m saying they wouldn’t be good coaches if it wasn’t for Pitino, especially Donovan.

RACdad said:

Pope overachieved last yr, underachieved this yr(so far). He obviously made a mistake in roster construction. He irritates me with his automatic subs and his over analyzing of the game. He gets a 3rd yr to correct/build on his mistakes. IDT Stokes is a must have recruit, bit he is close. Pope has to rwbuild this roster.

Yes, the subs have really been bothering me the more I notice it. For example, against SCU BG started going off in the first half and then Pope subbed him out (I believe this was prior to foul trouble, but I could be wrong). He did the same with Jelly against USC and then didn't even play him the entire second half. He refuses to ride the hot hand (except maybe if it's Chandler because they are underwear buddies). I've noticed it throughout the year, especially recently.

Anon1701560123 said:

No. I’m saying they wouldn’t be good coaches if it wasn’t for Pitino, especially Donovan.

That's what I meant to say. My bad. I meant to say "without Pitino". I'll edit.

Jamesw1988 said:

3-1 in the NCAA Tournament and counting I believe it’s going work out pretty well, pope keeps winning in March people will forget about November and December

don't see winning 63% of your games working long term he had better pick it up big time

elkcreekcat said:

don't see winning 63% of your games working long term he had better pick it up big time

As long as we keep winning in March I could careless about December or November games