Mark Pope - Simple Poll

For me, I was disappointed, confused and unhappy with the hiring ... for one simple reason: I did not think he was qualified. It is that simple for me. Now, he is realizing how much pressure there is coaching here and he's trying hard to adapt, adjust and be successful. It is a baptism of fire that I do not imagine he ever anticipated or fully understood. Hopefully, this season can finish with some positivity to help him significantly improve the program next season, which will be a pivotal year for him. This recruiting season will make or break him, I think.

Can we answer both? My hope, of course was a Bruce Pearl, Billy Donavan, Jay Wright type hire. When Pope was announced, I was shocked and a bit upset. Then the annoucement at Rupp, his excitement from former teammates got me kind of hyped. That has slowly whittled away over some of last season and most of this season until the excitement is completely gone and now wondering how we get out of this mess intact.

I remember making a joke that I’d rather hire the actual Pope than Mark Pope. I was not happy with it and didn’t understand how we went from Scott Drew to Mark Pope so fast, and felt we didn’t even try to reach out to other qualified coaches. Zero NCAAT wins for an incoming UK coach was wild. with that said, I hopped on board because it was out of my hands and he was “one of us.” Regardless of your feelings on any of it, that presser was masterful and got many of us to buy in.

ChiefPaducah said:

Can we answer both? My hope, of course was a Bruce Pearl, Billy Donavan, Jay Wright type hire. When Pope was announced, I was shocked and a bit upset. Then the annoucement at Rupp, his excitement from former teammates got me kind of hyped. That has slowly whittled away over some of last season and most of this season until the excitement is completely gone and now wondering how we get out of this mess intact.

I get your sentiment ... but it appears your immediate reaction was "shocked and a bit upset." To my view, that is telling. I felt pretty much the same way.

Is there a way to make this public so we can see all the multiple accounts of the one person getting paid to keep supporting this nonsense?

Disappointed, but willing to give him a chance.

Seemed too quick of a hire to me, as if Barnhart had an extremely small list to check off. I understand taking risk with up an comers, esp.in football. But Kentucky basketball shouldn't be taking risk, esp with coaches who haven't shown much promise. (Alumni or not). Stage 1. Initially unhappy and very underwhelmed with hire. Stage 2. Pope is one of us and good person. So I decided to accept the hire and hope for the best. Stage 3. My initial gut reaction was the correct one. Just not going to work out.

JakeKx said:

Is there a way to make this public so we can see all the multiple accounts of the one person getting paid to keep supporting this nonsense?

I understand your sentiment. I will see if I can do that by edit. I'm not sure the answers are truly reflective of everyone's immediate opinions on hiring day. If so, the huge throng that was at Rupp Arena for the hiring rally is lightly represented on this board. Follow-up: I went back to EDIT the poll and making the voters public was not an option. Allowing only a single vote was selected ... fwiw.

rick64 said:

Disappointed, but willing to give him a chance.

Yeah I was disappointed, but hopeful with our resources and support.

You can’t be disappointed when you knew it was a shyt hire to begin with. Barnhart should honestly be receiving protests to leave now.

JakeKx said:

Is there a way to make this public so we can see all the multiple accounts of the one person getting paid to keep supporting this nonsense?

You already know who

BigBluefoot said:

Seemed too quick of a hire to me, as if Barnhart had an extremely small list to check off. I understand taking risk with up an comers, esp.in football. But Kentucky basketball shouldn't be taking risk, esp with coaches who haven't shown much promise. (Alumni or not). Stage 1. Initially unhappy and very underwhelmed with hire. Stage 2. Pope is one of us and good person. So I decided to accept the hire and hope for the best. Stage 3. My initial gut reaction was the correct one. Just not going to work out.

I 100% agree with all three of your stages. I think EVERYBODY knows Pope is a likable guy and wants to kill it here. It is just looking like not a good fit. I'm sure we can all agree how important this upcoming recruiting season is. He simply HAS to get better players to come in here and win big.

I was furious....and physically sick at the announcement. Felt like a nightmare and it was surreal. Most fans probably felt the same way. Along the way, most of us became Popers and then fell off over time. I'm still trying to hold out hope in Pope, but there's not many calories left to be had and I'm hungry.

I was immediately shocked and disappointed. Then beyond reasons still unknown, the next morning I woke up delusional enough to think we hired the next great thing in college basketball.

It blew my mind that we "had" to dip so far down to get a guy who'd never won a tournament game, never won a conference, never won a conference tournament, and objectively wouldn't have ever gotten a half a second's consideration for the job if he weren't an alum. I definitely wasn't excited and had a "well, I hope he can prove he belongs" attitude. The pretty good roster he assembled in a small amount of time and the pretty good results (especially considering all the injuries) in year one had me thinking he looked promising. Surely, seeing the green light guys like Jaxson and Brea had to put up shots and the brand prestige and money we had would bring in superior talent, which was all it looked like he needed to take year 1's model and turn it into a FF type team. But then he whiffed on top portal talent, can't bring in any high school guys, and the roster that sacrificed offensive firepower in the name of increased defense, toughness, and rebounding is still subpar at defense, rebounding, and toughness.

I was disappointed at first but I got over it quickly and got excited about Pope. Two years later it’s obvious he’s not the right guy so, let’s move on.

I was disappointed and not excited about it. The press conference along with ex players and Pitino getting behind him changed my tune until last year 2nd half of season. The portal/freshman class gave some sense of hope but immediately fell off after the first few weeks of the season. Hes going to have to get some home runs left in recruiting and grand slams in portal to get anyone excited. As of now with literally nobody on the board, there is no excitement.

A little of both for me. There is some truth to the fact that he is learning on the job at a big program. However, I want him to have a 3rd year, and think he will right the ship given the chance.

I didn't see the option for, not happy but don't want Pope fired because I don't want Mitch Barnhart to pick the next coach.

TheKentuckyKid said:

I didn't see the option for, not happy but don't want Pope fired because I don't want Mitch Barnhart to pick the next coach.

Mitch cannot pick the next head coach. Even had he stayed, he wouldn’t be doing it. This was his last hire, 100%. Mitch wouldn’t be allowed to pick the next head coach, the boosters would revolt. They nearly got their way again this time and he didn’t pick Calipari. Mitch has had this hire taken away already when he wasn’t retiring as AD. After the pope hire he has no chance at hiring another guy in basketball. He cost us Bruce Pearl the same he cost us Calipari on 2006. Problem is Bruce is not going to be available the way Calipari was. Barnhart is my least favorite sports figure in history. Worse than team players I hate. Far worse.

I don't mind admitting that I was somewhat happy with the hire. Going back in time, I was not happy with the Sutton hire but I was with the Pitino hire. I was somewhat happy with the Tubby hire but wasn't happy with the Coach G hire. As for Cal, I really think I was more in the middle. A LOT of posters didn't like that hire and one of the mods even left the board over it, as I recall.

None of the above. For me it was: Surprised, skeptical but let's wait & see, and conditionally accepting

LOL what a shamefully skewed poll towards "Pope sucks". Nice option "Happy and pleased". smh. OP may as well have given only one option. "Pope sucks!"