Say That Pope is Out...

Even if this season is a disaster, Pope isn’t going anywhere until after next season. Very high chance that Barnhart has moved on by then.

Out? You mean fired? Come on. Not happening until year 3 maybe 4 if at all. The only thing I could see Pope doing is his wife and family and numero uno with him. If for some reason coaching here and not having success is to difficult for them I can see him taking them back to Utah. Otherwise, we need to hope he can figure out whats going on. I'm not happy but I am not giving up on him.

Its a shame what basketball has become. Im not a fan of Pope as coach.

Pope is actually the kind of guy that would resign if he felt he wasn’t getting it done, imo. As much as he’s hated now, he lacks the giant ego that permeates others. He will be here next year regardless. But all bets are off after that. He would know after this disaster team that he can’t have another

The best thing for this program is for Pope to succeed and do so at a high level.

KapitalCat said:

Out? You mean fired? Come on. Not happening until year 3 maybe 4 if at all. The only thing I could see Pope doing is his wife and family and numero uno with him. If for some reason coaching here and not having success is to difficult for them I can see him taking them back to Utah. Otherwise, we need to hope he can figure out whats going on. I'm not happy but I am not giving up on him.

Fired or stepping down, it is a hypothetical

bassworship said:

The best thing for this program is for Pope to succeed and do so at a high level.

I agree. Unless you pull from the NBA there are not a lot of great options out there, unless you can convince Oats to leave Bama

JCBU_246 said:

Fired or stepping down, it is a hypothetical

Stepping down if his family is miserable, yes I could see that. Stepping down if he decides he is not the man for the job, possible. I think he cares too much about UK to allow toxic stuff to fester too long. But I also can see him pulling up his big boy britches and giving everything he has to fix what's obviously broken. It could go either way.

Saying a coach should get 4 years in the transfer portal age of Year 1 turnarounds (even in football) is wild work.

Tannerdad said:

Pope is actually the kind of guy that would resign if he felt he wasn’t getting it done, imo. As much as he’s hated now, he lacks the giant ego that permeates others. He will be here next year regardless. But all bets are off after that. He would know after this disaster team that he can’t have another

I don’t think he’s hated. I’m almost certain the fans feel bad for him or just think he’s in over his head. If anyone is hated, it’s Mitch for putting Pope in this situation. Mitch sacrificed Pope

Barnhart tried to hire Oats and there was a 18M buyout on Oats end. It goes down to 10M after this season and 5 the next.

Fast3ddy88 said:

I don’t think he’s hated. I’m almost certain the fans feel bad for him or just think he’s in over his head. If anyone is hated, it’s Mitch for putting Pope in this situation. Mitch sacrificed Pope

Definitely not hate, it is more like disappointment from a lot

Pope should just recruit shooters and playmakers after this season, and adjust his lineup times It will not help defense, but I do not think he has the chops for that

Looking back, we hired a pretty inexperienced head coach in a lot of ways. Probably should have foreseen that there would be growing pains and some “learning on the job”. Just have to hope he takes lessons from his errors and develops.

If Pope doesn’t salvage this season and we don’t have a legit contender by March, I think he’ll take a completely different approach to the transfer portal. Go and get two really good shooters and two really good ball handlers. Moreno and Jelly could be really good in year two.

DWMcatforlife said:

If Pope doesn’t salvage this season and we don’t have a legit contender by March, I think he’ll take a completely different approach to the transfer portal. Go and get two really good shooters and two really good ball handlers. Moreno and Jelly could be really good in year two.

I would argue he should get 3 ball handlers

JCBU_246 said:

I would argue he should get 3 ball handlers

Even better. Can never have enough

DWMcatforlife said:

Even better. Can never have enough

Especially with our injury history, fucking hell

CatsAllDay said:

Looking back, we hired a pretty inexperienced head coach in a lot of ways. Probably should have foreseen that there would be growing pains. Just have to hope he learns from them and develops.

I really like Pope, and he loves UK. So I hope he can succeed here. So personally, I feel he needs at least 5 years. Unless we start losing 15 games a year and misssing the tournament.

Wildcatfan66 said:

I really like Pope, and he loves UK. So I hope he can succeed here. So personally, I feel he needs at least 5 years. Unless we start losing 15 games a year and misssing the tournament.

5 years as a minimum timeline is absurd, especially for a basketball coach only responsible for building teams of 12 players. We’re going to know well before that if he’s the right guy for the job or not. I do agree with those saying he has until the end of year 3. That’s it. Shine is already rubbed off but maybe he pulls a rabbit out of his a** with this group.

I'm still not sure the root problem is Pope's fault. To be clear, his reaction to the situation is on him. But I really think he has been taken aback by some of the personnel issues if some of the stories we are hearing are true. Can he rise above it and figure this out?

Kyspringcat said:

I'm still not sure the root problem is Pope's fault. To be clear, his reaction to the situation is on him. But I really think he has been taken aback by some of the personnel issues if some of the stories we are hearing are true. Can he rise above it and figure this out?

Two things that are undeniably Pope’s fault: 1) building a roster that is not suited to play his offense; he’s a run n’gun style coach who wants to spread the floor and yet he built a team where he’d be playing 2 non-shooting bigs consistently while also having a lead guard who isn’t a good shooter (Oweh); 2) he clearly has issues coaching defensive principles, he had ONE defense at BYU that was within the top 50 kenpom rankings, and the team defensive fundamentals on this squad are TERRIBLE despite bringing in good individual defenders; and that doesn’t even take into account how awful the defensive gameplan was against Louisville for example.

Need 4 point guards to start each season from here on out. Lol

If Pope don’t last, and I hope he turns it around and does, then ya go get Nate Oats and pay him so he can’t say no.