We have our Coach- get on board!

[UKGrad24]

Sorry... I wasn't referring to you in particular. I do realize that the chance of us beating Florida twice is slim, but this team has just proved that you can't count them out.

Possibly. But this team has also proven really good team can win by 30. In bracing for a blowout, but the one good thing here is Florida isn’t a great 3 point shooting team. So I do like that. But Florida under the panty sniffer isn’t a joke, he seems well above the abilities of Mark to this point, just being honest. He’s a take no prisoners type guy, I really wish Mark would get off the Ted Talk coaching because guys like this and Oats are the types you need some toughness and meanness. Just my opinion.

Hopefully we just cause some problems for them by a mismatch and don’t get down early. I’m ready to see Chandler go off this would be a great time for it.

 

[BigBluefoot]

1. X's & O's: A
2. Motivation and discipline. C
3. Recruiting: C

Unless he improves on getting the team ready and willing to play defense for 2 full halves and picks up Recruiting, his tenure and success here is going to be limited.

 

[KyKevin]

Kind of chilly this morning. Where you going?

Ice fishing here in Utah

 

[Chaisey]

I would much rather of seen Pope offer Caleb what he offered JQ.

He could havw taken what he paid Lowe ,JQ and MO and gave it to Wilson ,Ament or Yaxel! Just one of those players !!

 

[Phil_The_Music2]

1. X's & O's: A
2. Motivation and discipline. C
3. Recruiting: C

Unless he improves on getting the team ready and willing to play defense for 2 full halves and picks up Recruiting, his tenure and success here is going to be limited.

I'm sure Mitch is checking in with you daily to see what your thoughts are and if you think he should be cut loose or not.

 

[UKGrad24]

1. X's & O's: A
2. Motivation and discipline. C
3. Recruiting: C

Unless he improves on getting the team ready and willing to play defense for 2 full halves and picks up Recruiting, his tenure and success here is going to be limited.

Don’t think people realize this but if he doesn’t recruit better he’ll be gone in 2 years or less regardless.

 

[Cats4321]

I love that this team has pulled it together, and you have to give Pope credit for that.. I hope we continue this run and Pope has sustained success here.

BUT, it's still too early to tell. I don't think people should be wanting him fired any time soon, but can we please hold off giving him a lifetime contract until he proves to be a winner here(Mitch is probably getting that contract printed at this moment). Pope will definitely work his butt off for this program, but we'll have to wait and see if he is the man for the job long term.

 

[davtay]

I'm not sure which one was harder on my blood pressure. The winning certainly helps the BP in the end.

Also, coming from behind feels like you actually won/ accomplished something. Hanging on and eeking it out at the end, makes you feel like you escaped and didn't really win as much as the other team lost.

The way we beat Tenn also kinda demoralizes them more than if they fought back only to fall short. No moral victory.

 

[BigBluefoot]

I'm sure Mitch is checking in with you daily to see what your thoughts are and if you think he should be cut loose or not.

Considering Barnhart's track record, he'd do well to take advice from fans and anywhere else he can get it.
Now any other ad hom smart-*** comments you want to snipe?

 

[BigBluefoot]

Don’t think people realize this but if he doesn’t recruit better he’ll be gone in 2 years or less regardless.

I gave him a C considering he did a pretty decent job scrambling to put together a class on the fly last season. Not sure what's going on now, but it's not looking good. I don't think he needs a whole roster of 5 stars like our last coach, because he seems to be able to coach.

 

[UKGrad24]

I gave him a C considering he did a pretty decent job scrambling to put together a class on the fly last season. Not sure what's going on now, but it's not looking good. I don't think he needs a whole roster of 5 stars like our last coach, because he seems to be able to coach.

And he did pull MM and Jasper, so part of reciting the next class is keeping them put. I’d say if he loses Jasper, a legacy kid, and also doesn’t get any top kids in the next class, that would be a signal he’s not going to make it. You can’t just rely on the portal. He’s lost a ton of great portal targets too. You have to get a mix.

I don’t believe The 22 mil is accurate either. I believe It was put up, but didn’t all make it to the team. He has to stop allowing Barnhart to control what he does or he won’t make it. Mitch doesn’t want all of this money pouring into basketball he doesn’t like it and never has. Mark would be wise to get some distance there and demand booster money goes where it’s supposed to. I don’t like how close he is with Mitch. Calipari kept him out of basketball affairs for a reason and he didn’t do it for no reason. Mitch was totally shut out of basketball by the basketball side. To me there’s a reason he leaked it and it might not have all gone there.

 

[HipTer]

1. X's & O's: A
2. Motivation and discipline. C
3. Recruiting: C

Unless he improves on getting the team ready and willing to play defense for 2 full halves and picks up Recruiting, his tenure and success here is going to be limited.

I think all 3 of those things are important aspects of being a “good” coach – and a coach can probably be successful if he’s top flight in one area and only ok in the other two. For example, Bruce Pearl was certainly successful and I think he was a top notch motivator, probably a pretty good recruiter, but a very mediocre X & O guy. In regard to Pope, I agree with your thinking that he’s a good X & O coach, and I too still have questions about his motivational skills (he could be great at it, but I just don’t get that sense yet).

As far as recruiting goes, I think Pope had a really good portal recruiting class and freshman recruiting class his first year. However, I would have to temper the freshman class grade due to losing Lewis – although if I were Pope I would have taken Lowe as well regardless. Otherwise, Moreno, Johnson, Lewis, Hawthorne and Jelavic is a heck of a freshman recruiting class. Then, I think Pope missed on at least 3 (and likely more) of his 1st choices out of this last portal class. But Pope was right there up to the last minute on those guys and also with the reported high school guys this year. So, he has to be doing something right with recruiting, although I know he still has to finish with some actual commitments.

But there’s another aspect of recruiting that I think is more important than landing freshmen OAD guys, and that’s having a great eye for projecting high school players – both in regard to what they can develop into and whether you can keep them until that development ripens into an efficient, productive, winning player.

 

[Phil_The_Music2]

Considering Barnhart's track record, he'd do well to take advice from fans and anywhere else he can get it.
Now any other ad hom smart-*** comments you want to snipe?

Nope. Feel free to carry on making yourself look like an idiot.

 

[Eagles_Ball_69]

Also, coming from behind feels like you actually won/ accomplished something. Hanging on and eeking it out at the end, makes you feel like you escaped and didn't really win as much as the other team lost.

The way we beat Tenn also kinda demoralizes them more than if they fought back only to fall short. No moral victory.

I don't disagree with any of that. There's also a few of those come from behind that I kind of think we eked one at as well. One thing is for certain, the bourbon sure tastes better after those big come from behind games.

 

[Eagles_Ball_69]

He could havw taken what he paid Lowe ,JQ and MO and gave it to Wilson ,Ament or Yaxel! Just one of those players !!

Underrated take, IMHO. I think this is my biggest issue with this current roster. Too many pieces. 14 guys that are getting paid is way, way too many. He was legit going to try to get minutes for 12 guys. Again, just way too many. Oddly enough, it could be that depth that's keeping this season afloat, but I don't think it's a realistic strategy. I honestly think JQ was a huge mistake. I remember the talk about him coming back quicker than ever, blah blah blah. There was a large faction on here that I got sideways with over the recovery time. The absolute best case scenario was for him to return at roughly Xmas time and be fine the rest of the season. Worst case, he never plays a second. We are about 10 seconds away from the worst case, figuratively speaking. Signing Lowe at the expense of Lewis was silly too. Should've just signed a capable backup that may or may not have pushed for minutes. Even if Lowe were healthy, Lewis has turned out to be the better player. The MO signing was silly too. He just doesn't fit Pope and his style of play. Just so many head scratching decisions on roster construction.

 

[UKCowboys]

He could havw taken what he paid Lowe ,JQ and MO and gave it to Wilson ,Ament or Yaxel! Just one of those players !!

They all said NO! Pope doesn't have naked pictures of their parents dude

 

[wildcat111]

Swept a ranked Tennessee.Beat Saint Pitino and ranked St. Johns. Beat His Majesty Calipari and ranked Arkansas at their place as well.


Pope accomplished all of this with 3 missing starters!!! Who does that?! Who pulls that off- name the names.

Whats dukes record with 3 missing starters, or any other team for that matter? What say you?

He's a good coach for sure. He has his faults but I think he will work to improve those. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have who would be a sure bet to come here. He has my support!

Optimism is one thing. Delusion is something else. What is there to celebrate with another 12 loss season?

 

[BigBluefoot]

Nope. Feel free to carry on making yourself look like an idiot.

Funny, an idiot can fairly easily be dealt with by rational counterpoints. So just more ad hominum replies.... got it.
Screams Mensa.

 

[Haggin_Hall_1983]

Optimism is one thing. Delusion is something else. What is there to celebrate with another 12 loss season?

It is delusional to think that we would not have a better record with 3 of our preseason starters playing.

And you still avoid the point about any other team in NCAAM - what would their record be minus 3 starters?

 

[DelkBowl]

The slow degradation of the UK brand on full display.

 

[ZaytovenCat]

Every coach that has ever coached at UK except for Pitino has had multiple double digit loss seasons and Pitino had 1. Every coach has had years where they didn't make it past the sweet 16. By YOUR ridiculous and impossible standards, not only would no coach in our history make the cut for you, there's not an active coach for any other team that would either. You are delusional.

A double digit loss season every now and then after you’ve already won a title or atleast proven you can be a legit title contender is okay. Pope has only ever had 2 years in which he didn’t lose double digit games. First year was the one where Covid cancelled the end of the year and the other was the following year where a lot of teams didn’t play a full schedule or had to cancel games.

You can say whatever you want to make yourself feel better but 10+ losses and Sweet 16 seasons aren’t successful seasons here, period. Under the circumstances you could say he did good last year given what he was left with but you could also make the case that he lost atleast 4+ games that UK had absolutely no business losing.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Not hanging onto Lewis, losing Wilson to UNC and Wilkerson to IU when we basically had both were huge hits. Totally changed the potential of this team.

This.

Pope can't afford another strikeout in the portal. He won't be here for a fourth year if he does.

 

[BigRafi]

Amen brother! I admit that I was not a pope fan at the beginning but I think he did a good job last year and I think he is coming on strong these last three weeks. Good job Mr. Pope.

 

[NociHTTP]

Optimism is one thing. Delusion is something else. What is there to celebrate with another 12 loss season?

The record is 17-7. Get with it.

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

He just needs to recruit a little better / not overpay role players. And for God’s sake have 2 capable PG’s on the roster.

If he can do that and we can catch a break with injuries, he’s capable of taking us to an FF. Title? I don’t know. But the man can coach.

He had Lowe, Lewis, and Aberdeen to play PG. Lewis bailed like a crybaby coward, Lowe got injured, Aberdeen is doing a very good job running the point for us.

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

his in game coaching is very impressive. If we can get recruiting to where it should be, we are in good hands.

The recruiting in the first two seasons has been plenty good considering. If we could just dodge some of the worst injury luck in history we would be flying.

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

People say 3 starters buuuut how many games did Kam start? He was coming along nicely and this team will definitely miss him but people act like “if only had Kam not gotten hurt”. I was big on him before the year but the first half of the year he wasn’t impressive. No need to rewrite history here to drive home a point

Why do so many of you ignore the fact that Oweh was injured coming into the season and was clearly not quite himself early in the season. We've seen what a difference he has made once he got back to 100%.

 

[Skyguyb27]

Why do so many of you ignore the fact that Oweh was injured coming into the season and was clearly not quite himself early in the season. We've seen what a difference he has made once he got back to 100%.

What on earth are you even talking about? Hitting the crack pipe early?

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

What on earth are you even talking about? Hitting the crack pipe early?

It is pretty obvious. You are either really dim or just determined to level an insult. There is group of you guys that constantly try to underplay the impact of injuries this season in your zeal to criticize Mark Pope.

 

[BigBluefoot]

It is pretty obvious. You are either really dim or just determined to level an insult. There is group of you guys that constantly try to underplay the impact of injuries this season in your zeal to criticize Mark Pope.

Are some here far to critical?......sure.
Buy you are such an apologist.
Anyone trying to hire Stoops yet?
Why do you think that is?

 

[CRZ4UK]

Swept a ranked Tennessee.Beat Saint Pitino and ranked St. Johns. Beat His Majesty Calipari and ranked Arkansas at their place as well.


Pope accomplished all of this with 3 missing starters!!! Who does that?! Who pulls that off- name the names.

Whats dukes record with 3 missing starters, or any other team for that matter? What say you?

Gonzaga has completely fallen apart with 2 out

 

[Skyguyb27]

It is pretty obvious. You are either really dim or just determined to level an insult. There is group of you guys that constantly try to underplay the impact of injuries this season in your zeal to criticize Mark Pope.

By all means Einstein show me where I mentioned OO. Nothing is obvious to any one but you and your idiotic assumptions.

 

[NociHTTP]

By all means Einstein show me where I mentioned OO. Nothing is obvious to any one but you and your idiotic assumptions.

Why are you focused on diminishing players who were injured, instead of recognzing what we lost by them being so?

 

[Skyguyb27]

Why are you focused on diminishing players who were injured, instead of recognzing what we lost by them being so?

That dudes a moron I wouldn’t jump on board with him. Or maybe you are him or he is you. I never once mentioned OO. Please show me where I did what you accuse me of since you feel so strongly about it, I’ll wait.

 

[NociHTTP]

That dudes a moron I wouldn’t jump on board with him. Or maybe you are him or he is you. I never once mentioned OO. Please show me where I did what you accuse me of since you feel so strongly about it, I’ll wait.

A few things:

I didn't accuse you of anything related to OO, and I don't think you mentioned it, either.
I am not that other person, and I do not agree with your labelling that person a "moron". It's not constructive at all.
Pope, as you know, is a very respectful person and as much as we may or may not like it, he's not going to be concrete about any of the stuff he has to deal with this season, and it's A LOT of stuff. He's also going through a massive learning curve from leading a program where talent was funnelled to him (religion) to trying to recruit when he's got the "he hasn't won anything in March" hanging over his head by opposing coaches and fans here alike. Try and cut some people some slack, appreciate what we have now and what we no longer have to deal with.

 

[Skyguyb27]

A few things:

I didn't accuse you of anything related to OO, and I don't think you mentioned it, either.
I am not that other person, and I do not agree with your labelling that person a "moron". It's not constructive at all.
Pope, as you know, is a very respectful person and as much as we may or may not like it, he's not going to be concrete about any of the stuff he has to deal with this season, and it's A LOT of stuff. He's also going through a massive learning curve from leading a program where talent was funnelled to him (religion) to trying to recruit when he's got the "he hasn't won anything in March" hanging over his head by opposing coaches and fans here alike. Try and cut some people some slack, appreciate what we have now and what we no longer have to deal with.

All what you mentioned is good and all, but you stated “Why are you focused on diminishing players who were injured, instead of recognzing what we lost by them being so?” But failed to show me where I diminished anyone. All
I said was that people keep saying 3 starters but Kam, while sorely missed, didn’t start all year. If you got something to back up me diminishing players in this thread by all means prove it.

 

[NociHTTP]

All what you mentioned is good and all, but you stated “Why are you focused on diminishing players who were injured, instead of recognzing what we lost by them being so?” But failed to show me where I diminished anyone. All
I said was that people keep saying 3 starters but Kam, while sorely missed, didn’t start all year. If you got something to back up me diminishing players in this thread by all means prove it.

Let me rephrase that. It doesn't matter that Kam didn't start all year. He played. You are, as the other person stated, trying to undermine the loss of injured players in your pursuit of critizing Pope. I worded my original post to you. Your turn. Why are being so obtuse?

 

[Skyguyb27]

Let me rephrase that. It doesn't matter that Kam didn't start all year. He played. You are, as the other person stated, trying to undermine the loss of injured players in your pursuit of critizing Pope. I worded my original post to you. Your turn. Why are being so obtuse?

Ok so you’re moving the goal post now that you can’t back up your first accusation. People are crying we lost 3 starters and that’s why this year sucks until recently . I merely pointed out factual data, which can be proven easily, that Kam will be sorely missed (which is Infact a compliment not a diminishing value as you originally accused) but he hadn’t started all year. He had only recently started because Pope had failed all year to decide on a starting line up that worked. If you can dispute the facts that Kam hadn’t started until close to his injury prove it. You and your boy are just trying to lash out at anyone who calls you out on your 3 starters BS. Wouldn’t it be easier for you to simply say you misspoke or was wrong that I indeed wasn’t focusing on players hurt and diminishing them like Paul Mcmoron did as well?

 

[RunninRichie]

It is pretty obvious. You are either really dim or just determined to level an insult. There is group of you guys that constantly try to underplay the impact of injuries this season in your zeal to criticize Mark Pope.

Mark Stoops has been offered the head coaching position at the university of LSU!

 

[CAWOOD FAN]

You mean Mark Pope hasn't won a championship yet? What's taking him so long???