Pope: I refuse to give control outside of our program "Fans included"

KYFOSSIL

Heisman
Jan 13, 2005
7,879
10,591
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Here's the thing I think we'll win two of the next four games and I'll think we'll at least win one in the SEC tourney and will be in the tourney . Right now I don't think we'll get out of the first weekend. I get not having three players available and that can be debated forever but the problem is this team won 6 in a row beat Arkansas and Tennessee twice so as far as I'm concerned, there's no excuses for the losses. I don't know about $22 million. Or any player issues or whatever I just know they had the talent that seemed to have gelled but other than oh way I often don't see the heart and the coach is a big part of that. None of this is easy for me to say cause all my glass half full kind of guy, but it is what it is. Honestly Ill watch the rest of the game because one I cant help myself and two to support Oweh. I know he makes mistakes that he's been a warrior since SEC play.
 
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Farsight Clone

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Aug 30, 2025
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Here's the thing I think we'll win two of the next four games and I'll think we'll at least win one in the SEC tourney and will be in the tourney . Right now I don't think we'll get out of the first weekend. I get not having three players available and that can be debated forever but the problem is this team won 6 in a row beat Arkansas and Tennessee twice so as far as I'm concerned, there's no excuses for the losses. I don't know about $22 million. Or any player issues or whatever I just know they had the talent that seemed to have gelled but other than oh way I often don't see the heart and the coach is a big part of that. None of this is easy for me to say cause all my glass half full kind of guy, but it is what it is. Honestly Ill watch the rest of the game because one I cant help myself and two to support Oweh. I know he makes mistakes that he's been a warrior since SEC play.
2-2, 1 SEC tourney win and 1 NCAA tourney win is a good middle ground and realistic. If that happens, probably South Carolina and Vandy are wins. The way we are trending is 0-4 in and NIT bound.
 

tjhunter

Sophomore
Feb 22, 2026
53
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The personal stuff about players and coaches should be off limits. To my knowledge none of these guys has done anything to deserve it. His coaching ability and the players effort level are fair game. And they deserve all the criticism they are getting. He’s on the way out. He’s not the one. I’m personally sad about that. It would have been so great for the program for him to kill it here.
He was never going to be allowed to kill it here!
I wasn't a pope fan when he was hired. Very sceptical about the hire! But was going to give him a fair shake.
Cal said it was time for a new voice,and I agreed with him. But the next guy had to win immediately or those fans who loved cal would raise a big ruckus. And they are! Having said that, if Butler/Robinson/carr remain healthy I honestly believe elite 8 was the floor, with a good chance of final 4 last year! This year he completely 100% missed on his roster management. Should he be given a chance to correct that is the question?

These cal fans will turn this program into something worse then IU if you let them. Has pope shown me he is elite enough to challenge for a championship? No. Not yet! Can he grow to that? IDK.

So the question you have to answer is,will a championship level coach come here in this new age of winning anywhere?
IU won a football championship. Everything has changed in sports! Will IU allow AL to come in and hire there coach away? Why would he jump? He can win at IU with a lot less pressure!

So if you move on from pope who do you have to replace him! Long story short we might have to find a young coach and give him the opportunity to grow.
That includes making mistakes and giving him time to fix the mistakes. I'm not sold on oats! His resume shows he started slower then pope! Was last year his ceiling? Todd Golden? Would he jump?

If you would hire Lucas ect,you would need to give him 3 years minimum! And I guarantee you the contract would tie you to any coach for 5 years or he wouldn't come!
 

theKybluedude

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2025
661
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Pope should’ve kept his mouth shut in that press conference for obvious reasons. It’s not a good idea to say things like that in front of the media. I know it’s tough when someone’s mad but theirs a time and a place for everything and that wasn’t it.
I’m glad he said it. Finally realized it’s UK vs the world. Screw being everybody’s buddy.

Get that chip on your shoulder. All our great coaches had it. They understood.

Like Cal said we gonna burn your village down. Get your matches Mark. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you or UK. Fight ‘em.
 

BigBluefoot

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Jul 4, 2025
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I’m glad he said it. Finally realized it’s UK vs the world. Screw being everybody’s buddy.

Get that chip on your shoulder. All our great coaches had it. They understood.

Like Cal said we gonna burn your village down. Get your matches Mark. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you or UK. Fight ‘em.
Unfortunately, I think that's something you have or you don't. I just don't think it's in Pope's make up to go full alpha dog. He's just too nice. It's who he is.
 

KYWC36

All-Conference
Jul 11, 2013
1,343
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This is NOT how you win over BBN Pope. What happened to you telling the fans to HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE??????

I was there at Rupp during you're rally when you said this.


I say good for him, nothing wrong with being held accountable by the Board and AD and even fans to a certain point, he should be, he's definitely not been good enough this season, zero doubt, but fans are rude, crude, disrespectful, entitled and ridiculous, The majority, this board included. think they can say and do anything they want in the name of fanhood. If you want to rebel, then don't watch, don't go and don't spend any more on it, that is certainly your right and I recommend it. But some of the things I have seen on here and out in real life is just poor human beings at best and mental illness that needs a place to vent at worst....having a little more class about a college kid sport that in zero ways has actual impact in our life other than entertainment, is not to much to ask and he is 100% correct in calling out fans as distracting noise. And if you are mad about this post, yea, you are the person I am talking about and your response will be ignored lol- because you don't matter as much as you think you do lol
 

OleTiredBum

Senior
Sep 28, 2025
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This is NOT how you win over BBN Pope. What happened to you telling the fans to HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE??????

I was there at Rupp during you're rally when you said this.


this is a lost soul of a Mormon that can't handle anyone burning his house down. what a piece of filthy ****
 
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I say good for him, nothing wrong with being held accountable by the Board and AD and even fans to a certain point, he should be, he's definitely not been good enough this season, zero doubt, but fans are rude, crude, disrespectful, entitled and ridiculous, The majority, this board included. think they can say and do anything they want in the name of fanhood. If you want to rebel, then don't watch, don't go and don't spend any more on it, that is certainly your right and I recommend it. But some of the things I have seen on here and out in real life is just poor human beings at best and mental illness that needs a place to vent at worst....having a little more class about a college kid sport that in zero ways has actual impact in our life other than entertainment, is not to much to ask and he is 100% correct in calling out fans as distracting noise. And if you are mad about this post, yea, you are the person I am talking about and your response will be ignored lol- because you don't matter as much as you think you do lol
I actually predicted that Pope would eventually go off on the fans and I predicted it last year. Anyone can go rewatch some of Jaxson Robinson’s pressers late in the year last year before he had his season-ending injury and it will become clear he was becoming frustrated with the fanbase and comments from Collin Chandler throughout this year point to the fact he may be as well. When Cal tried to tell the fans to police themselves a little, he became enemy #1. We brought in one of our own and over time, he began to see the same things. One of the biggest roadblocks we have is the outspoken Twitter troll fanbase that is probably used to recruit against us 24/7. This will probably be referred to as cope because people don’t want to hear it, but I recall John Calipari very plainly warning the fanbase that they were becoming a reason that some players didn’t want to come here. I’ll see if I can find that presser. I don’t think casual recruits are finding Rupp Rafters posts (hopefully) but I absolutely think the Twitter toxic fans run off recruits. And also make our players miserable.
 

preacherfan

All-Conference
Oct 11, 2003
29,066
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This is NOT how you win over BBN Pope. What happened to you telling the fans to HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE??????

I was there at Rupp during you're rally when you said this.


What I seriously want to know is WHY is this edited video posted without any context? I had to go down a number of posts to find the question that was asked that provoked this response. I think Matt Jones needs to be the one apologizing for leaving out the context, which is journalism 101! I wonder if he at the very least followed up and asked Pope for clarification.
 

FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,404
4,064
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Rather than being passive aggressive, Pope should take a stand and just be blunt. Take the fines and whatever discipline the SEC wants to dish out. If your players are being cheated, and if you think officials are corrupt, take a stand. It's not like the refs are going to take it any easier on us by giving them a pass. Whether it is gambling or some other reason, something is really wrong with the sport right now as a whole.

The moment is too much for Pope, and he's just not cut out to helm the ship. This is a period of transition in the sport, and recruiting and developing players is the only way that we survive as a program. Pope is failing miserably on that end, so the writing is on the wall. I'm prepared for next season being an unmitigated disaster. Far worse than this season has been.
 
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Lum Eddards

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Jul 5, 2025
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Watch this. You think he is blaming UK fans. He is livid. Said Oweh was playing 1 against 8.

Yea, that's a man who's very frustrated at the officials. Pope is a nerdy, wordy intellectual who has a bad habit of rambling. Honestly, I don't think he is a very good communicator in spite of his intelligence. He never really says anything precise and to the point. Has to use a lot of extra words that can confuse us normal folks. But watching that, I'm not even sure how anyone understood it to be negative about the fans, Thanks for the context.
 
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What I seriously want to know is WHY is this edited video posted without any context? I had to go down a number of posts to find the question that was asked that provoked this response. I think Matt Jones needs to be the one apologizing for leaving out the context, which is journalism 101! I wonder if he at the very least followed up and asked Pope for clarification.
Matt has big reason to want Pope out IMO.

1.) Pope hasn’t given Matt the access he wants
2.) Pope’s philosophy in roster construction won’t allow him to go heavy into high school recruiting. Recruiting buzz isn’t the same for the portal and it really hurts KSR+ and insiders.

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. Matt is no dummy. He knows how all these championship teams have been built, but that’s not what matters most. He’s running a business and business is business. He’s not going to give Pope nearly the leash that he gave Cal because Cal drew interest for his radio show almost all year long and Cal was his friend.
 
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preacherfan

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Matt has big reason to want Pope out IMO.

1.) Pope hasn’t given Matt the access he wants
2.) Pope’s philosophy in roster construction won’t allow him to go heavy into high school recruiting. Recruiting buzz isn’t the same for the portal and it really hurts KSR+ and insiders.

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. Matt is no dummy. He knows how all these championship teams have been built, but that’s not what matters most. He’s running a business and business is business. He’s not going to give Pope nearly the leash that he gave Cal because Cal drew interest for his radio show almost all year long and Cal was his friend.
Quoting someone out of context is despicable. I don't normally get worked up on this board but this has me fuming. There is no excuse for doing this...none whatsoever.
 

peterpiper09

All-Conference
Mar 19, 2006
1,276
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Anybody that thinks Pope was going off on our fans isn’t very smart and are just trying to play into their own narrative which is wanting to search for a new coach. He’s talking about the officials and the Auburn fans. He’s had to sit there a few times this year, and last also, and play the straight faced nice guy. Everybody has their threshold of getting screwed, and his was crossed last night. I honestly don’t know how he held off this long. Will it do any good, probably not, but it might possibly light a fire under our teams hinny.

Last night’s game was gonna be given to a desperate Stephen Pearl from the tip. It was pretty obvious. Even kept showing daddy Pearl for some reason. Oh wait, that was part of it.
 
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mash_24

Heisman
Sep 26, 2011
9,342
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Quoting someone out of context is despicable. I don't normally get worked up on this board but this has me fuming. There is no excuse for doing this...none whatsoever.
Matt Jones is a big fan of Matt Jones. His type of influence isn’t good for the program and he does have influence for some reason. Hes basically a tabloid journalist. He’s a more polished, more intelligent Mark Maggard. This post will be deleted by a mod.
 

Lum Eddards

Freshman
Jul 5, 2025
52
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Quoting someone out of context is despicable. I don't normally get worked up on this board but this has me fuming. There is no excuse for doing this...none whatsoever.
Strongly agree! If he was confused about what Pope was saying, he could have the basic decency to at least ask him what he meant before jumping to such wild conclusions on X.
 
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UKortho

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Oct 13, 2015
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Throwing fans in there has meaning. He was in (yet again) full meltdown mode and can’t talk coherently. Didn’t he use the word “super”? Like we are super angry? That doesn’t even matter though- he is a dead man walking. Can’t recruit, can’t motivate, can’t handle his emotions- not the guy.

Get behind our coach! And push him and Mitch out of Lex.
 

Farsight Clone

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Aug 30, 2025
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What I seriously want to know is WHY is this edited video posted without any context? I had to go down a number of posts to find the question that was asked that provoked this response. I think Matt Jones needs to be the one apologizing for leaving out the context, which is journalism 101! I wonder if he at the very least followed up and asked Pope for clarification.
What was the question asked?
 
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Throwing fans in there has meaning. He was in (yet again) full meltdown mode and can’t talk coherently. Didn’t he use the word “super”? Like we are super angry? That doesn’t even matter though- he is a dead man walking. Can’t recruit, can’t motivate, can’t handle his emotions- not the guy.

Get behind our coach! And push him and Mitch out of Lex.
What if the next coach comes to the same conclusion as our last two coaches and many of the players along the way?
 
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It’s time we show pope and Mitch that we are the reason for Kentucky Basketball 🏀
Who the **** does pope think he is ?
Sometimes two things can be true:

Late era Cal - not good enough
Pope year two - not good enough
Fan behavior - not good enough

Notice in the quote Pope referred to fans who are doing everything they can to keep (success) from happening. Well, those aren’t really fans — but it gets hard to tell the fans from the trolls when we don’t police our own to at least a reasonable degree. Everytime we lose, something about Pope being a Mormon. Everytime we lose, something about Chandler only playing because he’s white. Good healthy policing the extremes out makes the fanbase a little more attractive. I don’t think Pope lasts that long — he’s already sick of us and that has both to do with his own doing and ours. I don’t want it to happen with the next coach. I don’t use Twitter but I’m thinking about making one just to be one more voice in the policing category coz our players and coaches don’t know who the fans are and who the haters are.
 
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He said 'outside of our program'. You don't seriously think he is trying to isolate the team from the fans? He is stating that he won't blame the refs or fans or anything else inside the game for a loss.

Pick on Pope all you want but he wouldn't insinuate that he can separate the UK fans from the team.
Really ? Ok then, Go call the University and tell them you’d like to meet with them to discuss what’s going on.

let us all know what they say

haha I’ve already done this not too long ago and thier Response wasn’t very good

so again, you can’t go the university and say anything l, you can’t call the Athletic Department and speak to anyone or the board of regents or the boosters or the Alumni who work there..

so how exactly is this our Team ?????

the university insulates the team and themselves from the public Fan base
 
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Jan 3, 2026
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Sometimes two things can be true:

Late era Cal - not good enough
Pope year two - not good enough
Fan behavior - not good enough

Notice in the quote Pope referred to fans who are doing everything they can to keep (success) from happening. Well, those aren’t really fans — but it gets hard to tell the fans from the trolls when we don’t police our own to at least a reasonable degree. Everytime we lose, something about Pope being a Mormon. Everytime we lose, something about Chandler only playing because he’s white. Good healthy policing the extremes out makes the fanbase a little more attractive. I don’t think Pope lasts that long — he’s already sick of us and that has both to do with his own doing and ours. I don’t want it to happen with the next coach. I don’t use Twitter but I’m thinking about making one just to be one more voice in the policing category coz our players and coaches don’t know who the fans are and who the haters are.

I’ll put this up for CLARIFICATION ON WHAT POPE ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT THE FAN BASE
I take his comment as extremely Wierd af
Anyway you spin it and the cracks are showing more and more every Game.

now how the hell do fans try to stop him from coaching ?
Thats a Bull💩 Excuse and Everyone knows it.

“thier power”. Wtf is he like some sort of Mormon Jedi or something?
He’s a very wierd person…

He’s not cut from the right stuff to be at Kentucky.

he’s a crybaby Pouter who is now reminding me of Dan Hurley last year at the NCAA TOURNAMENT
 
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Lum Eddards

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Obviously he knew that UK fans were furious about that last call. Which was the context of this answer. So knowing that, why would he be talking about UK fans? Maybe he was talking about Auburn fans possibly influencing the refs to blow that whistle. That would be a pathetic take though, since Auburn fans could hardly be blamed for trying to influence the refs at a home game!
 
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Yeah he needs to either retract his BS statement or Clarify what he meant
I don’t think he shouldn’t retract anything. I think he’s saying what he’s wanted to say for awhile. He just had to get frustrated enough to say it. Most of our fans are amazing but some of them are disturbing and coaches go to bat for their guys. It’s why I’ve been begging Pope to build a foxhole mentality for awhile now. I think that mentality in the postgame was a good one. I didn’t see a defeated coach —- I saw a pissed off, motivated one and I hope it leads to better team unity.