VIDEO: Where Does Big Blue Nation Stand On The Future Of Mark Pope
- Thread starter I’m The Village Idiot
- Start date
A lot of this is good. Most of it is obvious. Bruce Pearl would come here in a heartbeat so they kind of lost me when they both agreed he wasn’t interested.
Pope leaves …..Pearl shows up and we get our gravy train with biscuit Wheels back rolling
FWIW I want Bruce Pearl badly but I agree with them. I think that ship has sailed. I’d be happy to be wrong
You can't compare that era where the portal wasn't there for coaches.
No reason to quibble about it now and he’s not gonna be a realistic option much longer regardless. But if we happen to do another coaching search in the next two years and Mitch Barnhart happens to not be involved I daresay I’ll give you a Hello Kitty over this one.
I think there are a lot of people we could approach and get a feel for, genuinely reach out and talk to that could kill it here...
Bruce Pearl seems to me to be in that category (if Rick Pitino were just a touch younger, I'd say try to get him back ...) but Pearl's hiring weould solve a lot of issues simultaneously. But it wtill won't solve Mitch as our AD.
Oats?
May ?
Few even?
Contact Donovoan ?
TJ Otzelberger ?
Golden ?
Contact Drew again ?
Nobody could ever convince me that The University of kentucky's basketball head coaching position is not the most prominent coaching position in the country. Is there no man that would step forward and want to kill it ...
HERE ?
Bizarro world that we ended up with Pope to begin with, after CCC dipped out.
There has got to be a solution. The path to that solution is to get a new AD to begin with.
Not a bad group there. Don’t think it’s split as in 50/50 full support / want fired. He doesn’t have half the fanbase in full support but I do think they weren’t bad.
Might check the out some. We should support up and coming podcast when they’re decent. We don’t get may.
Well I’d say just move to the next obviously. I don’t think Pearl would say no (time matters obviously.
I think he was ready, heard a lot of the same things Jones said. I think he wanted the first father son duo. Something he’d have over Calipari too, then gets to fix Calipari’s mess here. Too much to turn down if you’re Pearl, plus you get your ship at Kentucky. Whew boy, I gotta stop. Makes me sick to my stomach. Obviously only Pearl knows but Jones did say he heard enough that he went to sleep thinking Pearl was about to be hired.
Hello, Mitch.
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Why are some fans so obsessed with wanting coaches and players from Kentucky. Go get the best coach and players from wherever. Do I want to keep Pope just because he played here? I want to keep him if he….wins. The guys in the video hammering on those fans that just want Pope to fail. I don’t thing fans want him to fail. They think he is failing. If his team was in the top 10 and vying for a title, would fans want him gone….no. Win you stay. Lose you leave. Pretty common sense. The Kentucky connection doesn’t matter to me.
But a lot of these options we keep listing, aren't real life options.
-Mark Few is on his decent to the retirement airport.
-May ain't leaving Michigan
-Pearl is too old to fire this up again
-Donavan is making a career out of telling us NO
-Why would Golden leave Florida?
-Otzelberger and McCasland might come, but what happens if they are no better than Pope their first 2 years? Do we run them off too? They don't have Pitino/Cal type personalities either.
IDK man, the pickin's don't look so good to me.
Maybe they aren't real fans but it is obvious some of the RR posters truly do want him to fail. I am amazed by some of the posts I am reading on this site.
As long as Mitch is the AD, we are in trouble hiring a basketball coach. Don’t ever forget that Mike Pratt led the charge to get Cal and Mitch was not the one who gets the credit or can take the credit. I’ll throw Eli in this as well, we would have had Pearl if not for these guys. Yes he’s older but would have been that bridge to a younger hopefully more established coach that would be here for the long haul.
Maybe I didn’t catch that part. Yea nobody wants Pope to fail I want to be wrong and he be a modern goat. Did they get into the “you just hate Pope” stuff?
It’s not possible to be a UK guy and not like Mark. 1996 guy, most loved team in history, 90’s, loved UK, he checks all those boxes that we like.
Thinking he can win here is different. Some did the same with Calipari “you just hate Cal”. It’s just amusing at this point. If someone hates Pope just because they hate Pope I don’t get it.
Will Wade. His personality fits Kentucky perfectly.
Yea for sure. Few isn’t an option for the lakers let alone UK. Some just aren’t in a position to take it. I’ve said and agree, May and Michigan is a different thing and he’s not leaving. And I am not one to say lots of coaches will turn us down. But you still backchannel.
Pearl unless was moved on now will be too old
Donovan? Hard to say, but it’s NIL and he’s not “the kid” anymore I agree.
Golden I believe wants the NBA. So could we get him if not? I think maybe, Florida basketball ain’t popular, it’s almost winning without recognition. I’ve been in the O dome during a decent season for Florida and seen it half empty. Donovan was still interested in UK even after 2 titles. If not for the NBA I believe there’s a strong chance he would have been here.
The other 2 I think has much higher elements of wining here than Pope. Pope really doesn’t have the resume for this or the opinion of anyone that he can do this. Cal and company knew how this would go I believe that. It was just a mitch hire. There are a lot more coaches that just aren’t brought up as much or weren’t named there. Lloyd would be a much better hire too. There are many others. I mean if you’re going to hire pope you could look to just about anyone decent. Also Wade would be way above Popes ability here. Oats (don’t believe for a second he was approached here). I think he’d take it.
I never understood why Mitch didn’t even call the guy in 2024. But it appears his Mitch’s mindset was Scott Drew, appease fans and boosters with Hurley, and then hire Mark Pope at the last second and rush it through before fans could process it.
Also the argument ‘who you going to get’… well, you know what you have. Just to rehash…no recruiting, poorly constructed roster, can’t seem to keep your team together, no GM, too many losses at home, not stiffing a SEC tile much less an NCAA title. UK basketball is going backwards and not forward. Stop with the guys you probably won’t get like Hurley, Lloyd and try to go get an established coach who has had success in the tournament and can recruit. If Pope hadn’t played at UK there is zero chance he would have even sniffed an interview. Doesn’t have to have any Kentucky ties.
I think Lloyd would be great here.
61 wins in his first two seasons ( most ever )
Big time recruiter with international connections
.797 win percentage as a head coach
6-4 in ncaa tournament
61 wins in his first two seasons ( most ever )
Big time recruiter with international connections
.797 win percentage as a head coach
6-4 in ncaa tournament
Bottom line is, whoever gets the next crack at this, will still need time and the first year or two, could be just as ugly, or worse than what we are seeing now.
Yeah, the Portal is awesome, but it's not like the portal is only ours to pick from, everyone else gets to strengthen their rosters through that portal too.
Sometimes, what worked at one place (Texas Tech, Iowa State etc… )doesn't work here and not every coach has the ability to handle the bright lights.
Every prospect is a roll of the dice and every prospect is going to need time.
He would be perfect and he comes from Few coaching tree.
Respectfully it doesn't matter what any of you think. We just need a coaching search that actually asks Pearl (and others) if they are interested and isn't led by just Mitch.
Obviously. Nothing you say means anything on here. Or me either. Or most anyone else. That’s always been my point. We are just idiots at an early morning McDonald’s arguing about basketball. Some of us started to think people outside the restaurant are listening to our conversations to see what they should or should not do with a multimillion dollar business decision. We think we are important — we are not. That includes you. But I agree, it’d be great if Pearl wants to coach here. We will see.
Make May, Oats, Lloyd, Ozelberger, McCasland and maybe Hoiberg say no. Then go after Wade, Lucas, Odom and Shertz if you have to get deeper into the list.
You’re either a fool or a troll to say every single one of those coaches will refuse the job.
The fact that Mitch settled on Pope when there were dozens of better options is infuriating.
Wasn't an insult, just saying I think we all can agree that we need a true coaching search. One that actually reaches out to many of the top names all across the sport, no matter how crazy and unlikely fans may think it is. One led by a group of people, not MB.
And for the record I do think what you and I say and think matters. These multimillion dollar athletic departments need us fans to care, spend money on games, merch, donate, etc.
If Pearl wants to be here, I’d imagine he will be. He’d be an almost unanimously approved hire. And I’d be one of the happiest ones.
Yea I think a lot of coaches are going to win well pretty quick, if not they will be much better recruiters and we can go by what’s going on with that. So say Oats came in and went 20-11 year 1, second round. But the team looked pretty good he just missed a player or two we wanted to come late or something and that’s where it settled. If he’s got a top 1-10 recruiting class and a top 10 portal, well then it’s not a big deal.
The issue with Pope is he cannot recruit. I mean, that’s the problem. Add to it we’re getting some Wierd coaching, meltdowns, recruits turning him away all over the place, lack of dominant portal guys…he’s been turned down a lot for main targets.
Now he’s 17-10, with a shot at actually missing the tournament. And it’s a real thing, lose out is possible and there’d be no tournament.
So in context I don’t see how some of these guys are missing this. Guess it will take more portal rejections, another season like this one, no elite recruits next year. I don’t know I’ve personally see enough. But that’s what I got.
Yea I mean we’ve all heard this before. “Calipari won’t come”. “Kentucky is the basketball Notre dame”. 4 final fours 2 title game a title later….we’re doin it again. A lot of it is people that keep wanting to back pope tear the program rep down to protect him. I really believe it. Not directed at the guy you responded to but others. Some don’t do it intentionally.
Just make the calls. One of the us usual suspects will answer.
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