If we get to the point where we are looking for a new head coach what about Mark Madsen. He seems to be turning things around at cal.
Mark Madsen as new head coach option?
- Thread starter cbuc014
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Dear Lord.
This isn’t Vanderbilt. Shouldn't we learn our lesson after BCG and Pope?
You should never be considered for this job unless, at the very least, you have really good, sustained success at another good program and actually, you should have a Final 4 on your resume.
Even Mitch Barnfart wouldn’t consider Mark F-ing Madsen.
This isn’t Vanderbilt. Shouldn't we learn our lesson after BCG and Pope?
You should never be considered for this job unless, at the very least, you have really good, sustained success at another good program and actually, you should have a Final 4 on your resume.
Even Mitch Barnfart wouldn’t consider Mark F-ing Madsen.
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Maybe in about 10 years. After he proves some sustained success. Moves up and makes a final 4 somewhere.
He has a career winning percentage of 54.4%. I don’t think he’ll be making a final four. Maybe a Maui invitational final four someday
Man, I am on board with the new AD letting Pope go after the season but if Madsen is a candidate I'm switching back
This wasn’t anything about religion. Just saw his names mentioned somewhere else. We missed on several big names during the last hiring cycle. Wonder how to find coaches like Golden and May from the mid majors that can have success on the bigger stage. I understand Cal is in the ACC so not mid major conference.
Yeah maybe he needs to bump that up a little.
Mad Dog can coach.
Stanford also has a great coach
The freshman point guard from Stanford is a beast.
Stanford also has a great coach
The freshman point guard from Stanford is a beast.
No. Can't hope and pray. We have to hire a coach that's been to a final four and preferably has a winning pedigree.
We don't have time for any experimental learning on the job. This is a pressure cooker. It either makes diamonds
or crushes you. You come to UK to level up your coaching with the name recognition and resources. No time to ***** foot around!!!
We don't have time for any experimental learning on the job. This is a pressure cooker. It either makes diamonds
or crushes you. You come to UK to level up your coaching with the name recognition and resources. No time to ***** foot around!!!
MB retiring changed everything. If MB fires Pope, he hires Scott Drew, which sets is back another three years and bottoms us out. The new AD has every right to bring in his own guy. I just hope he is serious about returning UK to where we should be. I am no AD, but if he doesn't go after one of the five or six obvious top candidates, then we aren't serious about Basketball anymore
They will have no choice but to go hard at serious candidates next. They almost did it when we hired Pope but Mitch wanted to force his way at the end. He was hoping mark would be successful, if so he wasn’t going to retire yet. As we see, he had to go on out because he knows Mark is not going to cut it here. You could see it all over his face at the stein presser, and with the comments Cap made at he podium. They knew then he couldn’t survive.
He got what he wanted and it’s probably going to fail. The next AD, whether it’s a Mitch type or not, has to make the right hire or he starts with one foot out the door. The BOT knows they can’t screw it up. The boosters will have tons of say too.
How about the credit card thief himself ole Doug Gottlieb?? He's made strides in year 2, keeps improving the team at this pace and they can be NCAAT bound next year.
Yeah obviously im joking. Seriously you get a coach that has recruited top 25 players successfully so they have connections in recruiting, someone who has at least made an elite 8 so they know how to prepare to win games in the NCAAT and someone who has had a great regular season so they know how to get a team to success on the months long grind.
Yeah obviously im joking. Seriously you get a coach that has recruited top 25 players successfully so they have connections in recruiting, someone who has at least made an elite 8 so they know how to prepare to win games in the NCAAT and someone who has had a great regular season so they know how to get a team to success on the months long grind.
I believe you use the same philosophy that Indiana did to find Cignetti. Look for a coach that has won every where they’ve been. The winningest coach in college basketball over the past 10 years would be my choice- Josh Schertz. He’s the next star in coaching.
This is what bothers me with posts like this. I think they are well intentioned but are missing the mark. Most see "what is happening lately" and not the big picture and think coaches like this are the next hire. Which I think is not the best way of thinking.
Kentucky is not a job you learn at. You are proven before you get the job. What does that mean?
Constant NCAA tourney success, constant sweet 16s, elite 8s over 10 year span. And/or at least 1 final four. Someone who can recruit high end players and develop tier 2 players who are just below the high end. Is competitive, and has a winning mindset. Unfortunately, for UK and a few other blue bloods you need to have a specific personality and temperament to handle the job. Also has to have a decent winning %.
There are many layers of variables one must consider for the coach.
Kentucky is not a job you learn at. You are proven before you get the job. What does that mean?
Constant NCAA tourney success, constant sweet 16s, elite 8s over 10 year span. And/or at least 1 final four. Someone who can recruit high end players and develop tier 2 players who are just below the high end. Is competitive, and has a winning mindset. Unfortunately, for UK and a few other blue bloods you need to have a specific personality and temperament to handle the job. Also has to have a decent winning %.
There are many layers of variables one must consider for the coach.
In a perfect fan world I don’t disagree. There is an ideal resume that would be considered and coach ultimately hired.
We don’t really live in that world anymore. Those guys have good to great gigs already and no longer need the blue blood to take the next career step. You can win at Baylor, UVA, Villanova, Gonzaga, Houston, Bama, Auburn, BYU, etc
You can make great money at those schools, have access to great talent via NIL and portal. You can also enjoy better stability in terms of career. Don’t have to deal with unreasonable expectations. Can have down years.
Also, I’m not sure historically that criteria has even been met by all our coaches. Rupp was an assistant.
Joe B hall was a no name with very little experience at a very small school and he didn’t start off hot.
Sutton was pretty established. Didn’t work out. Really interesting that he was a really good coach and built something every where but here.
Pitino was known via that Providence FF but just the season before was barely above.500. He’d been at a few other small schools and spent a hot minute in NBA. It took him a few years to build here.
Tubby wasn’t a big hot accomplished name.
Cal was really the first true super star, known lead actor big name on the marquee, hire.
Neither Hurley or Golden had great sustained success before claiming the last 3 NCAA titles. Even their first years at FL and UConn were not great.
The last three NCAA titles came from coaches that didn’t have magical seasons prior to winning the last three championships.No. Can't hope and pray. We have to hire a coach that's been to a final four and preferably has a winning pedigree.
We don't have time for any experimental learning on the job. This is a pressure cooker. It either makes diamonds
I think you have to go with someone PROVEN at the P5 level. Schertz is 50 and has never even made it to the tournament.
That is a very good point. Just because a coach at another school doesn't have a FF appearance doesn't mean they can't hear given the UK resources. You know you are not getting Hurley or maybe even Golden or Dusty May or Lloyd. Who do you go get? Do you go get Bucky? Brad Underwood at Illinois? Jai Lucas at Miami? Byington at Vandy?
I would say give Pope a chance just like Hurley and Golden had. He needs 3-4 years minimum just as any other coach. The days of what Cal did starting in 2010 will probably never happen again.
It took Hurley 4 years to get UConn to where they ended in 2023 and 2024. Even the two years leading up to that were not good. Pope is miles above BCG even. UK had 2 ranked wins against Tennessee and Vandy in Rupp. That was it in his two years at UK. There were personal issues with him as well. Pope didn’t even have scraps left from Cal leaving. I will say that recruiting injured players is probably not a good gamble going forward.
Pope has had some really good wins that last two years along with some bad losses. I will take that temporarily over having more mediocre wins just to satisfy a toxic fan base.
Here is a look at Masden, age 50:
en.wikipedia.org
Due to his hustle and physical style of play, he received the nickname "Mad Dog" while playing for the San Ramon Valley High School Wolves, and the moniker continued during his time with the Stanford Cardinal and beyond.
Mark Madsen (basketball) - Wikipedia
Neither did Doug Gottlie, neither did Billy Gillispie, neither did Mike White, neither did Mark Pope, neither did Leonard Hamilton, neither did Bobby Hurley and on and on and on. There are a million coaches out there that looked just like Danny Hurley after the first few years, but they all ended up with coaching careers that mirrored Bobby Hurley's career, instead of Danny's.
Nobody knows who the next Danny Hurley is going to be, but when you're UK, you don't just throw darts at a dartboard full of unqualified candidates to pick your next coach. Barnhart just did that and look where we are right now.
We aren't in a position where we need to hope the young guy we picked is the next star. No, we need to hire a proven winner and not rely on rolling the dice.
And we can point to every CBI and NIT tournament to find coaches that spent their entire careers as below par coaches.
Danny Hurley and Todd Golden are the exceptions, not the rule.
Actually, the oven is much hotter here. You can hide at most other programs, you can't hide here.
These days, every program has money and resources, so if you can't even put together a respectable program at a middle of the pack program, you ain't doing it here. This spotlight will chew you up. BCG and Mark Pope are prime examples of this.
The issue as I see it is, Pope refuses to negotiate his beliefs and methods, even a little bit.
What's got everyone so up in arms is, we keep losing games and getting blown out and we see why it's happening, but he refuses to believe it. He’s so focused on the numbers he wants to see instead of what is happening on the court.
How can someone continue to claim fatigue and constantly pull most of his best players off the court and put four net negative players on the court at the same time, watch the team get pummeled, then tell everyone "well, we just did a poor job on blah blah blah"?
He's not going to change, he’s going to continue to throw ice water on his players each game, because he thinks they're tired.
The biggest difference between Hurley/Golden and Pope, is Pope is as soft as charmin. Hurpey and Golden do everything it takes to win, they grit their teeth and figure it out, Pope talks about how beautiful everyone is. I have no faith in a guy that has that mentality.
There is no guarantee that a known P5 coach will be successful at Kentucky. Mainly, because there is no longer the big separation between the few historical bluebloods and the rest of the country. The Kentucky head coaching job is no step up from Florida. UF would pay Golden just as much as UK could.
The hiring person needs to be able to gauge potential not just rely on past performance. Florida found Golden, Alabama found Oats- we need to find our guy. I would call Schertz in for an interview first.