No offense, but this a buffoon level take. Pope was hired on April 12. He had no team left. Many players had committed to their schools already. NIL had allowed other schools to lock up key players. He built a brand new team over a few months, finished 12th in the nation, earned a 3 seed, and made it to the Sweet 16 - all while losing one of his best scorers (Robinson) and being without his PG for a lot of the year. Also, the SEC had one of its best years ever - so the competition was ridiculous. UK finished better than UConn and Baylor that year - the two coaches we went after first.
Compare that to Calipari's first year. In his first year here, was hired on April 1, was able to switch over some of his recruits, and built a top 3 team. They stayed healthy all year, and he made the Elite 8. I'd argue that was an A year (would have been an A+ had he not blown it against WVU). The SEC sucked that year as only 4 teams made the tournament. Now compare that to Calipari's last year. 10 losses. First round exit to Oakland with a bunch of NBA players on the team.
I don't know who you think we could have gotten and how they could have done better last year.