In hindsight it's crazy how bad Mitch botched the last coaching search
- Thread starter kydmb99
- Start date
WTF does "woke UK" mean?
We all bought in with the press conference. We didn’t have a choice.
The worst part for me is knowing my gut reaction to the hire was correct.
I've been saying nothing will really change until Papaw Capilouto finally leaves
When people brought up his name as a replacement for Calipari I laughed and then was furious when he was hired. I went to his pep rally and took the bait. Now I'm back to furious, but trying to convince myself that his entire career was actually just a huge asterisk and he is somehow going to be a blue blood level coach next season.
Its time BBN to stand up and let your Voices be heard, MITCH BARNHART needs to be sent packing. He has set our MBB program back and he doesn't give a ****, we cannot allow him to have a Golden Parachute give away on our Dime. MITCH has got to go NOW!!!!!!!!
Kentucky top brass seems pretty conservative compared to other universities so I never got the “woke” accusations. There’s a reason the “woke” UK teachers freaking hate the president. Mitch tries to shove religion into a public university and Pope is a Mormon who are usually quite conservative. Hell, they didn’t even allow black people into their temples till freaking 1978. And people wonder why any black kid would want to be coached by those freaks. If you don’t think Pope’s Mormonism isn’t hurting with recruiting, I have a bridge to sell you.
I am similar. I foolishly believed our resources would boost his career winning percentage. It did not. That’s a red flag. I thought the 2024-25 team would be his worst at UK. It was not.
I liked Mark as a player. I think he’s a good dude. I want him to succeed here. It’s just not looking likely. I would be happy to be proven wrong.
Barney blew it in 2007 when Tubby left there’s no down my mind 100% he should’ve gone and hired Rick Pitino. I mean, the guy belonged to Kentucky. The part of the problem is that Barney puts all these freaking restraints on himself he wouldn’t go and take a coach from Louisville. He always has looked out for his reputation and it’s killed our program. People talk about well. What would happen if Rick Pitino would never left in 2007 was very freaking busy. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on but now that I’ve been able to kind of look and see that of what the environment was I can’t understand why we didn’t hire Rick Pitino why was Barney so hell bet on hiring a coach who beat pitino? Barney and his team of influencers kind of pitted big blue nation against Pitino. There was never anything to stop him from coming back and it made all the sense in the world to hire the guy. He wanted to be here the greatest coach of all time wanted to be at the university of Kentucky after he realized he made a terrible decision to go to the pros and Mitch Barnhart, who had the ultimate opportunity to bring this guy back instead hired a drunk because he beat him in a round of 32 game to get to the Suite 16. Again that was 2007. There was no shady Pitino at the time it was just rivalry garbage. But by playing the rivalry crap Barney was able to get away with bypassing the greatest coach of all time college coach.
He’s the one that’s supposed to see through the rivalry stuff. He’s the one that’s supposed to hire the best fit that man was the best fit. Imagine if he brought him back done the right thing and brought it back where we would be today. Imagine had Pitino never overstepped the lines at Louisville were they would be today relative to where we are.
He's botched several coaching hires. Plus two of the worst contracts in the history of college sports.
Man those lifetime contracts and like $40 million buyout for stoops when averaged like 6 wins a year lol horrible
A lot of us fell for it.
Truth is, he has been pretty awful since getting blown off the court by Ohio State in his first season.
Barnhart is a dynasty killer. He really is the worst thing to happen to Kentucky Basketball in 100 years.
Mitch's top 4 candidates were:
1. Scott Drew
2. Dan Hurley
3. Mark Pope
4. Shaka Smart
Truly amazing that's who he targeted especially considering Hurley definitely wasn't leaving after back to back titles. Thank God he won't be making the next hire. Completely out of touch with reality.
1. Scott Drew
2. Dan Hurley
3. Mark Pope
4. Shaka Smart
Truly amazing that's who he targeted especially considering Hurley definitely wasn't leaving after back to back titles. Thank God he won't be making the next hire. Completely out of touch with reality.
It was a masterful piece of propaganda for certain
The hire was Pearl and that’s according to 2 people that would know, specifically 1 who would definitely know. Money Pearl wasn’t coming to Kentucky. He retired to take it and boosters pushed hard, Mitch killed it by going to the BOT and President and they gave him what he wanted. Drew was who he wanted which would have been a terrible hire. Hurley wasn’t even a thought he already knew it was no and went right at Pope.
Run his *** out of this state.
Run his *** out of this state.
More than you know. Do you know how much USAID money UK got? I'm tellin' ya, there are possibly hundreds of millions being siphoned away by the top guys. And we won't know who did what for decades.
Man Bruce Pearl retired September 2025. Not April 2024.
According to a man that is very gracious and has for sure the way to know, 100%, not debatable, they were hiring Pearl and he wanted it and Mitch killed it. I’m not debating him, he’s a heavily involved booster that I met by sheer luck and he’s incredibly on the money. Sounded like the father son SEC duo and getting a ship was in pearls wheelhouse. Mitch refused and wanted to make the hire this time and was allowed
Another reason I believe it is because Matt, after I was told this, said he went to bed thinking it was definitely Pearl and he spoke to some guys who are contributors. I didn’t know that until way later when I was told that. And I’ve shown a few guys here what the guy does for me so you can believe what you want to believe obviously, but I do private some others and they’re aware of the access. So keep on it makes no difference to me.
I'm not saying anything about all that. You stated Pearl retired to take the job, but he just retired a few weeks before the season started 9/25
We hope Mitch botched the coaching search. That still remains to be seen. I lean towards saying he did but it could be complicated. There could be an element of truth to the fact that we are fishbowl of all fishbowls. There could be an element of truth to the fact that coaches don’t want to follow a legend like Calipari. There could be an element of truth to the fact that our brand is not as attractive in the current era. We may know soon.
I said at the time the longterm success of the program was more important than having a coach hired ASAP to hop in the portal and salvage the next season. If we got Donovan a week later and he had to pick a team from the leftover bin, maybe year one is a doozy. But you would feel good about year two and beyond. Presently we felt good about year one, but are worried about year two and beyond…
Barnhart was hell bent on hiring a 180 degree shift from Calipari to show who was the “boss”. He hated Cal. The fans were just collateral damage.
And sadly many fans were completely on board with having the “anti-Cal”. And that also includes being incapable of recruiting players and finishing better than 5th in the SEC.
This board was pretty vocal about players returning , sick of OAD, and it being about the name on the front. When Pope took down the NBA pictures people loved it.
Brooks and stoops were both good hires. Both came to Mitch instead of Mitch finding them. Mitch spent his time getting lead on by bill parcells and butch jones.
I know the efficiency and quality of contract of the stein hire meant Mitch was already pushed out. He never ever made such a competent hire so quickly for such a reasonable price.