I believe a lot of this anger and frustration towards Pope, is because of the last 4 years…
- Thread starter Vek96
- Start date
It has NOTHING to do with that for me. It has EVERYTHING to do with the inconsistency on the court and inability on the recruiting trail. Trajectory is also a problem as year two was significantly worse than year one. Not to mention, he's an absolute trainwreck in the media and just flat out weird...and not the good kind of weird.
Hurley's first two years at UConn...no transfer portal or NIL
Goldens first two years at Florida...no transfer portal or NIL
Donovans first two years at Florida...no transfer portal or NIL
You simps that refuse to acknowledge that are ridiculous.
Vanderbilt 47-22 and 1 tourney win (2-2 record vs Cats)
Michigan 62-13 and 6 tourney wins
Louisville 51-19 and one tourney win (1-1 record vs Cats)
Ohio State 38-28 and no tourney wins (1-0 record vs Cats)
BYU 49-22 and 2 tourney wins
If you want a comparison, here are the "major" hires made the same year Pope was hired. Diebler (OSU) and Young (BYU) were first time head coaches. The others have basically the same-ish experience as Pope. All had a better year two than year one. Pope's results are only clearly better than Diebler. A guy that essentially force OSU into hiring him because of his performance the previous year as an interim. So cool, Pope has us on par with Vandy and BYU. Awesome. Extend him.
This should be emailed to uk admins so they see the long term value of a morally tuned in mark pope imo
I hated the hire to begin with and hate it even more now...Mitch got lazy after buddy Drew turned him down and he force fed this hire with the dog and pony show that was to come with Pope saying he knows the assignment blah blah blah....The first year there was some good wins but just as many un-explainable losses..Yes he won 2 games in the Tourney but a blowout loss to a rival in the sweet 16....And this year, GEEZ what a total **** show disaster....No excuse in the world can justify 14 friggin losses but alot of Pope Pumpers have accepted mediocrity and with no top notch recruits coming in, year 3 IMO will be worse.
Its the same negative ones every time.
1. Pope inherited nothing.
2. Major player injuries.
3. Sec is now strong compared to weak, 4 sec teams making the tournament, compared to 10
4 Player development. Everyone has gotten better here with the exception of Garrison, some are just role players.
5. Recruiting. Freshmen hasn't been good but Florida, UConn teams of past 4 years weren't built around freshmen. People around here are used to cal constructed teams. He may not know how to manage freshmen or promise them lies, he prioritized people like oweh, garrison from year one.
Substitution patterns were bad and hopefully he does away with them. I believe he was trying not to hurt certain players, aka Jasper a freshmen. If you don't play him it would probably hurt with other freshmen players
Jq situation was a risk. It was the first time he did that. Cal let sharpe sit on his *** all year long, while playing pretty regularly for Portland.
Lack of pg, the dude who went to villanova was our back up pg. I guess he figured Jasper could play it and Chandler in spurts, was wrong about that.
Blowout losses, most teams in basketball besides maybe top 4 got blown out one way or another. I mean the negative ones in this post are the same negative ones, who just want pope fired. It isn't going to happen this year, so you can continue to whine.
If pope don't turn it around this year he will be fired but I don't believe any school has fired a coach after going to the 2nd round twice. Unc fired davis because he missed the tourney and barely made it in and then lost in the first round.
I mean it's not just message board but y'all are the loudest negative group, it doesn't help recruiting, and it makes us look like **** fans. I believe it was part cal, part Mitch and part just had luck. I'll keep rooting for us because I dont pretend to know one percent what's going on, and I just want Kentucky to do well.
1. Pope inherited nothing.
2. Major player injuries.
3. Sec is now strong compared to weak, 4 sec teams making the tournament, compared to 10
4 Player development. Everyone has gotten better here with the exception of Garrison, some are just role players.
5. Recruiting. Freshmen hasn't been good but Florida, UConn teams of past 4 years weren't built around freshmen. People around here are used to cal constructed teams. He may not know how to manage freshmen or promise them lies, he prioritized people like oweh, garrison from year one.
Substitution patterns were bad and hopefully he does away with them. I believe he was trying not to hurt certain players, aka Jasper a freshmen. If you don't play him it would probably hurt with other freshmen players
Jq situation was a risk. It was the first time he did that. Cal let sharpe sit on his *** all year long, while playing pretty regularly for Portland.
Lack of pg, the dude who went to villanova was our back up pg. I guess he figured Jasper could play it and Chandler in spurts, was wrong about that.
Blowout losses, most teams in basketball besides maybe top 4 got blown out one way or another. I mean the negative ones in this post are the same negative ones, who just want pope fired. It isn't going to happen this year, so you can continue to whine.
If pope don't turn it around this year he will be fired but I don't believe any school has fired a coach after going to the 2nd round twice. Unc fired davis because he missed the tourney and barely made it in and then lost in the first round.
I mean it's not just message board but y'all are the loudest negative group, it doesn't help recruiting, and it makes us look like **** fans. I believe it was part cal, part Mitch and part just had luck. I'll keep rooting for us because I dont pretend to know one percent what's going on, and I just want Kentucky to do well.
The desire to tell everyone "I told you so" is insatiable for some people. I ignore them and only peek quarterly to see if they've changed their ways, lol.
What's more deranged?
1. pointing out the results and demanding better?
or.
2. Continually cheerleading and trying to polish a turd via cherrypicking stats?
Quit being a perpetual apologist for the UKAA, Baghdad Bob.
They just are more negative people just in life. I can't help I don't love being miserable. Once you get older you get aches and pains and I know that's part of it but taking it out on everyone and everything doesn't help anything lol.
I believe alot of the anger is because he has sucked at every aspect of the job.
Nope. As far as hiring goes, Pope had a worse resume that Clyde.
Everyone wants better. Y'all keep making the same beating a dead horse points too. Everyone wants him to get good recruits, everyone wants better sub patterns. There is a way to do that and a way to not. By insulting or making our fans look like entitled brats it is not. Name any basketball team that fired a coach after two round of 32 exits after not getting a single player back from a former staff.
This year didn't live up to expectations. Portal hasn't started yet,I'm beating a dead horse too. His talk after losses was bad, injury situation bad, and roster construction was bad. He messed up if he don't do better he will be let go. We haven't got anyone from portal since it hasn't opened and that's where you get 60 percent of the construction of your team.
Man it kill me. It’s crazy how bad Americans are at statistics and prob. Stand in line for hours while they buy their lotto tickets never knowing th math says you’re stupid. Pick out 3 coaches in history, use them out of context, ignore the 99% who failed, and go with that. It’s amazing where we are today.
Yeah hurley didn't have a great record either before getting hired at 4 time champion uconn. He had a couple 32 round exits, which I guess is better than pope. What other team has fired a coach after making a round of 16 and 32 first two years. Can you name any team? I'm not talking about coaches who get better jobs either.
ok. You laid it out. I responded. That’s what we do here. Have a good one as well.
Son of saul, stat wise can you name any team who fired a coach after making it to sweet 16 and round of 32 after inheriting no players?
i dont think its that complicated:
for the folks that were in the anti pope camp the day he was hired: 46-26 in his first two years, every loss seems to be by double digits, lots of embarrassing losses. living up to the belief that he isnt more than his historical record.
for the folks that were all in on pope. getting players that care about the name on the front of the jersey hasnt worked. they get smoked. modern offense shooting threes hasnt happened. great Xs and Os coach but doesnt translate in games. he was a former player and have guys ready to play but we get routinely behind the 8 ball to start games.
then of course is comes down to hope.....which ties to recruiting. which has been a complete failure.
for the folks that were in the anti pope camp the day he was hired: 46-26 in his first two years, every loss seems to be by double digits, lots of embarrassing losses. living up to the belief that he isnt more than his historical record.
for the folks that were all in on pope. getting players that care about the name on the front of the jersey hasnt worked. they get smoked. modern offense shooting threes hasnt happened. great Xs and Os coach but doesnt translate in games. he was a former player and have guys ready to play but we get routinely behind the 8 ball to start games.
then of course is comes down to hope.....which ties to recruiting. which has been a complete failure.
This all day. He wasn’t qualified period. No one else with his record would have even been a thought.
None of us know what is going to happen. None of us. Not the pumpers or the dumpers. We can argue back and forth all day about a year three being underserved or not, argue back and forth about whether he deserved the job (he didn’t IMO). Reality is — if he has a good enough third year, he’ll be the guy. If he doesn’t, he won’t. Everything in between is a bunch of fighting over online style points that are meaningless. “Look at me…I was so smart. I told you it wouldn’t work.” “Look at me…I was so smart. I told you he would turn it around.” Sure, you posted a prediction on a message board with zero stakes — impressive. IDGAF who predicted what or didn’t. Pope has to prove himself worthy in year three. Period. 
Most anger and frustration comes from the fact that fans think all the historical superlatives that come with UK basketball happen all the time.
It took a hundred years to build all that with lots of average and even below average periods.
During that 100 year period a lot of new kids on the block, so to speak, have had moments. Most of them we don’t even remember.
It took a hundred years to build all that with lots of average and even below average periods.
During that 100 year period a lot of new kids on the block, so to speak, have had moments. Most of them we don’t even remember.
1. Pope did not inherit nothing. He inherited millions and millions of dollars, more than any coach was given likely, and had final four players and guys Duke and UNC had offers to. He underachieved with them and got blitzed.
2. The injury excuse doesn’t cut it it’s been explained. Coaches have injuries all the time and produce. This season alone you had 5 teams with injuries that out performed him. Pearl went to the final four without his best player. LSU nearly beat Pope wothout 2 of their best players. This season injuries were a gift it’s kept Lowe off the court which helped Chandler and Oweh and kept the least efficient guy off the floor. Kept mark from his insane lineups.
3. Pope wasn’t hired to make excuses. The league being strong isn’t stopping Bama, Auburn, Florida etc. all performed just fine and haven’t got half the resources or ability of Kentucky. He wasn’t hired to say “this is hard” he was hired to win. take that weak BS somewhere else.
4. Mullins is a freshman, he just launched them in a final four. Florida went deep in the tournament because of excellent evaluation, UConn has had younger guys, both coach’s are excellent talent evaluators. Mark is a HORRIBLE talent evaluator.
All you did was make a list of nonsense and excuses. He will be fired this year you got that part right buddy. He’s terrible, and he’s not changing in year 13,14,15. He’s who he is. You didn’t even get into the other major issues he’s got that if you like I can keep going. And quit policing the board nobody cares what you like or find negative. It’s the dumbest word on this forum. It’s a sports board and we’re a blue blood if you’re happy then log off and don’t come back because that makes you not a UK fan. In case you missed it we ain’t winnin.
To my view, the dissatisfaction (not ANGER) with Pope is simply that he was not a qualified candidate. Most folks think the job deserved a better hire.
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Yet you come across as more miserable than anyone.
Maybe you are not really?
But that’s your message. Do you really want the product on the floor to continue as is?
Or do you just want to argue for the sake of arguing?
Is Pope family?
Different players will make up a different system. I argue because y'all insult coach and whine about the same things.
Cal is your dad. Im a Kentucky fan, I'm not a troll, or a cal lover. I'm a realist, I'm not delusional. So can you name any team that has fired a coach after a sweet 16 and round of 32. I bet not. Continue to try to insult because your basketball knowledge is limited.
It basically closes the case. Would Mark have ever been considered at UK in any way if
He does not belong at Kentucky. That is a fact. I’d like to see someone argue the points to hire mark pope at Kentucky. They won’t.
No you say stupid crap nonstop and use words like misery and negative because you literally have nothing else and you want to back the coach. That’s all you do. You are purely negative almost all of the time look at your posting history. It’s constant negatively. Constant. I don’t think you know what that word means. Just because you think you define what is negative and what isn’t, that’s not how this works. We’re talking about a coach on a sports forum. Maybe you need to re-evaluate some things sport.
You’re living in the past. “Inherited players” is a metric that no longer means much in this new transfer portal/NIL era where everybody’s a free agent and schools that have major financial resources (like UK) can easily buy themselves a top shelf roster in just one off season.
Hell, if anything, it’s now expected that schools are gonna radically reconstruct their roster every year. So it’s no longer that impressive when a school does it successfully. And limited inheritance is no longer much excuse for failing to do it …ESPECIALLY if you’re working with UK’s NIL budget and blueblood resources.
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How many teams won anything without a starting pg? You just think negatively. Name one team that fired a coach after a sweet 16 and round of 32. We didn't have a good roster this year. Hurley wasn't a good coach till like his 11th year coaching look at his record.
That boy who hit the shot is one player. Arizona does have food freshmen but most of the teams prior won it all because of transfer portal players. You can continue to whine, if we are good or bad next year. Not helping anything..
Different time and age is right. Still what team has fired a coach after that? I'm not happy with last year. I'm saying if we construct it right, who knows. They'll be thousands of players in the portal. Plus if some more coaches leave they'll be potential freshmen too. Different players, different team. I'm just saying just be negative on Kentucky isn't doing anything.
I'm harsh on our fans because I am one. Social media and word gets out. Yeah I know kids play for money but they like playing for good fans too. Just saying..
I cannot argue with you. The entire hiring process and its result seemed to fall woefully beneath the expectations the alumni, boosters and fans have for the program. Your use of "lazier" is probably a good one (if not a kind one), if incompetent is avoided. GO CATS !!
Hurley showed improvement on the teams he took over, Wagner and RI. Pope has regressed from a sweet 16 to a round of 32. (He doesn’t have the graduate seniors to help him run his team) Also, BYU is a much bigger program than either RI or Wagner. Pope did less with more which he has done his entire career. Also, look at the personalities between the 2. Who would you want to play for? A guy who sees everything as “beautiful” or a guy that would literally go to war for you. Imagine comparing a 2 time NCAA champ to someone who never made it past the sweet 16.
These posts are such noise. He loses almost 37% percent of his games, and that number drops to 50against decent teams. Pope’s ceiling is a season where you only lose a couple to teams you shouldn’t and win about half of your games against ranked opponents. Even firing on all cylinders, Pope is a ten loss, mid to poor coach.
Go look at what Hurley did BEFORE he took over a UConn team that was in a complete PRE-NIL rebuild in the frickin AAC.
This has been pointed out / debunked several times but the pumpers gloss over it and continue screaming “but Hurley!” “Coach K had issues last century!” “InJuRiES!!!!”
Go look at what Hurley did BEFORE he took over a UConn team that was in a complete PRE-NIL rebuild in the frickin AAC.
This has been pointed out / debunked several times but the pumpers gloss over it and continue screaming “but Hurley!” “Coach K had issues last century!” “InJuRiES!!!!”
They literally either refuse to listen to facts or they don’t understand how to evaluate the world around them. There is no option 3.
Well NO CRAP, that is why we brought him in - TO FIX IT.
In his first 2 years - we look maybe worse than the last 4. Things that Cal was bad at Pope seems to be as bad or not worse.
The injury excuse is old, we had enough players to play better this year. We did not improve
In his first 2 years - we look maybe worse than the last 4. Things that Cal was bad at Pope seems to be as bad or not worse.
The injury excuse is old, we had enough players to play better this year. We did not improve
The more I think about it the more pissed off I become. There’s at least 25 head coaches I would have chosen over Pope. It was a lazy, good ol’ boys hire. And now our program is going to have to dig itself back out after Pope gets fired.
You the guy that can fire him?
Yeah his leash is shorter than it would've been if he had taken over, say, when Pitino left and we were on top.
That doesn't excuse the performance and results. They are unacceptable. Compare his 2 yr resume to Billy Clyde's.
Pope has next year to show he can get it done, or he's done. Simple.
To be fair, Pope had nothing freaking players when he got here in mid April lol. If you're going to paint it, paint it all