Actually, isn't it also about playing as a team? Play hard all you want but if you are playing "me basketball" you ain't gonna win squat. Arizona started getting completely blown out when the individual players decided that it was up to them to make the comeback. I was watching the players just desperately driving the lane and throwing up something that had no chance to go in.
Oh, I guess that means Pope magically started his career at UVS with a portal?
Who cares? Again, nobody is saying Mark Pope is equal to Dan Hurley. What's being said is, Dan Hurley showed that a coach can be great after struggling for years.
But I wish you guys would at least give him some credit for what he did last year. He did a heck of a job. Year 2 sucked, he lost the team, they were broken and the injuries were the final nail. Most coaches fail to get that team to the tournament, Pope did. It's still his fault, he built a flawed team.
And you think that's normal? Do you seriously think what Cal did from 10-15 is normal? Heck, Cal couldn’t even replicate what he did. In fact, he's the main reason we're in this mess. He failed badly his last 4 years here.
And are you kidding about Tubby? He never did anything with his own players. He had a runner up team handed to him. He did a great job that year, but his recruiting was worse than Pope's.
Terrible post.
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Even in that mythical 2010-2015 run, there was a missed tournament and an awful regular season in there. 2014 went on a magical tournament run but that regular season was so bad he almost left. Calipari’s model was high ceiling but also low floor.
If you asked all our rivals today if they’d be happy to see Kentucky extend Mark Pope they’d all throw a party. That doesn’t bother some of you?
LOL, you still don't get it. Nobody is saying Pope should have been hired and none of us are saying Pope is great. We know he's flawed, we're just hoping he figures it out, that's all.
Sorry if some of us aren’t going to join in while you guys top rope one of ours. It's pretty awful to read supposed UK fans calling him Poope and Dope. We have some sh*tty fans.
2022, 2023 and 2024 were upset in the NCAAT, the other 2 played to seed. Who was coaching those teams?
No. Paying attention to your rivals makes zero sense as a fan.
We have to do what’s best for us. Is that Mark Pope? We don’t know…seems unlikely, but we should get a more definitive answer with year three.
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Okay, I'll rephrase.
Dan Hurley proved that a coach can go from winning at a 60%-ish rate, to elite.
Sorry, I was told on here that you're a bad coach if your winning percentage isn’t at least 70%.
“Join our club or we hate you.”
^ High school mentality.
Nah, Ima stand over there and make my own mind up. I’ll support the coach and if it doesn’t work, Ill just hope it works better with the next one.
Exactly. That's all we're saying. These guys act like we want Pope to stay in this seat no matter what. No, if he doesn't knock it out of the park next year, he's out and I will 100% support that.
I came to grips with the fact that he will be here at least 3 years the second he was hired.
Who's ignoring his 2nd year? It was terrible, bit let’s not act like BYU is better.
Also, something that should be noted, BYU didn’t dump big NIL money into the program until Pope left. But, we've seen how Mark Pope badly mishandled 22 million dollars, so the point is mute.
Like I said in another post. On this board, if you aren't winning at a 70% or better rate, you suck. I don't make the rules.
Why are you surprised that I called Pope a bad coach? He did an awful job this year. That's the difference between you guys and me I have no problem being truthful.
You guys don't acknowledge anything good about Pope, you just bomb him.
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It’s not Mark Pope and I don’t believe for a second some of you will push for him to be gone when we have another mediocre year. I don’t get it.
I’m not and idk what that means but tubby smith did better his only 2 years at Georgia than pope did his first 2 years at Kentucky. Tubby had more tournament wins at Tulsa in 4 years than pope has had in 11 years of coaching. Tubby has recruited the #1 high school class in the country and has a championship. Nothing makes sense to me in defending pope over tubby.
If you were educated little man, you’d know BYU was only in the BIG12 for one year, Popes last year there and he had some impressive wins. He also did it without even half the money that the boosters are putting out now.
Did they get better or did their coach get exposed after RS went down to injury, a Pope player???
#1 pick in the draft and still got bounced early, I don’t call that getting better, I call that getting exposed..
Sorry, but that's stupidly false. He went to an NIT his 2nd year and was lucky to make the tournament in year 1.
The SEC was historically great last year, in 2008, the SEC stunk.
Pope did well enough to get a 3 and a 7 seed playing much tougher schedules, through injuries to key players.
BCG was a drunk that had to be fired.
We get it, Pope isn’t knocking it out of the park, but let's stop being ridiculous.
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One of the dumbest takes I've read on here. Ever.
Read through the nasty comments on this board, that will tell you why nobody wants to come here.
We have fans wanting a coach fired after 2 years and are hurling insults at him, like he lost 20 games each year and missed the tournament. Would you take a job with fans like tbat?
Are you saying BYU was good before Saunders went down? They had beaten 1 top 25 team all year and they had their full roster.
Nobody is saying Lowe, Kam, or JQ can score 18ppg, but you don't understand the game if you think the only impact players have on a game, is scoring points.
You take the main pg off any team and they are going to struggle. It was Pope's fault we only had 1 pg, but it happened and having to rely on Johnson and Chandler as backup pg's, instead of Aberdeen, guarantees you are going to struggle.
Also, having to start Moreno and rely on Garrison, instead of having a lottery pick center, is a massive loss.
Sorry, this doesn't fit your agenda, but it's true.
Our own fans show again and again how uninformed they are and you think we should pay attention to what rival fans are thinking? I don't care which side of the Pope debate a person is on, this is really dumb.
We begged for UNC to keep Davis for a reason. Sorry you’re having a hard time keeping up here.
Out of those 11 years. Pope had 2 seasons with less than 10 losses. 1 being the Covid year and he would’ve had 10 that year too.. he would’ve lost in conference and ncaa tournament. He lost 8 losses the Covid year.
All mark pope does is lose everywhere he goes!
20-7 is his only reason season when he didn’t lose 10 games or more. He lost in round of 64 that year. F mark pope
They only recall the highlights for everyone else, even coaches we hate, but when it comes to Pope, they not only focus solely on the negative things, but they actually fabricate stuff to make it seem worse.
I mean, I get we have standards, but the amount of hate Pope is getting right now, doesn't fit the situation. I could understand it if Pope went to the NIT both years, but that never even came close to happening.
We have too many video game fans. Immaturity at it's worst.
Only JQ is worth talking about. Lowe and Williams are mid level players those dude are duds
I’ll called out the same thing. They use one measure for our coach and a different measure for everyone else.
OH
My
God.
The stupidity on this board.
I loved Tubby and Donna. First class people.
My best friend is black and I have a black SIL.
I'm 53.
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Everybody on this board knows that Tubby was mediocre as a Kentucky coach. That is a fact. After UK, he never did much of anything. Explain to me how it is that he was a dismal failure at High Point and yet the current coach not only got them into the tournament but actually won in the tournament.
So you hang out with a lot of Louisville fans.
Interesting since your only posts seem to be denigrating our program.
They’ve won 3 more tournament games than we have since Pope has been here I think they’d be fine lol
The biggest myth on here is fans want Pope to fail. Nobody wants him to fail, I’d love for him to kill it next year and make a final four. I just don’t believe he can do that. I think he can be a mid level coach with an occasional sweet 16. Unfortunately, that’s not the standard here and not why we’re paying him nearly $6mil/yr. I hope I’m wrong but I’d rather move on and get someone whose up for the job.