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Freeman Damning Quote

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Farsight Clone

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This is damning in my opinion. It's an indirect slight to Pope and rightfully so. If you picked St. Johns because of this, you would pick Rick every time.

And you dang well know Ricky P said this to convince him.

This quote is all you need to know. A lot of us have been saying this throughout this season and we got blasted for it by the Pope Pumpers.

 
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Wildcat_in_DC

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pope is proving everyone who doubted the hire correct. cant land high level talent and his Xs and Os ability has been overrated. he is an average coach that is producing average results. just a matter of time until its over. but it will be over. this year or next. sadly we just have to suffer through it all.
 
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kfwa

kfwa

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Oct 12, 2014
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did St. John's offer more money than Kentucky for Freeman?

if so, then that quote from Freeman is horseshit.

now if St. John's offered the same or less, then I'll put some stock into it.
 
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FitchandMurray29

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Not being a Pope defender and maybe I’m just forgetting, but who are these pros that Donnie would even be aware of since like Donovan Mitchell?

Walter Clayton was a transfer out that I know made it. Blanking on others at the moment.

This was a “source” that used a true statement to deflect from the money angle which is understandable but unnecessary from Goodman. Why not just come out and say they had the highest offer, a HOF coach, and NYC was too much to pass up for Donnie.
 
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Farsight Clone

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philstat said:
This list is actually and sadly very incomplete, it’s actually much worse, several players are missing…
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True. Maybe the poster didn't want to put the full list because, well...like you said, its way worse or maybe it was too many to remember lol
 
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Wildcat_in_DC

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no one in freeman's camp wanted him at uk. no one....not sure why pope and thought they could over come that hurdle. unless they were willing to over spend by a ton. i'll give cal credit....he seemed to manage these land mines pretty well. pope seems to step on them with 2 feet.
 
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Wildcat_in_DC

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kfwa said:
its a manufactured quote.

Freeman would be at Kentucky had Pope decided to pay him a NIL package worth $5m.

the only thing damning about it is Pope puts a cap on paying guys to come here.
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i agree and part of the cap process is the new GM. we could have had wright, chandler, and freeman if they were willing to right the check. but it appears they either dont want to overspend or dont have the funds to cover it.
 
F

Farsight Clone

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kfwa said:
its a manufactured quote.

Freeman would be at Kentucky had Pope decided to pay him a NIL package worth $5m.

the only thing damning about it is Pope puts a cap on paying guys to come here.
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I don't think you're comprehending the point here.

No matter if its manufactured or not, its the simple fact that it was said. Because it was said, its a damning quote to Pope. How?

1. Pope whiffed on Rancik because he thought they would get Freeman.

2. It says everything that most of know to be true by Pope's tenure here. Rick Pitino's coaching style and Pope's are polar opposites. There is nothing that indicates Pope has it to coach hard. He even stated quite the opposite. He wants to coach with positive affirmations.

3. He chose Pope's former coach over him.
 
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CatFanMan66

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Feb 4, 2022
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Farsight Clone said:
This is damning in my opinion. It's an indirect slight to Pope and rightfully so. If you picked St. Johns because of this, you would pick Rick every time.

And you dang well know Ricky P said this to convince him.

This quote is all you need to know. A lot of us have been saying this throughout this season and we got blasted for it by the Pope Pumpers.

Click to expand...

He picked the "school" that will pay him the most money. Everything else is just talk. Nothing damming here brother.
 
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Farsight Clone

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CatFanMan66 said:
He picked the "school" that will pay him the most money. Everything else is just talk. Nothing damming here brother.
Click to expand...

Yes, but there is nuance. The fact that this was said makes it damning. SMH

You Are Dumb Mario Lopez GIF
 
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Beatle Bum

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Rick scores that all day. Rick also loses on a lot of players because today not all of the top players want that. He desperately needed a true PG going into last season and lost on just about all he was courting. Some would say Rick does not relate as well with some of today’s players because of that. In fact, at the end of his UK career, he lost on a lot of recruits, especially to UNC and Duke if I recall correctly. His style is not everyone’s cup of tea. But, for a Big East type kid, it makes sense he would find the appeal. Plus, reports are, they paid him very well. There is that.
 
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Tri-Countycat

Tri-Countycat

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Pope made the first offer and it was fair money. If he wanted to play for Pope, he would have committed. He either used UK to up offers at other schools and had no intention of coming, or Pope has such a poor reputation and personality that he started shopping after the visit just to find somewhere, anywhere to go to keep from having to play for him. I’d guess it’s the second scenario.
 
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KevinM

Redshirt
Oct 12, 2014
34
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With the portal, is there anyone you can't succeed without? I don't think so.
With the total revamp of the roster, Stokes IMO is the only must-get.
And what's wrong with bringing back a couple of guys who were here last year that haven't gone elsewhere yet?
 
ToniTonyToneDelkDelkDelk

ToniTonyToneDelkDelkDelk

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FitchandMurray29 said:
Not being a Pope defender and maybe I’m just forgetting, but who are these pros that Donnie would even be aware of since like Donovan Mitchell?

Walter Clayton was a transfer out that I know made it. Blanking on others at the moment.

This was a “source” that used a true statement to deflect from the money angle which is understandable but unnecessary from Goodman. Why not just come out and say they had the highest offer, a HOF coach, and NYC was too much to pass up for Donnie.
Click to expand...

1 > 0

And we know it's not 1
 
kfwa

kfwa

Senior
Oct 12, 2014
529
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Farsight Clone said:
I don't think you're comprehending the point here.

No matter if its manufactured or not, its the simple fact that it was said. Because it was said, its a damning quote to Pope. How?

1. Pope whiffed on Rancik because he thought they would get Freeman.

2. It says everything that most of know to be true by Pope's tenure here. Rick Pitino's coaching style and Pope's are polar opposites. There is nothing that indicates Pope has it to coach hard. He even stated quite the opposite. He wants to coach with positive affirmations.

3. He chose Pope's former coach over him.
Click to expand...
I'm getting the point. Its Rick Pitino, in what world would Mark Pope outclass Rick Pitino in coaching?

I'm not saying Pope is doing great, far from it.

but at the end of the day, with NIL, its not a damning quote, its just a manufactured quote.

As I understand it, Pope was led to believe he had Freeman locked up at $3m.

Pitino came in at $4m.

if the situation was reversed, we'd be reading a quote from Freeman about how going to Kentucky was his dream, blah, blah, blah

so the damning part of this isn't the quote, its the decision to not pay more than St. Johns to land the kid, and people can argue about whether that was the right decision or not, but what I'm not going to get worked up about is a kid saying he chose Rick Pitino over Mark Pope for coaching if Rick Pitino, the god of coaching, had to pay $1m more to get him.

the only people that aren't over it, are apparently the people that put stock in his quote.

the best part of this is, had Kentucky got Freeman over St. Johns there would be no shortage of people saying how Pope had to pay more than Pitino to get this kid.
 
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Farsight Clone

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kfwa said:
I'm getting the point. Its Rick Pitino, in what world would Mark Pope outclass Rick Pitino in coaching?

I'm not saying Pope is doing great, far from it.

but at the end of the day, with NIL, its not a damning quote, its just a manufactured quote.

As I understand it, Pope was led to believe he had Freeman locked up at $3m.

Pitino came in at $4m.

if the situation was reversed, we'd be reading a quote from Freeman about how going to Kentucky was his dream, blah, blah, blah

so the damning part of this isn't the quote, its the decision to not pay more than St. Johns to land the kid, and people can argue about whether that was the right decision or not, but what I'm not going to get worked up about is a kid saying he chose Rick Pitino over Mark Pope for coaching if Rick Pitino, the god of coaching, had to pay $1m more to get him.

the only people that aren't over it, are apparently the people that put stock in his quote.
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I guess I have to spell it out for you lol

"He wanted a guy that would coach him hard, and wanted someone who had coached pros."

The Bold is the MOST Damning. The Bold + Italics is adjacent to the bold because Pope got Kobe Brea to the pros.

It's like saying, hey man the sky is blue on a clear sunny day. And you're saying the sky is red. Keep living in your fairytale I suppose.
 
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UKGrad24

UKGrad24

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St.Patterson_54_ said:
Pope has a terrible rep and everyone is using that against him in recruiting battles. The only way out of this hole is to win with substandard players, and I'm not convinced he's up to the job.
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It’s still amazing to me there are a few who think he can “turn this around”. Nothing screams “I don’t understand how any of this works” like someone believing he can turn around not just a bad 12 year coaching record, but also horrible reputation blows all over the recruiting trail, with coaches, and agents.

Mark pope was finished the beginning of his second year. He was really finished the day he was hired, but there are elements to his early 2nd year and recruiting situation that show early 2nd year he was done.

This is Kentucky. This is not somewhere you give a guy with his 10 year record “a chance to see”. This is one of the biggest disasters I’ve ever witnessed in our programs history.
 
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