You're right. CM was better.
No he had to be set aside to hire Cal. The real players behind the scenes made that happen so he couldn’t ruin us 17 years ago.
CM’s been gone 10 years or so many he passed away what are you talking about? He exists? This whole thing is all about money the way that Matt‘s looking at this and a lot UK fans who gabled Barney to stay 25 years it’s always been based on money. And I have no idea in hell how Eli could be in trusted to make the next hire for our athletic Director. After trying to work around the law, I mean, come on Matt how about getting in there and ask these types of questions. Like that’s a serious question. How in the hell can Eli make the hire. Who’s on the hiring committee or is it just as far as I understand it’s just Eli did a listening to do the hiring. Where is this Matt to ask your stinking question where is any of the local media?. I mean, people hated Jerry Tipton, but at least that dude kept things honest. He was always lurking.
Cal was here far past when he should. What destroyed Kentucky was Barnhart panicking and paying Cal on a lifetime contract with really, no ability to buy them out. It took away all of cals motivation. Terrible management decision. On top of terrible management decision with this guy yeah he made a couple of decent hires but that’s it. He had to fire one of the guys I mean the guy had an entire season vacated a 10 win season and Barney give his friend a golden parachute $30 million his good friend is the associate head coach at Texas now. That’s costing us $30 million. There was no offset so you get the buyout no matter what.. no Mitch Barnhardt was the fortunate one to be in the right place at the right time when college sports exploded into a cash cow. He didn’t do anything special like I’ve said you could’ve put a chimp in his job with a button to push for decisions he would’ve done a better job.
I know, BVF. I know you're football first and I'm basketball first. I respect that, sirI totally agree with you...except in reverse
People in angst should look to us. Total opposites--but cordial in disagreement.I know, BVF. I know you're football first and I'm basketball first. I respect that, sir
You'd have to go back to Bear Bryant to say any different.
To Rupp's credit he did schedule the best out of conference games he could get and regularly publicly challenged the SEC to take BB more serious and to improve.
I remember when Mitch was hired a big emphasis was put on him to improve those other sports and to improve our financial situation. He absolutely achieved that. I get what you are saying but your complaint should be more about what his bosses prioritized than the job he did. I don't know all the numbers and stats for BB during his tenure but I'm guessing it still stacks up rather well nationally.
Tubby's last 5 years he was 32-4,27-5,28-6,22-13,22-12 so I don't really see where he was kept too long. That is 109-28 which rounds off to an 80% winning percentage with two Elite 8's in the four seasons prior to his final season. The time was about right from what I see.
What you like does not matter. Those teams were his job! Although many think the UK AD's job is only basketball and football, that simply is not a realistic view of what he was hired to do. Look at where the other programs were before and after MB's tenure. People need to be objective and not lemmings when it comes to evaluating the entire body of work. I'm not his biggest fan, but objective enough to know he did a damn good job while AD at UK (some of those contracts snafus were not his finest work lol). You can look the records up and compare to other schools nationally. If you really are objective, you would be shocked at how he stacks up. Whether you like it or not.
Mitch's job however is to do what you can see on that list----NOT to impress you or the basketball bennies. To the degree we are a blueblood in basketball---great. But the era of NIL and yearly transfers from the portal----its a whole new world.
I just don’t agree with the premise. Respectfully disagree.
Your view 2 may be correct but who decides what those programs are that have value or deserve emphasis? They are different to different people (or fans). I know people who couldn't care less about Football or men's basketball, but love women's basketball, baseball, or volleyball. Are they wrong because they say MB was the best AD since the sports they value are infinitely better than they were prior to his arrival? As fans, it's natural for us to value certain sports over others. Just because you (or others) value one or two only doesn't mean you are correct in doing so. As AD, MB was literally hired to lead the entire athletic department, and he did that better than any AD ever. As someone else said, don't fault MB because he was hired to improve all sports. Get mad at the people who told him to do that. He got us to the point that UK is no longer a one trick pony and that in of itself is a huge success.
Agreed. It is highly subjective. That’s why I’m providing my subjective opinion as most are as well. I understand people may find my view as wrong and all that, but I just think a program that doesn’t know what defines it loses the very greatness that sets it apart.
While I do agree with your take to certain extent BB has gone 627-216 for a 74.4 winning percentage with 10 elite 8's, four final 4's, a runner-up and a championship during his tenure. While I just like you would always like even more success particularly in the post season this is not exactly garbage level or totally sinking the program (not saying you said it was).
One national title in his 24 years for a program that was winning the title 11.1 percent of the time prior to his tenure.
That is a disappointing fact but I doubt you would deny that the landscape of college BB has changed considerably compared to a good chunk of the time when the 11.1 was achieved. It could easily be 8.4 or even 12.5 under Mitch if not for the rooferee's considerable impact. '14,'15, and '17 were clearly marred by injustice.
I don’t disagree. I always allow for the context/caveat of the changing of times. That said, I can’t give a passing grade to a number that is nearly 300% worse than average for an AD tenure at Kentucky.
