This drama has me missing the good old days when we KNEW we were getting "the guy"
- Thread starter Ash Williams
- Start date
Everyone who was in the room when Mitch Barnhart entered and said, “I’m going to offer Mark Pope the job”, should receive a lifetime ban from EVERYTHING sports related, and threatened to be thrown in a fire pit if they ever deviated!
Imagine Jeff Bezos’ Director of Operations offering the President of Amazon position to a guy who runs a Rent-A-Center somewhere in Utah, who once worked for Amazon as a delivery driver and won Employee of the Month back in 1996!
That’s how colossally bad this hire was for UK!
Imagine Jeff Bezos’ Director of Operations offering the President of Amazon position to a guy who runs a Rent-A-Center somewhere in Utah, who once worked for Amazon as a delivery driver and won Employee of the Month back in 1996!
That’s how colossally bad this hire was for UK!
I didn’t think we were getting Terrence Jones until we did weeks later but I see your point
Hell, we had a stretch there where it seemed like recruiting just consisted of picking and choosing whoever we wanted. The CBB world had never seen another recruiting run like it before …or since.
The unfortunate part is we somehow managed to only get one title out of that lengthy stretch of having far more talent than everybody else in the sport.
I think some of our younger fans didn’t realize just how crazy abnormal our recruiting was during that period. They thought it would always be that easy. And now they’ve been welcomed back to the real world very harshly.
The unfortunate part is we somehow managed to only get one title out of that lengthy stretch of having far more talent than everybody else in the sport.
I think some of our younger fans didn’t realize just how crazy abnormal our recruiting was during that period. They thought it would always be that easy. And now they’ve been welcomed back to the real world very harshly.
NIL has drastically changed the landscape of recruiting. Now it's 'legal to pay' for players.
Yea, I desperately miss winning in recruiting and losing in the first round to a 15 seed. So awesome were the good Ole days.
Obviously the answer to a Bad coach/Great recruiter isn't a Mid coach/ Bad recruiter.
There are plenty of coaches who can do both well. Balance is key. But that would take due diligence and work from a capable AD.
Hey! We won the draft!
I miss winning in recruiting and reaching Elite Eights and Final Fours. That happened much more often than losing in the first round.
It was definitely time for Cal to go. His first 5-6 years were amazing though. I still have hope in Pope. People can laugh all they want but I think he deserves a year 3, especially since he's one of our own. We've given other coaches a much longer leash than that.
This is exactly why you don't hire former players with no resume.
We didn’t get “the guy” the last 5 years Cal was here. He started getting guys ranked 12-35 instead of 1-15. Pope sucks, but things have gone downhill for a while.
Too bad Cal didn’t reach a final 4 his last 9 years here, or an elite 8 in his last 5.
You gotta go WAY back for that though.
Like before Duke adopted the one&done and when WWW was more interested in “influencing “ kids on their college decisions instead of the NBA.
And we appear to be throwing large amounts of money at players, and still can’t get them to come here
But we were always competitive, reached the Elite Eight and regularly at the top of the SEC. Like you mentioned earlier, Calipari stopped getting the top guys towards the end, because of who he hired as assistants (Joel Justus & Tony Barbee as opposed to Kenny Payne & John Robic). There's plenty to complain about Calipari, but the poster that I replied to was acting like losing in the first round was a regular thing throughout his tenure.
incoming cal haters that ran off a hof coach for a bad stretch
I agree. That pretty much sums up my thinking.
Billy Clyde only got 2 years because he chased coeds, drove drunk, abused players, and lost. Nobody, including prospective coaches could fault anyone for firing him. But Pope's record, beating top teams with a broke down team. He can't be treated like BCG if we expect any decent coaches to consider taking the job. We have high standards, but that's an unreasonably high bar. Noone is going to leave their current school, where they are having success, to coach at a school that will only give you 2 years to build a champion. That's a good way to find yourself right back at the bottom, coaching the Little Lord Fauntleroy School for Hemophilia in Division IV.
Honest question: Why carry the burden of BBN, when I can get the same or comparable money elsewhere?
I am just thinking of a comparison that has been used Bama FB vs UK BB - When is the last time Bama FB recruiting was ranked 34th?
2027 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings
A list of the top 2027 Football teams in order of recruiting rankings solely based off of the Rivals Industry Ranking
No and the latter years weren't acceptable. However, I think a lot of fans suffer from recency bias and overlook the first 10 years.
Better than what we have going right now.The greatest night in the history of UK basketball.
Completely agree. It was time for him to go, but every off-season it always seemed like there was hope because of the talent coming in. Now UK can't even buy a recruit.
He went to 4 final fours n 5 seasons. No UK coach before or after is touching that record.
He would have been better off losing to unc n 2011 and then beating au n 2019. Same amount of final fours but more spread out.
He should have been allowed to leave n 2019.
getting the guy? how about just being on a radar.
I dont want it to be about the stars or ranking.,....
BUT
KSR is stoked about Justin McBride... I did a scroll search for him on 247...
he is 207th in transfer portal.
we are sitting here waiting to hear if a 3 star player is interested in little ole us..
Poop is broke.
I dont want it to be about the stars or ranking.,....
BUT
KSR is stoked about Justin McBride... I did a scroll search for him on 247...
he is 207th in transfer portal.
we are sitting here waiting to hear if a 3 star player is interested in little ole us..
Poop is broke.
probably dont even need to go to the ATM for this guy..
walking around money..
or maybe it will take millions to listen to mark poop
walking around money..
or maybe it will take millions to listen to mark poop
Yea and look at what Bobby Knight did and then finished at.
Let’s be honest: 38-1 killed Cal. He was never the same after that. His first 5 years were spectacular, and I think he would have won 3-4 here had he finished 40-0, and would still be here to this day.
Is what it is though.
We would have been better off losing a game or 2. The pressure was on UK and pressure was on Vegas as I recall for UK to not go 40 and 0. Bad combo.
Don’t worry, everyone! We are underperforming this season, but we have Wagner coming in. He’s the dawg at PG we sorely need!
A Historic bad stretch like 9-16 worst in school history bad stretch. Or St Peters or Oakland both take your pick as to which one was the worst tournament loss in program history. Listen I'm no Pope fan because he's also breaking some records and not the good kind either. We didn't need Cal as coach anymore he ran his course and Mitch sure as heck didn't need to hire Pope as his replacement...
Wisconsin finished 36-4 and 2 of their loses were to Duke the national champions. They were very good and we didn’t have anyone that could guard Dekker.
We missed Poy a lot at times but no more than game. UK has had a lot of key injuries that probably prevented titles. Anderson is the obvious pick but I think Poy being out is not talked about enough.
I’ll admit Cal > Pope, but that’s like saying I’ll take a sprained ankle instead of a broke foot. They both suck.