His plan was Scott Drew. When his family didn’t want to leave Waco and Drew said no, he had no other plan. He immediately pivoted to Pope.
Meanwhile, Calipari Lite Has the #1 Class Coming In, and Richmond/Thomas might return.
- Thread starter Son_Of_Saul
- Start date
I’ve been a fan since Dan Issel played. I can remember crying when Artis Gilmore and Jacksonville beat us in the NCAA Tourney after Issel got screwed on a charging call when a Jax player slid in front of him at half court, fouling him out. I’ve worked for a vendor that had courtside seats. Been to 2 final fours. Personal friends with a few ex Cats. So, yeah, I’ve been a fan longer than your crying ***** *** has been alive.
Ill start with the 2012 National Championship. Has Pope ever got that far?
**** Calipari regardless what Pope is doing. Only 2, maybe 3 teams last season had more talent on the roster than Arkansas and his bum *** was a 4 seed and lost in the S16. Been there done that.
I'm locking in next years FF prediction. Arkansas, Kansas, Duke, Louisville.
I’ll take it one further. Arkansas and Louisville in the natty.
Pretty short
Pretty short sighted, aint it? Look at the bigger picture
No its not short sighted. Cal is old, it's fair to say he lost his touch.
Most rationale fans should have. Matt Jones and the guys stoked the hate towards Cal because he wouldn't talk to them. Matt got his feelings hurt. Now we end up with Pope and he still doesn't talk to Matt.
All. the best programs have these guys retire and become ambassadors for the program like coach K, Roy Williams and soon to be Bill Self. Instead we run Cal off and miss out on him be ing associated with Uk into the further. Furthermore, it divides his players loyalties and you end up with even the most loyal Ky kids like Reed Sheppard showing support for Arkansas. Mitch overplayed his hand and got called.
I don't think so. The hire didn't have a plan or process. It was a compete cluster fuc@.
Love how folks forget the fact Cal lost to 15 seeds twice his last three years here, with all the draft picks.
The big picture...
Who has a more successful career overall?
Who has a more successful first 2 years at UK?
Who has coached more talent?
Who has won a Title?
Be better.
Cal with actual money to spend would be dangerous here. Heck he is killing it at Arkansas. Mitch screwed it up when he didn't get Cal the nil necessary to get hunter dickenson. If he did Cal is still here and we probably make it to another final four at minimum.
Indiana rebranded after Knight. Hired one good coach in Sampson and the time era took him out for small things now and millions of dollars more wouldn't even be a whisper. I think I would rather have Cal with the new era and money and NBA proven background then a guy that hasn't recruited or won more than anyone else at other schools.
Plus if they get Obinna E then they literally have a fab 5 plus Richmond, leek and J Wilkerson. That team is going to be sick. Who we gonna get?
I think we're talking about different things bud. I'm just referring to the present day. Obviously Cal has the better career.
The big issue with Arkansas is they can have the best class, we all know it will end with a loss to an inferior team.
Arkansas could have prime Jordan, Bird, Stockton, Lebron, and and Shaq and have a hard time winning it. Calipari can't win unless he has overwhelming talent and those days are behind us. I wish this fan base would let it go.
Hahaha, good analogy. Yes it was time for Cal to go but Pope was not the right hire. At least Cal had an exciting team at Arkansas last season. I hate Arkansas though.
You must have forgotten his trajectory.
Slow bleed with basically a lifetime contract?
No thanks.
Calipari can recruit. That was never in doubt.
It's his coaching, and underachieving with the talent he brought in that created BBN unrest.
Let me repeat:
9-16 (worst UK season in past 100 years)
1-3 in NCAA-T his last 4 years at UK
2 of the 3 worst NCAA-T losses EVER (2 losing to a 15, & 3 losing to a 14)
His last 8 possible NCAA-T, 0 F4, 2 E8, 3 S16, 10-7, that is 1.25 NCAA-T wins per season over those 8 years.
So what did he do, he doubled down, and started talking to a rival school about their coaching job hoping that would get him a new (bigger) contract with UK. WTF!!!
is losing to St. Pete and Oakland exciting for UK fans?
We didn't have a choice. Cal was shopping himself around in the middle of a basketball season. He was leaving regardless. Mitch, being the incompetent crook that he is, didn't have a legit backup plan aside from a moonshot (Hurley) and then dial a friend for help (Drew). When those options didn't work, somehow we ended all the way down the list to Pope. This was one of the most unprepared, unprofessional, and objectively negligent hiring sequences that I have ever seen. There's no excusing it.
and why was he shopping himself? Because we pushed him out. Grass isn’t greener, buddy!
Kentucky was tired of Cal's **** and Cal was tired of Kentucky not bending at the knee for his mediocre results. That said, I agree. Given the choice of Cal or Pope, I'm still riding with Cal. Problem is, both are garbage at this point in their careers. We need a third option
Billy will for sure return, and Maleek is 60-40 on coming back. Ekezie is committing to someone and reclassifying late this week. I would not bet against Cal on Ekezie.
Losing to Iowa State by 20 in second round is super exciting. Oh and having no high school recruits really got me super excited about next year. People on here can spin it any way they want, we are ten times worse now than any time during Calipari's time here.
Donors weren't on board, though. And recruiting was suffering. It probably was only going to get worse. Cal had to leave to get the big NIL.
But also, he had REALLY stopped caring/trying here. He frequently made the comments about the NBA draft and generating generational wealth being his real mission. He admitted he did a pi$$ poor job scouting Oakland. He still isn't a great X's and O's in game coach.
I think cutting ties was the right move for both sides.
Hiring Mark Pope was stupid. And we're paying the price.
In an ideal world, he gets you 1-2 tournament wins this season, but everyone at the top realizes things aren't good enough. And we part ways. Then we can look back at a very down/transition period for UK and say we made the tournament all 3 years, we won 4 or 5 tournament games, we kept pace with Kansas for the all-time wins lead.
I'm not saying the above is acceptable. It's not. That's why you move on. But Louisville's down/transition years were FAR worse.
No. That's not the way it happened. Everyone, including a recruiting class, expected him back. Saying that he was forced out is simply not true.