Pope's SRS (performance vs schedule) average for 2 seasons at UK is 20.19

Beatle Bum

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The schedule(predominantly focusing on the SEC) improving while we declined as a program(with and without Cal) was terrible timing.

It happened so quickly that I don’t think fans truly processed what’s happened.

I agree with Cal that he had something to do with the SEC improving its Coaches and taking basketball more seriously. During his tenure at UK, the SEC began to give great attention to improving basketball. That improvement pinnacled in Pope’s first year. The SEC demolished every other league in quality of play and competition. The ACC suffered the most from the SEC’s dominance. Last year the SEC had less Tier 1 schools, but still was highly competitive. Pope landed at UK in a different era. Past coaches had to deal with a few really competitive teams, but the middle and bottom of the SEC permitted recovery. In the current era, there just are few easy nights in a deeper league. Almost any team can beat another by double digits.


In 2014 where we lost 11 games, we played one ranked program from January to the start of the NCAAT(Florida x3). Outside of UK, only two SEC teams made the tournament.

In 2011 we lost 9 games. We did not play one game all season(not counting NCAAT) against a top 10 team. Vandy and Florida were the only other SEC KenPom top 50 teams that year.

The schedule and injuries provide important context for the Pope era, they don’t excuse it. He gets another shot this year. The recruiting and on court success either improve or he’s gone next March/April.

Agreed. It’s not “excuses” but are facts for those who remain objective.
 

Beatle Bum

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Have you doomers forgotten Mark Pope out‑coached BOTH Rick Pitino and John Calipari last season? Out‑coached them. Out‑schemed them. Out‑executed them.

Because I don’t hear a single one of the RP & Cal lovers bringing that up anymore.
Funny how that works.
It is a fact that he won both of those games and won handily away from Rupp. Not the only fact that matters but if you hold Rick rightfully to be still one of the greatest coaches, you must account for the fact that his highly regarded team lost in double digits after being run off the floor in the second half.

Did that cover the frustration of last season? Of course not. Is that the standard at UK? Nope. Is it evidence of Pope’s ability to coach against recognized masters of the sport? It is.

Will that save Pope’s job if this season is like last? Nope.

The objective filter on this forum is hard to find. We can blame the low IQ trolls with multiple accounts (and if you think I am talking about you, you are probably right) but their baiting is only part of the problem. Too many here have lost what little sense that once may have had and now have let their emotions filter everything.
 
Jul 17, 2025
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Your list is meaningless because you're confounding 2 different stats, first year in their careers or first year at a school.
Mark Pope has coached for 11 years now. He just happen to have started at other schools. A lot of these coaches were much younger than Pope when they accomplished and their career were still on the way up.

People consistently fail to take into account age when evaluating Pope's performance, he's not some young up and comer, he's an established coach who is either at his peak or already past his peak.

For example, did you know that Dean Smith in his 10th and 11th season was 42-43 years old?
Same for a the next few names on your list. Tom Izzo was 44-45 in his year 4-5. Donovan was 35-36. K was 39-40, Richardson was 49-50, so was Danny Hurley. Golden was 39-40. Bennet was 44-45.

Mark Pope turns 54 this year. The Pope UK has is probably the best Pope UK will ever see. If anything, he'll be starting to decline.
What supports the idea that starting a profession later dictates some accelerated development curve?

Why exactly is ten years experience not ten years experience?
 
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SpamFilter

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What supports the idea that starting a profession later dictates some accelerated development curve?

Why exactly is ten years experience not ten years experience?
Because peak coaching level is not just a factor of experience, it's also combines factors of mental acuity, energy level, etc. Those things tend to peak in the mid 40s to mid 50s for most men and then start to decline.
 

megablue

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Oct 2, 2012
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Whoever the coach is now at KY, along with every other school, when the money is the same, player-candidates have to be convinced of and attracted to the reasons for coming to your school to play. Coaches and staffs that cannot sell their programs, school and the community at large will struggle. Pope is certainly not alone is this regard. There are clearly some who can sell their opportunities and situations better than others. Hopefully, Pope can QUICKLY learn how to be one of them. If not, I suspect his days are numbered ... no different than for other coaches that have big $$$ budgets to WIN !!
There simply is more pre$$ure to win now ... or the money will tend to dry up !! Coaches have to earn their big salaries, if they want to keep them.
 
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Rosie66

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This is when these national champion coaches since 1991 matched or bettered this 2 year average at the schools they won a title

Tom Izzo season 4 and 5

Dean Smith season 10 and 11

Billy Donovan season 4 and 5

Coach K season 5 and 6

Nolan Richardson season 5 and 6

Danny Hurley season 5 and 6

Todd Golden season 3 and 4

Scott Drew season 17 and 18

Tony Bennett season 6 and 7

Jay Wright season 13 and 14

Jim Calhoun season 8 and 9

Gary Williams season 9 and 10

Lute Olson season 4 and 5

Jim Harrick never accomplished it in 8 seasons at UCLA

Rick Pitino season 3 and 4 at UK season 3 and 4 at UL

Kevin Ollie never matched it in 6 seasons at UConn

Jim Boeheim season 12 and 13

Tubby Smith season 1 and 2


Bill Self season 2 and 3
Roy Williams season 1 and 2

Dusty May season 1 and 2

John Calipari season 1 and 2

4 of the last 22 National championship coaches bettered Pope's SRS in their first two seasons at their respective schools.

Can be found here
and here
Billy Donavan that you keep begging to be coach had a record in his first 2 years as Florida's coach was 27-32. That is a lot worse than Pope's first 2 years here.
 

BlueBloodKyFan72

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To some people, to you it might, but not me

Im not that demanding of a fan, I want entertainment and fun basketball, but the pope era hyperfixates on wins and threw the entertainment value out the window
So was it entertaining and fun against

LOUISVILLE
MICH ST
GONZAGA
IOWA ST
VANDY
FLORIDA (3x)
TEXAS AM
BAMA
MISSOURI
UNC
AUBURN
GEORGIA
 
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BigBluefoot

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Just shows your emotions do not always match the facts.
Yeah, you are a regular Spock. Purely analytical and detached while you continually and ferociously attempt to polish a turd. Does that seem logical?
star trek sudden realization GIF
 
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Beatle Bum

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I think Pope is a decent coach. He just can't recruit, and doesn't connect with younger players.
From a fan’s perspective, he seemed to connect with Chandler, Moreno, Hawthorne, Noah, and other players who entered his program young. He is evidently really good friends with some of his players he coached at BYU.

He certainly appears to be able to recruit transfer players. In fact, there are reports that players who went elsewhere were interested in UK, but went elsewhere when recruitment or negotiations were stalled by Pope’s drive to get Stokes or when Pope cooled on them.

I think there is a lot of emphasis placed by some Whiffsters here as to what commitments Pope did not get and no respect for the commitments Pope did get. The discussion should objectively include both.

I also think that some of the HS recruits were probably asked to wait too long as Pope pursued Stokes. And, I am not sure that Pope thinks he can get to where he wants to be with frosh guards. I tend to agree when I look at this year’s senior class.
 
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You’re a shill, so anything you say means nothing. You shilled big time for Mark Stoops. Even when it was clear he was done at UK. You’re a company man.
You are someone who has no clue what he is talking about including this goofy claim. Just because I look at things rationally instead of the emotional knee jerk reactions that guide you you lean into these fallacious beliefs.
 
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Billy Donavan that you keep begging to be coach had a record in his first 2 years as Florida's coach was 27-32. That is a lot worse than Pope's first 2 years here.
You seem totally misguided with this post. I started a thread that pointed out Donovan's record as well as 12 other coaches with NCAA titles since 1991 who had worse records than Pope their first two seasons at their respective schools.

 
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So are injuries. Esp when you specifically recruited one coming off a major injury and another with a history of injuries. Kam I will give him a pass on.
One guy with an extremely high upside potential was coming off surgery. Are you referring to a finger injury as the other one? Lowe only missed one game in two seasons at Pitt. Should that finger injury have told Pope he was at significant risk of separating his shoulder?
 
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RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
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You are someone who has no clue what he is talking about including this goofy claim. Just because I look at things rationally instead of the emotional knee jerk reactions that guide you you lean into this fallacious beliefs.
Situational irony, Mark Pope is Lute Olson, we just need to give him time. And Mark Stoops is a home run hire for Texas A&M. All takes by you.
 
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Situational irony, Mark Pope is Lute Olson, we just need to give him time. And Mark Stoops is a home run hire for Texas A&M. All takes by you.
I never said either of these things or anything even close. This is a rather weak attempt on your part. You just start pulling things out of your butt because the actual truth doesn't go your way.
 
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Have you doomers forgotten Mark Pope out‑coached BOTH Rick Pitino and John Calipari last season? Out‑coached them. Out‑schemed them. Out‑executed them.

Because I don’t hear a single one of the RP & Cal lovers bringing that up anymore.
Funny how that works.
Thats great. Still no regular season or conference tournament titles which are far more important than beating rivals
 
May 4, 2015
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If you have a significant issue with what Pope did in Y1 you are a jerkoff.

If you are satisfied with what Pope did in Y2 you are a fool.

If he doesn't get recruiting figured out he needs to go.
I'll counter that first argument. When had a Sweet Sixteen meant anything for this program? Do we not hang banners for Final Fours and Titles?
 

Cats4321

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SRS seems to reward teams for playing a tough schedule and blowing out bad teams. You can lose a ton of games and still have a relatively high SRS with the right inputs. So it can be misleading is specific cases. It also doesn't make a lot of sense to compare SRS from different years. SRS isn't an absolute scale...it is relative to a specific season baseline.

The average SRS is in the SEC is about 6-8 points higher than 10 years ago (other major conferences have seen similar increases except ACC). So today's average teams would automatically get a statistical boost compared to Billy Donovan's teams for example. So it would be more difficult for BD to have reached that 20.19 threshold(Kentucky's average the last two years) even if those Florida teams were better in every way.
 
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SRS seems to reward teams for playing a tough schedule and blowing out bad teams. You can lose a ton of games and still have a relatively high SRS with the right inputs. So it can be misleading is specific cases. It also doesn't make a lot of sense to compare SRS from different years. SRS isn't an absolute scale...it is relative to a specific season baseline.

The average SRS is in the SEC is about 6-8 points higher than 10 years ago (other major conferences have seen similar increases except ACC). So today's average teams would automatically get a statistical boost compared to Billy Donovan's teams for example. So it would be more difficult for BD to have reached that 20.19 threshold(Kentucky's average the last two years) even if those Florida teams were better in every way.
I'll try to make this as simple as possible. The more difficult your opponent is the more you will benefit from beating them and the less you will be penalized for losing to them. The weaker your opponent the less credit you will receive for beating them and the more you will be penalized for losing to them. Vary the degrees of this based on home floor, visiting, or neutral court along with margin of victory or loss.

You have to blow out weak opponents to get the same credit as narrowly beating a quality opponent. If the opponent is too weak you may even get less credit for blowing them out than for losing to a strong opponent. It is all pretty simple and logical actually.

Look at it this way. Should Miami of Ohio have been rewarded with a high SRS do to their record this past season or should their SRS potential be limited due to a weak schedule? It varies accordingly throughout the spectrum.

The average SRS of a league is based on the strength of that league which is mostly based on what they do against other leagues. The ACC was once the strongest conference now it is the weakest power conference hence their SRS dropping while the conferences that have improved have seen theirs rise.
 
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Wayne Dougan

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I'll counter that first argument. When had a Sweet Sixteen meant anything for this program? Do we not hang banners for Final Fours and Titles?
Counter all you want, but you're wrong. He came in fresh, built a pretty good team very quickly, and performed well including wins over Duke. I expected him to grow from this; instead he regressed.
 
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We use to make fun of Indiana for rtreatong regular season wins like championships


This is what I mean when I say we are becoming IU
Nobody is "rtreatong" regular seasons wins like championships.
I'll counter that first argument. When had a Sweet Sixteen meant anything for this program? Do we not hang banners for Final Fours and Titles?
While sweet 16's are not the goal here they certainly beat first round loses and missed tournaments. Are you suggesting that you should be fired if you don't hang banners in your first two seasons? That should really help attract the next coach.
 

anot

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Nobody is "rtreatong" regular seasons wins like championships.

While sweet 16's are not the goal here they certainly beat first round loses and missed tournaments. Are you suggesting that you should be fired if you don't hang banners in your first two seasons? That should really help attract the next coach.
So say Pope is here 15 years like Cal and we have already seen his ceiling...a sweet sixteen. Would you still use Cals worst losses in 15 years to compare Pope and Cal like they are on the same stratosphere?

No final fours. No sec tournament championships. No national championship. Just a blowout loss to Tennessee in the sweet sixteen.

I went through my phase where I would do the same thing. But the longer Pope is here and I see what's going on the more I realize you just cant put Pope and Cal in the same conversation.


Cals winning SEC championships close to his retirement. He's on the way out. Pope should be in his prime. I'm guilty of doing what you did l. But if I'm going to compare the two I'll have to be realistic from now on and give Cal his due respect even if I can't stand him. I can't stand Pope even more.