BB: 2027 Recruiting
- Thread starter TheResistance
- Start date
In the last forty years, exactly three teams have wom a National Championship with a freshman starting PG. And considering any freshman PG of that caliber would not see a year two here, it doesn't hurt my feelings a bit that Pope doesn’t hand the keys over to a rookie
Correct. But this board implodes every single time we don't land a 5 star point guard during the high school recruiting cycle. And then when we get a 4 star who is willing to stay and be a backup and learn the system so they can lead it year 2, the board attacks the kid for not being UK caliber. This fanbase is a weird kind of passionate and borderline delusion some times.
Not borderline
And it isn't the whole fanbase. It seems like a majority on RR, but a lot of the most delusional folks have 9-10 different account names and make it seem that way
Yeah, most of the fanbase falls under that weird kind of passionate. They are different flavors of bought in, but usually obsessive about some aspect of UK, even if it is a small one. (The don't you talk bad about Richie, How dare you speak ill of Tubby, What do you mean you don't want 4 years of homegrown Kentucky boys at the end of the bench). Like there is one aspect that gets them fired up if you press that button. Then there is the make 17 sock accounts and go off their meds if we don't land a recruit delusional ones. They are kinda entertaining to get wound up though.
It's pretty embarrassing. I am not Popes biggest fan, I did not want him in the first place, was shocked by the hire. But I try and give the man a chance, and that alone makes me a Pope "slurper". It is what it is
I wasn't a Pope hire fan either. I wanted Pearl as a transitional hire. Hire Pearl to hold the program together, maybe improve from the latter years of the Cal downturn, and use that time to find the next long term coach to take over the helm after 2-3 years when Pearl decided to hang em up.
Then we hired Pope, who I admire as a player here, but not on the same level as some of the guys who played here all 4 years. I, like many others, thought, gosh that seems like a mistake. He's family but we don't do that at UK anymore. We hire the best coach out there. It felt like the Juwan Howard, Hubert Davis, Mike Dunleavey style legacy hire that was not working at other programs. Sometimes it's a homerun, but most often it sets the program backwards because they are in over their head.
But all that said, as long as Mark Pope is our coach, he gets my support (though he is still in over his head). Trying to fire him anytime before the end of year three was program su!cide. Unless you are willing to massively overpay and but in a massive buyout, firing a coach who had been to a sweet 16 and made the tournament in his two years (barring scandal) would have been a huge red flag for possible future coaches we would try to hire. The landscape is different. Look at all the people who turned down UNC after they canned Davis. And they weren't "bad" under Davis, just above average, which wasn't good enough for their fans and boosters. All those coaches we want to be here, said no to them. But we think just because we are UK they will come here... Please...
I'm critical of Pope, but he's our dang coach and I want us to win. So he gets my support until he isn't our coach anymore. I'd rather be a cautiously hopeful fan than a perpetually miserable and negative one.
I pretty much agree with all that. Including the part about Pearl. I think he would have had an amazing run here
I would have never wanted UT Pearl. He was an embarrassment. But, I think there was something different about Auburn Pearl. After Cal, I think he would have been a good hire.
How many more pg could kentucky even fit next year? Let’s say Zoom stays another, Mason Williams, Zyon Hawthorne plus Atleast 1-2 freshman pg’s. We definitely won’t run into a pg shortage