UK basketball headed towards worst decade in its history
- Thread starter LongliveWildcatDon
- Start date
I wouldn't be surprised if Jon Hood and La Familia would coach circles and play round any of the 3 Pope teams.
But seriously, if our new AD comprehends his position, and Pope has another bad year, he better let him go.
Then block me dude. Otherwise your posts are open game.
There is a very thin line between "living in reality" and joining the party of negativity. Don't you think that the drama that was going on in the locker room, and certain players placing their NBA stock above team goals, had something to do with that? Don't you think he changed his approach some this past spring and going into summer?
Not sure if your post is directed at me, but Cal flamed out here LONG BEFORE his last 3 years. It just took awhile for the efffects to show themselves.
I think being anything but negative about last yr is living in the world of delusion.
I don’t know about the drama. I do know whenever we struggle rumors fly around blaming players with very little proof of anything. And it’s still the coaches job to manage the locker room.
Truth is Pope had a knee jerk reaction to his first team being bullied at times and did a 180 on team building. Focusing on defense and toughness. 2 things not associated with his coaching style.
I do believe there is a world were he has his first healthy team and can actually run a fun offense like he did his first yr and we actually enjoy this season.
But reality is that he is in his 3rd year and injuries or players attitudes won’t cut it as excuses anymore.
Since 2018 UK has set all kinds of records for the wrong reasons and the man that oversaw it all was none other than Mitch. And what does our corrupt president Eli do? He gives Mitch a golden parachute. For what? Mitch must have dirt on him as there’s no other reason to do it, especially in an era where you need all the money you can get.
You can read every ones post and see that fans are gradually accepting mediocracy and lowering expectations. Living in the past and becoming the new Indiana is becoming a reality.This is very disheartening for longtime fans.
You can also see the ones who support the coach and the good team we have vs the ones who do nothing but hate on the coach and waive the white flag of surrender like they are team France instead of BBN
I can’t believe more people don’t see Mitch was a huge problem. All you need to do is pull up both Football and basketball records since NIL. Both programs have a strait and steady decline.
No coach could have succeeded under Mitch since NIL was adopted. While others were setting up collectives and changing direction, Mitch was hiding under his desk scared to move. He has us 4 years behind. We may never catch up.
We have tons of fans who say we don’t have an NIL problem. Tell me one Good player Calipari recruited since NIL here. There are none. His highest drafted guys here since NIL were Reed and Rob. Two guys he thought were gonna be multi year players that surprised. His headliners were all busts. He took what he could get. People want to believe Pope is weird, rather than Mitch had us so far behind, Agents didn’t/Dont wanna send there players here. It was because of our ADs stand on NIL.
Calipari was still able to grab the second tier HS guys because of his record of sending guys to the pros. They all ended up leaving after one year going undrafted. His last class here was his first ever having no one drafted. He took them all with him to Arkansas and had zero draft picks. His first class at Arkansas produced 2 first rounders, The SEC and National freshman of the year. He hadn’t sniffed a guy like Acuff here in 5 years.
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Batt better know his whole job is to turn this around immediately.
It's both. Batt will change that, gotta get Pope out next.
Mitch absolutely sucked, but the game is going to eat itself with this NIL crap. Already teams are wearing sponsor patches. Collegiate sports is done, and fans are a huge contributor to that.
I would love to be wrong about Pope but NOTHING I've seen from him in his time at UK or BYU says to me he is the guy to get UK back to glory. He's had a few nice wins while here but has as many bad losses and blowouts. Not to mention almost every single game when we play a decent team ,we get down by double digits in the 1H. Now some of those games, Pope makes good adjustments and came back and won a few of them. But several others we simply gave up. Part of being a good coach is having a good game plan and having your team ready to play coming out of the gate. Plus it seems like the few games where we came out with a lead, Pope would substitute our starters and we would lose the lead.
I need to see Pope with some decent players. His first team was full of 5th year seniors that were not NBA material. He sent 2 to the NBA. He was to late arriving to get anything else.
I’ll admit last year was a poorly constructed team. If you remember tho. He struck out on nearly every player he really wanted. It was JMIs first year and some agents expressed concerns over how they operated. He also struck out early in this cycle then magically began landing some decent players. My opinion is JMI changed some of their approach.
Like I said. Even Calipari was recruiting busts here since NIL. He wasn’t getting the top players anymore. He is recruiting much better at Arkansas.
My main point is Mitch was forced out over this. Calipari and Mitch would not even speak at the end of his tenure here. His NIL approach pissed Cal off so bad he tried to start his own collective. La Famalia.
Let’s see if the new AD can repair some of what Mitch destroyed. Let Pope get some good players . I believe he can coach. JMO.
And if this new bill passes recruiting will become just as important as it used to be.
New bill is going to limit transfers and give teams more money to retain players rather than to go assemble a team of transfers. Spotting talent and cultivating might return to the college game. Of course the most important part will be getting them to sign.
I think a better answer would be: Then stop posting.
So Pope defenders, are you already excusing this year because of Kepnang and Kam's injuries? this is 3 years out of 3 with injuries to multiple injuries to our top 8 rotation players. Does Pope also get year 4 and 5 excused for injuries ? While there are some who never even gave Pope a chance, there are some Pope defenders on here who would excuse Pope no matter what
I totally agree with everyone that realizes our previous A.D. is a huge part of what the problem has been at Kentucky. I'm still pissed off that it took us forever to get Barney out, still upset that Barney's first thought after CCC was .... Mark Pope ? Huge gamble and risk.
Why ?
Total BS incompetence in that line of thinking is what got us here.
I would go so far as to say that I was fed up with CCC by the time of the 9 - 16 season and wanted his *** gone in the worst way then. But with Barney as the brain trust and CCC sabotaging the program and then giving up, it was going to be a brutal transition regardless.
So here we are.
It's going to take a MASSIVE season of overacheiving success for Pope and this roster to arrest the slide and the damage already done to the program. We got so used to CCC and his talented teams massively underachieving, then expecting something different each off season because he got talent.... many UK fans started expecting less and less from him, that it was over long before he ever left. The apathy and negativity took root in his last few years, no doubt.
So even that began long ago.
Major changes are in store for everything at Kentucky if Stein cannot get UK to respectability in the SEC and Pope continues to struggle.
JBatt has a hellofa job on his hands. We need to see positive results at this point, point blank, period.
Why ?
Total BS incompetence in that line of thinking is what got us here.
I would go so far as to say that I was fed up with CCC by the time of the 9 - 16 season and wanted his *** gone in the worst way then. But with Barney as the brain trust and CCC sabotaging the program and then giving up, it was going to be a brutal transition regardless.
So here we are.
It's going to take a MASSIVE season of overacheiving success for Pope and this roster to arrest the slide and the damage already done to the program. We got so used to CCC and his talented teams massively underachieving, then expecting something different each off season because he got talent.... many UK fans started expecting less and less from him, that it was over long before he ever left. The apathy and negativity took root in his last few years, no doubt.
So even that began long ago.
Major changes are in store for everything at Kentucky if Stein cannot get UK to respectability in the SEC and Pope continues to struggle.
JBatt has a hellofa job on his hands. We need to see positive results at this point, point blank, period.
Who needs a season, or facts for that matter, when we have you? Pump the dumb take brakes and let’s actually see what happens.
So many people terrified to let the team go out and compete SMH. The best fanbase in America should have a bigger set on them IMO
I asked a question if the season is already excused ... thats not a take, thats a question dumbass. Answer the question, since there are already injuries, if the season goes bad is it already excused?
If it makes you feel better, Pope has it in his contract that he gets a year extension every time he reaches the Sweet Sixteen. That's right, a UK coach has a clause to get a bonus yr of pay for a winning two NCAA tournament games.
Let’s roll out the ball and see what happens this year……..
Time for everyone to put up or shut up.
Time for everyone to put up or shut up.
The reason why we are more hesitant than excited like we are in years past is bc the team on paper is pretty rough, but if u have a good team that you can get behind summer wouldnt be as stressful
for the uninitiated, here is the bad faith cycle from that group:
1. Wait until they actually play. You’re not allowed to express doubts, concerns, or any negativity until the season starts.
2. Wait until the season is actually over. You’re not allowed to express doubts, concerns, or any negativity until the season is officially over. You never know, maybe a team that gets blown out all the time and can’t beat any team with a pulse will win the national championship.
3. Wait until next season. Oh sure, the team you weren’t allowed to criticize didn’t win anything of note but NEXT season is going to be where it all comes together. If you disagree, well you’re obviously a troll.
It is here. Even Calipari ( The greatest recruiter of his time) was bringing in Flops that Duke , Kansas and UCONN Didn’t want. Calipari is recruiting MUCH better at Arkansas than he was here post NIL.
Mitch was a disaster in this era. We are well behind every other blue blood program. That’s why he was forced out. His inability to adapt to NIL.
NO ONE Has said they excuse this season and those players have not lost a gamewith injury.
Stupid strawman bait: “Does Pope also get year 4 and 5 excused for injuries ? While there are some who never even gave Pope a chance, there are some Pope defenders on here who would excuse Pope no matter what”
Grow up.
Post of the week. Easily. Everything you said is true. The bottom line is that the energy used to defend Pope is a naive, blinbly optimistic energy. This crowd would have gladly approved the full scale assault on the Union center lines at Gettysburg, no questions asked.
Watch and see. Even if Pope finishes 4th or 5th in the SEC next year, if he wins 23 to 25 games and loses before the Elite Eight, the same crowd will point to the "upward momtentum" of the program. If we make the Sweet Sixteen, they will desire a contract extension. After all, Pope might turn out like Hurley if we just give him enough time, right?
You are such a fool you don’t even realize the posters you chide ARE NOT DEFENDING Pope. Pope IS the coach. And, Pope Derangement Syndrome (you) is real. Fans who don’t have PDS know that Pope is the coach and know this season will happen and know they will judge Pope and this season when it ACTUALLY happens and not on some stupid redundant speculation.
I mean sure but we were also dealt with weak classes, we got 3 out of the top 6 players in 23
if u did that last year youd have acuff dybantsa and boozer instead of dj rob and justin
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