Enjoying a grilled brat with a cold Pepsi at Churchill Downs on a nice day is really, really special, but nobody should hang a banner for that either.
Stop the Witch Hunts, Let People Enjoy A Good Offseason
- Thread starter Im The Village Idiot
- Start date
It’s an opinion thing. And I respect yours.
For me, Final Fours are absolutely banner worthy.
If you get to a point where ONLY the titles matter, we aren’t the gold standard — UCLA is. We gotta remember who we are. We are the GOAT in college basketball because of the cumulative case. We have the titles, we have the wins, we have the final fours, we have the All-Americans, we have the NBA guys, we have the conference championships — it all matters here. And Final Fours are a huge part of Kentucky basketball history.
Umm, Hurley had a pretty good resume prior to Uconn and took them over from Kevin Ollie who got Uconn on probation, including reduced scholarships. He had a conference championship, tournament championship and A-10 COY before going to Uconn.Good thing for UCONN that they gave Hurley some time or those championships would have never happened.
Oh but the goalposts will be moved to "your comparing Pope to Hurley, LOL" when that's not the point at all with the point being that NOBODY became a good coach at the warp speed that some want from Pope. They made up their mind on Pope the night he was hired, showing that they are nobody you'd ever take seriously about anything and just want to be fan under their rules.
Hurley had no NIL and no portal to rebuild with, yet, had Uconn back to the tournament in his 3rd year and a top 3 finish in the Big east by year 3.
He's had 12 years. How much time do these things take?
When did providing facts become a strawman? Like, seriously, tell us!
The argument that has been made is that he can never be anything more than what his winning percentage has been to this point.
There was nothing in their resumes to suggest great accomplishments where coming until well into their careers in some cases. What he could possibly be and what he actually will be are two different things and only time will tell.
The point has always been that there are some great coaches who would have been fired by the criteria of those who insist Pope should have been fired already before they reached the heights that they did.
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You keep acting like it's 1998 or 1986. It's 2026. Coaches have the transfer portal, warchests to buy players, and a booming international market. And to say "There was nothing in their resumes to suggest great accomplishments where coming until well into their careers in some cases", is hilarious, many coaches showed year on year improvement, or had some success, some were forced to do old-fashioned rebuilds. Due to a lack of a transfer portal/NIL. Which can skew results, that's why the Hurley argument is hilarious. The guy was a-10 COY and got Rhode Island to the NCAAT, before that he was a dominant high school coach. He had to rebuild Uconn who was on probation, with no portal. Pope coached at Utah Valley and BYU before UK, where he was pedestrian at best and he coached at those two for long enough, to have some type of success. He never won a conference or a conference tourney.
He's been a head coach for 11 years not 12 but you are wrong about everything else so why not add another?
Massively weak rebuttal. Are you going to refute his actual point? Pope has had 11 years.
As usual facts and accuracy are of no use to you? I've been refuting his actual point on here for months.
I'm asking a serious question. Nobody real shills this hard, or you're getting a big payday.You actually just accused me of a weak rebuttal one post back?
That's even funnier. Being reasonable about the situation is not shilling. I have never made a prediction that greatness is on the horizon. I'm saying none of us have a crystal ball into the future and any suggestion that the past in this case proves greater success going forward to be an impossibility is stupid.
You're not being reasonable. You're hoping/coping.
Utterly false. You're either just being incorrigible towards me or your reasoning skills are non existent.
I'm just stating things that are utterly factual and you can't handle it because you are over the top negative and I'm not playing along.
I'm not negative, I was a Pope fan, I just am rational and change my views when evidence is brought. I saw Pope's poor recruiting, PR blunders, and his issues getting his team to play defense and with effort for 2 halves. And I realized he's way too green/not qualified for this job. Which, honestly, everyone knew it the night he was hired. We just all collectively coped. You wanna keep coping that Pope could be Coach K if we just give him some time, go ahead.
If your contention is he is too green then you should be able to concede that he could improve with more experience in this job. Are you still contending that his recruiting is an issue that prevents improvement in results at this point in time?
Did you not think he showed any promise season one even with inheriting an empty roster in mid April and dealing with an unusual amount of key injuries?
Once again, he coached at two places for 9 years before he got the UK job. I am not in the business of letting under qualified coaches, waste seasons to "get experience" at UK. Uconn and Duke are on our heels, and could catch us or get very close to our title lead. UNC could be good again if Malone pans out. Kansas is only a few games behind our all-time wins lead. The time to win is now.
You just said he was too green. You need to make up your mind as to what makes you so negative. You act like we are guaranteed huge success immediately if we just run off or fire another coach in just over two years time and that is objectively just another gamble. There are no guarantees that you get someone who out does what Pope may well accomplish going forward.
Reasonable? You've been comparing Pope to legends. Pope has 0 conference championships, 0 tournament championships, 1 sw16, and only 4 NCAA appearances in 11 years. In the last 5 years he's lost 63 games. He's got a 55% SEC win%.
No. Under qualified people rarely become qualified just by doing it more. Particularly when they are just simply inadequate at it. Such as Pope. And UK basketball certainly isn't a job where we just say "aw shucks, you just need more time so we will give it to you cause you try real hard." That is literally why you start at smaller schools to gain experience so you don't have to learn here.
9 years elsewhere and he couldn't learn? Why will he now?
Only someone wanting to see UK regress would advocate for "they just need more time and maybe they'll get better"
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Did he change that stance or something?
Considering the portal and NIL, it's very easy to have instant success. Watch Michigan at all last year? Didn't Cal just win the SEC in year 2 at Arky?
We're in year 3 and our coach is in the hot seat. That should probably tell you what you need to know.
It has all been on this forum. This is just another catastrophically stupid wisecrack from you.
How many times must something be explained to you before you comprehend it? The comparison was strictly what they did in their first two seasons (the amount of time Pope has been here) at the school they won a title and then upon request their previous stops were added.
I have no clue how you considered this clever or believed it made any sort of point.
Now you are just pretending like this has not been explained to you on several pages of this thread already. Your buddy is the one that said he was still green not me.
Everyone has the portal and NIL now. Giving an example of a couple teams that have had success especially when one of them stole most of our roster and has barely outdone us means nothing. We haven't even started year three yet and how hot his seat truly is is just a matter of a guess and opinion.
You claim you would have been fine with K after three years at Duke going 38-47 and yet clamor to fire a guy for going 46-26 in two seasons despite a difficult roster situation from the beginning, the two most difficult schedules in school history and dealing with extreme injury issues. That is neither logical nor reasonable.
I'll go ahead put you on ignore now as continuing this is pointless. No matter how well something is explained or demonstrated by stats and records for you you just continue with your agenda and nothing is changing that.
You'll probably just continue this foolishness with yet another Leadbelly sock account anyway.
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Where? Cause all everyone else sees is your easily debunked list that you couldn't defend.
But this is Pope's 12th season, not his 2nd. Why are we only looking at 2 years? Are we just pretending the other 9 don't exists. All of the guys you listed, sans Calhoun had already accomplished more than Pope prior to their big program higher. With the exception of the couple that started at that level and win big quick.
It is the point!
It hasn't been. You've never explained it. You've just stated but he needs more time cause it could happend!
Lol, it hasn't been. Just saying it has doesn't make it so.
He is green at winning. He is experiences as God awful as a HC.
Barely out done us? He beat the **** out of us in rupp when we were favored pretty big. Went to the same sw 16 yr one and then won the SEC tour year 2. That's a hell of a lot better.
We haven't Come close to winning the SEC.
Not a guess or opinion, it's been reported and even you know it, Mark.
He built the roster. That's his problem. Stop relying on players with injury issues out of desperation. Recruit usable backups. All teams deal with injuries. It's not an excuse anymore.
But you've explained nothing and ignoring me just proves you're unable to.
Aww, the ole you're someone else post. Love it!
Nice try. By Richie’s very own definition, Hurley would have been fired and run out of town after year two. No debate.
Many want Pope Faaarred for his first two years at UK based on record only. They would have fired Hurley. Im not spending the day with you, lol. See ya.
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