FWIW I like you too, Ortho. I actually look forward to some of your quips coz I actually have the same goofy sense of humor but I think you are a little too harsh on Pope . And I don’t mean as a basketball coach. I mean always “he’s a dork” this, he’s a dork that. That’s fine. It’s your right to do it, but I’m giving it back to you a little. Pope is a little dorky — I think that’s clear. I bet you are probably a little dorky too. Either that or you probably aren’t in half the shape he is either. He is one of our championship captains and if sucks as a coach, fine — maybe just stop going personal all the time on him. Talking about how dumb he is, how much of a loser he is, all this stuff. Respectfully, you put in the work to earn a doctorate and there are not many people who can do that. But Pope was a Rhodes Scholar — he doesn’t need a helmet and a leash to get around. Maybe just criticize within bounds, otherwise I will hold you to the same standards. So far, as harsh as you’ve been, I’d expect you best be making Brad Pitt jealous or you’re being a tad much. I still love ya though.
As far as professionally, you have me at a weak moment. As much as I try not to let emotions cloud my judgement, I am human. And I’m still reeling over a three game losing streak so I don’t feel very warm and fuzzy about Pope atm…but no, I categorically deny that I pick and choose things when I evaluate. It’s something I’m very cognizant of and I make sure to be detailed for a reason. Eagles Ball asked me right before we won 8/9 how I can possibly still believe in Pope — I gave him a literal line-by-line breakdown of every single category I could think of for Pope as a coach and graded each individually. I do nothing halfway in basketball. I may the most polarizing person on the board, but there’s a rarely a single opinion I come to that I didn’t vet out and scrutinize deeply myself first.
Just for the record, I’m not married to Pope. I’m married to the University of Kentucky basketball program. Pope just happens to be the guy in that seat right now…and i see nothing we can do that will help the team by constantly ragging the coach. Mind you, hear me closely. I said ragging the coach. Not criticizing the coach. If someone says Mark Pope got outcoached by Mike “Milquetoast” White, do you think I’m going to argue with them? No, because it’s true. Pope got outcoached by Mike White. That doesn’t mean we have to throw as much dung as we can at the man. It gains us literally nothing.
One thing I hope you can appreciate me is I don’t really view this so much like a message board. Unless someone sets out to troll me unprovoked, I’ll treat you the same way on here that I would if I were standing 10 feet from you. So, if im giving someone the business, you can usually backtrack a little to find why.
We can talk about why I still haven’t completely given up on Pope but today is probably still not the day — I’m still pretty angry at my ball coach.
