Glaringly similar to MD??? About the ONLY comparison is that neither lived up to expectations. Pope has made the tournament both seasons with less talent than UNC had by far. MD won 1 tournament game and missed the tournament his other 2 seasons. MD went 8-20 his second year and 19-16 his third year.
As we know, North Carolina was loaded and still collapsed under MD. UK has had 2 straight years of makeshift rosters and has at least gotten in the tournament and won 3 games. Not UK standards but better than MD by a mile.
Pope is just as bad as he is. You continue to leave out context to make it better for Mark. Look at this lbs for lbs. did Doherty have millions and millions of dollars to buy players? No. He didn’t. This is the part that is so conveniently left out. And Doherty left a title team behind, imagine Mark doing that. Wouldn’t happen.
Pope is just as bad of a coach, he’s a worse recruiter. But Mark has millions of dollars to hand out. You’re not going to see a 5 win season because he’ll always be able to pay a big money to secure someone good enough who won’t win 5 games. This is one of the reasons Barnhart did it, he figured the money would recruit for him. Mark wouldn’t be at UK without the NIL.
Given that, Mark is really bad. He’s not okay he’s bad. And he hasn’t had 2 makeshift rosters, what? this is another thing that continues to be said that isn’t true. Last year he was able to pay enough to land one of the best shooters in the nation, he had a final four level PG, he had good players he signed on the brand Calipari left behind and lots of cash. Now that it’s his brand it’s gotten worse as time has gone on and he can’t even buy players. Mark is one of the worst recruiters I’ve ever seen in my life. And that’s verifiable. Mark has spent MILLIONS of dollars at KENTUCKY. The premier program. And he sucks.
But Mark lbs for lbs is extremely bad considering his resources. He’s also embarrassing and is butchering the brand. I’ve never seen UK made fun of like I am under his tenure.
