but won't this be a reoccurring thing with Pope? Pulling teeth to land great players? Even if we land Wright and Stokes, year after year it will be like this because Pope's personality would have to change? I might be looking too much into it, but this goes back to the fundamental question of whether Mark Pope should be the long term head coach of Kentucky, not just one season at a time. Does he have what it takes to continually be successful or are we always gonna have to do this over and over and over?
Not trying to be negative
- Thread starter VC99
- Start date
So now if he is successful and lands his targets it's still a problem because he has to work too hard? There's no way to win with some of you people.
Every year moving forward will be insanely hard, for all coaches.
This is the new norm. Fighting to keep your good ones and trying to grab the other teams good ones.
It’s what it is now.
This is the new norm. Fighting to keep your good ones and trying to grab the other teams good ones.
It’s what it is now.
"Don't want to be negative"....but entire post is negative lol
Bro, worrying all the time isn't a very masculine quality. Don't let your imagination lie to you and affect your mood.
Can we ever be happy? I get the point, but this is the era we live in. Money talks, and that’s it. It sucks, but it is what it is.
I thought I'd probably get a cliche "there is no winning with you people comment" but it misses my entire point. Pope going all out to just barely get 1 or 2 guys across the line and you think Kentucky fans are going to be okay with that year after year? I just don't think it works out like you think it does. I think the recruiting struggles happening over and over will make people so frustrated that it won't "fix" anything if Pope manages to land a player or two.
No, fans who are reasonable understand that recruiting is hard and takes a ton of work. As long as he's successful, we don't care what it takes. There's just a few impossible folks like you that complain no matter what.
Give the guy a break. He’s only had 24 months to put this roster together and you couldn’t possibly ask for a better roster at this point and time than what he has done. It’s not his fault, that their are not very many left handed pg in the portal.
Here’s a short tutorial to help you understand what the recruiting landscape is all about these days.
Most fans only care about whether or not he wins at an acceptable level.
Not how he got there.
Not how he got there.
Nah, absolutely terrible take, sorry.
You are definitely sorry, that's the first time you've been right about anything. Progress!
Not worrying at all, isn't a very cerebral quality.
Imagination lying to you?
Like pretending we have an imaginary class signed and getting hyped over visits?
The board has gotten positively bizarre with Ukaa propaganda and cheerleading in the last couple of days. This emo **** isn't masculine. And excuse making really isn't masculine.
Win games and people won't complain.
Start landing some good recruits and people won't complain.
But people are complaining because those things haven't been happening. It's not complicated.
I'm sure we all miss the days when we went into every season thinking we had a legit shot at winning a national championship. The 1990s was certainly like this. A portion of the Cal era was somewhat like that too, with a few exceptions. But the nature of today's game just makes it impossible for any team to be truly great year after year after year. In the old days, we had continuity. Players stuck around multiple years. You only needed to bring in a few new players each season, which is definintely much different than today when you basically have to build a whole new team each season. Between the NBA drafting the really good freshmen and the transfer portal turning things into a circus, things are going to be a lot more hit and miss for everybody. There will be good years and there will be bad years. Nobody is going to great every single year. In this current environment, you might win a title one year and not even make the tournament the next. When you have to build an entirely new roster every year, every year is a crap shoot. Sometimes you'll be able to land a group that has good chemistry and meets all of your needs. And some years you won't, because the pool of what is available may not exactly match your list of needs. It is just a much more uncertain landscape. In the old days, it was easy at the end of the season to pick out who the top 5 best teams would likely be the following season because there was real data to work with. Now at the end of the season, everyone is completely starting over and nobody has a clue what their next team will look like.
I don’t care how he gets the players as long as he gets them.
I don’t think it matters ultimately. There aren’t a ton of coaches that are good enough to win a title in college basketball and Pope isn’t one of them. You could give him the top 2 players at every position in the country and he’s not winning the championship.
Ofcourse i would have said the same thing about Kevin Ollie too so…
I don’t think it matters ultimately. There aren’t a ton of coaches that are good enough to win a title in college basketball and Pope isn’t one of them. You could give him the top 2 players at every position in the country and he’s not winning the championship.
Ofcourse i would have said the same thing about Kevin Ollie too so…
If those 1-2 players, as you say, lead to competing for conference championships and a deep run in the NCAA then no reasonable fan is going to be so frustrated that they feel it didn't "fix anything"
I'll take some hand wringing over recruiting if it means we actually land the dudes lol
No, only when we win the championship can we be happy. And even then only for 3.5 hours then we must weep and gnash our teeth with worry over the next season wondering who will be on the team. Duh.
I’m more worried about winning games than anything. Calipari was/still is one of the best recruiters I’ve ever seen, but we still lost to teams we had no business losing to when it mattered.
Never having signed one high-level talent (one that's not broken, anyway) in his life is a problem for Pope.
Once he gets one, the next one will be easier for him. Especially if the talent translates to the court. Which is likely because Pope really does have some good ideas about basketball despite everything.
It's really that simple.
Once he gets one, the next one will be easier for him. Especially if the talent translates to the court. Which is likely because Pope really does have some good ideas about basketball despite everything.
It's really that simple.
NIL or otherwise, the coaches that are considered elite are still putting together championship caliber teams. Don’t tell me the coach doesn’t make a difference.
You do realize there is a very good chance Mark Pope might be the worst recruiter in all of power conference basketball right? Overpaying to pull Stokes (a Kentucky kid who signed with Nike) away from Kansas, doesn't change the fact that this fanbase will not be able to handle having a bad recruiter in the long term.
It is okay to be negative right now. Don't let the pumper crew spin it.
In fact, being miserable, angry and tired of this **** means you are among the most fanatical of fans, currently.
In fact, being miserable, angry and tired of this **** means you are among the most fanatical of fans, currently.