KSR MJ just said some dumb stuff

dynastydreamuk · Apr 30, 2026

First off, I like Matt and listen to KSR often obviously. BUT ....

Matt Jones making some stupid points right now after a caller said mitch made a bad hire. MJ saying there was nobody else that had won anything we could hire because golden, pearl, Oats, Sean Miller and beard were all off limits by the president and uppers, so mitch isn't to blame basically.

Then Matt said tommy loyd hadnt won anything yet and neither had TJ otz and others which is total BS. Because there were plenty of people to hire that had won something compared to Pope,

Pope is the one who never won anything... never won more than 25 games, never won his conference or conference tournament..never won a tournament game. Plenty of coaches who could beat that resume...hell Louisvilles coach hire had won 30 games his conference and conference tournament prior to UL

So he will call out mitch but still say mitch is the best AD in the next sentence. For instance, while he said all this, right before he said mitch hired Pope on a Thursday and they were in a bind because swim scandle was released the following day that Friday, basically we needed a clean hire.

Maybe the dumbest part was after this Matt and Ryan said some may have been upset had we hired somebody other than Pope under the circumstances.

Sorry had to vent... our program is in a bad place. For the love of god hire a good AD to make things right and get Eli Crapitulo out of the president spot as well.

dynastydreamuk · Apr 30, 2026

I can't call in right now but somebody please call and list whoever coaches had actually won something... its hard to argue with lawyer matter but this is one where he can easily be defeated.

Even crossing off loyd, drew, Pearl, oats etc etc of off limits ones there are still plenty of coaches we could have got that had won their conference or conference tournament before or had won atleast 30 games in a season...even if at a mid major these three things are usually a predictor of future good coach at high major. Let alone winning one game in the ncaa.

The Ganner · Apr 30, 2026

Otzelberger was coming off a Big 12 tournament championship and a sweet 16. In 3 years at Arizona, Lloyd had 2 Pac-12 titles, 2 Pac-12 tournament titles, and 2 sweet 16s. Both much better resumes than Pope.

If Pope had not been a UK alum, nobody would have put him on their top 25 potential hires.

Captain Coy · Apr 30, 2026

Matt Jones is ignorant. He doesn't know basketball.

SkyPrince · Apr 30, 2026

dynastydreamuk said:
First off, I like Matt and listen to KSR often obviously. BUT ....

Matt Jones making some stupid points right now after a caller said mitch made a bad hire. MJ saying there was nobody else that had won anything we could hire because golden, pearl, Oats, Sean Miller and beard were all off limits by the president and uppers, so mitch isn't to blame basically.

Then Matt said tommy loyd hadnt won anything yet and neither had TJ otz and others which is total BS. Because there were plenty of people to hire that had won something compared to Pope,

Pope is the one who never won anything... never won more than 25 games, never won his conference or conference tournament..never won a tournament game. Plenty of coaches who could beat that resume...hell Louisvilles coach hire had won 30 games his conference and conference tournament prior to UL

So he will call out mitch but still say mitch is the best AD in the next sentence. For instance, while he said all this, right before he said mitch hired Pope on a Thursday and they were in a bind because swim scandle was released the following day that Friday, basically we needed a clean hire.

Maybe the dumbest part was after this Matt and Ryan said some may have been upset had we hired somebody other than Pope under the circumstances.

Sorry had to vent... our program is in a bad place. For the love of god hire a good AD to make things right and get Eli Crapitulo out of the president spot as well.

I'm about 50/50 with your take and Matt's take.
Mitch was feeling pressure to make a quick hire since an entire roster had to be built.
Pope and Shaka were the only two that would get done in a day.
TJ and Loyd may have been in play but I think it would have taken a courtship so to speak to get them on board and both may have said no.

The Ganner · Apr 30, 2026

dynastydreamuk said:
I can't call in right now but somebody please call and list whoever coaches had actually won something... its hard to argue with lawyer matter but this is one where he can easily be defeated.

Even crossing off loyd, drew, Pearl, oats etc etc of off limits ones there are still plenty of coaches we could have got that had won their conference or conference tournament before or had won atleast 30 games in a season...even if at a mid major these three things are usually a predictor of future good coach at high major. Let alone winning one game in the ncaa.

Agreed, I'd have dipped down to small school coaches who had won their conference/conference tournaments, and guys who had had more success than typical at their school. I'd have taken P6 coaches or upper tier mid majors who had made a sweet 16 or at least WON A GAME IN THE TOURNAMENT.

SkyPrince · Apr 30, 2026

The Ganner said:
Otzelberger was coming off a Big 12 tournament championship and a sweet 16. In 3 years at Arizona, Lloyd had 2 Pac-12 titles, 2 Pac-12 tournament titles, and 2 sweet 16s. Both much better resumes than Pope.

If Pope had not been a UK alum, nobody would have put him on their top 25 potential hires.

Loyd also got upset first round as a #2 the year Pope was hired

Ecthelion of the Fountain · Apr 30, 2026

SkyPrince said:
Mitch was feeling pressure to make a quick hire since an entire roster had to be built.
Pope and Shaka were the only two that would get done in a day.

With a job as big and noteworthy as the UKHC…you have to take your time and exhaust every avenue. Making a rushed hire is….well absurd.

Resignmarkpope · Apr 30, 2026

Captain Coy said:
Matt Jones is ignorant. He doesn't know basketball.

Band boy turn basketball fan = jones

CatBearPig · Apr 30, 2026

I agree. Matt is allowed to have his opinion on Mitch, but That opinion is demonstrably wrong, And everyone knows it now. What’s worse is I believe he knows it and just doesn’t want to admit it. I really like Matt and I’m not perfect either, but he’s doing exactly what he is constantly accusing others of doing; hubris refusing to admit you’ve made a mistake and changing course. Just admit it man. You’re opinion was wrong.

ThroughBlue · Apr 30, 2026

the same matt jones that said we would get stokes while apparently someone that works for him knew he was already signed to kansas?

Henogee1975 · Apr 30, 2026

I like Matt, butt he is dead wrong on this. There were about 20 better coaches out there.

Kantucke_rivals · Apr 30, 2026

I chose to not listen today because Matt had already made it clear, today was basically going to be propaganda radio. Seems I made the right call.

dynastydreamuk · Apr 30, 2026

SkyPrince said:
Loyd also got upset first round as a #2 the year Pope was hired

It doesnt matter you take loyd or TJ then over Pope 10 times out of 10.

You also need to realize there were probably 20 other coaches should have been ahead of Pope even if TJ loyd and others say no.

Like I and the other poster said... coaches who won their conference or conf tournament...or won alot of games..better win % etc etc...hell won one game in the NCAA.

Got to take the blue glasses off and act like Pope wasn't on our best team ever

Farsight Clone · Apr 30, 2026

I think Matt was talking about WHEN we hired Pope. So he is right. Golden, Lloyd hasn't been to a final four yet.

But at the time, I do recall, on this board specifically, no one wanted Golden. He was unproven. Some wanted Lloyd, but not much.

Now, Lloyd finally has a final 4 and Golden has a final 4 and a title.

I think there is a common misconception and communication error.

Before Pope was hired, this board wanted 4 specific People. Donovan, Pearl, Oats, Hurley.

Now after Pope is hired, Hurley is off the table, Oats is 50/50 depending on future variables, Donovan could be a contender and Pearl, IF Pope is done after year 3 (should be).

People assume that when Pope was hired we wanted Lloyd or Golden, not true. (Some wanted Lloyd), but would have taken any of those 4 listed above.

So when people state this, they need to be specific.

Do you mean, before Pope was hired or after Pope was hired?

If you say, we should of hired Lloyd or Golden in retrospec, when not many wanted that at the time, is being disingenuous. To say that they want them now is 100% valid after Pope has been hired after 2 seasons.

I hope I made sense lol

The Ganner · Apr 30, 2026

Farsight Clone said:
People assume that when Pope was hired we wanted Lloyd or Golden

I haven't seen anyone assume such a thing. If we're talking about who to hire IF all of Hurley, Drew, Oats, Pearl, Donovan were off the table... who would we get instead of Pope? The answer is, a couple dozen coaches had more promising resumes than Pope. Pope would have NEVER made our radar if he hadn't gone here.

Cats_2010 · Apr 30, 2026

The whole entire administration needs replaced. Having that long of a list of coaches being off limits is beyond stupid. Replace every damn one of them and let them go work for a non profit do good institution and just get the hell away from our basketball program.

MegaBlue05 · Apr 30, 2026

That was a brutal segment.

That caller was a dipsh!t as well.

When anyone says “Shoulda hired Dusty May” when the timeline (May hired at Michigan 2 weeks before Cal resigned from Kentucky) couldn’t have worked is dismissed by me instantly as being a reactionary whiner who doesn’t deal in facts.

Rosie66 · Apr 30, 2026

SkyPrince said:
I'm about 50/50 with your take and Matt's take.
Mitch was feeling pressure to make a quick hire since an entire roster had to be built.
Pope and Shaka were the only two that would get done in a day.
TJ and Loyd may have been in play but I think it would have taken a courtship so to speak to get them on board and both may have said no.

Tommy Lloyd will never coach atKentucky

PopesCrewCut · Apr 30, 2026

MegaBlue05 said:
That was a brutal segment.

That caller was a dipsh!t as well.

When anyone says “Shoulda hired Dusty May” when the timeline (May hired at Michigan 2 weeks before Cal resigned from Kentucky) couldn’t have worked is dismissed by me instantly as being a reactionary whiner who doesn’t deal in facts.

HARRRRR Dusty

SkyPrince · Apr 30, 2026

The Ganner said:
I haven't seen anyone assume such a thing. If we're talking about who to hire IF all of Hurley, Drew, Oats, Pearl, Donovan were off the table... who would we get instead of Pope? The answer is, a couple dozen coaches had more promising resumes than Pope. Pope would have NEVER made our radar if he hadn't gone here.

That's true but that doesn't mean we would have gotten a good coach from the "B" list which Pope was a part of.
What other coach from the B list would the former players have rallied around like they did Pope?
The press conference was fools gold in hindsight but it did give BBN a jolt of energy in the wake of Cal' s departure.

notFromhere · Apr 30, 2026

dynastydreamuk said:
First off, I like Matt and listen to KSR often obviously. BUT ....

Matt Jones making some stupid points right now after a caller said mitch made a bad hire. MJ saying there was nobody else that had won anything we could hire because golden, pearl, Oats, Sean Miller and beard were all off limits by the president and uppers, so mitch isn't to blame basically.

Then Matt said tommy loyd hadnt won anything yet and neither had TJ otz and others which is total BS. Because there were plenty of people to hire that had won something compared to Pope,

Pope is the one who never won anything... never won more than 25 games, never won his conference or conference tournament..never won a tournament game. Plenty of coaches who could beat that resume...hell Louisvilles coach hire had won 30 games his conference and conference tournament prior to UL

So he will call out mitch but still say mitch is the best AD in the next sentence. For instance, while he said all this, right before he said mitch hired Pope on a Thursday and they were in a bind because swim scandle was released the following day that Friday, basically we needed a clean hire.

Maybe the dumbest part was after this Matt and Ryan said some may have been upset had we hired somebody other than Pope under the circumstances.

Sorry had to vent... our program is in a bad place. For the love of god hire a good AD to make things right and get Eli Crapitulo out of the president spot as well.

Plenty of people like Matt, but are also not surprised when he says something they think is "stupid."

If he's right on this, however, and they severely limited who MB could hire, it's not on HIM but them just like it was when we hired BCG instead of Cal. I don't think Mitch has ever had as much say in the matter with basketball as he has with football. (Who really knows if he made the call there either.)

The AD is the face when it comes to athletics that has to manage the money and work with the moneyed people. (That will only increase as the GM positions firm up and gain traction.) Some ADS are hands on and control freaks. I don't see MB being that strong of an AD that he was calling the shots.

I'm going to reach out to see if my friend that knows him personally can find out more from him about his (MBs) role in the BCG hire. That would tell me whether MB really was a shot-caller or just a yes man for some of the boosters.

Farsight Clone · Apr 30, 2026

The Ganner said:
I haven't seen anyone assume such a thing. If we're talking about who to hire IF all of Hurley, Drew, Oats, Pearl, Donovan were off the table... who would we get instead of Pope? The answer is, a couple dozen coaches had more promising resumes than Pope. Pope would have NEVER made our radar if he hadn't gone here.

You must not frequent here enough. There were a lot of people assuming when someone said they want Golden or Lloyd now, they mean in retrospect. There was quite a few trolls on here who took it the wrong way and it wasn't what was meant.

SkyPrince · Apr 30, 2026

notFromhere said:
Plenty of people like Matt, but are also not surprised when he says something they think is "stupid."

If he's right on this, however, and they severely limited who MB could hire, it's not on HIM but them just like it was when we hired BCG instead of Cal. I don't think Mitch has ever had as much say in the matter with basketball as he has with football. (Who really knows if he made the call there either.)

The AD is the face when it comes to athletics that has to manage the money and work with the moneyed people. (That will only increase as the GM positions firm up and gain traction.) Some ADS are hands on and control freaks. I don't see MB being that strong of an AD that he was calling the shots.

I'm going to reach out to see if my friend that knows him personally can find out more from him about his (MBs) role in the BCG hire. That would tell me whether MB really was a shot-caller or just a yes man for some of the boosters.

Eli should never have veto power on a coaching hire.
He should only get a vote along with the BOT.

ukwildcat2004 · Apr 30, 2026

Rosie66 said:
Tommy Lloyd will never coach at Kentucky

I tend to agree because I'm fairly certain Lloyd has said Arizona was his dream job. I really don't think he's gonna leave there anytime soon. He already makes 7.5 million a year. I don't think coaches are beating down the doors to coach at bluebloods like they used too. NIL has evened the playing field plus smaller schools can still pay a decent salary and avoid the pressure of a blueblood.

Son_Of_Saul · Apr 30, 2026

dynastydreamuk said:
First off, I like Matt and listen to KSR often obviously. BUT ....

Matt Jones making some stupid points right now after a caller said mitch made a bad hire. MJ saying there was nobody else that had won anything we could hire because golden, pearl, Oats, Sean Miller and beard were all off limits by the president and uppers, so mitch isn't to blame basically.

Then Matt said tommy loyd hadnt won anything yet and neither had TJ otz and others which is total BS. Because there were plenty of people to hire that had won something compared to Pope,

Pope is the one who never won anything... never won more than 25 games, never won his conference or conference tournament..never won a tournament game. Plenty of coaches who could beat that resume...hell Louisvilles coach hire had won 30 games his conference and conference tournament prior to UL

So he will call out mitch but still say mitch is the best AD in the next sentence. For instance, while he said all this, right before he said mitch hired Pope on a Thursday and they were in a bind because swim scandle was released the following day that Friday, basically we needed a clean hire.

Maybe the dumbest part was after this Matt and Ryan said some may have been upset had we hired somebody other than Pope under the circumstances.

Sorry had to vent... our program is in a bad place. For the love of god hire a good AD to make things right and get Eli Crapitulo out of the president spot as well.

Matt has been creating false narratives about the hiring process. He really doesn't know. Mitch refused to hire Calipari until he had to. The same could be true for Golden or anyone else.

I'm not buying these silly narratives anymore. Not from Matt Jones or anyone.

fisherscatfan · Apr 30, 2026

Jones bringing up the need for a “clean” hire because of the swim scandal is stupid. The swim scandal rests 100% at the feet of Mitch and Eli. They were warned and hired the scum in spite of the warnings.

Pope had won nothing. He was red meat to the boosters because his message was a 180 from Cal. Fans were right to be concerned and we didn’t have the due diligence UK should have had. Through interviews with Pope, it had to be clear he is not the alpha that needs to run UK basketball. They made a 5 year mistake because Mitch wanted a yes man he could control and panic regarding the upcoming season. Just a failure of vision and leadership.

They needed to get a guy similar to a May who flat out wants to dominate. Weren‘t going to get Hurley or Golden but people need to stop acting like the next 15 NCAA titles will be won solely by those 2. There are future stars out there and the UK admin is too incompetent to try and find them.

SandyBell'sFaxMachine · Apr 30, 2026

"Hadn't won anything"... winning ONE NCAAT game in their career was enough to best Pope's coaching career when we hired him...

UKGrad24 · Apr 30, 2026

The Ganner said:
Otzelberger was coming off a Big 12 tournament championship and a sweet 16. In 3 years at Arizona, Lloyd had 2 Pac-12 titles, 2 Pac-12 tournament titles, and 2 sweet 16s. Both much better resumes than Pope.

If Pope had not been a UK alum, nobody would have put him on their top 25 potential hires.

Fact is Mark was about to be ran out of BYU as well. Their beat writer said it was a matter of time they were already getting thin with him, and didn’t think he had upside. It’s one of, if not the worst, blue blood hires. Mark will not be at a lower 5 job when the dust settles, he’ll be at a small school which is where his minute align. It’s hard to fathom anyone would look at Pope and think “let’s give him a shot at Kentucky”. It’s totally absurd. No excuse in the thought even coming into their brain.

AJG-15 · Apr 30, 2026

No. Read between the lines. with MB with a foot out the door, the next logical target is the UK President.

KSR also thinks that MP days are numbered , and after this year he will be out. so they would lay low on MP until the season starts , eventually build up the program up for getting BBN hopes high again so when season starts there will be another big disappointment.

media needs to sell clicks.

UKGrad24 · Apr 30, 2026

Son_Of_Saul said:
Matt has been creating false narratives about the hiring process. He really doesn't know. Mitch refused to hire Calipari until he had to. The same could be true for Golden or anyone else.

I'm not buying these silly narratives anymore. Not from Matt Jones or anyone.

One thing is certain. The boosters, some big ones, lobbied hard for Pearl and did think they got it done. Barnhart went to the president and killed it. And he did it in cover when no one else was involved. There is a reason Barnhart was forced out and he knew it 6 months before his presser. Picking Pope was the last straw, and this is also why Mark has been stuck up his *** since he was hired here. He knows if it weren’t for Mitch the call wouldn’t have even been taken. Mark knows without Mitch and the president he’s a dead man walking.

KyWilson239 · Apr 30, 2026

dynastydreamuk said:
First off, I like Matt and listen to KSR often obviously. BUT ....

Matt Jones making some stupid points right now after a caller said mitch made a bad hire. MJ saying there was nobody else that had won anything we could hire because golden, pearl, Oats, Sean Miller and beard were all off limits by the president and uppers, so mitch isn't to blame basically.

Then Matt said tommy loyd hadnt won anything yet and neither had TJ otz and others which is total BS. Because there were plenty of people to hire that had won something compared to Pope,

Pope is the one who never won anything... never won more than 25 games, never won his conference or conference tournament..never won a tournament game. Plenty of coaches who could beat that resume...hell Louisvilles coach hire had won 30 games his conference and conference tournament prior to UL

So he will call out mitch but still say mitch is the best AD in the next sentence. For instance, while he said all this, right before he said mitch hired Pope on a Thursday and they were in a bind because swim scandle was released the following day that Friday, basically we needed a clean hire.

Maybe the dumbest part was after this Matt and Ryan said some may have been upset had we hired somebody other than Pope under the circumstances.

Sorry had to vent... our program is in a bad place. For the love of god hire a good AD to make things right and get Eli Crapitulo out of the president spot as well.

Matt Jones used to get his information from Robic for BBall and Vince for Football, he no longer has an "In" with the program. He is just a mouth piece that thinks highly of himself. None of the KSR "experts" actually know any more about the sports they are talking about than a casual fan does. That means film breakdowns or insider information.

Pope was a bad and lazy hire by Mitch, which is fine to admit and say publicly. Hopefully the next AD is more attuned to the current landscape of sports and makes a hire that actually fits.

UKBB4Ever · Apr 30, 2026

“Just”???

LarryLegend9 · Apr 30, 2026

UKGrad24 said:
Fact is Mark was about to be ran out of BYU as well. Their beat writer said it was a matter of time they were already getting thin with him, and didn’t think he had upside. It’s one of, if not the worst, blue blood hires. Mark will not be at a lower 5 job when the dust settles, he’ll be at a small school which is where his minute align. It’s hard to fathom anyone would look at Pope and think “let’s give him a shot at Kentucky”. It’s totally absurd. No excuse in the thought even coming into their brain.

To be honest with you I thought you were over exaggerating things in your posts till I started keeping up more with recruiting. I really believe less than a handful on here that actually take up for Pope have no idea how bad he’s doing recruiting. I was one of those guys till a friend showed me how many people he has missed on. No one can recruit that bad and make it at UK. Just not possible in my opinion.

AustinTXCat · Apr 30, 2026

Wait, what? According to many smart folks on Rafters, Mitch is responsible for all UK Athletics woes.

Now it's Fire the UK President. Fire Mitch. Wait, Mitch quitting anyway. Fire the next AD. Heck, fire 'em all, even before they start.

Yeah, recruiting blows. Cal spoiled BBN.

Eagles_Ball_69 · Apr 30, 2026

SkyPrince said:
I'm about 50/50 with your take and Matt's take.
Mitch was feeling pressure to make a quick hire since an entire roster had to be built.
Pope and Shaka were the only two that would get done in a day.
TJ and Loyd may have been in play but I think it would have taken a courtship so to speak to get them on board and both may have said no.

This is correct

Henogee1975 · Apr 30, 2026

I think the fan base would have been upset if Lloyd or TJ or Golden had been hired at the exact moment, but would have been fine in a few days. Just like with Pope. Nobody wanted him as coach but we all talked ourselves into it. Because… we had to. Same would have been true if we hired anybody else.

UKnine · Apr 30, 2026

A lot of what he said is total BS. Golden’s issues didn’t come to light until way after Pope was hired.

Kantucke_rivals · Apr 30, 2026

This whole Barney grifting situation has really highlighted just how bad Eli is for Kentucky basketball. And any further outage should now be rerouted to Eli. I don't see anything improving until Eli retires.

Madhuvan · Apr 30, 2026

The Ganner said:
If Pope had not been a UK alum, nobody would have put him on their top 25 100 potential hires.

FIFY

KSR MJ just said some dumb stuff

All-Conference

All-Conference

Senior

All-Conference

All-Conference

Senior

All-Conference

Junior

Junior

All-Conference

Junior

All-American

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-American

Senior

Heisman

Heisman

Sophomore

Sophomore

All-Conference

Heisman

All-American

All-Conference

Heisman

Heisman

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-American

All-Conference

All-American

Junior

All-Conference

Senior

Hall of Famer

All-American

All-American

All-Conference

All-Conference

Junior