Please, without being nasty, explain to me why our recruiting efforts are almost beyond belief ?

SpamFilter said:

Pope may not be very good, but nobody is this bad. Even IF he were a neebish dweeb (and I am not saying he is), out of so many top recruits there has to a 1 or 2 who have similar personalities and he would be a hit with them and connect with them.

To fail this consistently can only be a systemic problem, not individual failings.

My theory is still that JMI makes UK toxic to any 5 star player who thinks he can get outside real marketing and endorsement deals and will not agree to sign them over, I think this is consistent with Pope seemingly quite able to sign complementary type players but whiff every time he tries for a real star calibre player, HS or portal.

Pope is in a tough spot, it could be that he agreed to operate under this deal as part of his employment when he was hired by MB, so he knew what he was getting into, but he didn't realize back then the problems it would cause for his recruiting. But at this point, if he public admits that's why he's failing, MB will treat it as a stab in the back, so Pope has chosen fall on his sword to cover MB's ***.

Click to expand...

Coach777 said:

lol he doesn’t know X’s and 0’s. What games were you watching?

Click to expand...

UncleAdolph said:

To add insult to injury, Louisville and Duke are adding five stars who will not even start this season.

Click to expand...

mdluk1 said:

Well, if it is JMI, Pope needs to come out and say it. Put pressure on them and the administration to make necessary changes. His job is on the line.

Click to expand...

SpamFilter said:

But that's where he's a super nice guy comes in.
He's not going to stab the man who gave him a chance to be the head coach at UK in the back. He probably thinks complaining about it to the media would be a personal betrayal, and he would rather just do the best job he can under the constraints he's been given, and let the chips fall where they may, then do that.

Click to expand...

Anon1774274437 said:

Pope is a Mormon and a lot of people find some of their beliefs strange. Nice guy, maybe, but..... he does not relate to high level athletes and has a gooberness to him that he can't wipe off.

Click to expand...

UncleAdolph said:

To add insult to injury, Louisville and Duke are adding five stars who will not even start this season.

Click to expand...

Ukdaddy98 said:

It’s likely a whole slew of things. Some of it linked directly to Mark. Some likely with agents and the JMI perception. Lack of vision is probably another.

First, Mark is a very tall (weird but maybe a factor), highly articulate neuroscientist of sorts. He doesn’t speak the language of many of these young guys. While not fair, the perception of Mormans also lends to people being leery unless a member of LDS. He just doesn’t “relate” the way many of these other coaches do. I also wonder if him being a bit of a control freak (which he admits to) hurts as well bc asst coaches many times build the relationships and there is interference there. Not having a GM who can work with agents is also a key factor.
Credit to Drew Franklin here… maybe Pope listens a little too much to Pitino and wants to control too much. Problem is Pitino is a HOF coach, Mark clearly is not.

Next, the JMI thing got tons of bad publicity and many agents ran with the perception that it keeps their players from being able to maximize their NIL opportunities and be unencumbered by a university in its dealings. Dont know how big a factor, but maybe word on the street did a lot more damage than what we thought.

Lastly, UK lacks vision. From the top down the university has become as stale as three day old toast in some ways, but in particular, Barnhart leadership is one full of disdain for this new era. While other ADs were ahead of the game on NIL, ours looked like he was getting a route canal whenever asked anything about NIL and the changing landscapes. Mitch’s pathetic countenance and stodgy resistance has greatly hindered more than UK basketball.

Maybe all of these together tell the story. I could be dead wrong, but as a lifelong fan, alum and former season ticket holder… it’s what I perceive to be the issues impacting all of this.

Click to expand...

mdluk1 said:

I can’t explain it. We have the money and I’m not buying that it’s because pope is weird. He’s no worse than kelsey at u6.

But pope has to be part of the problem, I just don’t know what it is. But…

0-14 on commits from top targets.

Loses rancik because pope wanted to wait and see what freeman did. So we lost both. Come on coach.

Travels to Israel to see a backup and all he got was a maybe but probably no?

Something is wrong and must be changed. Hopefully the new AD will have a plan.

Click to expand...

Catlogic1552 said:

I don’t think anyone on this site knows exactly what’s going on.

Click to expand...

SpamFilter said:

But that's where he's a super nice guy comes in.
He's not going to stab the man who gave him a chance to be the head coach at UK in the back. He probably thinks complaining about it to the media would be a personal betrayal, and he would rather just do the best job he can under the constraints he's been given, and let the chips fall where they may, then do that.

Click to expand...

deplion said:

Bottom line: no one believes he is the guy who can get them to the NBA / increase their draft stock.

We will be relegated to second and third tier recruits until he is gone.

Click to expand...

JSquad0070 said:

Pope has turned us into a joke of a program. Recruits are legit trolling him at this point.

Click to expand...

Anon1751335390 said:

Pat Kelsey is “relatable?” Coach K at 80 was “relatable.” What is that even supposed to mean?

Pope, like all these kids, dreamt of playing in the NBA and did, albeit briefly. How’s that any less relatable than any other coach? What do other coaches do? Do they laugh at the same Tik Tok videos? If anything, trying to be relatable as a coach can be cringe.

Click to expand...

megablue said:

I do not know what the problem is, but if he cannot recruit and doesn't know X's and O's, why is he being paid $4,800,000 a year to coach ??
He may be struggling now with recruiting, but it's very hard for me to believe he doesn't know how to coach the actual game. He has to know how !!
This will be a pivotal year and I'm hoping it's his best year yet. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what happens. We need more talent, though.

Click to expand...

CRZ4UK said:

That’s about the size of it. People make statements based on what???
One poster said. “ We have plenty of money “ How in the heck does anyone know what we have. NIL isn’t disclosed. No one knows what we have.
One said. “ Pope is a strange dude, almost cringe and can’t relate to people “. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t personally know CMP. Pope did stop at our tailgate one Saturday. Stayed about 15 minutes and ate a little. I thought he was super personable and well spoken.
The only thing we really know is that whatever is going on it’s Barnharts failure. Whether it be Pope, JMI, or our administration all three lay at the feet of the AD. Providing the man responsible for killing a Blue Blood with a million dollars severance package should be grounds to terminate ELI.

Click to expand...

UKBB4Ever said:

It’s a very simple answer. Pope cannot coach.

He does nothing well as coach. He has no mitigating factors to cover his weakest flaws.

It’s not about his religion. It’s not about his weirdness. It’s not about JMI.

Pope simply does not coach guys up. He doesn’t prepare guys for the next level.

And thats important to these top level guys. They can get paid anywhere. What does that coach offer them above the money?

The answer in Pope’s case is nothing. He had his breakthrough player to change that perception in JQ. Then JQ’s dad went public that Pope wasn’t using him correctly.

Doesn’t matter if it was true. The bell can’t be unrung.

Then you have the fact that Pope’s teams just don’t compete. And even quit.

Almost every game the announcers say that we are being outworked. Even in wins.

Pope has embarrassed the brand.

It still comes back to his reputation of not helping players improve. And that’s the book on Pope.

He does nothing to dispel that reputation.

Click to expand...

RedwoodHigh said:

NEver believed the $22 million dollar number from last year. The math did not match the RUMORS. I

Click to expand...