With Cal, UK was at least part of the story (recruiting/draft). Feels like we're starving now on all fronts.

Son_Of_Saul · Wednesday at 5:28 AM

BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

anot · Wednesday at 5:35 AM

100% agree with you except the peanut butter cracker part. Those might be one of my favorite snacks.

Vek96 · Wednesday at 5:37 AM

Really? Another thread about this? Wow. This board just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

AGAIN, Calipari won 1 tournament in his last 5 seasons, WITH NUMEROUS FIVE STAR RECRUITS. That’s way more pathetic than Pope, who has won three tournament games in his two seasons here.

Let’s see what the final roster looks like, before continuing to start another Pope bashing thread.

anot · Wednesday at 5:39 AM

Been at work all night looking for a snack. What I would of done for some peanut butter crackers. But about to clock out and get some real food. Maybe biscuits and gravy some eggs and bacon. Go sip some coffee with the old men at ew James.

UK is definitely dead and not in the spotlight in any way. If they are it's usually negative.

anot · Wednesday at 5:42 AM

Vek96 said:
Really? Another thread about this? Wow. This board just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

AGAIN, Calipari won 1 tournament in his last 5 seasons, WITH NUMEROUS FIVE STAR RECRUITS. That’s way more pathetic than Pope, who has won three tournament games in his two seasons here.

Let’s see what the final roster looks like, before continuing to start another Pope bashing thread.

I was going to say maybe once the season gets here this team will give us something positive to talk about. Hopefully

Anon1776024529 · Wednesday at 5:51 AM

Vek96 said:
Really? Another thread about this? Wow. This board just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

AGAIN, Calipari won 1 tournament in his last 5 seasons, WITH NUMEROUS FIVE STAR RECRUITS. That’s way more pathetic than Pope, who has won three tournament games in his two seasons here.

Let’s see what the final roster looks like, before continuing to start another Pope bashing thread.

That was his point, Calipari failed at the end, but we were still in the spotlight because he kept getting talent and there was always hope going into the season. With pope, there’s not, we have to convince ourselves that Kam Williams is amazing and we all saw how below average he was last year before the injury. I say we bash pope until he puts a roster together that we can eat crow about. Signing ndiaye, zoom, wilkins, and McBride doesn’t do it for me. But convince yourselves that is better than Oweh, Aberdeen, Colin and Mo I guess. And calipari earned his last few years of failures, he also had 4 final 4s here. Had he started at Kentucky like that, he would have been ran off, too.

mjj_2K · Wednesday at 6:05 AM

There's going to be a high level of uncertainty now and that's true pretty much everywhere. There is every reason to be skeptical that Pope is capable of assembling and coaching a FF team, but the reality is that he's going to get at least one more shot at it and relentlessly bashing him before a game has been played is pointless.

UK was preseason #9 last year. Michigan was 7. Only one of the preseason top 5 teams made the FF.
In 24-25, Florida was preseason #21. Kansas was preseason #1, and they turned out to suck, nearly as much as UK did this past season.

Duke has some certainty, as they've established themselves as the premier destination for a certain type of potential 1 and done recruit, and there's just a huge amount of money available to that program. Everyone else faces uncertainty, pretty much every year. If Pope gets the boot after this season, that will still be true for whoever gets hired and there's no assurance that the new guy will turn things around instantaneously.

truthteller · Wednesday at 6:06 AM

I agree with most of it, except that I don't miss those days. Cal had us more excited at recruiting then break our hearts every year with his inability to coach and win games. Year after year we'd hit terrible mediocrity in the season and post season.
These years we don't have that noise to get caught up in that ultimately didn't matter. Do I miss the false hope sometimes that we were given, yeah, but it was always the same result. He couldn't win. Pope is whiffing on recruiting, something we've been engineered by Cal to think is the most important thing, but if he wins in the season, I don't care about recruiting whiffs.
I'm back at the point where I put the recruiting Kool aid down and we need to get back to winning.
If Pope shows this year he can't win with his style of team formation, fine, it's time to move on and find someone that can. But looking back to yearly heartache is just as bad.

anot · Wednesday at 6:12 AM

truthteller said:
I agree with most of it, except that I don't miss those days. Cal had us more excited at recruiting then break our hearts every year with his inability to coach and win games. Year after year we'd hit terrible mediocrity in the season and post season.
These years we don't have that noise to get caught up in that ultimately didn't matter. Do I miss the false hope sometimes that we were given, yeah, but it was always the same result. He couldn't win. Pope is whiffing on recruiting, something we've been engineered by Cal to think is the most important thing, but if he wins in the season, I don't care about recruiting whiffs.
I'm back at the point where I put the recruiting Kool aid down and we need to get back to winning.
If Pope shows this year he can't win with his style of team formation, fine, it's time to move on and find someone that can. But looking back to yearly heartache is just as bad.

I'll forever say Cal was losing on purpose at the end. Especially the last two or three years. Cal had some real beef with somebody. Maybe everyone realted to UK. Wonder what really happened.

That is sabotage to me.

Son_Of_Saul · Wednesday at 6:12 AM

mjj_2K said:
There's going to be a high level of uncertainty now and that's true pretty much everywhere. There is every reason to be skeptical that Pope is capable of assembling and coaching a FF team, but the reality is that he's going to get at least one more shot at it and relentlessly bashing him before a game has been played is pointless.

UK was preseason #9 last year. Michigan was 7. Only one of the preseason top 5 teams made the FF.
In 24-25, Florida was preseason #21. Kansas was preseason #1, and they turned out to suck, nearly as much as UK did this past season.

Duke has some certainty, as they've established themselves as the premier destination for a certain type of potential 1 and done recruit, and there's just a huge amount of money available to that program. Everyone else faces uncertainty, pretty much every year. If Pope gets the boot after this season, that will still be true for whoever gets hired and there's no assurance that the new guy will turn things around instantaneously.

The next only has to be good a few things to make it here. One of those things is recruiting, which Pope has never been good at. Then truly compete for a title about every other year. That was the historic average from 1939-2019.

The PR part has always been overblown. Most of BBN doesn't care if a coach is a rude MFer as long as he wins games. Pitino gave a cold shoulder to a lot of our fans in public but we still adored him because he won games.

Living on hopes and dreams is the surest ways for Kentucky to become Indiana, and we're dangerously close to that right now. Could the next guy be worse? Sure. But that doesn't mean you don't try. This is Kentucky. The NIL hasn't changed that fact anymore than it did for Ohio State football.

UKCowboys · Wednesday at 6:32 AM

I swear, if you read the OP's post and it imagined it was a post from a Duke or Kansas fan talking about their own team, you would see how ridiculous that post is. "We are starving".....LMAO

gobigblue812_rivals29381 · Wednesday at 6:41 AM

I couldn't care less about the NBA draft.

Buckwheat Otay Is Dead · Wednesday at 7:07 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

Typical cesspool report from Cow lover.

Son_Of_Saul · Wednesday at 7:07 AM

UKCowboys said:
I swear, if you read the OP's post and it imagined it was a post from a Duke or Kansas fan talking about their own team, you would see how ridiculous that post is. "We are starving".....LMAO

Of course you would write something like this. You have no standard. You would be fine with 22-14 records every year until Jesus comes back.

You'd make a hell of an Indiana fan.

Son_Of_Saul · Wednesday at 7:09 AM

Buckwheat Otay Is Dead said:
Typical cesspool report from Cow lover.

I noticed you never responded to my other post in the other thread when I absolutely destroyed your point. It's nice to see that all you have left is ad hominem attacks.

MdWIldcat55 · Wednesday at 7:12 AM

The level of whining and crying and self-pitying entitlement on this board makes me embarrassed to be a Kentucky fan. And based on what? A bunch of nerds who never played middle school basketball putting together lists of portals transfer players that have some guys higher than the ones committed to Kentucky.

The truth is, everyone is in the same position, assembling teams after the season in a process that amounts to a giant, complex “picking teams on the playground.”

No one knows how these teams will mesh. A few programs, with solid returning cores, have an advantage. For everyone else, the best an informed fan can do is watch a lot of video, study these guys in settings as close to Popes offense as possible, and wait and see.

Having watched a lot of video, I personally feel this collection of players Kentucky has assembled has a chance to be pretty sound. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. But I’d rather be optimistic based on my own observations than wringing my hands and crying because of something Jeff Goodman or someone of equivalent basketball knowledge said.

LineSkiCat14 · Wednesday at 7:13 AM

We did win a ton in those first 8 years. Did it really feel like Kentucky basketball took a back seat to the draft? Idk.

I think the biggest misconception with Cal was that the only dimension he had was worrying about draft picks/turning kids into millionaires. Theres no way his ego *only* cared about that.

Idk im not even sure the whole "NBA thing" wasnt more of a gimmick anyways. It was a brilliant marketing move: while every other coach bemoaned players who left even 1 year early, he used it to generate talent. If he could get 3 or 4 highly talented freshman into the NBA, then he'd have his pick of the NEXT elite freshman. I always felt like that was his real goal, to use this as a conveyor belt of sorts to get the top talent to help his teams win. He knows he wasnt going to keep making millions and be a king if he wasnt winning. He knew what this "philanthropic" endeavor was actually doing for him. And I honestly think in the end, he liked both: helping kids make millions in the NBA, and being the king of the sport winning big games (for a length of time). Never really felt like the latter wasnt important to him. I think he just knew what his golden goose was, and to lean into that.

anot · Wednesday at 7:21 AM

gobigblue812_rivals29381 said:
I couldn't care less about the NBA draft.

I don't think OP cares about the draft. More less just Kentucky being talked about. Being popular. A cool school. Having a bunch of draft picks probably means you have a good shot at a title.

I would say out of Cals 15 years he had a title team 10 of those. Teams with a chance. I'm not a Cal lover but I won't act like those 15 years weren't extremely fun and exciting for the most part.

I for one do care about the draft. I care about UKs success first but I want a bunch of guys getting drafted from UK. I don't watch the NBA at all. I don't care about the actual draft itself but only the good recognition it puts on UK. I was happy to see Brea and Amari drafted.

bleedsblue5 · Wednesday at 7:24 AM

We complained about 1 and dones with Cal now we complain about the type of guys Pope gets.

One thing that could have possibly made a difference was Cal in NIL, we would have had a chance of keeping guys from the NBA but in the end his coaching style is so behind the times and it wasn't worth it.

If Pope can't make this team work then we just need to look forwad not back.

JPFisher · Wednesday at 7:26 AM

Money is the great equalizer. Cal got us some of the greatest players before NIL, but the quality significantly dropped thereafter.

The last couple years of Cal had more busts than a museum of fine art – not to mention more early exits than should ever occur with the recruiting classes we were bringing in on paper.

Yeah, Cal got us top-ranked recruiting classes, but again, his last few seasons had the same or worse result as Pope's. I think it's an unfair, false equivalency to keep ragging on Pope compared to Cal. It was a completely different era when Cal was bringing in his top guys and when money got involved across the board, Cal fell off too.

Pope has his issues and recruiting is definitely one of them, but I can't compare him to Cal and call it apples to apples.

CatManFromCa · Wednesday at 7:30 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

The only thing UK “isn’t good at” right now is surviving its own fanbase’s emotional whiplash.
You want an Elite Eight in Year 3 after inheriting the worst roster situation in modern program history? Cool. But don’t pretend that’s a “standard.” That’s just you trying to speedrun a rebuild because you’re tired of being sad on message boards.

moses1uk · Wednesday at 7:34 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

Pope beat the Cal standards of not making the sweet 16 by losing to mid majors . You forgot that part

anot · Wednesday at 7:40 AM

moses1uk said:
Pope beat the Cal standards of not making the sweet 16 by losing to mid majors . You forgot that part

Cal won a national championship.

UKCowboys · Wednesday at 7:41 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
Of course you would write something like this. You have no standard. You would be fine with 22-14 records every year until Jesus comes back.

You'd make a hell of an Indiana fan.

"We are starving...we are drowning...save us, brave Knight"...LMA0

BlueCane · Wednesday at 7:44 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

Agree. We are not doing any part of this well. And I don't expect that to change with the current staff and admin. The single biggest factor is the new athletic director. And the "CFO" role if it ever comes to pass. But here is the thing. We can be a great college basketball program and still not be super connected to the draft, or the NBA. Look at UCONN and Houston. Very relevant and part of the daily discussion in college basketball. But not a huge relevance in the NBA. It is cool to have that, but to be honest is hasn't done a damn thing for UK. It has not increased the cool factor one bit. It has for Duke. And I cannot explain that except to say they have a huge media support and every analyst on TV has a connection. So it isn't the NBA it is the other advantages they have.

I am not convinced UK can ever be on top, or relevant again. But if it can happen it will take and admin and coaching staff that understands this new world. However, they could fully understand it and still fail if there aren't folks to finance it. Small state is the reality. I am really just about checked out. I bet I did not watch more than 5 complete games last year. I did watch a few minutes of most games. I usually get bored and do something else. It just isn't the same sport anymore. It's become just a reason to get together, or go out for me, with no real investment in the outcome or even watching. The last few years of Cal and now Pope have killed that. And Barnhart didn't help.

Ukwazoo3 · Wednesday at 7:55 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
I noticed you never responded to my other post in the other thread when I absolutely destroyed your point. It's nice to see that all you have left is ad hominem attacks.

I've never seen them have a point

HipTer · Wednesday at 7:56 AM

I think there are actually two different kinds of enjoyment involving UK basketball, and they’re both valid but not the same thing. One type of enjoyment is the excitement machine: the five-star rankings, McDonald’s All-Americans, draft projections, YouTube mixtapes, “future lottery pick” conversations, and following teenagers on their path to the NBA. That’s real. It’s fun. Calipari built an entire era around it, and for a long stretch Kentucky was at the center of that basketball universe. There’s nothing wrong with fans enjoying that.

But there’s another kind of enjoyment that Kentucky fans historically care about even more: which is feeling like your team is actually built to win the national championship. Calipari wasn’t going to build that team – intentionally wasn’t going to do that. It’s why regardless of what Pope’s time at UK yields, the fans who value that more won’t ever regret Calipari being forced out.

And I even think that for many fans who loved the “star” freshman attention the “pipeline to the NBA” eventually stopped compensating for the lack of deep March runs. Early in the Calipari era, Kentucky had both — elite recruits AND elite postseason results. The fan base tolerated some flaws with the “elite talent” when the postseason results were good. The frustration for many came when the NBA story increasingly became the main story while the championship results faded due to roster construction philosophy and OAD “players first” approach.

I’m not saying recruiting hype is meaningless. It’s just that all the stuff involved with the hype is a different product than title contention. Both can be entertaining, but they scratch different itches.

moses1uk · Wednesday at 7:57 AM

anot said:
Cal won a national championship.

One in 15 years wow impressive

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 7:59 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

Oh there's a story now. It's just the story of the basketball world punking Mark Pope.

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 8:01 AM

Son_Of_Saul said:
BBN feels like a man looking for snacks and all he has left is peanut butter and crackers.

I don't think we can take another summer of overhypring and/or over projecting on players like Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne. We used to do the same thing back in the twilight Tubby years regarding guys like Shagari Alleyene, Matt Pilgrim, and Rekalin Sims when we heard they were coming to UK.

You keep Cal, and at least there's still a story. Acuff is going top 5 this year. Jordan Smith Jr. next year. Maybe they get back Maleek Thomas. You let Calipari ride off into the sunset and you still have his pipeline to NBA players for years to come. We don't have that connection right now because of the awkward reality that Cal left under bad circumstances (he created most of that, but still).

It just feels like UK basketball isn't good at anything right now. I think the saddest part of all of this is that there is still a large portion of the fan base that is trying to move the expectation goal post and make excuses for what we're seeing.

The bottom line is that Pope needs an Elite Eight next year, at minimum. We've finished 6th and 9th place in the SEC in his first two years. If that happens again, we need to go out and hire a killer to coach here.

And...FTR...Peanut Butter crackers are one of my go-to snacks. Seriously, what middle aged dude DOESN'T like peanut butter crackers???

SOS...I like you. Seem like a good dude. Brother, this one might just challenge that though. I just can't be okay with a dude that doesn't like peanut butter crackers. SMDH.

CatManFromCa · Wednesday at 8:02 AM

BlueCane said:
Agree. We are not doing any part of this well. And I don't expect that to change with the current staff and admin. The single biggest factor is the new athletic director. And the "CFO" role if it ever comes to pass. But here is the thing. We can be a great college basketball program and still not be super connected to the draft, or the NBA. Look at UCONN and Houston. Very relevant and part of the daily discussion in college basketball. But not a huge relevance in the NBA. It is cool to have that, but to be honest is hasn't done a damn thing for UK. It has not increased the cool factor one bit. It has for Duke. And I cannot explain that except to say they have a huge media support and every analyst on TV has a connection. So it isn't the NBA it is the other advantages they have.

I am not convinced UK can ever be on top, or relevant again. But if it can happen it will take and admin and coaching staff that understands this new world. However, they could fully understand it and still fail if there aren't folks to finance it. Small state is the reality. I am really just about checked out. I bet I did not watch more than 5 complete games last year. I did watch a few minutes of most games. I usually get bored and do something else. It just isn't the same sport anymore. It's become just a reason to get together, or go out for me, with no real investment in the outcome or even watching. The last few years of Cal and now Pope have killed that. And Barnhart didn't help.

Pope is literally the FIRST coach since 2015 building the exact kind of roster that wins in 2026…older, tougher, shooters, system guys, international talent, continuity. You know… the stuff everyone begged for during the Cal collapse.

UK isn’t dead. You’re just tired. And exhaustion doesn’t mean the program is doomed….it just means you need a nap.

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 8:06 AM

anot said:
I was going to say maybe once the season gets here this team will give us something positive to talk about. Hopefully

He's got two roster spots left. If he somehow pulls a rabbit out of the hat and adds the best player on the roster and another starter, I think you're on to something. If he signs the best player and nothing else of significance, it'll get SLIGHTLY better. If he doesn't sign anyone or two more Noah/Potter level type dude, it'll be worse than it is now. And, FTR, I think the last scenario is the most likely, other than just standing on what he has now.

UK BasketballFan · Wednesday at 8:07 AM

Vek96 said:
Really? Another thread about this? Wow. This board just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

AGAIN, Calipari won 1 tournament in his last 5 seasons, WITH NUMEROUS FIVE STAR RECRUITS. That’s way more pathetic than Pope, who has won three tournament games in his two seasons here.

Let’s see what the final roster looks like, before continuing to start another Pope bashing thread.

Last 4 years, one year there wasn’t a tournament because of COVID.

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 8:10 AM

bleedsblue5 said:
We complained about 1 and dones with Cal now we complain about the type of guys Pope gets.

There's a pretty big delta between the OAD's Cal was getting and the players Pope is getting.

UK BasketballFan · Wednesday at 8:10 AM

anot said:
I'll forever say Cal was losing on purpose at the end. Especially the last two or three years. Cal had some real beef with somebody. Maybe everyone realted to UK. Wonder what really happened.

That is sabotage to me.

You can’t believe that? Losing on purpose LOL

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 8:11 AM

CatManFromCa said:
The only thing UK “isn’t good at” right now is surviving its own fanbase’s emotional whiplash.
You want an Elite Eight in Year 3 after inheriting the worst roster situation in modern program history? Cool. But don’t pretend that’s a “standard.” That’s just you trying to speedrun a rebuild because you’re tired of being sad on message boards.

Yes, it's the fans fault and the roster was depleted. Man, talk about zero awareness.

It's 2026 in the NIL/Portal era. Rebuilds happen in three weeks, not three years. You just have to be able to recruit and coach at a high level.

UK BasketballFan · Wednesday at 8:13 AM

moses1uk said:
One in 15 years wow impressive

UK has won 4 in the past 67 years, do the math.

UKCowboys · Wednesday at 8:14 AM

anot said:
Cal won a national championship.

One in fifteen years. Pope has had two

UKCowboys · Wednesday at 8:16 AM

UK BasketballFan said:
UK has won 4 in the past 67 years, do the math.

Yeah, but exactly. Once every 2-3 years isn't the "standard", has never been

Eagles_Ball_69 · Wednesday at 8:19 AM

CatManFromCa said:
Pope is literally the FIRST coach since 2015 building the exact kind of roster that wins in 2026…older, tougher, shooters, system guys, international talent, continuity. You know… the stuff everyone begged for during the Cal collapse.

UK isn’t dead. You’re just tired. And exhaustion doesn’t mean the program is doomed….it just means you need a nap.

Shooters? Tougher? Older? International talent? Man, that's a stretch.

Shooters? McBride had one year he shot the ball well and he had to drop to low level D1 to do it. And that was on less than 100 attempts. Nobody else can shoot that we know of.

Tougher? Kepnang is that, but he's it. And if he plays more than 10-12 mins we are HURTING.

Older? This might be the most accurate. Kepnang is close to AARP benefits. McBride, Morton, and Diallo all have decent experience. But this roster is NOTHING like his first. That roster had tons of 4/5 yr guys. Dudes that knew how to play. They weren't the most talented bunch, but they knew how to play the game. This team isn't nearly that experienced.

International talent? Lol. Yeah, a dude that probably won't beat out an undersized JMU power forward for minutes.

With Cal, UK was at least part of the story (recruiting/draft). Feels like we're starving now on all fronts.

Heisman

All-Conference

All-American

All-Conference

All-Conference

Junior

All-American

Sophomore

All-Conference

Heisman

All-American

Heisman

Senior

Heisman

Heisman

Heisman

Heisman

All-Conference

Senior

Heisman

Sophomore

All-Conference

All-Conference

All-American

Redshirt

All-Conference

Senior

All-Conference

All-American

All-American

Sophomore

All-American

Senior

All-American

Senior

All-American

Senior

All-American

All-American

All-American