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

theBlues

All-Conference
Oct 18, 2025
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I think most of us are just supporting the team and hoping for the best, even if we expect the worst. I'm hoping Pope turns things around even if I don't expect it. I do like our current roster(assuming MM returns) better than last year's roster; I'll like it a LOT better if we snag Momcilovic.
 
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JPFisher

Heisman
Jul 24, 2013
6,802
13,158
113
This is becoming that messy divorce where 5-10 years down the road one party realizes they made a massive mistake lol.

I was always of the mindset of "well Cal didn't get the results lately he had to go".............I'm rethinking that now tho.
... Why? Like, I know you kinda explain it below, but like... Why? Weak reasoning, IMO.

Fact is the man still can recruit. As long as you get talented players you always have a shot.

Pope cannot do that At all lol
Cal and Pope have the exact same NCAAT record the last two years, btw. At least Cal is still bringing in top classes tho, right? 😂
 

MdWIldcat55

Heisman
Dec 9, 2007
21,381
85,642
113
Tubby was “ sound”. Sound isn’t winning at UK level.
LOL. I've been a Kentucky fan since 1966. What exactly is 'winning at UK level? That stretch of no Final Fours between my first year as a fan and 1975? The championship drought between 1978 and 1996? No Final Four between 1998 and 2011? How about Calipari's run between 2019 and 2024?

And with all that I still consider Kentucky easily the greatest college basketball program of all time, and have loved my lifetime of being a fan.

If this doesn't apply to you, then don't take it personally, but I despise the fakes and bandwagoneers who jumped on with John Wall and Anthony Davis and now spend all their time whining and crying about what they are entitled to every year.

This is almost certainly Pope's last chance -- as it should be. Might as well pull for him and do your own due diligence on the worth of this team instead of spending the next nine months complaining and crying about everything and especially living in some fantasy world that there is some mythical "UK Level" fans are entitled to experience every year.

Not only was that never true, it is less true than ever before under today's reality of building whole new teams out of the portal while competing with 30-40 programs with just as much NIL money.
 
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kfwa

Senior
Oct 12, 2014
528
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I think UK fans angst is making it the story, not so much Pope's lack of closure on recruiting.

I still believe there is a possibility that we end up with a good team when all is said and done and all this hand wringing about what Pope can do in recruiting will be marginalized.

To me its just wasted energy at this point to gnash teeth about recruiting misses. I'd rather wait until December to determine whether the season is going in the right direction.
 

ChocolateBiceps

Redshirt
May 7, 2026
24
26
3
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.

Pope needs to go no doubt but what do you mean by “competing for a title every other year from 1939-2019? I’m not so sure that is accurate.

for more modern times we’ve made the FF 10 times I think since 1980. So 10 times in about 45/46 years. I wouldn’t say those other years are “failures”.

the landscape had changed. The “FF/Title or the season is a disappointment” seems absurd to say now. That being said… most years (give or take as there are weird years) but for the most part I think it’s acceptable to expect Kentucky to at least be in the mix every year or every other year- meaning most years we can say “Yeah, I can see us winning or advancing far into the SEC Tournament and I think we have a chance or at least the talent/coaching/ability to make a FF run”
 

TheApostleSaulSmith

All-Conference
Mar 30, 2026
864
1,977
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I think UK fans angst is making it the story, not so much Pope's lack of closure on recruiting.

I still believe there is a possibility that we end up with a good team when all is said and done and all this hand wringing about what Pope can do in recruiting will be marginalized.

To me its just wasted energy at this point to gnash teeth about recruiting misses. I'd rather wait until December to determine whether the season is going in the right direction.
Right...the problem is once we're past the recruiting stage, then it's time for him to go out and coach. And that's arguably worse.

It's an endless cycle of "meh" with Pope
 
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yoshukai

Heisman
Dec 21, 2002
29,882
42,398
102
Ok sure but what about Pope having UK finishing 9th in the SEC?? Your thoughts?
Has nothing to do with Cal . Calipari was sucking. At this point my thinking is that neither should be coaching at UK . It’s going to take a really good upcoming season for Pope to change my mind .

But I still would not want Calipari and his $35 million dollar buyout back . EVER .
 

yoshukai

Heisman
Dec 21, 2002
29,882
42,398
102
This is becoming that messy divorce where 5-10 years down the road one party realizes they made a massive mistake lol.

I was always of the mindset of "well Cal didn't get the results lately he had to go".............I'm rethinking that now tho.

Fact is the man still can recruit. As long as you get talented players you always have a shot.

Pope cannot do that At all lol
John Calipari has gone to his last elite 8 . Ever . Book this and mark it down.
 

WeWant9

Heisman
Dec 18, 2013
6,948
18,486
113
Cal has always been savvy at winning the summer headlines. He knows how to market it and whatever school he is at gains those headlines, too. This was also something that grinded UK fans down on him, remember how so many hated draft talk? If he were still at UK, this place would still be batshit crazy like his last few years.
 

KYFOSSIL

Heisman
Jan 13, 2005
8,004
10,772
62
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.
Do you strive just to find different ways to say the same thing over and over.
 
Aug 23, 2024
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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.
Another stupid take by you. UK is definitely not dead and definitely not out of the spotlight by any means.
 
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KYFOSSIL

Heisman
Jan 13, 2005
8,004
10,772
62
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.
2009 2011 2012 2014 2015 2017. When do we honestly have a title team with than those years?
 
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20MRoster

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2018
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Hey man! This year might have been disappointing, but at least Wagner is coming! He's the dawg at PG the team sorely lacked!

That was just about every single season under Cal since 2015. The program was on the precipice of being saved by a new collection of recruits. What did it amount to? An endless cycle of hype, frustration, desperation, and then back to hype.
at least there was hype. these pope teams are limp dick beginning to end
 

TheApostleSaulSmith

All-Conference
Mar 30, 2026
864
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This is one of the most crackpot theories I've heard yet.
It's total nonsense. We know about Pope cope...but that's some Cal cope.

1. A guy with Cal's ego could never let himself lose on purpose. Now he certainly got lazy and entitled. But throwing games? No way

2. Go rewatch St Peters and Oakland, and pay careful attention to Cal's body language. That is clearly not someone "losing on purpose"

The only accurate part is that Cal did obviously have beef with Barnhart
 
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KYFOSSIL

Heisman
Jan 13, 2005
8,004
10,772
62
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.
You'd be a little players just to meet your agenda. Well, you're full of ****. Butler was a good guard but very injury prone and we have two solid good size guards and they shoot on the same level as Butler did before. He got to the cats and they have a better middle level game. Then they are back by an experience to guard in Morgan, who was a very good three-point shooter. Kam put an eight three-pointers last year in one game and he was starting to show his potential defense and rebound until he hurt his foot. Great size at the Center position and the forward positions.. this team has loaded with length and experience. We do need one elite level player to round this team out, but we are not near desolate as you and other describe us. I laugh when you say this team isn't nearly as experience. We have a 22-year-old that's played pro ball in Israel, a seventh year player, and literally only one freshman on the team that will play Ltd. minutes and the other probably just mop up time
 

Hitman206

Senior
Jul 11, 2009
627
822
93
Yeah all Cal did was give the majority of the younger fanbase the best decade or so of entertaining basketball, with a championship, final fours, elite 8s and talented players up and down the roster


Meanwhile pope builds rosters with future accountants, shame how its fallen under him
Pitino's run was better
 
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Hitman206

Senior
Jul 11, 2009
627
822
93
It is do or die for Mark Pope this year. He either makes a run in the SEC or NCAA and is highly successful with this team or he will be terminated. That is the bottom line for this year. No excuses - it is year 3…
As long as Barnhart is not pulling the strings behind the scenes, that is the case. That's why I has glad they terminated his continuing contract so he could not maintain a constant vigil around the program and influence decision making.
 

TheApostleSaulSmith

All-Conference
Mar 30, 2026
864
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As long as Barnhart is not pulling the strings behind the scenes, that is the case. That's why I has glad they terminated his continuing contract so he could not maintain a constant vigil around the program and influence decision making.
So is he still officially retiring this year? I need to mark the date on my calendar to remember to pour out a glass of Pappy in celebration
 
Aug 23, 2024
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You come at Pope with an axe but squeal if someone approaches you with a Bobby pin
You don't seem to have any clue what you are talking about. You are accusing me of being overly critical of Pope? That's one of the most misguided accusations this board has ever seen. I have not done any squealing. You are the one that called me a know it all today unprovoked so I'm happy to return the favor if that is how you wish to play this.
 
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