Kentucky Basketball Is Bigger Than All of Us...And Matters of Hypocrisy

JwUKFan11 said:

I'm glad you got here, but I truly don't understand how one who really seems to be a fan could take so long to get to this point. Once he had all the money in the world and still couldn't get stars to come, the writing was on the wall. It was sealed when he didn't win with what he spent that money on. This upcoming season only has to happen because of the money needed to fire him, and the fact that we have no AD, and the administration is currently a complete mess. The worst case scenario is that the new AD gives Pope another year after this one because it would only be his first under him.

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Im The Village Idiot said:

I do not think my opinion of Mark Pope should matter, one way or another, to anyone other than myself, but it seems to matter to some who feel that my criticisms of him are traitorous and hypocritical. Anyone who feels that way is welcome, but I'm going to be very candid and honest in this post --- and it's going to be a pretty long one. If that isn't your thing, you're welcome to scroll past, ignore or so on.

When Mark Pope was initially hired as Kentucky basketball coach, I was upset. Despite the fact that I disagreed with many aspects of the previous coach, I did not feel it was a good idea to let him go --- I simply did not see a suitable replacement to step in and fill the shoes. When I found out it was Mark Pope, I was flabbergasted. I, like many others, did not feel that he had the necessary qualifications to assume the mantle as Kentucky basketball coach. That said, many of my complaints about the previous coach seemed to be areas I expected to improve on with Mark Pope. After further consideration, I was bought into the idea that Mark Pope would be a perfect fit for the job. After all, if fan support was juiced enough, NIL and boosters would promise to mitigate any recruiting issues brought about in the wake of Calipari's absence. The idea was that we can pay big, so we can still eat just fine.

Unlike many others who felt let down by the first year of Pope, I felt it was a breath of fresh air. While there were pain points, the overall body of work, considering the circumstances, had me convinced we were on the verge of returning back to our rightful place in the pecking order of college basketball. We had massive wins over many teams we shouldn't have defeated, spent half the season in the AP top ten, and returned to the second weekend for the first time in six years --- something I didn't think was likely in the preseason.

Going into the offseason for the second year, I had expectations that many others had --- simply improve the athleticism and defense and you've got yourself a winner. Sure, we may not have gotten guys we went after, but I figured this was probably a function of the natural weeding out that will occur when a coach is prioritizing fit over raw talent. However, then the ball tipped off. When it did, the cohesion, fit and performance I anticipated was nowhere to be seen. Game film analysis led me to conclude there were serious issues with the way the team was being handled. Through it all, however, I believed that injuries were likely a major part of the issues. I expected that in year three, Pope will find the right guys to ensure that we get Year One-adjacent effort, fit and focus paired with improved talent and a high-ceiling roster.

However, this offseason has left me scrambling to determine whether or not to continue my vocal support of Mark Pope. After all, roster retention has been a major reason that I warmed to the idea of Pope in the first place. While I do understand why some of the guys weren't retained, the massive exodus of players left a bad taste in my mouth. As I'm prone to do, I considered that it may be alright after all --- Michigan just bucked the trend and won a national championship with historically low roster continuity. Maybe we can just add an elite crop of players and try to win with a different formula, right? I'd been publicly open about considering Mark Pope a good, but not elite recruiter and I believed such a statement was demonstrable by his previous classes. This year, when he needed a strong class the most, he has failed miserably to obtain one. I was proven wrong --- calling Mark Pope a B+ recruiter was a mistake.

This has led to the discussion about hypocrisy, treason and honesty. I am now at a point where, despite the fact that I very much would like it to work with Mark Pope, I must admit that the evidence on the table suggests I may have been wrong about him. My belief that he will eventually figure this out seems increasingly to be a figment of my own imagination, a preference, a dream that is fun for a moment --- such things end when you wake up to reality. I'm now in "prove it" mode with Mark Pope. Being honest is required for me to continue, even if it upsets some.

During a stretch of the last season, I became infuriated with the tactical decision-making of our coach. It led me to violating some of my own personal rules --- I called for the man's job (as if it even matters) during a season that wasn't yet completed. I started engaging in content openly making fun of the coach in a way that made me feel guilty. I reconsidered my views on Pope when I thought deeply about things and figured that Pope would serve me crow eventually. I vowed I would not, no matter how bad things got during last season, call for the coach's job again.

So here's where I am now --- I can no longer, in good faith, pretend that I still believe in Mark Pope. Despite asking for a year three, I'm pretty certain we will have a ceiling just below that of a truly elite national championship contender. That I believe, will not be enough for Mark Pope to retain his job. However, despite my more pessimistic view of Pope's job retention probability, I refuse to engage in personally humiliating Pope, joining into calling him names, etc. I still believe he sincerely wants to do best for the school --- I just do not believe he is capable. For some, my change in view on the coach will make me a traitorous hypocrite, and I certainly hope that Pope proves me wrong.

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mjj_2K said:

Well thought out by the OP, and very close to my line of thinking. I was sick of Cal, and felt like we were watching a version of what happened to guys like Bob Knight, Denny Crum, and John Thompson in the mid to late 90's. They couldn't adjust to how the sport was changing in certain ways and went into permanent decline. Pope seemed like a huge stretch, but he said all the right things. Year 1 was enough to give me hope. Keep Jaxson Robinson healthy and maybe they could have contended for the FF. And Pope snagged 2 highly rated recruits and a transfer class that looked good on paper.

I was a little skeptical of some of the offseason moves (JQ for sure) and it kind of seemed like Pope might be overcorrecting by getting better athletes but with far less shooting, but wanted it to work out. Then November came, and by the first week of December any hope of this being a contending team was completely gone. All you could hope for was avoiding a complete fiasco of a season. Which Pope kind of did manage to do.

It's just not working, though, when there's little reason to hope for anything much better in year 3. Best case right now is probably something like Pope's first year. If everything gels and there's a miracle turnaround, I'll reconsider, because "ready, fire, aim" generally doesn't get great results, but I'm not holding my breath expecting that to happen.

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Im The Village Idiot said:

I do not think my opinion of Mark Pope should matter, one way or another, to anyone other than myself, but it seems to matter to some who feel that my criticisms of him are traitorous and hypocritical. Anyone who feels that way is welcome, but I'm going to be very candid and honest in this post --- and it's going to be a pretty long one. If that isn't your thing, you're welcome to scroll past, ignore or so on.

When Mark Pope was initially hired as Kentucky basketball coach, I was upset. Despite the fact that I disagreed with many aspects of the previous coach, I did not feel it was a good idea to let him go --- I simply did not see a suitable replacement to step in and fill the shoes. When I found out it was Mark Pope, I was flabbergasted. I, like many others, did not feel that he had the necessary qualifications to assume the mantle as Kentucky basketball coach. That said, many of my complaints about the previous coach seemed to be areas I expected to improve on with Mark Pope. After further consideration, I was bought into the idea that Mark Pope would be a perfect fit for the job. After all, if fan support was juiced enough, NIL and boosters would promise to mitigate any recruiting issues brought about in the wake of Calipari's absence. The idea was that we can pay big, so we can still eat just fine.

Unlike many others who felt let down by the first year of Pope, I felt it was a breath of fresh air. While there were pain points, the overall body of work, considering the circumstances, had me convinced we were on the verge of returning back to our rightful place in the pecking order of college basketball. We had massive wins over many teams we shouldn't have defeated, spent half the season in the AP top ten, and returned to the second weekend for the first time in six years --- something I didn't think was likely in the preseason.

Going into the offseason for the second year, I had expectations that many others had --- simply improve the athleticism and defense and you've got yourself a winner. Sure, we may not have gotten guys we went after, but I figured this was probably a function of the natural weeding out that will occur when a coach is prioritizing fit over raw talent. However, then the ball tipped off. When it did, the cohesion, fit and performance I anticipated was nowhere to be seen. Game film analysis led me to conclude there were serious issues with the way the team was being handled. Through it all, however, I believed that injuries were likely a major part of the issues. I expected that in year three, Pope will find the right guys to ensure that we get Year One-adjacent effort, fit and focus paired with improved talent and a high-ceiling roster.

However, this offseason has left me scrambling to determine whether or not to continue my vocal support of Mark Pope. After all, roster retention has been a major reason that I warmed to the idea of Pope in the first place. While I do understand why some of the guys weren't retained, the massive exodus of players left a bad taste in my mouth. As I'm prone to do, I considered that it may be alright after all --- Michigan just bucked the trend and won a national championship with historically low roster continuity. Maybe we can just add an elite crop of players and try to win with a different formula, right? I'd been publicly open about considering Mark Pope a good, but not elite recruiter and I believed such a statement was demonstrable by his previous classes. This year, when he needed a strong class the most, he has failed miserably to obtain one. I was proven wrong --- calling Mark Pope a B+ recruiter was a mistake.

This has led to the discussion about hypocrisy, treason and honesty. I am now at a point where, despite the fact that I very much would like it to work with Mark Pope, I must admit that the evidence on the table suggests I may have been wrong about him. My belief that he will eventually figure this out seems increasingly to be a figment of my own imagination, a preference, a dream that is fun for a moment --- such things end when you wake up to reality. I'm now in "prove it" mode with Mark Pope. Being honest is required for me to continue, even if it upsets some.

During a stretch of the last season, I became infuriated with the tactical decision-making of our coach. It led me to violating some of my own personal rules --- I called for the man's job (as if it even matters) during a season that wasn't yet completed. I started engaging in content openly making fun of the coach in a way that made me feel guilty. I reconsidered my views on Pope when I thought deeply about things and figured that Pope would serve me crow eventually. I vowed I would not, no matter how bad things got during last season, call for the coach's job again.

So here's where I am now --- I can no longer, in good faith, pretend that I still believe in Mark Pope. Despite asking for a year three, I'm pretty certain we will have a ceiling just below that of a truly elite national championship contender. That I believe, will not be enough for Mark Pope to retain his job. However, despite my more pessimistic view of Pope's job retention probability, I refuse to engage in personally humiliating Pope, joining into calling him names, etc. I still believe he sincerely wants to do best for the school --- I just do not believe he is capable. For some, my change in view on the coach will make me a traitorous hypocrite, and I certainly hope that Pope proves me wrong.

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UKBB4Ever said:

After gimmick wore off he’s 20-16 in the SEC regular season. The worst 2 year stretch in the history of UK basketball.

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