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Now will people get off Pope's *** and support this team

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BMR1987

Senior
Mar 5, 2025
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This was an EXCELLENT job to get this done by Pope. I think he's now put a solid team together.

My standard is going to remain my standard, though. Can he win 25+ games? Can he finish Top 4 in this SEC? Can he get to an Elite 8? Time will tell and I'm rooting for him to do all of the above.
 
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UKWildcats1987

Heisman
Sep 9, 2021
20,015
35,260
113
Doc4UK! said:
Now the bottom line is seeing what Pope can do with a rotation of 8 or perhaps 9 players. His substitution pattern last season was a major issue . Will it improve. His defense was another major issue against the better teams we played. Will that still be an issue? The lack of consistent three point shooting was an issue ? Will adding MM solve the problem or will teams learn to focus on him because he is the only consistent three point threat? Only time will tell but if we lose more than 10 games and do not sniff the elite 8 or finish in the bottom half of the SEC standings then in my mind you have to make a change. Especially considering the fact that you will also be losing most of your players after the season and the recruiting issues will once again be front and center.
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I think we have some other good 3 point shooters. Offense should be really strong.

Defense is a concern.

Lack of game preparation will be an issue. We cant keep getting down double digits so much to power teams.

I think he needs to win something that matters. Sec regular season or tourney or final four. Or at least make an elite 8 and lose a close one. Elite 8 he gets year 4.

Im afraid with our admin even a close sweet 16 loss guatantees a year 4.
 
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Wildcat_in_DC

All-Conference
Nov 25, 2025
912
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multiple things can and are true at the same time.

  1. pope landed a big time player that makes this team a lot better and raises the ceiling on that team significantly
  2. pope still needs to perform at a much higher level than he has to date both on the court in getting wins and off the court in attracting talent
landing milan is something to celebrate and gives reason to look forward to next season. milan could help us get back on track and make the season enjoyable but this still probably isnt a team that is top 10 in the nation, a top 3 team in the SEC, or a team that will get to an elite 8/final four. that is after all......the assignment
 
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CatFanMan66

Freshman
Feb 4, 2022
74
85
18
Drcats2025 said:
Does that logically make sense? Do you REALLY believe that people invest a large portion of their life to unjustly hate Mark Pope and feel miserable when UK wins games?

I don’t think Mark Pope is UK material as a head coach, but I’m fine if you do. I hope he proves me wrong. I’ll be the happiest fan out there if he does because I love this program. But if you really believe what you said, you’re an utter fool.
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Please read a little more thoroughly before calling the OP a fool. He was refering to the clown haters, not the typically fan.
 
C

Catlogic1552

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
632
1,417
93
Son_Of_Saul said:
The victimization mindset is everywhere now, even in this thread.

We all want UK to win. If Pope makes a Final Four next year, we'll all be thrilled.

Yet, some of you guys make it seem like our evaluation of Pope is absent of real data, as in an 11 year sample size where his winning percentages have never exceeded 75% for a single season, and the baseline percentage is just a tad bit above 64%.

Pope landed a great player, and I will give him credit for that, but we're still looking at the guy who has finished 6th and 9th in the SEC, missed on 14 straight top twenty recruits, and has been beaten down in the NCAA Tournament by 13 points and 19 points in back-to-back years.

Pope is the one who is auditioning to keep his job right now; the fans owe him little more than "wait and see" right now. We were excited about last season, too, lest we forget.

We'll all be cheering for Pope and Kentucky next year, but does that mean that Pope is exonerated for all of his failures thus far? No at all.

Pope can and hopefully will prove us all wrong this year.
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EXACTLY!!!
 
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kywildcat1021979

kywildcat1021979

Heisman
Jan 10, 2015
19,231
32,821
62
Son_Of_Saul said:
The victimization mindset is everywhere now, even in this thread.

We all want UK to win. If Pope makes a Final Four next year, we'll all be thrilled.

Yet, some of you guys make it seem like our evaluation of Pope is absent of real data, as in an 11 year sample size where his winning percentages have never exceeded 75% for a single season, and the baseline percentage is just a tad bit above 64%.

Pope landed a great player, and I will give him credit for that, but we're still looking at the guy who has finished 6th and 9th in the SEC, missed on 14 straight top twenty recruits, and has been beaten down in the NCAA Tournament by 13 points and 19 points in back-to-back years.

Pope is the one who is auditioning to keep his job right now; the fans owe him little more than "wait and see" right now. We were excited about last season, too, lest we forget.

We'll all be cheering for Pope and Kentucky next year, but does that mean that Pope is exonerated for all of his failures thus far? No at all.

Pope can and hopefully will prove us all wrong this year.
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I know some people act like Pope is just getting started coaching dude has been coaching over a decade already. He hasn't done anything to this point and until he got to UK he hadn't won any NCAA tournament games. I want him to do good and lead us to # 9 but career statistics aren't on his side. I'm with you glad he landed this great player but he was 0 for something crazy to this point.
 
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DelkBowl

DelkBowl

Heisman
Oct 4, 2015
10,797
11,863
101
CRZ4UK said:
Just curious on why you feel last year was one of UKs biggest disasters??
Both Popes classes have made it as far in the tournament as Caliparis last 4 did. He didn’t get bounced in the first round by Oakland or St. Peter’s. Last years team was disappointing but hardly one of of its biggest disasters. Since NIL became crazy. Popes last two seasons have been as good as it gets actually.
Kentucky basketball has been a bottom feeder since NIL and the Portal came into play.
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Compare Pope and Cal in their first two years each. Then progress forward each year to get equal data.
 
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caytsBNA

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2019
23
42
12
Agree - I have been extremely hard on Pope over the last 2-3 months, but it's time to get behind this team and support.

Life is too short to be so pessimistic. If in 3-4 months we realize this team isn't it, we can pile back on Pope, but for now... LET'S GO!
 
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2

26MichaelUK

All-American
Feb 14, 2013
36,605
5,279
93
I've always cheered for our cats. I will tell you I have been down on Pope since I went to Nashville last year, spending hundreds of dollars, to see Gonzaga dog walk us with literally no effort given by a Kentucky player. I've seen that more than once and it's concerning.

That said it's a new year and he has my support this year and I WANT things to work out. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful trend for Kentucky basketball.
 
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Anon1739778738

Senior
Feb 17, 2025
566
752
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Could you imagine Duke,Kansas, North Carolina and Connecticut celebrating over a player that shoots a high percentage on the three ball but meh on everything else and paying 7+ million for him.
 
BleedBlue747

BleedBlue747

Sophomore
Dec 5, 2025
131
147
43
They will not unless he win's a Natty. Then back on his A the next in conference or home loss. That is a coach's life..
 
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UKGrad24

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
3,010
7,502
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Imagine a guy missing on nearly every single major recruit he’s after, losing blowouts in record numbers, getting killed by guys like Nate Oats, setting records as the worst or second worst coach in UK history, with a 12 year coaching record that’s low-mid, and literally sitting 0-near 30 on top freshman players, and imagine someone pumping their chest because he received a late cycle recruit. I’m glad he pulled it, but some of you will literally do anything to support someone, as far as ignoring the 99% of things that tell you he’s not a good coach. Cling to the 1%, but it doesn’t mean anything until Mark Pope becomes something he’s never been and that’s a quality coach. And there’s no arguing that, you can only act like you’re a teenager with limited reasoning skills.
 
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Skyguyb27

All-American
Feb 12, 2008
4,792
7,955
113
BBBLazing2point0 said:
With this great get, will everyone quit being negative and just support our team and be positive until we see what happens?
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I won’t get off Pope’s butt until he dies what he was hired to do and stops embarrassing the University. I will however support the team and hope they win.
 
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Eagles_Ball_69

All-American
Dec 19, 2003
4,265
5,820
82
kuhlkat said:
Sadly, they won't. Some people are only happy when they're miserable.
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This is such an odd take. People, real fans and not the trolls, were always going to support the team. Mom or not, I'd be watching every game and talking about the Cats daily. The only thing that will get me, and many others, "off Pope's a$$" is if he can take this roster and do some real winning with it. Not lose 12 or 14 games. Not get boatraced in the S16 or second round. Get to the finals of the SECT. Finish in the top 3 of the SEC regular season. Make an E8 or FF. He needs to do all of that. Why? Because his history shows he's not capable of it.

Getting Mom definitely makes this team better. I'm still not sure it's a FF type team or even a team capable of winning the SEC. There are some big question marks, but if those questions marks are positives...then I think we could have something special. This I'm quite sure of, we are better off today than we were yesterday...and that's a good thing.
 
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kuhlkat

kuhlkat

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2003
3,075
3,663
98
Eagles_Ball_69 said:
This is such an odd take. People, real fans and not the trolls, were always going to support the team. Mom or not, I'd be watching every game and talking about the Cats daily. The only thing that will get me, and many others, "off Pope's a$$" is if he can take this roster and do some real winning with it. Not lose 12 or 14 games. Not get boatraced in the S16 or second round. Get to the finals of the SECT. Finish in the top 3 of the SEC regular season. Make an E8 or FF. He needs to do all of that. Why? Because his history shows he's not capable of it.

Getting Mom definitely makes this team better. I'm still not sure it's a FF type team or even a team capable of winning the SEC. There are some big question marks, but if those questions marks are positives...then I think we could have something special. This I'm quite sure of, we are better off today than we were yesterday...and that's a good thing.
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Glad it doesn't apply to you. But my statement is true and obviously many agreed with me.
 
E

Eagles_Ball_69

All-American
Dec 19, 2003
4,265
5,820
82
kuhlkat said:
Glad it doesn't apply to you. But my statement is true and obviously many agreed with me.
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Just because others with an odd viewpoint agree with you doesn't make it fact. No real UK fan would root against the team. I'll venture I probably dislike Pope as a coach as much as any poster on here that's a true Cats fan. I'd never root against the team. That's just silly.
 
DudahUK

DudahUK

Heisman
Jul 23, 2020
7,521
11,855
113
jeffky said:
Friend Loser GIF

What a loser reply
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STFU Jeff. Nobody likes you either.
 
DudahUK

DudahUK

Heisman
Jul 23, 2020
7,521
11,855
113
Son_Of_Saul said:
The victimization mindset is everywhere now, even in this thread.

We all want UK to win. If Pope makes a Final Four next year, we'll all be thrilled.

Yet, some of you guys make it seem like our evaluation of Pope is absent of real data, as in an 11 year sample size where his winning percentages have never exceeded 75% for a single season, and the baseline percentage is just a tad bit above 64%.

Pope landed a great player, and I will give him credit for that, but we're still looking at the guy who has finished 6th and 9th in the SEC, missed on 14 straight top twenty recruits, and has been beaten down in the NCAA Tournament by 13 points and 19 points in back-to-back years.

Pope is the one who is auditioning to keep his job right now; the fans owe him little more than "wait and see" right now. We were excited about last season, too, lest we forget.

We'll all be cheering for Pope and Kentucky next year, but does that mean that Pope is exonerated for all of his failures thus far? No at all.

Pope can and hopefully will prove us all wrong this year.
Click to expand...
Most of these people on here are straight up idiots.
 
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Catsfan3382

Junior
Jul 4, 2025
95
245
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CRZ4UK said:
Just curious on why you feel last year was one of UKs biggest disasters??
Both Popes classes have made it as far in the tournament as Caliparis last 4 did. He didn’t get bounced in the first round by Oakland or St. Peter’s. Last years team was disappointing but hardly one of of its biggest disasters. Since NIL became crazy. Popes last two seasons have been as good as it gets actually.
Kentucky basketball has been a bottom feeder since NIL and the Portal came into play.
Click to expand...
Anyone who paid attention to what Cal was doing the last 4 years knew he wanted to get bounced - he didn’t care. Cal was embarrassing to be sure, but I still hold to my statement that last year was one of the biggest disasters ever.
Preseason top 5, highest “payroll” in history of a very short NIL era (which put the media spotlight on us from day one). Embarrassing, massive, inexcusable blowouts to Mich St and Gonzaga (never in my long fandom have I witnessed UK teams play with the lack of effort I witnessed in those two games). From about the middle of the conference season, we were teetering on the bubble of even MAKING the NCAA tournament. I’ve watched UK religiously for about 48 years and last year was, without a doubt to me, one of the biggest disasters in UK basketball history.
 
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Randy Bob

All-Conference
Jun 14, 2009
7,283
4,031
113
I support UK all the way, I think with getting Milan will help this team and hope we get good assistant. Go Cats.
 
paulcalhoun_rivals397471

paulcalhoun_rivals397471

All-American
Aug 23, 2024
2,500
5,566
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kywildcat1021979 said:
I know some people act like Pope is just getting started coaching dude has been coaching over a decade already. He hasn't done anything to this point and until he got to UK he hadn't won any NCAA tournament games. I want him to do good and lead us to # 9 but career statistics aren't on his side. I'm with you glad he landed this great player but he was 0 for something crazy to this point.
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I have made numerous posts extensively detailing numerous coaches that went on to be great who had similar or lesser starts at this point in their career vs. what Pope has done.
 
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