Will Mark Pope Make it Through the 2026-2027 Season?
- Thread starter BluWildcatz
- Start date
Absolutely braindead fanbase. Pope will coach at UK for another decade plus. You idiots judging someone who hasn't had a single season without losing multiple starters to injury can find another team.
He may well be right. This is going to be a good team and he will have a big year recruiting next season. I think there is a good chance he redeems himself and isn't going anywhere. It doesn't matter how many folks on Rafters have waved the white flag, he controls his own destiny. He has to pick it up, but if he course corrects the recruiting mistakes of the first two seasons he will be fine, and he has already hired the help he needed on the recruiting side
The jury is still out on the high school recruiting. Last I checked, Pope still has never landed a top 10 kid. Hampton has been trending downward in pretty much every reputable recruiting service.
How does anyone go through life so negative SMH
AFTER UK signed him he trended down. If he had signed with Duke he would be top 10
Wasn't he #5 when he signed? I'd bet if he signed with Duke he would still be top 5.
You're a woman. I'm convinced.
Have you saw Hampton play recently? He can't shoot. That's not a top 5 player.
More of the arguing over stuff no one knows.
POSSIBLE: We see some of the same organic chemistry and purpose that some of Pope’s better teams have had and this team ends up 2nd in the SEC, a 2-seed in the NCAAT and an elite eight team. Pope earns good will with the fanbase and builds on that with a solid career as coach at Kentucky. In retrospect, we look back at the 2026 season as an amalgamation of catastrophic injuries and roster misevaluation.
POSSIBLE: We see heads butt due to the lack of in-program veterans and the lack of continuity rears its ugly head. A team that struggles to defend and rebound is unable to overcome its weaknesses in a conference that demands these elements at a premium. This team ends up 6th in the SEC, a 6-seed in the NCAAT and loses in the Round of 32. Pope loses any remaining bit of hope from the fanbase, who demand change. After meeting with Batt, Pope agrees to resign rather than be relieved of his duties and agrees to still be a Wildcat for life, passing the baton to the next coach in succession.
^ More than likely, whatever happens is in between these. But either are possible. We don’t know how the story plays out just yet.
POSSIBLE: We see some of the same organic chemistry and purpose that some of Pope’s better teams have had and this team ends up 2nd in the SEC, a 2-seed in the NCAAT and an elite eight team. Pope earns good will with the fanbase and builds on that with a solid career as coach at Kentucky. In retrospect, we look back at the 2026 season as an amalgamation of catastrophic injuries and roster misevaluation.
POSSIBLE: We see heads butt due to the lack of in-program veterans and the lack of continuity rears its ugly head. A team that struggles to defend and rebound is unable to overcome its weaknesses in a conference that demands these elements at a premium. This team ends up 6th in the SEC, a 6-seed in the NCAAT and loses in the Round of 32. Pope loses any remaining bit of hope from the fanbase, who demand change. After meeting with Batt, Pope agrees to resign rather than be relieved of his duties and agrees to still be a Wildcat for life, passing the baton to the next coach in succession.
^ More than likely, whatever happens is in between these. But either are possible. We don’t know how the story plays out just yet.
I believe Pope will probably stay as long as he makes the tournament and he will definitely stay if he makes it to the round of 32. That's all he has to do and a lot of people here might not like it but it's the truth. I think it's easy to make an argument and feel he should be fired if he doesn't at least make a sweet 16 but just because most of us feel a certain way doesn't make it so.
Not sure I agree. If he has another year of disastrous games and dysfunction and limps into the tournament and gets beat in the second round, he could or should be gone.
but like @Im The Village Idiot said. There are a ton of things in between that could happen.
If he puts together a great regular season (not predicting that) but if they do and then gets beat tripped up in the second round, he’s probably not getting canned.
I know people keep saying it, but it IS true that based on all available data thus far the season will be an outlier with regard to Popes career if we are a top 3 seed and make a final four. I mean that’s really not being negative it’s just running a simple statistical test and inputting data. Hopefully you’re correct and we do in fact have an outlier and the trend changes going forward, as it would be a very dramatic feel good story for everyone involved.
You really have nothing to backup that statement. There is previous data to point to your statement being wrong (Tubby and Cal both made the tournament before being pushed out) and not really any data to point to your statement being right.
He’s only had two seasons as a coach with major conference resources. One of those was a crap show and one of those was a 3-seed. We really don’t know what to expect with Pope tbh. I wouldn’t be shocked if we made a Final Four. Genuinely. I could see a 2024 Alabama type of team that makes a run because of an elite offense. I wouldn’t be shocked if we lost in the first round like 2024 Kentucky either due to a lack of defense and rebounding. The people that try to use data to say anything about Pope’s career are really stretching — his early career was promising and that’s why he kept getting promoted. He has to be the man at Kentucky or we dive headfirst into Oats before long.
I’m just not sure I agree with that. He had 8 years before UK. And yes, Utah valley state isn’t a huge program, but BYU isn’t a total trash dump either. Just as an example let’s look at the last 4 Kentucky coaches before Pope:
- Cal took UMass to a final four which you can argue has comparable or worse resources to BYU
-BCG took Texas A&M to the sweet sixteen which had comparable or worse resources to BYU at the time
-Tubby took Georgia to the sweet sixteen, which had comparable or worse resources to BYU at the time
-Pitino took Providence to the final four, which had comparable or worse resources to BYU
I mean Pope didn’t even win a tournament game before UK. Just evaluating his record so far the only outlier was his first year at UK and his second season was a regression to the mean. Hopefully I’m dead wrong but the posters stating this aren’t really being these nutty crazy people it’s just a simple statistical analysis.
BYU was a midmajor with religious restrictions.
And Pope did a great job coaching there. The only bad year he really had prior to UK was the 2023 season. Go research it yourself. You can’t look at raw number of wins and conference titles. I like you, man, but I think you’re being a bit unfair to Pope on this.
Have you ever read the book “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman? I think you’d really like it and seems right up your alley. Certainly not an easy or fun read but is basically all about stuff like this. I like pope and loved his first season here. But the second season almost seemed like a regression to the mean and just from a purely objective statistical analysis cast a lot of doubt on him turning it around. It just did. I actually like our roster this year so hope Pope turns it around.
No I haven’t read the book. Thanks for the recommendation.
My point is that the argument espoused by many about Pope’s early career is fallacious. If you go through his coaching career prior to Kentucky and actually review what happened each season, you’ll understand why he kept moving up the coaching ranks.
I reject the notion that Pope has regressed to the mean. That’s unknowable — we do not know what the mean is for him at a major conference school with major conference resources any more than we did other great coaches who had good but not elite early careers at mid majors.
Do I believe Pope is going to crush at Kentucky? I don’t know. Personally, I doubt it. But I’m going to be fair about his career. If he doesn’t get it done, I’ll be happy to move on.
I just think, if he was capable of winning a championship at UK, which is ultimately the goal, it would be a lot more reassuring if he had at least won ONE game at some point in his career in the NCAA tournament before UK. That to me is a very concerning part of his coaching history, personally.
I think that is valid, although he went 0-2 prior to Kentucky. Both of those were 6/11 games, which are a lot more unpredictable. It’s also such a small sample size.
His best pre-Kentucky team didn’t get to compete in the NCAA tournament due to COVID-19 cancelling the postseason.
While at Kentucky, he’s 3-2 in the NCAAT and, while it isn’t good enough, it does show he’s capable of winning in March.
UK went from being on a slide Cals last 4 years but still having some success - achieving 2 - 2 seeds ( granted lost both in rd 1) but still keeping its brand and Aura and getting great recruits . To a new coach who's lost the UK aura and getting worse than or at best equal to Tubby level recruits - while he got a 16 - he still had less success than Cal 2 of his last 3 that got a HOF run off..
Yeah barring a 50s awakening like Wooden Pope is likely gone. My fear is another out of top 4 sec finish but a 16 and he keeps job.
Yeah barring a 50s awakening like Wooden Pope is likely gone. My fear is another out of top 4 sec finish but a 16 and he keeps job.
Cal did not achieve two 2-seeds in his last four years:
2021 - unseeded, missed tournament
2022 - 2-seed
2023 - 6-seed
2024 - 3-seed
You showed your hand there. You can draw a circle around any two of those seasons and they are still worse than what Pope has accomplished so far.
And to be clear, no, I don’t think that’s good enough. But I think the parameter you chose to highlight from Calipari is actually a distortion and inaccurate. Pope will have to be better and do it on the court — we all agree on that. But we don’t have to retcon the final years of Cal to diminish Pope.
His biggest asset is by subtraction. I don’t believe for one second Mitch retired on his own. I believe he was forced out by the board for his inability to adapt to the new landscape. He was an anchor around Cals, Stoops and Popes neck. We brought in a fundraiser. Mitch refused to raise money for NIL. He put all the fundraising on the coach. Something no other school in the country was doing. That was failing so he hired JMI to do it and locked us in to a long term contract. The new AD must find a way to right the ship. I put Mitch second to Mark Emmertt as the worst disastrous leaders in college sports.
Maybe Pope will have great success at Kentucky, but to this point almost all the arguments in favor of Pope having great success are a bunch of excuses for his lack of success to date. There's not much to point to when arguing in favor of his having great success.
I’m not sure I agree with this.
Let me first say: If I were asked, with a gun to my head, what my confidence level in Pope is (to succeed here), I’d say it’s somewhere around 35%.
That said, there are absolutely positive indicators he can be successful here. He showed the ability to be an effective program builder prior to Kentucky at both Utah Valley and BYU. He also overachieved in his last year at BYU and overachieved even more in his first year at Kentucky.
Now, you may argue that isn’t enough, which is perfectly rational. Clearly, my confidence level would indicate I am also in that camp. I am committed to giving him a fair shake and grading his tenure fairly without fluffing only the positives or low-lighting only the blemishes.
Will he succeed? I hope so.
He's certainly going to get his chance. And by "great success" I mean things like FFs, SEC championships. He's good enough to have ranked teams that make the second weekend. That's not enough, and he needs to prove he can bring us hardware.
I’d argue we do not know what his ceiling is. The sample size is really only two years for the type of things you’re advocating for. I agree with your first sentence: he’s certainly going to get his chance.
You definitely do not have to go back to 50's era Wooden for an example. Coach K made no tournaments at Army (.553 winning %) or his first three seasons at Puke. Hurley had two tourney wins in his first 12 years including four years at UConn. Those are two examples I quickly knew off the top of my head and I'm sure there are several others.
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