Did Pope ever fill the last coaching position?

Catastic5

Sophomore
Sep 12, 2026
51
132
33
I don’t think I heard anything about it. I was hoping he would hire a defensive minded assistant coach to correct his weaknesses as a coach.
 

Catastic5

Sophomore
Sep 12, 2026
51
132
33
For a feller that hasn't won squat he is very stubborn. His refusal to change his substitution patterns, his method of recruiting, not hiring a GM, not filling out the roster, and not hiring an assistant.

I'll be glad when this nitemare is behind us.
It’s shocking how unserious we are as a program at the moment. I just saw where Mark Fox was basically our “defensive coordinator” this year. Why the hell is he still on the staff?
 

BBUK

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2005
854
4,715
120
I can’t even really care about it. I’m pretty sure we will lose more than 10, not advance past the sweet 16, and this board will be in full meltdown all season. Probably at least three 20 point losses coming too. Should be a good one.

this is just my fear. Doesn’t have to be yours.
Hush yo.....

 

Catastic5

Sophomore
Sep 12, 2026
51
132
33
I can’t even really care about it. I’m pretty sure we will lose more than 10, not advance past the sweet 16, and this board will be in full meltdown all season. Probably at least three 20 point losses coming too. Should be a good one.

this is just my fear. Doesn’t have to be yours.
It’s depressing that that seems like a realistic scenario.
 

BBUK

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2005
854
4,715
120
The change?

Dude…. This new site… After Catsillustrated and all that confusion, I left it to them to figure out.

I see many had their posts re-added. I finally got my year added but the posts got omitted. After several asks and back and forths, I let it be….

Heck, I was even Anon once, twice, or thrice…. Was a battle itself to get my name back.

The Cats may have rubbed off on this site and not vice versa OR it may be verse visa…..

Take care! (I stick mostly in the D-League thread but I am slowly wandering outside some now…)

My retiring about a year ago has just made me more busy. ;)
 

Kunt

Redshirt
Sep 16, 2026
6
5
3
I can’t even really care about it. I’m pretty sure we will lose more than 10, not advance past the sweet 16, and this board will be in full meltdown all season. Probably at least three 20 point losses coming too. Should be a good one.

this is just my fear. Doesn’t have to be yours.

Embrace the suck. It's actually kind of enjoyable.
 

Snarks

All-American
Jan 31, 2005
8,616
7,190
93
For a feller that hasn't won squat he is very stubborn. His refusal to change his substitution patterns, his method of recruiting, not hiring a GM, not filling out the roster, and not hiring an assistant.

I'll be glad when this nitemare is behind us.
I’ve been shocked at how stubborn he is. At least Cal had been to multiple final 4s and won a NC.
 

JustBlue

Senior
Mar 29, 2009
273
512
93
Just another in a long line of head shaking moves by Pope. I always think back to his press conference when people were asking him about hiring a General Manager and he replied with "What I'm looking for is the guy who can get me all the best players for zero dollars" and looked up with his goofy grin like that was going to bring the house down. It flopped and he started stammering about it being part of the process. Just terrible. It is September and we still don't have a full coaching staff, we are still trying to fill out our roster, we wasted a summer foreign trip opportunity because he wanted to go to the frigging Middle East of all places. Nothing he does gives off professional vibes. Hopefully this will be the last year of this nonsense.

JB
 

ZMCats

All-Conference
Dec 23, 2017
530
1,166
61
I can’t even really care about it. I’m pretty sure we will lose more than 10, not advance past the sweet 16, and this board will be in full meltdown all season. Probably at least three 20 point losses coming too. Should be a good one.

this is just my fear. Doesn’t have to be yours.
100% correct. Just takes a quick few minutes to look at Pope’s entire career. He is doing at UK what he did elsewhere for the most part. Thanks Mitch!
 

seccats04

Heisman
Dec 6, 2004
14,652
23,819
113
100% correct. Just takes a quick few minutes to look at Pope’s entire career. He is doing at UK what he did elsewhere for the most part. Thanks Mitch!
Mitch had many, many reasons to be fired but hiring Pope should’ve been the nail in the coffin. Instead, we give that clown a million dollars a year to eat hay at a time when we need as much money as possible. UK is not serious about winning championships until changes are made at the top and that starts with Eli.
 

BigBluefoot

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
2,070
7,382
113
UK is a big buddy system these days. We might not be winning any games but have you seen how lit the country club is?
This is it in a nutshell. Too big of contracts for too little accomplishments under Barnhart. One big good ole boy club of mediocrity.
Hopefully our new AD will be more demanding, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
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kyjeff1

Heisman
Sep 8, 2012
51,556
72,626
113
run discover GIF


@kyjeff1 on his way to this forum to set everyone straight about how awesome Pope is because our SOS was high.
I need to start charging rent. I own you.

Here's the issue, I'm not even a Mark Pope fan, I'm a UK fan with common sense.

You are a Calipari fan. You make excuses for Cal, but act like Pope is doing a horrible job. You also only focus on year 2 and you crap on everything positive Pope did in year 1.

How can you say Cal is great and crush Pope? Pope did more with less… .much less.

Edit: I'm not comparing Pope to the version of Cal we had from 09-2020, I'm comparing Pope to the POS we had running the program from 20/21 until the whole walking the dog with a stroller thing, which was after the Oakland loss.
 
Last edited:

Catastic5

Sophomore
Sep 12, 2026
51
132
33
I need to start charging rent. I own you.

Here's the issue, I'm not even a Mark Pope fan, I'm a UK fan with common sense.

You are a Calipari fan. You make excuses for Cal, but act like Pope is doing a horrible job. You also only focus on year 2 and you crap on everything positive Pope did in year 1.

How can you say Cal is great and crush Pope? Pope did more with less… .much less.
I kinda don’t understand the praise for year one. Specifically many of the same problems that burdened our team in the second year were apparent with the first team.
 

kyjeff1

Heisman
Sep 8, 2012
51,556
72,626
113
I kinda don’t understand the praise for year one. Specifically many of the same problems that burdened our team in the second year were apparent with the first team.
The 2 seasons aren’t comparable at all. Mark overcompensated for the lack of physicality he saw in year 1 and put a team together that not only didn't fit his system, but they weren't a good fit with each other.

He still swept Tennessee and he somehow got that team to the tournament. No, that's not the standard here, we all understand that, but we had HOF coaches in the past do much less with much more.

As for year one, that tem pulled off some massive wins, if Robinson never got hurt and if Butler and Carr didn’t have to play injured, that's a FF caliber team. You guys can be miserable all you want, but that absolutely was a team good enough to get to a FF.

However, Houston was a bad matchup for us… .and most of the rest of the country, including duke, from what we all watched, but still, that 24/25 team was very good when healthy.
 

Cattorney

Senior
Dec 2, 2024
505
407
63
I need to start charging rent. I own you.

Here's the issue, I'm not even a Mark Pope fan, I'm a UK fan with common sense.

You are a Calipari fan. You make excuses for Cal, but act like Pope is doing a horrible job. You also only focus on year 2 and you crap on everything positive Pope did in year 1.

How can you say Cal is great and crush Pope? Pope did more with less… .much less.
Lol, own me? Where?

Nah, You're a pope fan who doesn't care about UK.

Lol, Cal fan? That guy is as useless as tits on a bull. He recruits and hopes for the best. That's just your coping mechanism for anyone anti-pope.

I focus on his entire career, including his first year at UK, which was not good no matter how you spin it.

Who said Cal was great? Lulz
 

kyjeff1

Heisman
Sep 8, 2012
51,556
72,626
113
Lol, own me? Where?

Nah, You're a pope fan who doesn't care about UK.

Lol, Cal fan? That guy is as useless as tits on a bull. He recruits and hopes for the best. That's just your coping mechanism for anyone anti-pope.

I focus on his entire career, including his first year at UK, which was not good no matter how you spin it.

Who said Cal was great? Lulz
You’re the one that tagged me into this thread, yeah, I'm taking up residence between your ears.

So, you only use Cal when it's convenient to your weak arguements? Got it.

I'm no Pope fan, I'm just being realistic. The guy was getting a 3rd year, I've come to grips with that and I hope he pulls it off. If not, oh well.

This might bee too much for you to understand though.
 

Cattorney

Senior
Dec 2, 2024
505
407
63
You’re the one that tagged me into this thread, yeah, I'm taking up residence between your ears.

So, you only use Cal when it's convenient to your weak arguements? Got it.

I'm no Pope fan, I'm just being realistic. The guy was getting a 3rd year, I've come to grips with that and I hope he pulls it off. If not, oh well.

This might bee too much for you to understand though.
Because you run in every thread that negative of Pope. Is you constantly replying mean I am in your head? And are you saying you've never tagged me?

I use facts. It doesn't matter who it is.

Sure you are. You defend him ad nauseum with the weakest arguments possible.

It's not at all. You're a Pope first fan.
 

SenseMaker_Cats

All-American
Jul 3, 2025
2,264
6,641
113
Because you run in every thread that negative of Pope. Is you constantly replying mean I am in your head? And are you saying you've never tagged me?

I use facts. It doesn't matter who it is.

Sure you are. You defend him ad nauseum with the weakest arguments possible.

It's not at all. You're a Pope first fan.
“I use facts. It doesn't matter who it is.”🤣
 
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Feral Manatee

Sophomore
Sep 27, 2022
55
118
32
For a feller that hasn't won squat he is very stubborn. His refusal to change his substitution patterns, his method of recruiting, not hiring a GM, not filling out the roster, and not hiring an assistant.

I'll be glad when this nitemare is behind us.
It's been incredibly frustrating after watching his first team with a more modern offense predicated on ball movement and spacing and making three point shooting a larger percentage of the offense (he actually continually said he wanted "X" number of threes which was based on modern analytics and then the team would consistently never get close to that number). Still, the offense was more fluid and certainly had excellent ball movement and spacing. That season + his public statements + the fact that he was a young Rhodes scholar head coach gave me the belief that he would be this innovative, adaptable, cutting edge figure not the deeply stubborn figure resistant to any legitimate criticism of the many examples where he is failing to live up to this expectation.
 

kyjeff1

Heisman
Sep 8, 2012
51,556
72,626
113
Because you run in every thread that negative of Pope. Is you constantly replying mean I am in your head? And are you saying you've never tagged me?

I use facts. It doesn't matter who it is.

Sure you are. You defend him ad nauseum with the weakest arguments possible.

It's not at all. You're a Pope first fan.
The only reason I visited this thread, is because you tagged me.
 
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kyjeff1

Heisman
Sep 8, 2012
51,556
72,626
113
It's been incredibly frustrating after watching his first team with a more modern offense predicated on ball movement and spacing and making three point shooting a larger percentage of the offense (he actually continually said he wanted "X" number of threes which was based on modern analytics and then the team would consistently never get close to that number). Still, the offense was more fluid and certainly had excellent ball movement and spacing. That season + his public statements + the fact that he was a young Rhodes scholar head coach gave me the belief that he would be this innovative, adaptable, cutting edge figure not the deeply stubborn figure resistant to any legitimate criticism of the many examples where he is failing to live up to this expectation.
Looks to me like he rolled the dice on a bunch of guys that didn't fit his style, in an attempt to he tougher and more physical. Then, the locker room issues started.

Honestly, I'm amazed he won any quality games at all. If I'm Tennessee and Arkansas, I am scratching my head, wondering how UK came in and won tbose games.
 
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Omega_X

Redshirt
Sep 7, 2026
25
34
13
I can’t even really care about it. I’m pretty sure we will lose more than 10, not advance past the sweet 16, and this board will be in full meltdown all season. Probably at least three 20 point losses coming too. Should be a good one.

this is just my fear. Doesn’t have to be yours.
I fully expect this but there will also be a specific group telling us that everything is fine all year. In between losses we will win a game we weren’t expected to and they’ll puff their chest out and act like the season is saved only to lose the next game.

It will basically be the same song and dance we’ve seen here the past 6-7 years. What I think will get Pope fired though will be the money drying up on the recruiting side. It’ll be the second year in a row where we outspend basically everybody and won’t even remotely a good ROI. This fanbase doesn’t have a lot of money anyway and when they see back to back years of it basically being flushed down the toilet then it’ll dry up just like it did Cal’s last year. Plus you know top 2-3 donors have got to be tired of UK coming and begging them to bail them out only to still see us lose. Rich guys don’t get rich by wasting money. There’s a breaking point.
 
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