This makes me sick...

[NineIsOnTheWay]

Plenty of fanbases that travel without all the drama, death threats, end of world reaction to everything, etc.

Always wondered if that was other fans impersonating UK fans but probably some crazy UK fans lol

 

[SenseMaker_Cats]

Plenty of fanbases that travel without all the drama, death threats, end of world reaction to everything, etc.

I don’t condone any of those things but If you think other fan bases that have the size and the passion to travel like UK fans don’t have those issues, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s just incredibly naive.

It’s very obvious you’re more of a Calipari fan than a UK fan.

 

[BookofMormon]

I don’t condone any of those things but If you think other fan bases that have the size and the passion to travel like UK fans don’t have those issues, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s just incredibly naive.

It’s very obvious you’re more of a Calipari fan than a UK fan.

Which? I can't think of one that compares.

I am not a Calipari fan, I simply don't think we saw him out the right way and lost a couple years of what could have been stellar recruiting classes by pushing him out.

 

[SenseMaker_Cats]

Which? I can't think of one that compares.

I am not a Calipari fan, I simply don't think we saw him out the right way and lost a couple years of what could have been stellar recruiting classes by pushing him out.

If I’ve mislabeled you, surely you can understand why. Anyone that uses the term “spoiled brat UK fans” or whatever you said, three times in a post defending the piece of crap Cal turned into. I mean come on.

Which? lol. UK is not unique dude, just one of the big fan bases.. All other big fan bases are just the same. That’s just goofy.

 

[BookofMormon]

If I’ve mislabeled you, surely you can understand why. Anyone that uses the term “spoiled brat UK fans” or whatever you said, three times in a post defending the piece of crap Cal turned into. I mean come on.

Which? lol. UK is not unique dude, just one of the big fan bases.. All other big fan bases are just the same. That’s just goofy.

I don't think that represents the entire fanbase, but UK has a specific cohort that are notorious and well recognized by competing fanbases, as being off their rocker and willing to tar & feather a coach. Take a look at how much patience this place has for Pope.

There is BBN, and then there isn't a close second as it comes to rabity and aggression around losses. Half the people on this board would have gladly fired Pope after his second year - think about that.

How often does a program push out a HOF coach? It's rare and if it does happen, it's due to scandal.

 

[Starrcade]

I don’t know if we do or not. What is their payroll compared to ours?

I do know that UK won’t be outbid by anyone. Including Duke.

STILL pretending to be a UK fan? This has been a long stint, lol.

 

[kyjeff1]

Which? I can't think of one that compares.

I am not a Calipari fan, I simply don't think we saw him out the right way and lost a couple years of what could have been stellar recruiting classes by pushing him out.

What good does it do us to get good recruiting classes, if he's just going to lose the way he was losing?

How many years were you going to be okay with him playing lineups that catered to getting guys draft stock up instead of the best lineups to win games?

How long should a fanbase put up with losses to Richmond, UNCW, Oakland and Saint Peters. Cal is washed up and it was obvious he stopped prioritizing winning.

He caught a bit of a second wind at Arkansas, but his one-size-fits-all offense and defense isn't good enough to beat the better teams now. It worked when he had supreme talent at all 5 positions, but that’s not the case anymore.

That guy has been exposed too often the last 6 or 7 years and now the game is more physical and more analytical than ever and he’s not going to put the work in to change.

He blew Alabama off the floor his last year here by using a lineup that was, by the numbers, far more potent than any other lineup in the country, but we never saw that lineup again. F that guy.

 

[kyjeff1]

I don't think that represents the entire fanbase, but UK has a specific cohort that are notorious and well recognized by competing fanbases, as being off their rocker and willing to tar & feather a coach. Take a look at how much patience this place has for Pope.

There is BBN, and then there isn't a close second as it comes to rabity and aggression around losses. Half the people on this board would have gladly fired Pope after his second year - think about that.

How often does a program push out a HOF coach? It's rare and if it does happen, it's due to scandal.

Every fanbase has their crazies, every single one, this isn’t just a UK thing. Fan is short for "fanatic".

Sh*t, look at Arkansas football fans right now. That program has never been worth a damn, but everyone is seeing how irate they are at their coach.

You just aren't around other fanbases much by the looks of it.

Heck, Rick Barns is the best coach Tennessee has ever had. Two Elite 8's and they want him gone. They don't even care about basketball.

 

[BookofMormon]

What good does it do us to get good recruiting classes, if he's just going to lose the way he was losing?

How many years were you going to be okay with him playing lineups that catered to getting guys draft stock up instead of the best lineups to win games?

How long should a fanbase put up with losses to Richmond, UNCW, Oakland and Saint Peters. Cal is washed up and it was obvious he stopped prioritizing winning.

He caught a bit of a second wind at Arkansas, but his one-size-fits-all offense and defense isn't good enough to beat the better teams now. It worked when he had supreme talent at all 5 positions, but that’s not the case anymore.

That guy has been exposed too often the last 6 or 7 years and now the game is more physical and more analytical than ever and he’s not going to put the work in to change.

He blew Alabama off the floor his last year here by using a lineup that was, by the numbers, far more potent than any other lineup in the country, but we never saw that lineup again. F that guy.

Cal can win with elite classes. His issue is that there simply weren't many elite classes his last 4-5 years. What would a team looked like made up of VJ Edgecombe & Derick Queen? Or AJ Dysbantsa & Mikel Brown?

 

[BookofMormon]

Every fanbase has their crazies, every single one, this isn’t just a UK thing. Fan is short for "fanatic".

Sh*t, look at Arkansas football fans right now. That program has never been worth a damn, but everyone is seeing how irate they are at their coach.

You just aren't around other fanbases much by the looks of it.

Heck, Rick Barns is the best coach Tennessee has ever had. Two Elite 8's and they want him gone. They don't even care about basketball.

Does Tenn want Barnes gone? It's three Elite 8's, probably the best outcome they've had in the history of their program.

 

[kyjeff1]

Cal can win with elite classes. His issue is that there simply weren't many elite classes his last 4-5 years. What would a team looked like made up of VJ Edgecombe & Derick Queen? Or AJ Dysbantsa & Mikel Brown?

Problem is, duke is getting the truly elite classes, Cal is getting a few here and there, but he’s not the Cal we saw feom 09-17. That Cal was a killer, the guy we had the last 4 years, was a 6alent agent.

 

[kyjeff1]

Does Tenn want Barnes gone? It's three Elite 8's, probably the best outcome they've had in the history of their program.

Yes, my dad lives down there, they want him gone.

 

[BookofMormon]

Problem is, duke is getting the truly elite classes, Cal is getting a few here and there, but he’s not the Cal we saw feom 09-17. That Cal was a killer, the guy we had the last 4 years, was a 6alent agent.

Cal had 6 five stars in that 2017 class, including SGA. Yet it was 2nd to Duke. Following year, 4 five stars. He was still getting great recruting classes, he just wasn't stacking 6-7 five stars every year.

Here is what happened - Cal came to UK, had the best recruiting class for about 5-6 years running. K decided he needed to do the same, so then Duke/UK started jockeying.

You can still win when you get 3-5 five stars, good god. You need to get the right ones and in today's world, match them up with the right retained talent and portal talent. You aren't winning with HS talent exclusively these days.

 

[kyjeff1]

Cal had 6 five stars in that 2017 class, including SGA. Yet it was 2nd to Duke. Following year, 4 five stars. He was still getting great recruting classes, he just wasn't stacking 6-7 five stars every year.

Here is what happened - Cal came to UK, had the best recruiting class for about 5-6 years running. K decided he needed to do the same, so then Duke/UK started jockeying.

You can still win when you get 3-5 five stars, good god. You need to get the right ones and in today's world, match them up with the right retained talent and portal talent. You aren't winning with HS talent exclusively these days.

Not all 5 stars are created equal. We had plenty of 5 star guys that were rated that high just because they had length and athleticism. There is a huge difference between John Wall and Sacha Killea Jones and BJ Boston.

You have these dudes for 1 year, if you're going to roll with freshmen in today's game, they better be the best in the class and right now, duke is hogging them all. Cal is getting what's left over.

Cal had to go, he was fighting with everyone. Yeah, Barnhart sucked and the BBN turned on him, but Cal brought that on himself. He got fat on his money and fame. He thought he was bigger than UK and the final nail was him turning UK into an NBA farm system while losing to.mid majors. It wasn't about winning anymore.

We had the only coach that would bench Dillingham and Shepherd in favor of Edwards and Wagner. We all know why he did it.

 

[BookofMormon]

Not all 5 stars are created equal. We had plenty of 5 star guys that were rated that high just because they had length and athleticism. There is a huge difference between John Wall and Sacha Killea Jones and BJ Boston.

You have these dudes for 1 year, if you're going to roll with freshmen in today's game, they better be the best in the class and right now, duke is hogging them all. Cal is getting what's left over.

Cal had to go, he was fighting with everyone. Yeah, Barnhart sucked and the BBN turned on him, but Cal brought that on himself. He got fat on his money and fame. He thought he was bigger than UK and the final nail was him turning UK into an NBA farm system while losing to.mid majors. It wasn't about winning anymore.

We had the only coach that would bench Dillingham and Shepherd in favor of Edwards and Wagner. We all know why he did it.

No, they're definitely not created equally. Having an eye for the right ones is a skill, but they usually stand out. It's not hard to pinpoint Flagg and Boozer, or Banchero.

He probably did have to go, but there is a lot of value in that farm system, it gets more top kids. Cal's issue is that he isn't as much a program builder as he is a recruiter. He does one thing extraordinarily well, it just happens that one thing is the most important thing.

We'll see how he does with Arkansas. I expect to see him with a lot of preseason #15ish rankings, S16's, nothing more. Unless he's able to grab the next Anthony Davis or Cooper Flagg.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

The same fan base that pushed the coach with the second most wins in program history out? The one that put litters of players in the NBA, that won a title and got to 4 final 4's?

Most schools don't push that guy out.

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-did-john-calipari-leave-110347920.html

Who cares what Reddish and Barrett did in college, the point of the conversation was having a fraternity of NBA icons to bring back to campus to use as a recruiting tool. Those two don't apply. Cal has a ton that are current, more than anyone, including Duke.

So much of UK's recruiting equity was based on Calipari, that alone is a reason you don't move off him unless you can grab a guy that already has it. They ended up missing on two loaded classes with him gone. Pope isn't going to bring Cal's guys back to summer practice.

Actually, Cal did great evaluating the 23 HS class as he got Sheppard and Dillingham late, both went in the lottery. The guys he didn't get in that span that were major difference makers, Holmgren, Cunningham, Edwards, Barnes, Mobely, chose random schools.

Recruiting will never be his issue.

Yeah Cal left in the night on his own. H was given an out because he didn’t want to do anything that Mitch wanted. We should have fired him(Mitch) a decade ago and this stuff probably would have never happened.

 

[SenseMaker_Cats]

Yeah Cal left in the night on his own.

Sorry Fox. He has repeated the fans ran him out of town several times so that makes it true.lol

Actually, if he hadn’t FAFO with Arkansas, he wouldn’t have been “fired”. I know BookofMorman thinks the UK fanbase is uniquely radical but it’s not. That’s just extremely naive and just someone trying to be “that guy”.

There’s not another serious fanbase in the country that wouldn’t have had a large segment of it ready to cut ties with the POS “hall of famer”. Forget W & Ls. Who he became was disgusting and it’s embarrassing seeing grown men pine for him.

 

[BookofMormon]

Yes, my dad lives down there, they want him gone.

Unbelievable. Tennessee is probably the one qualifier for crazy then and similar. Barnes will be in the HOF, has taken them to 3 straight Elite 8's, beaten Duke in the tourney. Does a fanbase that's barely seen the F4 think NC's and F4's annually is what it deserves?

Most programs don't act like that.

 

[WeWant9]

Unbelievable. Tennessee is probably the one qualifier for crazy then and similar. Barnes will be in the HOF, has taken them to 3 straight Elite 8's, beaten Duke in the tourney. Does a fanbase that's barely seen the F4 think NC's and F4's annually is what it deserves?

Most programs don't act like that.

Eh, most fanbases do act like that. Spend enough time online, talking with fans, and you will find mostly everyone is crazy about their team and a little delusional in what they can accomplish.

I enjoy reading your bball takes, but if this wasn't a UK forum I would assume you're a rival fan the way you talk about BBN.

 

[SenseMaker_Cats]

Unbelievable. Tennessee is probably the one qualifier for crazy then and similar. Barnes will be in the HOF, has taken them to 3 straight Elite 8's, beaten Duke in the tourney. Does a fanbase that's barely seen the F4 think NC's and F4's annually is what it deserves?

Most programs don't act like that.

You’re incredibly naive. If you would say most people, ok but the fact you say programs shows your ignorance.

This isn’t even one of those “we’ll agree to disagree” things. Fans are, well you know, fanatics. Every major fanbase has plenty of fans the same way. To think otherwise is absolutely moronic.

To choose to single out your own “favorite team’s fanbase” (which I’m starting to doubt) over a POS like JVC is pathetic.

 

[BookofMormon]

You’re incredibly naive. If you would say most people, ok but the fact you say programs shows your ignorance.

This isn’t even one of those “we’ll agree to disagree” things. Fans are, well you know, fanatics. Every major fanbase has plenty of fans the same way. To think otherwise is absolutely moronic.

To choose to single out your own “favorite team’s fanbase” (which I’m starting to doubt) over a POS like JVC is pathetic.

Fans are fanatics, but most kicking and screaming for Final 4's and NC's are those that have experienced it, spoiled.

Tennessee has never made a F4, as in ever. They have 4 Elite 8's, ever. Barnes has them in their last 3 in the last 3 years. Net net, Barnes has the program at heights it's never experienced, now has a top portal class. For those clowns to be whining wanting Barnes out, goes to show how low IQ they are. I've seen a lot of fans with a lot of patience, frustrated and classy.

 

[kyjeff1]

No, they're definitely not created equally. Having an eye for the right ones is a skill, but they usually stand out. It's not hard to pinpoint Flagg and Boozer, or Banchero.

He probably did have to go, but there is a lot of value in that farm system, it gets more top kids. Cal's issue is that he isn't as much a program builder as he is a recruiter. He does one thing extraordinarily well, it just happens that one thing is the most important thing.

We'll see how he does with Arkansas. I expect to see him with a lot of preseason #15ish rankings, S16's, nothing more. Unless he's able to grab the next Anthony Davis or Cooper Flagg.

He does recruit well, but not well enough to overcome his lack of coaching ability, his one-size-fits-all style, or his NBA draft first program building.

He used to be the best recruiter on the planet, he’s not even close now and also, keep in mind, when he went on his big runs, his SOS each season was pretty weak. The SEC was trash back then. He’s not going undefeated, or 15-2 in today's SEC the way he coaches.

 

[Im The Village Idiot]

Which? I can't think of one that compares.

I am not a Calipari fan, I simply don't think we saw him out the right way and lost a couple years of what could have been stellar recruiting classes by pushing him out.

I think the timing of Cal’s exit couldn’t have been worse. The thing he was best at was getting buy in from elite high school recruiting classes and we let him go right before the best modern high school recruiting class.

I think it’s a little complicated because there are legitimate points on both sides of the topic for people who take a step back:

- I think Calipari’s regular season performances were not up to Kentucky standards consistently. 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 were all very strong or even elite regular seasons. 2011, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2024 were good regular seasons. 2013, 2014, 2021 and 2023 were bad regular seasons by Kentucky standards. That means, in my mind, Calipari was having fail-grade regular seasons about 30% of the time, which is far too frequent.

- Calipari got a pass for the deficiencies in regular season performance due to his postseason performance from 2011-2015. However, there is randomness to the NCAAT, unless you are one of the elite, elite teams and many times we were not. Cal sold the fanbase on winning in March, something he had successfully done even when the regular season was not strong in 2014 — however, eventually the Madness caught up to him. 2022 and 2024 should have been pretty decent runs that would have kept him here but he lost early.

- I really believe Calipari constructed his own trap in this regard. Rather than comparing what elite teams were doing in the same era to consistently remain winners throughout the entirety of the season, we looked at the postseason success as confirmation that the model was the correct model. Instead, we should have been tweaking the model to win more in the regular season, rather than giving Kansas an opportunity to pass us in all-time wins.

- I don’t lay it all at the feet of Calipari. He was coaching in an era where administrative support became more important than ever, yet the AD had a competing philosophy about the place of basketball in the university’s athletic pecking order. This was, especially later in Calipari’s tenure, a major factor in the types of rosters he was able to assemble IMO.

- Some fans just care a lot about non-basketball things like personality, mannerisms, demeanor, phrases etc. If you are the type of person who cares a lot about these types of things, with time you will grow to have distaste, disdain or agitation at the flaws of others. Humans, as flawed as they are, will always end up looking for those flaws, especially when the wins decrease and the losses increase.

All in all, I still believe it worked out. Calipari wasn’t going to get the administrative support he should have gotten and the fanbase turned against him. For some, it wasn’t fixable anymore. Now he’s gone and we should support Kentucky basketball the best we can and hope it works out.

 

[BookofMormon]

He does recruit well, but not well enough to overcome his lack of coaching ability, his one-size-fits-all style, or his NBA draft first program building.

He used to be the best recruiter on the planet, he’s not even close now and also, keep in mind, when he went on his big runs, his SOS each season was pretty weak. The SEC was trash back then. He’s not going undefeated, or 15-2 in today's SEC the way he coaches.

True, but as is, he has a program with a very, very high flow and a hit or miss ceiling that could be very high, with a ton of peripheral benefits. So then you have to ask yourself if it's worth the risk going into the wild to grab a guy that could have a much lower floor, and lose all that NBA equity. And say what you want, his teams were always exciting.

 

[kyjeff1]

True, but as is, he has a program with a very, very high flow and a hit or miss ceiling that could be very high, with a ton of peripheral benefits. So then you have to ask yourself if it's worth the risk going into the wild to grab a guy that could have a much lower floor, and lose all that NBA equity. And say what you want, his teams were always exciting.

I just don't see why NBA equity is a requirement. Florida and Michigan just won titles with college journeymen. UConn has been winning titles with mostly juniors and seniors with a couple good future NBA talents.

Cal is too into the NBA stuff in my opinion. I think having a nice mix of future NBA talent and juniors/seniors is a good way to go, but at this point, after watching Cal cater to these kids that were just here for a pit stop, I'm so done with the NBA draft crap. You can win titles with college kids, it's been proven time and time again.

 

[BookofMormon]

I just don't see why NBA equity is a requirement. Florida and Michigan just won titles with college journeymen. UConn has been winning titles with mostly juniors and seniors with a couple good future NBA talents.

Cal is too into the NBA stuff in my opinion. I think having a nice mix of future NBA talent and juniors/seniors is a good way to go, but at this point, after watching Cal cater to these kids that were just here for a pit stop, I'm so done with the NBA draft crap. You can win titles with college kids, it's been proven time and time again.

It's a significant recruiting tool, and one of the recipes to winning titles. But you're right, it's been fairly clear. Michigan had 5 transfers last year, UConn didn't have much on the lottery talent. Florida won with nothing but transfers and HS sleepers.

 

[Neal Orac]

Pope has scoreboard on Scheyer.