He was always getting a 3rd year, he earned it with what he overcame last year.
The donors will not give him a 4th year if he doesn't kill it next year.
We should feel embarrassed right now
- Thread starter FatCatMan
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The donors will not give him a 4th year if he doesn't kill it next year.
Lehigh and Mercer ring a bell? And while those were before the Tatum class, those classes STILL had elite recruiting, returning experience AND help from the NCAA. The ONLY thing Coach K has more of since Cal came to Kentucky is 1 more title. And without looking, I think hes behind on Final 4s. But either way, that's it. He had the same number of early flame outs, he "choked" with elite class after elite class. And this was all while being HELPED by the sport, not held back.
And now were bringing up who duke lost to, but we wont do the same for Cal when he lost to WVU and Wisconsin? Got it.
Its like the more Pope loses, the more some of you get pissed at Cal lol.
Cal was trash the last 4 seasons and Pope is trash now. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
We are currently so far away from national relevance at this point in time.
Our old coach winning the SECT when he couldn’t even get to Saturday by the end of his time here is just an extra twist of the knife.
This is me. And it took the 2015 loss to Wisconsin and a reality check from my wife to change it.
I used to live and die with my sports teams. Team wins, I am the happiest man on earth. Team loses and I am a raging a-hole.
In 2015, I took it too far. Called into work that Monday and didn’t get out of bed. Was a total prick to my wife and other people in my life for over a week.
She sat me down and basically said “How long are you going to be an a-hole to me over a game you or me didn’t play in or coach?”
I wanted to defend myself and tell her she just didn’t understand our passion. But my actions were indefensible and she was absolutely correct.
Now, I don’t let it ruin my day. I sulk for an hour or two at most and move on with life.
There are a handful of us here who understand this and it’s why we are not howling for an immediate dismissal over a Sweet 16 and 7 seed. We understand the optics that could negatively impact the next search.
It’s not that any of us are necessarily over the moon about the Pope era so far, but we know his performance hasn’t been bad enough to warrant what would be PERCEIVED nationally in coaching circles as an unreasonable firing of an alumni captain of a title winning team.
A third year says UK gave him a fair shake to right the ship … or a chance to dig his own grave.
I do want Mark to succeed here, but it’s looking like we might be hiring a basketball coach this time next year.
Right, but here's what you should know, we ALL have our doubts about Pope. We all see the red flags, but at the same time, we have seen what Pope CAN do. He's orchestrated some big wins and his issues are easily fixable.
It’s up to Pope to fix those issues, but there is no AD out there that would fire Mark Pope. Not with what he accomplished last year and not with the massive amount of injuries his two teams have had.
You fire Pope now and you won't find a coach that will want this job.
Okay, I listed 10 or more of Cal's choke jobs, you cant debate a single one and all you're doing is trying to deflect to coach K and you can only come up with 2 for him. Those losses to Lehigh and Norfolk State came before K started recruiting one and Done guys.
I'll give you another chance to come up with 8 more choke jobs for K. Cal is easily the choke artist King and it’s not close.
Pope is who he has always been. He will have some big wins but it doesn't matter when he also has big losses. He is a horrific recruiter,obsessed with analytics to the point of not using common sense. And the BS about no coach will take the job if he was fired was also used by Cal supporters. This guy was hired SOLELY because he played at UK and had zero resume to earn the job.
I do know. Better than most. Those have no bearing on the point being made. None whatsoever. The point was a title 24 years ago does not give calipari a pass for his last 4 pitiful years here. List the titles all you want and how many years in between...has nothing to do with this
We're all dug in on where we stand at this point, it is what it is. I can't imagine that the people who hold sway with regard to his tenure's fate are not scratching their heads, fair or not.
That's kinda true I guess.
When did Mark previously get to a sweet 16, or beat the eventual national champion? When did Pope previously beat a team as good as 2025 Duke? He's not the same as he's always been.
Pope hasn’t failed at every aspect of coaching, he has some damn good highlights too and get this, his red flags are easily fixable and he gets next year to fix those red flags.
That's why I'm not freaking out. It’s his UK coaching career, he either fixes all this crap, or he's out. Getting up in arms right now, simply makes no sense.
He actually beat a very good Kansas team and I'm pretty sure it was at Kansas while at Byu. He can get big wins but it doesn't mean much when he is so inconsistant.
Dude, we're all scratching our heads and just because I realize he's getting a 3rd year and I dare try to be positive, I'm getting called a "Popette".
Fact is, the injuries do matter and I'm just trying to be fair to the guy. I really hope he gets a fair shake next year. No injuries. I want to see what he can do with a fully healthy roster. If he loses 10+ games, doesn't do well in the SECT and falls short of the E8, he needs to be out. Simple as that.
Im not denying that Oakland and St. Peters werent doing. They were as you say "choke jobs". But games like wisconsin and WVU werent the same. Nor was losing to a Kstate team or Uconn or UNC. More importantly, I keep the criteria the same across the board, unlike you. Watching you simp for Coach K talking about injuries, when you refuse to acknowledge any of Cal's tells me everything I knew about you.
Youll give me a second chance? Honestly, dont. Put me on ignore. I forgot why I generally stayed away from you for so many years. What a f*cking miserable doink.
Do you not read or just can't comprehend. It has been explained numerous times why he gets another year. Let me summarize: injuries, more injuries, JMI, and it's only been 2 freaking years. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hire any coach here after the previous one was fired under those circumstances?
And that's one of the things that's fixable. If he does that same crap next year, I won't even try to defend him, he’s had ample opportunity to fix all his issues at that point.
When you have 8 NBA talents on your roster and you lose to a depleted KSU team, that's a choke job.
He had Wall, Cuz, Bledsoe and Patterson and he lost to Wva, who then got smoked by KU, that's a choke.
He had Wisconsin beat, he took the air out of the ball and played not to lose, that 100% is a choke job.
He had Auburn beat, he choked.
How do you lose to Richmond, UNCW and Evansville in Rupp when you have guys like Maxey, Dillingham, Shepherd, Edwards, Clarke and Boston on your team? Chokes.
He had a massive lead in the sweet 16 just last year and in a 3 minute span, lost it all and lost the game. That is a choke.
There is no coach in the history of the game that lost this many games with such a huge talent advantage.
This isn’t even debatable
In the WV game you mentioned specifically what did Cal do to choke in that game?
Apply the same rules across the board. I dont want to hear anything about injuries, who the team was etc. Apply the same criteria to Coach K.
Duke 2017 against 7-seed USC in the 2nd round. Choke Job.
2018 Lost to Kansas, no Final 4. Choke Job
2019 Michigan St. Zion Williamson year. No Final 4. Choke Job.
2020 DiDn'T wiN a SiNgLe ToUrnAmeNt gAmE (always love this one from some of our fans, but I guess it applies to Coach K too).
2021 Was going to MISS the tournament, so they withdrew because of COVID.
2022 Another top class, loses to UNC in the semi. Choke Job.
That's the supposed GOAT coach. And during that run above he had the cumulative #1 class for that entire run. NBA players every year. But according to your criteria (and I can't wait for you to inevitably shift the goal posts), he's just as much of a choke artist.
His crime was that Kentucky fans like Jeff hated the hire from the start, so they were never going to give him his credit. Guys like him were waiting for any chance he slipped up.
He allowed the team to shoot 30 threes instead of using the best guards in the country, combined with the best big in the country to get the ball inside.
I didn’t see KU/Bill Delf strughle with that zone, did you?
Are you kidding? This might be one of the easiest questions I've ever answered.
Do you remember what happened the very next year? Huggins tried to do the same thing, but alas, Cal "watched the tape" and that 2011 team got the ball in the paint and blew wva out.
First of all, those chokes aren’t half as bad as Cal's. St Peters, Oakland and the 2 K-State chokes trump anything on that list.
And where did K ever lose home games to mid majors?
It's so weird watching you try to deflect by using coach K.
What? Are you talking about… .Cal??? Da fuque? I was Cal's biggest fan until he decided to quit on us and started mocking the BBN while losing at a record pace.
Here's the thing with me, I tell it like it is, even if I'm a fan of something, I have no problem telling the truth about it/him/her, even if it looks bad.
Sh*t, you're one of my favorite posters on here, but I have no problem shooting you straight.
Appreciate that and I apologize for coming at you the way I did.
lol despite the 4-32, we lost that game by a mere 7 points.
I know we weren't a great three point shooting team but my god at some point someone has to hit something.
A wise coach once said "you don't have to make them all..........but you can't miss them all either"
I also feel like ppl tend to forget there another team out there .........credit to WVU there.
I know we weren't a great three point shooting team but my god at some point someone has to hit something.
A wise coach once said "you don't have to make them all..........but you can't miss them all either"
I also feel like ppl tend to forget there another team out there .........credit to WVU there.
It's bizarre to me how you don't know the answer to your question.
We shot 4-32 and we had John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson and Cuz. All it takes is common sense on this one.
Jeff, they didn’t play Kansas they played Duke. The zone takes away the inside game it is hard to score when you are double teamed. You must be able to play inside out against a zone. UK shot 4-32 from 3 that game. Duke shot 13-25 from 3 against WVU in the final 4. That was the difference. I didn’t see Cal’s name in the box score. Damn Jeff you suck at this debate stuff.
That 2010 team was a terrible 3pt shooting team and with the guards and forwards we had, shooting that many threes was a terrible idea.
You can't just continue to shoot threes when they aren't falling. Heck, at one point, we were 0-20, or something close to that. It doesn’t take a genius to understand what to do when you have Wall, Bledsie, Cuz and PP.
nobody said the game was easy, yes, of course it's hard, if it was easy, anyobe could do it.
You know who else knew we were a poor 3 point shooting team? WVU
Regardless I dunno how anyone can really call that a choke job.........as if WVU wasn't good or something. Ditto Wisconsin in 2015.
Regardless I dunno how anyone can really call that a choke job.........as if WVU wasn't good or something. Ditto Wisconsin in 2015.
So, tell me this, if Cal had to do it all over again, would he allow his team to shoot 34 threes again, or would he do something different?
On the year we shot 33% from 3. It's not good but not horrendous.
We shot 14% in this game.
Had we just shot our avg, it's a W.
We shot 14% in this game.
Had we just shot our avg, it's a W.
That Poythress injury will forever haunt that 2015 team and that Wisconsin game (not to mention the non-shot clock call).
Who is he possibly going to get to come here with all the negative press, which was self inflicted. Nobody going to play for him
That isn’t the question you said Cal choked. How did he choke?? Did you ever play sports? There are games you just can’t make shots unfortunately for us you had a team that couldn’t hit shots that night. So WVU packed the zone in and dared us to shoot. They completely shut down our inside game.
100% correct on Poythress. He shut down Decker the year before. Wisconsin finished 36-4 with two of those losses to Duke the national champion.
Has it occurred to you that his recruiting woes are forcing him to take risks on unhealthy players? And please stop with the losing 3 players narrative. JQ was brought in with the acceptance that he may not play at all this season. And he played what, 2 games? Lowe was hurt at the beginning of the season. I swear I heard these same excuses multiple Cal years. I mean who has a pg with a busted shoulder the previous year and then goes out and recruits another injury prone pg with no back up? ALL programs have injuries. Just so sick.of the excuses. Someone(s).will get hurt next year as well. And if it's a new guy who has a history of injuries, and then no back up for that position is brought in, guess who's fault that is?