Can someone give valid points why Pope should be back next year?
Why bring Pope back for year 3?
- Thread starter true-blue1
- Start date
Because another blue blood will pick him up and start competing for titles immediately
And then I turned my PS5 off.
It wouldn't be fair to Pope if we didn't let him tear down the program for a 3rd year.
1. Because injuries
2. No other good coach will come here if we fire Pope after 2 seasons (disproven with G and cal but Popetted don't care).
3. Barney is a moron.
2. No other good coach will come here if we fire Pope after 2 seasons (disproven with G and cal but Popetted don't care).
3. Barney is a moron.
4. These other successful coaches in completely different situations/rebuilds without any of the NIL resources had bad records in their first few seasons.
—derp
—derp
Our reasons don't matter as we don't make the decision. That's all on Barney/Eli and whatever financial details are laid out in the contract. Then there were the injuries that will mainly be used by the AD as an excuse for this season's mess. We won't ever know how good (or bad) we would have been without injuries, so Barney will likely just play the excuse game.
Further, almost all coaches get a 3 year attempt to build their programs. However, it should be quite troubling to UK that Pope has not one single recruit for next year.
Further, almost all coaches get a 3 year attempt to build their programs. However, it should be quite troubling to UK that Pope has not one single recruit for next year.
You shouldn't. I'm sure plenty of coaches have dealt with injuries and still gotten fired. Doesn't matter if it's "fair".
You can blame injuries, or you can accept the reality that our guys are rarely ready to play. Pope has never had any success as a coach and he struggles (understatement) to recruit even with Kentucky's resources.
People mention the Sweet 16, but it's really not a big deal.
You can blame injuries, or you can accept the reality that our guys are rarely ready to play. Pope has never had any success as a coach and he struggles (understatement) to recruit even with Kentucky's resources.
People mention the Sweet 16, but it's really not a big deal.
Barnhardt has basically garunteed it, university has no desire to pay 13+ million dollar buyout after the Stoops 35+ million buyout. If the new AD can't do anything else, they need to immediately renegotiate the sweet sixteen automatic extension on Popes contract. Hopefully Pope miraculously turns this around because Barnhardt has put this program in a terrible position. Pope doesn't strike me as the type of person that'd just step aside.
No one has any valid reasons to offer you, and so far it seems, no one is going to try, which is probably irking them to no end, but Pope has painted them into that corner.
Has Pope been able to use the injury excuse his ENTIRE COACHING CAREER? Because this season has been a carbon copy of said, entire coaching career… 60%-64% winning percentage!
Once again… Not a single logical level headed fan, can produce a single reason to retain Pope for another season, that can’t immediately be rebutted and discredited! Not. A. Single. One.
And sorry not sorry, saying the fans have no say or, or that the University’s administrators are just incompetent, is not a valid argument… the exact opposite, as a matter of fact!
It’s part financial and part optics.
Financially, Pope’s buyout is high-ish and we had to “pony up” to buyout Stoops. Even with the deferred payments to Stoops, the school probably doesn’t want to pay concurrent large buyots.
As for optics, we view Sweet 16 and NCAA appearance with TBD outcome as something awful, worthy of public stoning and forced exile.
The rest of the nation wouldn’t agree that’s firing level after two seasons. By granting Pope a third year, you’re sending a message to future coaches that UK is willing to let them correct a bad season and we also cannot be accused of not giving Pope a fair shake to get it right.
I recently researched college basketball coaches who have been fired after two seasons in the last 30 years. All had one of two things in common: very bad losing records or off court trouble. Pope has a winning record and will make the tournament twice, so we can’t pull the Kenny Payne card, and he hasn’t been accused of NCAA cheating or being a blithering drunk, so we cant pull the BCG or Donnie Tyndall cards either.
Best thing we can do is accept it and move on, but I’m guaranteed to read the same redundant crap for the next 13 months.
Financially, Pope’s buyout is high-ish and we had to “pony up” to buyout Stoops. Even with the deferred payments to Stoops, the school probably doesn’t want to pay concurrent large buyots.
As for optics, we view Sweet 16 and NCAA appearance with TBD outcome as something awful, worthy of public stoning and forced exile.
The rest of the nation wouldn’t agree that’s firing level after two seasons. By granting Pope a third year, you’re sending a message to future coaches that UK is willing to let them correct a bad season and we also cannot be accused of not giving Pope a fair shake to get it right.
I recently researched college basketball coaches who have been fired after two seasons in the last 30 years. All had one of two things in common: very bad losing records or off court trouble. Pope has a winning record and will make the tournament twice, so we can’t pull the Kenny Payne card, and he hasn’t been accused of NCAA cheating or being a blithering drunk, so we cant pull the BCG or Donnie Tyndall cards either.
Best thing we can do is accept it and move on, but I’m guaranteed to read the same redundant crap for the next 13 months.
Keep in mind that Kentucky has already paid BYU, a $6 million buyout to hire Mark Pope...
Year three pre nil is the season you evaluate the program with coach who was recently hired. It’s an old school way of thinking especially inNIL. I think year 2 is more appropriate with nil. The idea is by year three your freshmen are juniors and how your program is built, the culture and most of all winning you can determine in year 3. This is one of a high school formula now. For a blue blood ncaa team it should be as soon as it’s evident you make a change. You evaluate the coaching landscape, the window, available coaches, coaches who won’t be available because they are swooped up. In our case we will like lose any shot we have at golden by waiting. He will leave Florida for a blue blood. It should be UK but we have crap leadership who do not understand how to win. We need leadership who knows how to win. But the damage may already be fubar. Barney took a wrecking ball to Uk bb in his quarter century squat at UK I may need a long break from UK sports maybe a permanent break. We always fight for titles. We haven’t been to a ff since 2015. That’s 11 years.
Because we went to the Sweet 16 last year, something we hadn’t done for five or six years while battling many injuries. While this season has been an injury plagued season and a lot of things haven’t really went our way, the season isn’t even over. What if we win the title? You can’t just play musical coaches every year just because everything didn’t go perfect. Sometimes you need to give things just a little bit of time and have a little bit of patience.
I will add that Kentucky will want the new AD to be involved in a new coaching hire, not Mitch. Meaning you can't fire Pope before this summer when the new AD takes over. That is far too late in the cycle for recruiting and portal as most everyone will have already committed and most teams will have already started summer practices. You can almost guarantee that Pope will know his seat is lava and that the new AD will have a list of potential replacements backchannelled and working the entire year. As others have said, it's optics and financial. If he can't hang a banner in year 3, there won't even be a discussion about a year 4. But likewise, he's been bad by UK standards, but not bad enough (Kenny Payne) to warrant a firing after 2 years. Mediocre, despite and irate fanbase, isn't enough on it's own to fire him after 2 years because the decision isn't ours (us fans) to make.
could give you several but you wouldn't grasp any
If he can field a lineup of:
PG - stud transfer
SG - Chandler
SF - Stokes
PF - Murrien
C - Moreno
And a bench of: Pate, Dioubate, Kam Williams, Johnson, Hawthorne, solid backup big (Not Garrison), PG3 for insurance, Potter, Noah
I mean I could talk myself into that roster provided the point guard was a star.
PG - stud transfer
SG - Chandler
SF - Stokes
PF - Murrien
C - Moreno
And a bench of: Pate, Dioubate, Kam Williams, Johnson, Hawthorne, solid backup big (Not Garrison), PG3 for insurance, Potter, Noah
I mean I could talk myself into that roster provided the point guard was a star.
He brings in a defensive minded assistant coach and runs our guys to death. I want down and dirty killers, not this stand up hand swatting mess we have now.
I'm in the camp of "Fire Pope." We won't. But before I give the argument for giving Pope a 3rd year, I want to be clear, I'm not arguing that we should.
I don't think Mark Pope can consistently win recruiting battles in the NIL era--even with more money than any other team.
I think Mark Pope is John Calipari levels of stubborn when it comes to HIS ideas. I remember the last few years of the Cal era. You'd see so many things we did poorly or just flat out wrong. We don't use timeouts. We don't have out of bounds plays. We don't start Reed and Rob. Heck, we didn't identify that Goehlke could shoot--Cal said that in his post-game interview after Oakland whooped us.
It feels the same when you watch the team this year. We do subs at the goofiest times. We FINALLY take the momentum. We get a huge bucket to cut the lead to 1 or 2 points or even tie the game. Boom. Subs. Gotta get Jasper and Garrison in. The other team goes on a 13-0 run. And he justifies it by saying we can't have tired guys. And it's been a theme for an entire season now. And he's too locked into that belief to adapt. And it's going to be the death of his UK career.
BUT, if someone WANTED to make the argument...
Pope is a very smart X's and O's coach when he's got the right players. In Mark Pope's 1st 2 seasons, he has a record of 43-24 with at least 2 games to go.
In Todd Golden's 1st 2 years: 40-29. Golden missed the tournament year 1 and lost in the 1st round year 2.
Pearl's 1st 2 years at Auburn: 26-40. No tournament.
Dan Hurley's 1st 2 years at UCONN: 35-29. No tournament.
Nate Oats: 42-22: No Tournament the 1st year, Sweet 16 the 2nd year.
One could reasonably argue, that 2026 is going how you'd expect Pope's 1st year to go.
2025 went how you'd expect the 2nd to have gone.
Do I think he wakes up and is this elite Head coach come year 3? No. But, he's ahead of the other guys I listed going into year 3.
I don't think Mark Pope can consistently win recruiting battles in the NIL era--even with more money than any other team.
I think Mark Pope is John Calipari levels of stubborn when it comes to HIS ideas. I remember the last few years of the Cal era. You'd see so many things we did poorly or just flat out wrong. We don't use timeouts. We don't have out of bounds plays. We don't start Reed and Rob. Heck, we didn't identify that Goehlke could shoot--Cal said that in his post-game interview after Oakland whooped us.
It feels the same when you watch the team this year. We do subs at the goofiest times. We FINALLY take the momentum. We get a huge bucket to cut the lead to 1 or 2 points or even tie the game. Boom. Subs. Gotta get Jasper and Garrison in. The other team goes on a 13-0 run. And he justifies it by saying we can't have tired guys. And it's been a theme for an entire season now. And he's too locked into that belief to adapt. And it's going to be the death of his UK career.
BUT, if someone WANTED to make the argument...
Pope is a very smart X's and O's coach when he's got the right players. In Mark Pope's 1st 2 seasons, he has a record of 43-24 with at least 2 games to go.
In Todd Golden's 1st 2 years: 40-29. Golden missed the tournament year 1 and lost in the 1st round year 2.
Pearl's 1st 2 years at Auburn: 26-40. No tournament.
Dan Hurley's 1st 2 years at UCONN: 35-29. No tournament.
Nate Oats: 42-22: No Tournament the 1st year, Sweet 16 the 2nd year.
One could reasonably argue, that 2026 is going how you'd expect Pope's 1st year to go.
2025 went how you'd expect the 2nd to have gone.
Do I think he wakes up and is this elite Head coach come year 3? No. But, he's ahead of the other guys I listed going into year 3.
Fair criteria I would look at in order to justify it:
1) Are the players we're bringing in better than the ones that are leaving?
ANSWER: We currently have no players coming in next season, which in and of itself speaks volumes. We could potentially land at least one of the big time recruits we're in on, offload some guys that just aren't working out, and land a excellent portal class, but that's all hypothetical speculation and conjecture that isn't based in current reality.
2) Have most of the current players shown improvement over the course of the season?
ANSWER: No, not on a consistent basis. Most are about what they were, while some have regressed.
3) Is our head coach making the necessary moves in order to prevent whatever caused this season to be a disappointment, and will it have us competing at an elite level moving forward? Is there a cohesive vision and coaching philosophy among the staff?
ANSWER: Maybe? Some good talk about additions to the staff, with a focus on improving player development and potentially adding a GM. We'll see where that goes and who gets those jobs. As for the current staff, I've never got the sense that they have a shared vision. I would like to know what each of their roles are and how they think the game should be played, and does it line up with Pope's view.
Ultimately, even if we do bring in better talent, have a team that fits each other and how we want to play, see better player improvement, and better synergy among the staff, I just have a bad feeling that there is some sort of defect in Mark Pope's personality that will never allow him to be elite as a head coach.
1) Are the players we're bringing in better than the ones that are leaving?
ANSWER: We currently have no players coming in next season, which in and of itself speaks volumes. We could potentially land at least one of the big time recruits we're in on, offload some guys that just aren't working out, and land a excellent portal class, but that's all hypothetical speculation and conjecture that isn't based in current reality.
2) Have most of the current players shown improvement over the course of the season?
ANSWER: No, not on a consistent basis. Most are about what they were, while some have regressed.
3) Is our head coach making the necessary moves in order to prevent whatever caused this season to be a disappointment, and will it have us competing at an elite level moving forward? Is there a cohesive vision and coaching philosophy among the staff?
ANSWER: Maybe? Some good talk about additions to the staff, with a focus on improving player development and potentially adding a GM. We'll see where that goes and who gets those jobs. As for the current staff, I've never got the sense that they have a shared vision. I would like to know what each of their roles are and how they think the game should be played, and does it line up with Pope's view.
Ultimately, even if we do bring in better talent, have a team that fits each other and how we want to play, see better player improvement, and better synergy among the staff, I just have a bad feeling that there is some sort of defect in Mark Pope's personality that will never allow him to be elite as a head coach.
It's being reported he's bringing in Keegan Brown as the player development or GM. The guy from BYU....oh boy. He hasn't learned a single thing in two years
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I don’t see ANY positive momentum from the current teams pre post season run, recruiting and coaching
He has to replace most of his staff. He won’t, but he should be made to. It’s baffling that an employee is allowed to be this mediocre with this much money without facing consequences.
That’s the problem with UK athletics right now: a complete lack of accountability from anyone.
That’s the problem with UK athletics right now: a complete lack of accountability from anyone.
Wait, really? Surely not. So he’s just hiring all his buddies at this point.
If we lose our next two, alarms will be sounding. I am on board now with paying Golden what it takes to come here
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I dont think anything is off the table with a new AD coming in. Their tenure could be very much impacted by not handling the Pope situation well enough.
Had Mitch stayed, id say Pope is cemented for year 3. But a new AD/GM arent gonna want to hitch their wagon to a bum horse. And if that means Pope has to go, I think thats on the table.
Had Mitch stayed, id say Pope is cemented for year 3. But a new AD/GM arent gonna want to hitch their wagon to a bum horse. And if that means Pope has to go, I think thats on the table.
Don’t worry, Pope will beat LSU and lose to Missouri or Florida and then win a game in the tournament before getting his teeth kicked in during the second round. He’ll always do just enough to keep his job.
When are we supposed to get a new AD? I thought we weren’t supposed to get a new one till this summer?
The thing is, the talks are happening. We are absolutely in conversations with guys and seeing who are legitimate options are, and I have to believe there are potential ADs out there who do not want to come here with Pope tenured. And to be fair, thats not 100% on Pope. They dont despise him or think hes the worst.. they might just be thinking twice about the situation. Pope not only isnt *their* guy, but they might have to fire him within a year and find his replacement. Its not exactly a great situation to walk into, looking specifically from the basketball side.
Let’s wait until after the tourney. Year one was actually quite successful with the short window to compile a roster and a sweet 16 with a ton of good wins. Let’s let year 3 play out before making that decision.
Because Mitch and some of our fans think the UK coaching job is basically the "make a wish foundation" where we need to appear to be nice in a multi-million dollar business.
Clowns running the circus is the only reason I can fathom.
If I were AD I would ask the question. Does a 3rd year with Mark Pope look better than a first year with Pearl, Oates, Golden (hell you could throw any name out there at this point) if the answer is No, popes 3rd year won’t be better than that, you negotiate a buy out. This is a big money business and success waits for no one. If the admin is serious about winning they will show it, if not committed to winning, stop going to games.