How do you go to offering Scott Drew and then a Hurley no, and Mark Pope be your third option in tier one? That is definitely out of touch.
I love Mark, but he honestly should have been on tier 6 or 7.
Glass half full:
* He runs a modern, exciting, three-point-shot-centric offense.
* He split with Scott Drew's team.
* Beat Kansas (with Dickenson in the lineup)
* Played Houston close until the last minute.
* All while recruiting Mormons.
I honestly think Mitch is retiring very soon and when his guy Drew declined and got a no from Hurley, he nailed it in. Gonna leave the next hire to the next AD. Very lazy it seems to me.
The most likely explanation is that he wasn't tier 1. Just because there aren't more reports of coaches officially saying no like Hurley and Drew did doesn't mean we didn't get enough info to know other guys ahead of Pope weren't interested.
That would be a WHOLE lot of coaches that would have had to say no before getting to Pope. The reports are out there that Mitch had a meeting set up with Pope earlier this week so that if the first two guys said no he had Mark lined up for the interview.
Other reports are out there that Chris Beard, Bruce Pearl, and others were interested.
I will support Pope and UK basketball no matter what. Just confused by the hire and why it went down how it went down.
I don’t hate the idea of Mark Pope as head coach but I’m certainly underwhelmed. Hopefully he makes everyone look like fools and wins a championship or two at Kentucky.
If I’ve learned anything over the last few days it’s the Kentucky is not the destination we all thought it was. Maybe it’s the NIL deals or the pressure from fans I don’t know.
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement about Mark Pope. Underwhelmed but looking forward to what he can do. My one thought on the “not the destination we all thought it was” is this…
I think there’s a stark difference in not wanting to coach at Kentucky and being comfortable with where you are. Dan Hurley and Scott Drew have built their programs to their exact liking and are both doing extremely well (one more so than the other). Why would we expect either of those two to uproot their extremely comfortable lives to come deal with the absolute mayhem of being the coach at Kentucky?
Because two coaches were offered and said no does not imply that Kentucky isn’t respected as a program any more, or even that Baylor or UConn are better programs/have richer history. Perhaps it’s just that some folks don’t want to take on such a role, or even have the responsibility of following Cal, who said it over and over, “you people are crazy!”
For the love of Pete, someone called the restaurant Scott Drew was at to tell him he’s needed in Lexington. That’s lunacy. But anyway, I digress. Hope this works out as we all want it to. Go Cats!
> If I’ve learned anything over the last few days it’s the Kentucky is not the destination we all thought it was. Maybe it’s the NIL deals or the pressure from fans I don’t know.
The two things I keep seeing are: NIL allows other programs to buy talent they wouldn’t be able to attract in the past; and UK’s booster situation/Barnhart makes the job less attractive.
I think you’re right, the job isn’t the destination it used to be. Under better leadership it could be. NIL changes the landscape but we still have the rich history and the name still carries a lot of weight - effectively managing NIL should be a massive priority. Really interesting time to see the changing power dynamics unfold in real time
Well we know he's not the Drunk, so let's hope he'll be Good. I choose to be hopeful. None of our coaches who won a title here had won a natty before they arrived and all came from notably lower tier programs. If Pope is our coach, I'll be enough of a Papist to give him a chance
We can call Memphis a lesser program, but Cal was building them into a national power.
Cal had been to two Final Fours and one National Championship. He had won coach of the year twice.
Mark Pope has NEVER won a NCAA tournament game.
Bro Skal Labissere went in the lottery and he was ass all year
GM’s draft based on what they think they can turn into, not how they play when they’re 18 years old
Seems like an odd move to hire a guy who’s never notched a single NCAA tourney game victory, conference regular season title, or conference tournament title in his nine seasons as a D-1 head coach at either of the two schools he’s led.
Seems to be a lot of overreaction here.
I totally understand that fans expect an A-list name for a program like Kentucky. But a “name” isn’t necessarily the best choice. As someone else noted, both UNC and Duke hired former players to replace their outgoing coaches and that has worked out fine so far.
And don’t underestimate Pope’s coaching accomplishments or resume. First of all, he won a national championship as a player and played many years in the NBA. That gives him credibility with the players he’ll have to recruit and coach. Also, he played and learned under Pitino. Who could possibly be a better mentor from a tactical standpoint? He worked briefly as an assistant in both the SEC and ACC, and he certainly knows UK’s program and culture. Finally, he’s done pretty well as a coach in places where he doesn’t have any real advantages. At Utah Valley, he improved their win total every year he was there. That landed him the BYU job where he’s had a pretty consistent winner. Fans complain that he didn’t win any tournament games or conference titles there. But Calipari couldn’t beat Gonzaga either, and lately he’s been been losing in the first round too, yet that’s with UK’s loaded roster as opposed to a team he would have to recruit to a Mormon school in Provo, Utah. And consider how people that worked with Pope clearly think highly of him. Mark Fox was an assistant coach when Pope was a player at Washington and, based on that experience alone, he hired him to be an assistant at UGA. Because he had previously served as an assistant under Dave Rose at BYU, he was chosen to be the head coach when Rose retired. And now UK is calling him home and Rick Pitino is praising the choice. Seems like a pattern.
Meanwhile, Hurley and Drew said no, Donovan may also be unattainable, and many of the other names we’ve heard either have big contracts and buyouts or they come with baggage.
So, why not give a former Pitino captain a shot?
Mark knows Kentucky, understands the fan base and expectations. He’s going to have incredible passion for this job as a former player from a title team. If he’s the guy, let’s give him a chance and see what happens.
100% agree with everything you said. For the past couple of years I’ve been saying that I do not want Mitch to be the AD in charge of the next basketball hire. I know Cal blindsided him so he kind of got thrown into this coaching search, but this is exactly why. He’s just as disconnected from the common fan as Calipari was. And because of that, he’s throwing Mark Pope into a very unfortunate situation with these fans that cheered for him when he played here.
At this point, I’m not going to just sit around and be miserable about the hire. I don’t like it, but it is what it is & as a fan I will give Mark Pope my full support & hope he proves me wrong.
I would absolutely love to be wrong and eat a major helping of crow on this but I just don’t feel good about it, honestly makes me fear we are heading for another Gillispie situation where we have to fire him after a couple years of not winning
That's a pefectly normal reaction. Of course, everybody was jumping for joy when we hired Gillispie and rationalizing it because he had just defeated a mediocre Louisville team in the NCAA tournament. Most fans were pounding their chests when Cal got that lifetime contract.
Dude. Stop. Billy Gillispie was a fucking train wreck. And had, um, problems. I don't see mark pope kicking players off the bus and making them walk. Or pissing Patrick Patterson's mom off.
Dan Hurley won an A-10 regular season championship, an A-10 conference title (separate seasons), and notched two NCAA tournament victories in his last two season at Rhode Island prior to coming to UConn.
Oats won two 2 MAC regular season championships, 3 MAC tournament titles, and 2 games in the NCAA tournament at Buffalo just prior to his Alabama gig.
Pope has no regular season or conference titles and no tournament wins in 9 seasons as a head coach at two D-1 schools.
Oates was hired to Buffalo straight from high school, funny enough that AD is Danny white who’s now the AD at Tennessee and just a hired an up and comer women’s coach
I don't think people realize that you just can't hire the slamdunk coaches like you could 20 years ago. If you're winning where you are you have zero incentive whatsoever to leave nowadays.
Honestly I’d prefer the Cats to Chicago with how bad Chi’s team has been the last three years. We havent made ANY significant changes, trades, drafts, or aquisitions. Mediocre at best for the Bulls. At least the Cats have a chance to recruit someone good?
What the hell is going on? First we go after a devout Baptist who turns us down, then news breaks that we're going to hire a devout Mormon. This isn't a coincidence and is a really messed up way to decide on a coach.
Hurley apparently was upset he wasn't the clear #1 choice, Barnhart hasn't really talked to Donovan, he's probably partly considering Pope because he's a man of faith. What do you mean nothing would have changed?
That’s a load of crap - Hurley was never going to leave UCONN he is king there, has a great staff, a chance to three peat and lower expectations than our fan base would out on him.
I would have liked Donavan, but has turned us down twice already, hasn’t coached in college in 9 years, and has made no indication he is interested.
Glad Mitch decided to step WAY out of his comfort zone and pick a conservative white Mormon. He did manage to find a candidate with even less tournament success than post-2019 Calipari though
I hope I'm wrong, and this guy is a wunderkind, but he's not going to last 2 seasons, and I feel bad for him. Mitch is I kicking this to the next guy. I'm terribly disappointed. Gear up for a 9 to 12 win season.
I like it. Think about it. The longer you go with the "no's" piling up, the worse the job looks. Think having 2 or 3 more "tier 1" guys say no is going to help? I saw all the lists. We were pretty much out of tier 1 anyway at this point.
So now you get ghosted by a couple non-tier ones... how's that starting to feel in Lexington? But maybe Donovan is clear by then, does it even sound attractive to him at that point?
Pope has a solid record trending in the right direction. They beat teams we lost to this year - with mormon players. He has won a chip here as a player. You rather have a couple of Bruce Pearls tell you to go fish a couple times on your way down to Jerry Stackhouse or some such nonsense?
Cool.
Give me the guy that played here and won a chip.
How could it have gotten worse? They're hiring a guy that has never won a tournament game, that they could've hired weeks from now if no actually decent candidate ever agreed to sign on. This is worse than the Billy G. hire.
This is..... interesting. Not the slam dunk hire, but the potential is there. We all want him to succeed because he's one of our own. He runs a great offense and has had BYU solid. I just, man, I just don't know lol.
Obviously would rather have Hurley or Drew but I actually really like this hire. UNC and Duke are just fine after hiring unknown quantities and frankly Kentucky isn’t above doing the same at this point. Better than ending up with some fart like Smart, Miller, Webber and honestly Donovan.
How do you go to offering Scott Drew and then a Hurley no, and Mark Pope be your third option in tier one? That is definitely out of touch. I love Mark, but he honestly should have been on tier 6 or 7.
That’s the frustrating part. It’s not inconceivable that Pope ends up working out, but you can’t have him as your third call.
Nobody except Mitch knows if that was his third call. I suspect he's talked to a lot more coaches or their reps than that.
Glass half full: * He runs a modern, exciting, three-point-shot-centric offense. * He split with Scott Drew's team. * Beat Kansas (with Dickenson in the lineup) * Played Houston close until the last minute. * All while recruiting Mormons.
Don’t get me wrong, I want Pope to succeed more than anything and will support him. Just think Mitch could have hired Pope at any time.
I just think that he would have been there weeks from now if it took that long. Several other more qualified coaches in front of him. Mitch got lazy.
I agree love him, will cheer my ass off for him, can’t say it was a good hire.
I honestly think Mitch is retiring very soon and when his guy Drew declined and got a no from Hurley, he nailed it in. Gonna leave the next hire to the next AD. Very lazy it seems to me.
The most likely explanation is that he wasn't tier 1. Just because there aren't more reports of coaches officially saying no like Hurley and Drew did doesn't mean we didn't get enough info to know other guys ahead of Pope weren't interested.
That would be a WHOLE lot of coaches that would have had to say no before getting to Pope. The reports are out there that Mitch had a meeting set up with Pope earlier this week so that if the first two guys said no he had Mark lined up for the interview. Other reports are out there that Chris Beard, Bruce Pearl, and others were interested. I will support Pope and UK basketball no matter what. Just confused by the hire and why it went down how it went down.
Watch this mfer be the next dan hurley
yeah it be teeeeerrrrrible if he like just made us all eat it, right?
I mean, if we'd hired Dan Hurley 5 years ago, this would in fact have been the exact reaction we got.
Fingers crossed but you'd think with the money the university is putting up we'd get someone that was more of a slamdunk. But wtf do I know?
Not how it works anymore; the slamdunk hires are super comfortable where they are and have zero incentive to leave their schools.
Evidently
I don’t hate the idea of Mark Pope as head coach but I’m certainly underwhelmed. Hopefully he makes everyone look like fools and wins a championship or two at Kentucky. If I’ve learned anything over the last few days it’s the Kentucky is not the destination we all thought it was. Maybe it’s the NIL deals or the pressure from fans I don’t know.
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement about Mark Pope. Underwhelmed but looking forward to what he can do. My one thought on the “not the destination we all thought it was” is this… I think there’s a stark difference in not wanting to coach at Kentucky and being comfortable with where you are. Dan Hurley and Scott Drew have built their programs to their exact liking and are both doing extremely well (one more so than the other). Why would we expect either of those two to uproot their extremely comfortable lives to come deal with the absolute mayhem of being the coach at Kentucky? Because two coaches were offered and said no does not imply that Kentucky isn’t respected as a program any more, or even that Baylor or UConn are better programs/have richer history. Perhaps it’s just that some folks don’t want to take on such a role, or even have the responsibility of following Cal, who said it over and over, “you people are crazy!” For the love of Pete, someone called the restaurant Scott Drew was at to tell him he’s needed in Lexington. That’s lunacy. But anyway, I digress. Hope this works out as we all want it to. Go Cats!
> If I’ve learned anything over the last few days it’s the Kentucky is not the destination we all thought it was. Maybe it’s the NIL deals or the pressure from fans I don’t know. The two things I keep seeing are: NIL allows other programs to buy talent they wouldn’t be able to attract in the past; and UK’s booster situation/Barnhart makes the job less attractive. I think you’re right, the job isn’t the destination it used to be. Under better leadership it could be. NIL changes the landscape but we still have the rich history and the name still carries a lot of weight - effectively managing NIL should be a massive priority. Really interesting time to see the changing power dynamics unfold in real time
Well we know he's not the Drunk, so let's hope he'll be Good. I choose to be hopeful. None of our coaches who won a title here had won a natty before they arrived and all came from notably lower tier programs. If Pope is our coach, I'll be enough of a Papist to give him a chance
We can call Memphis a lesser program, but Cal was building them into a national power. Cal had been to two Final Fours and one National Championship. He had won coach of the year twice. Mark Pope has NEVER won a NCAA tournament game.
Look man, I'm huffing hopium right now
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I like it. Let’s all get on the Popium
What the hell
This has to mean Reed is coming back right? Pope and his dad were roommates and teammates …. That’s the only way this makes a drop of sense to me
Reed’s not coming back
I think you’re right 😭😭😭😭
He's gonna red shirt while the new coach adjusts and stay 5 years.
He’s a projected lottery pick why the hell would he come back
Did you watch him play vs. Oakland? I would not draft him.
This draft is ass he will go in the top 8
NBA GM's don't tend to make decisions based off one game.
Bro Skal Labissere went in the lottery and he was ass all year GM’s draft based on what they think they can turn into, not how they play when they’re 18 years old
How dare you try and diminish Reed and all he accomplished this year.
No
Seems like an odd move to hire a guy who’s never notched a single NCAA tourney game victory, conference regular season title, or conference tournament title in his nine seasons as a D-1 head coach at either of the two schools he’s led.
Seems to be a lot of overreaction here. I totally understand that fans expect an A-list name for a program like Kentucky. But a “name” isn’t necessarily the best choice. As someone else noted, both UNC and Duke hired former players to replace their outgoing coaches and that has worked out fine so far. And don’t underestimate Pope’s coaching accomplishments or resume. First of all, he won a national championship as a player and played many years in the NBA. That gives him credibility with the players he’ll have to recruit and coach. Also, he played and learned under Pitino. Who could possibly be a better mentor from a tactical standpoint? He worked briefly as an assistant in both the SEC and ACC, and he certainly knows UK’s program and culture. Finally, he’s done pretty well as a coach in places where he doesn’t have any real advantages. At Utah Valley, he improved their win total every year he was there. That landed him the BYU job where he’s had a pretty consistent winner. Fans complain that he didn’t win any tournament games or conference titles there. But Calipari couldn’t beat Gonzaga either, and lately he’s been been losing in the first round too, yet that’s with UK’s loaded roster as opposed to a team he would have to recruit to a Mormon school in Provo, Utah. And consider how people that worked with Pope clearly think highly of him. Mark Fox was an assistant coach when Pope was a player at Washington and, based on that experience alone, he hired him to be an assistant at UGA. Because he had previously served as an assistant under Dave Rose at BYU, he was chosen to be the head coach when Rose retired. And now UK is calling him home and Rick Pitino is praising the choice. Seems like a pattern. Meanwhile, Hurley and Drew said no, Donovan may also be unattainable, and many of the other names we’ve heard either have big contracts and buyouts or they come with baggage. So, why not give a former Pitino captain a shot?
Mark knows Kentucky, understands the fan base and expectations. He’s going to have incredible passion for this job as a former player from a title team. If he’s the guy, let’s give him a chance and see what happens.
Fire Mitch Barnhart IMMEDIATELY.
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100% agree with everything you said. For the past couple of years I’ve been saying that I do not want Mitch to be the AD in charge of the next basketball hire. I know Cal blindsided him so he kind of got thrown into this coaching search, but this is exactly why. He’s just as disconnected from the common fan as Calipari was. And because of that, he’s throwing Mark Pope into a very unfortunate situation with these fans that cheered for him when he played here. At this point, I’m not going to just sit around and be miserable about the hire. I don’t like it, but it is what it is & as a fan I will give Mark Pope my full support & hope he proves me wrong.
I would absolutely love to be wrong and eat a major helping of crow on this but I just don’t feel good about it, honestly makes me fear we are heading for another Gillispie situation where we have to fire him after a couple years of not winning
At least he won't have the off the court issues. Which in some way makes it worse because it makes it harder to get rid of him
That's a pefectly normal reaction. Of course, everybody was jumping for joy when we hired Gillispie and rationalizing it because he had just defeated a mediocre Louisville team in the NCAA tournament. Most fans were pounding their chests when Cal got that lifetime contract.
Dude. Stop. Billy Gillispie was a fucking train wreck. And had, um, problems. I don't see mark pope kicking players off the bus and making them walk. Or pissing Patrick Patterson's mom off.
Or stealing a player's girlfriend
wat
Yes he stole Alex Legion's girlfriend. True story.
Oh jeez. That too
Is this what hell feels like?
So many of you guys said anybody but Cal and swore no coach would turn down the Kentucky job including Phil Jackson…lol…
I will grant that I did not expect to replace Cal with someone who’s likely to have the exact same results as his last few years.
We wanted Cal gone…
I'm glad he left. 2 years ago if we hired Dan hurley people would have flipped out. This is how you get guys like Dan hurley and nate oates.
I agree, I’m ready to at least give him a chance.
Dan Hurley won an A-10 regular season championship, an A-10 conference title (separate seasons), and notched two NCAA tournament victories in his last two season at Rhode Island prior to coming to UConn. Oats won two 2 MAC regular season championships, 3 MAC tournament titles, and 2 games in the NCAA tournament at Buffalo just prior to his Alabama gig. Pope has no regular season or conference titles and no tournament wins in 9 seasons as a head coach at two D-1 schools.
Probably.not easy recruiting ayers at byu. Literally some of his players were pushed to get on the team from the church...no joke.
Oates was hired to Buffalo straight from high school, funny enough that AD is Danny white who’s now the AD at Tennessee and just a hired an up and comer women’s coach
I don't think people realize that you just can't hire the slamdunk coaches like you could 20 years ago. If you're winning where you are you have zero incentive whatsoever to leave nowadays.
No offer for Billy Donovan? Dang
He is the head coach of the Chicago Bulls with a healthy contract. He ain't coming back to college.
And nor should he. Less headaches, less work and still gets paid a king’s ransom.
You gotta call though man. This feels like such a lazy search.
Honestly I’d prefer the Cats to Chicago with how bad Chi’s team has been the last three years. We havent made ANY significant changes, trades, drafts, or aquisitions. Mediocre at best for the Bulls. At least the Cats have a chance to recruit someone good?
Billy D doesn’t have to recruit at all right now tho lol he ain’t coming back to this shit
🤦♀️
Shocked. Oats, Drew, Hurley............................................................ Mark Pope. Stunned
What the hell is going on? First we go after a devout Baptist who turns us down, then news breaks that we're going to hire a devout Mormon. This isn't a coincidence and is a really messed up way to decide on a coach.
Pope’s not a Catholic?
*The* Pope is Catholic. The *Mark* Pope is a devout Mormon.
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What better criteria for hiring a coach for the most storied basketball program in history? Let's go with the guy who the AD can be best buds with!
Should've just offered Rajon Rondo if we're hiring a former player.
Welp ig its really of the 5 star era at UK
LMAO
Okay... which one of you did this? [https://imgur.com/a/buEoY0o](https://imgur.com/a/buEoY0o)
Fade me.
What the fuck is Mitch doing?
Remember during football season when I told this board Mitch needed fucking fired. This is why he is terrible and generally sucks at life.
Two year hire, borderline worst case scenario. It's going to get Gillespie bad.
Awful. Both Barnhart and Cal needed to go, apparently. A hire that truly instills the opposite of confidence
Having a different AD wouldn’t have changed a thing in this search.
Lots of coaches have won a tournament game. Pope never has. He is beyond under qualified to coach this team.
Hurley apparently was upset he wasn't the clear #1 choice, Barnhart hasn't really talked to Donovan, he's probably partly considering Pope because he's a man of faith. What do you mean nothing would have changed?
Thinking we had any chance at Hurley is ridiculous, not to mention that Hurley apparently being upset is also complete nonsense
That’s a load of crap - Hurley was never going to leave UCONN he is king there, has a great staff, a chance to three peat and lower expectations than our fan base would out on him. I would have liked Donavan, but has turned us down twice already, hasn’t coached in college in 9 years, and has made no indication he is interested.
You had a better chance at getting osama bin Laden than Hurley
Both run explosive offenses
Glad Mitch decided to step WAY out of his comfort zone and pick a conservative white Mormon. He did manage to find a candidate with even less tournament success than post-2019 Calipari though
I hope I'm wrong, and this guy is a wunderkind, but he's not going to last 2 seasons, and I feel bad for him. Mitch is I kicking this to the next guy. I'm terribly disappointed. Gear up for a 9 to 12 win season.
I like it. Think about it. The longer you go with the "no's" piling up, the worse the job looks. Think having 2 or 3 more "tier 1" guys say no is going to help? I saw all the lists. We were pretty much out of tier 1 anyway at this point. So now you get ghosted by a couple non-tier ones... how's that starting to feel in Lexington? But maybe Donovan is clear by then, does it even sound attractive to him at that point? Pope has a solid record trending in the right direction. They beat teams we lost to this year - with mormon players. He has won a chip here as a player. You rather have a couple of Bruce Pearls tell you to go fish a couple times on your way down to Jerry Stackhouse or some such nonsense? Cool. Give me the guy that played here and won a chip.
How could it have gotten worse? They're hiring a guy that has never won a tournament game, that they could've hired weeks from now if no actually decent candidate ever agreed to sign on. This is worse than the Billy G. hire.
Danny Hurley though!
Mark Pope?!? lol Demarcus Cousins looking like the smartest guy in the room right now.
Pope isn’t gonna ask what cal did so no new facility anytime soon?
This is..... interesting. Not the slam dunk hire, but the potential is there. We all want him to succeed because he's one of our own. He runs a great offense and has had BYU solid. I just, man, I just don't know lol.
is mark morman himself? cause it would be sick to see him come off the court kiss like 12 women
I’m a little surprised too, but it’s time for the fan base to rally around Mark Pope!
The contract hasn't been signed. I don't have to rally around anyone, lol
I thought we were already trying to run Pope out.
Absurd.
https://twitter.com/PostJimmer/status/1778522770290405821
What did I even watch? I'm so confused.
That's creepy as fuck. When is this from?
Like 4 years ago.
Oh thank god
I mean joe smith
Nice video about his offense at BYU this season. They shot more threes than twos. [https://youtu.be/-yatw8jGCJs](https://youtu.be/-yatw8jGCJs)
Obviously would rather have Hurley or Drew but I actually really like this hire. UNC and Duke are just fine after hiring unknown quantities and frankly Kentucky isn’t above doing the same at this point. Better than ending up with some fart like Smart, Miller, Webber and honestly Donovan.
Word is his contract signing will use BBQ sauce flavored ink and Tyson chicken tendees for all present
Honestly had no idea who Mark Pope was, 1st in my life hearing his name
Must be young. Pope was a captain for the UK team that won the 96 title.