66, NA, 46, 97, and 75 — Mark Popes Last 5 Recruiting Class Ranks

[CaptnMorgan]

We will be closer to Kenny Payne at UofL than what you are anticipating I'm afraid.

That may be a true statement, only time will tell. Still, I stand by what I said in a previous post, I can accept losing and not having superior talent, just as long as we move forward. I can't stand to watch our teams with superior talent get punked by superior coaches or in the case of BCG you don't have either.

 

[TucsonCat]

Yeah, but when he gets to Kentucky those will jump to 15 or even 8 or 9.

 

[cats2010]

He can’t recruit, he finished 5th in the Big 12 this year and never finished higher than 2nd in the WCC.

This is a disgrace

He finished with a better record this year than cal did, competing in as tough as a conference and did it at a Mormon school. Disgrace describes 80% of the board right now. A bunch on unhinged lunatics!!!!

 

[TucsonCat]

I would rather have a non ranked recruiting class that is well coached and seems like they know what they are doing, than have a #1 recruiting class that craps the bed every year.

I also want Mark Few coached Georgia teams that always sucked. Yeah they never made a tournament, but boy people told me they were well coached.

 

[sambowieshin]

That may be a true statement, only time will tell. Still, I stand by what I said in a previous post, I can accept losing and not having superior talent, just as long as we move forward. I can't stand to watch our teams with superior talent get punked by superior coaches or in the case of BCG you don't have either.

There has to be a space somewhere between NBA farm team and dog catcher. Hope Pope can find that spot, compete and get the fans on board.

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

This is one of my fears with Pope. Kentucky should never have a class ranked outside of the top 10. No amount of portal transfers can make up for classes ranked that low. As much as I love Mark Pope and will support him, this smells like a massive failure waiting to happen.

 

[JFCats22]

He finished with a better record this year than cal did, competing in as tough as a conference and did it at a Mormon school. Disgrace describes 80% of the board right now. A bunch on unhinged lunatics!!!!

Pope has averaged 13.5 losses per season as a head coach. It’s laughable

 

[meteordealer]

He was recruiting to a Mormon school where all students are expected to take a 1-2 year sabbatical. Who could recruit there?

What i was about to say. There are roadblocks at BYU that would disqualify 99% of the recruits out there.

 

[wildcatglenn]

According to ON3. This has to not be real. I guess we’ll have 4 year players again.

2020 BYU Cougars Basketball Industry Comparison Commits

2020 BYU Cougars Basketball team commit list with the industry comparison.

www.on3.com

It was at BYU. I'm not saying he's gonna be a recruiting juggernaut. But you have to take that in account

 

[CatsFan4Evr.]

Sick to my ****ing stomach.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

He’s recruiting Mormons there dude. If you think he will recruit the same players here I don’t know what to tell you. I get that people are upset it’s not this flashy amazing hire. It’s starting to sound like we are the entitled crazy fanbase that no successful coach wants anymore. Everyone wanted Cal gone. We were tired of Mercenary’s. We wanted someone to coach a team for the University of Kentucky again. We got an Alum who is a good coach to do that. We can all riot to fire Mitch and run him out of town if he doesn’t win. Then we can try this whole thing again when the National people say “this is why nobody went the first time, BBN is nuts and 12M a year isn’t worth it.” If you don’t win a title every year they want to sell your house. It’s been horrid on the radio and stories today. Just getting ripped apart and embarrassed.

Nailed it. And I think you perfectly touched on the disconnect that's forming between what UK fans think of the job, and what everyone else thinks.

 

[cats2010]

Pope has averaged 13.5 losses per season as a head coach. It’s laughable

Not at Uk he hasn’t. Let him lose his first game here before you start trashing him.

 

[CaptnMorgan]

Yeah, people think u can win with no talent at all.

People on here are ok with losing as long as we have local kids and a former player coaching.

Not at all what I said, but let's go down this road. I have stated in other threads that I have been butt hurt since 2015. I'm not going to look up the stats and facts about the recruiting classes since 2015, but it was Cal and I'm assuming they were good to great and even a player of the year. How did that work out for us, why is Cal in Arkansas and why are we having this discussion?

 

[JFCats22]

Not at Uk he hasn’t. Let him lose his first game here before you start trashing him.

He’s not qualified and should have been about #50 on the list. I’m not waiting for shit, I’ll trash this hire everyday

 

[UKWildcats1987]

He finished with a better record this year than cal did, competing in as tough as a conference and did it at a Mormon school. Disgrace describes 80% of the board right now. A bunch on unhinged lunatics!!!!

No he didn't. 23 and 10 UK is better than 23 and 11 byu.

 

[ftp000]

He was recruiting to a Mormon school where all students are expected to take a 1-2 year sabbatical. Who could recruit there?

And no booze. No caffeine. And no coeds.

 

[RebelSoldat]

There's a difference between recruiting for BYU and Kentucky. This should be obvious

 

[FiveStarBBN]

He was at a Mormon school in Utah!! Come on folks. I get being upset, but this is ridiculous. He'll recruit well. It's Kentucky. And it's more than just recruiting class rankings. We should know that by now.

The days of getting recruits just because you’re “Kentucky” are OVER. He won’t recruit worth a damn.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

Pope has averaged 13.5 losses per season as a head coach. It’s laughable

Off the top of my head the FL coach may have been a better choice if you was going to get an unproven guy.

 

[Supafuzz75]

He'll have 3 years to make a deep run into the NCAA tournament or he'll need to pack up and head on out.. If he can do that he'll win my support..

 

[MidseasonTweak]

UK is going to get some big time recruits. Our NIL will be on par with Akransas.

 

[MidseasonTweak]

He’s recruiting Mormons there dude. If you think he will recruit the same players here I don’t know what to tell you. I get that people are upset it’s not this flashy amazing hire. It’s starting to sound like we are the entitled crazy fanbase that no successful coach wants anymore. Everyone wanted Cal gone. We were tired of Mercenary’s. We wanted someone to coach a team for the University of Kentucky again. We got an Alum who is a good coach to do that. We can all riot to fire Mitch and run him out of town if he doesn’t win. Then we can try this whole thing again when the National people say “this is why nobody went the first time, BBN is nuts and 12M a year isn’t worth it.” If you don’t win a title every year they want to sell your house. It’s been horrid on the radio and stories today. Just getting ripped apart and embarrassed.

A lot of people on this board need to sleep on this and hopefully can start to think clearly like this.

 

[FtWorthCat]

What type of recruiting rankings would you expect him to have at BYU?

This. The fact that he is winning at a place like BYU says a lot. They haven't been much since Danny Ainge was there. His teams are entertaining to watch. But definitely didn't see this one coming.

 

[FtWorthCat]

You’ve embarrassed yourself on these boards today.

He's used to it by now.

 

[Skyguyb27]

Well boys hope you like IU similarities because this is it. If this becomes official I’m done with UK basketball I’ll post in the football side and to hell with basketball till Mitch is gone. I’m sick to my stomach. .

 

[cats2010]

He’s not qualified and should have been about #50 on the list. I’m not waiting for shit, I’ll trash this hire everyday

And you can. No one is going to stop you but if pope ends up being successful here just makes you look silly but you have plenty of company so there’s that.

 

[JFCats22]

Pope has had two top 100 recruits in his entire career?!?! He can’t recruit

 

[UKCat4Ever]

Imagine some unranked guy announcing he got an offer to UK. Fans might blow up the comment section at this point.

 

[TucsonCat]

He was recruiting to a Mormon school where all students are expected to take a 1-2 year sabbatical. Who could recruit there?

So, has ever even tried to recruit a good player before?
Did he ever go to an AAU game in the summer?
Was it just him vs Utah for whatever weirdo underwear kids could dribble in America.

 

[KYCatAttack]

He finished with a better record this year than cal did, competing in as tough as a conference and did it at a Mormon school. Disgrace describes 80% of the board right now. A bunch on unhinged

He also won the same number of ncaa tournament games as Kentucky this year… 0

In fact that’s the same number of ncaa tournament wins he has for his ENTIRE CAREER… 0

Kentucky isn’t a place to learn how to win and to recruit.

 

[Blue_2_the_bone]

With limited scholarships available and at BY-freaking-U. Give the man a chance. He beat some good teams with much less talent.

 

[Fox2monk]

This is one of my fears with Pope. Kentucky should never have a class ranked outside of the top 10. No amount of portal transfers can make up for classes ranked that low. As much as I love Mark Pope and will support him, this smells like a massive failure waiting to happen.

It very well could be but I’m gonna give him a chance.

 

[Fox2monk]

Nailed it. And I think you perfectly touched on the disconnect that's forming between what UK fans think of the job, and what everyone else thinks.

Thank you, like I said this is a cheap yearly deal for us for a couple years. It won’t be anything to fire him if it doesn’t work out, but I’m willing to give him a chance. He plays the game the way it needs to play. He’s a former NC here who loves the school. Duke and UNC are doing fine. Pope needs a staff similar to Cal honestly. Recruiters and get the NIL in order. I believe if Pope gets UK caliber talent we will be fine. I guarantee he makes more adjustments than Cal did. Al lot of “real” Wildcats to everyone like Chuck Hayes are loving the hire. That doesn’t mean it will work but it does bring back the players we haven’t heard from under Cal too.

 

[KYCatAttack]

Thank you, like I said this is a cheap yearly deal for us for a couple years. It won’t be anything to fire him if it doesn’t work out, but I’m willing to give him a chance. He plays the game the way it needs to play. He’s a former NC here who loves the school. Duke and UNC are doing fine. Pope needs a staff similar to Cal honestly. Recruiters and get the NIL in order. I believe if Pope gets UK caliber talent we will be fine. I guarantee he makes more adjustments than Cal did. Al lot of “real” Wildcats to everyone like Chuck Hayes are loving the hire. That doesn’t mean it will work but it does bring back the players we haven’t heard from under Cal too.

You realize he is going to be the 6th highest paid coach is college basketball right? How is that cheap for us? Maybe cheaper than some more experienced alternatives but that is more than I think he deserves for his resume.

 

[Fox2monk]

You realize he is going to be the 6th highest paid coach is college basketball right? How is that cheap for us? Maybe cheaper than some more experienced alternatives but that is more than I think he deserves for his resume.

Cheap for us, 5.5 million isn’t Jack shit to what we were offering. You realize we had to offer him a raise too?

 

[KySportsfan74]

According to ON3. This has to not be real. I guess we’ll have 4 year players again.

2020 BYU Cougars Basketball Industry Comparison Commits

2020 BYU Cougars Basketball team commit list with the industry comparison.

www.on3.com

Nobody is going to be able to recruit at BYU, but look how much he won with basically a bunch of nobodies. You guys cry if we get one and dones and cry if we don't. You can't have it both ways. I say hit the portal he will be able to recruit exponentially better here than at BYU.

 

[warrior-cat]

Just make sure we get him a pretty good-great staff.

I know you and I are going to just kick back and wait to see but in the interim do something to take our minds off of this.

I have been a few times this year so far (going this Sunday) and have caught several. The largest was 5.3lbs. A friend of mine went this past weekend and pulled in a 7 plus pounder from the same pond I caught the one mentioned above. Good times.

 

[warrior-cat]

I made this post on another site: Is it possible that this hire is really an interim type hire because the one(s) we really want will actually be available in the next year or so?

 

[HagginHall1999]

I get people wanted a bigger splash but it is pretty awful reading these comments. Pope deserves a shot if he is selected.

What did Danny Hurley have on his resume before UConn?

 

[know1]

We have people who have been brainwashed by Cal and think the only thing that matters is recruiting rankings. Nobody is hanging any banners for those. It's just one part of being a coach. And it's the only part Cal was doing. If Pope does the other many things that go into coaching, we will far outperform what Cal has done for a long time now.