After 18 games, would anyone still trade Pope for either Hurley or Drew?

[The_Answer1313]

Yeah the thing about all of this is whether it's fair or not ultimately coaches get judged by what they did in March, not the season up till March.

I mean last year 3 seed, 13-5 in the SEC. Not an awful season.

But you lose in the first game of the SEC tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That on the heels of losing in the first round the 2 years (which was also.....a good season). And that ultimately was the final nail in the coffin for Cal here.

This team is making the NCAA tournament. They will be a pretty good seed. They should be favored in their first round game and maybe even in their second round game. Those games in March will largely determine how this has gone.

 

[white10]

Absolutely NOT!!
I’m 100% behind Coach Pope!!

 

[*CatinIL*]

After 18 games, would anyone still trade Pope for either Hurley or Drew?​

I wouldn't.

 

[jedwar]

Nope I wouldn’t trade him for anything at this point tbh. Although I still remain adamant we should have given Bruce Pearl a look. Hes turned Auburn into a real power which is crazy. He’s older but still has a ton of juice left in the tank it appears. I think we dodged a bullet with Drew though.

Agree on Pearl. My first choice. Give him 5-7 years and he'd kill it here. Oats was my 2nd choice.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Agree on Pearl. My first choice. Give him 5-7 years and he'd kill it here. Oats was my 2nd choice.

I think Oats would have done well here, I just don’t particularly care for him. Pearl would have killed it here. But I’m all in on Mark.

 

[sambowieshin]

Wanted Hurley. Never wanted Drew... He's a low T dude with very little gas left in the tank.
Mitch and the BBN got lucky with his wife's rainy visit.
Pope is a better fit than any of the above and glad to have him...so long as he keeps us consistently in the top 20 with a shot at greatness periodically.

 

[littlecreek]

I wonder how many of the people who freaked out when the Pope hire occurred would admit it now? We were very lucky.

I admit I thought Barnhart panicked after being turned down by the others. But I couldn't be happier how it turned out. Pope was the perfect coach for Kentucky.

 

[jbne222]

The only person I’d trade Pope for is Pat Kelsey

 

[calamitybone]

To me, this played out a lot like the Pitino hire. We pretty much offered the job to someone who couldn't have handled it - Carlesimo and Drew - and chased a guy looking for a raise - Olson and Hurley - before settling on the best candidate.

 

[Seth_C]

The only person I’d trade Pope for is Pat Kelsey

You’d rather have a cringey weirdo than Pope? That’s certainly an interesting choice.

 

[jbne222]

You’d rather have a cringey weirdo than Pope? That’s certainly an interesting choice.

Sarcasm

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Yeah the thing about all of this is whether it's fair or not ultimately coaches get judged by what they did in March, not the season up till March.

I mean last year 3 seed, 13-5 in the SEC. Not an awful season.

But you lose in the first game of the SEC tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That on the heels of losing in the first round the 2 years (which was also.....a good season). And that ultimately was the final nail in the coffin for Cal here.

This team is making the NCAA tournament. They will be a pretty good seed. They should be favored in their first round game and maybe even in their second round game. Those games in March will largely determine how this has gone.

2022 and 2024 were just baffling endings.

2022 had some injuries and did everything wrong against st Peter's and they did everything right. They then went on to beat Murray and Purdue not playing near as well as they did against UK. That team when healthy was a pretty fascinating team. If healthy they probably make it to 2nd weekend.

2024 we won like 7 of last 8 regular season and then just collapsed n the sec and ncaa tournaments. Mitchell was not used properly when he returned from injury and that didn't help.

Ironically the only team to win a ncaa game the past 3 seasons was probably the least talented (imo) with the 2022-2023 team.

 

[electricat2]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!