Did Mitch make the right call?
- Thread starter Ceeph
- Start date
rebuild yes but I don't think it will take years with the current transfer portal and nil money in todays game
Pearl had no chance. I don’t even think Barnhart had him on a list. Time will tell about Pope.
Yes, Mitch made the correct hire. People need to be patient. It's not just about recruiting and signing guys, for UK. It's about changing the culture. He needs to implement his offense and defense, and that's going to take time. Expect a painful year, but next year that experience will be there. Too many people are disguising their dislike for the hire behind "I'm hoping it works out".
Auto correct is a bitch, but I refuse to change it, in order to drive the grammar police nuts. I hope they all lose sleep.
Yeah, I agree with this. All the guys mentioned have baggage. And UK has some baggage as well. I can definitely see why the UK administration would want to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
Although, with the NCAA now being an impotent organization and players getting paid to play, it's hard to imagine anyone getting in any real trouble at this point.
I don't think the administration should have much input in a coach unless the AD wants to hire someone that might of molested a child. Pope was a good hire, but putting prospective hires off limits is not in the best interest of the program. Adminstrators probably don't have much experience hiring coaches. Yes, they should know what's going on in the job search, but for them to actually put people that have not committed some horrendous act off limits is not good. Let the AD interview and come to them with each candidate that they think is the best available.
It’s no secret I think it was the wrong choice and a bad hire. Unlike 90% of BBN, I didn’t wake up the day after the hire doing a complete 180 on how I felt about it.
Hearing the admin blocked Pearl and Beard specifically pisses me off. They need to mind their own business and stay the hell out of athletics. Mitch should have grown a pair and told them he was looking at those coaching and if they didn’t like it then fire him. Shit like this is why we are in the position we are. No other SEC school outside of maybe Vandy would have an admin tell their AD they couldn’t hire Pearl, Beard or Miller.
Even still, Tommy Lloyd would have been a much better hire than Pope. Who knows if he’d actually came but he still should have been offered before Pope. I can’t stand Shaka but even he’s done more than Pope. Although between the two I guess I’d rather have Pope. I don’t see either succeeding at UK but atleast with Pope I could like the coach.
Bottom line, even if what all has transpired roster wise isn’t enough to convince you this was probably a bad hire, the fact that Barnhart made the hire is enough to show that it’s a bad one. His success rate in the 2 big sports is 50% and that’s even if you give him the benefit of hiring Kal although he was basically forced to. No doubt he would have hired someone like Thad Matta in 2008 if he had it his way.
Hearing the admin blocked Pearl and Beard specifically pisses me off. They need to mind their own business and stay the hell out of athletics. Mitch should have grown a pair and told them he was looking at those coaching and if they didn’t like it then fire him. Shit like this is why we are in the position we are. No other SEC school outside of maybe Vandy would have an admin tell their AD they couldn’t hire Pearl, Beard or Miller.
Even still, Tommy Lloyd would have been a much better hire than Pope. Who knows if he’d actually came but he still should have been offered before Pope. I can’t stand Shaka but even he’s done more than Pope. Although between the two I guess I’d rather have Pope. I don’t see either succeeding at UK but atleast with Pope I could like the coach.
Bottom line, even if what all has transpired roster wise isn’t enough to convince you this was probably a bad hire, the fact that Barnhart made the hire is enough to show that it’s a bad one. His success rate in the 2 big sports is 50% and that’s even if you give him the benefit of hiring Kal although he was basically forced to. No doubt he would have hired someone like Thad Matta in 2008 if he had it his way.
Wouldn’t that be we biology majors know…?
Seriously, I do find it kind of interesting that Mitch was given a no contact list. I also think that he made a positive hire
Whether or not it’s a good hire remains to be seen
I think you’re right here. There may have been a do not contact list but none of the names are people MB was going to approach anyway. If anything, it’s cover for Mitch.
This was my initial feeling about Donovan. I think his commitment to his players in Chicago shows a lot of character and he’s a proven winning high level college coach. However, I also feel: he’s been receptive to Kentucky before only to turn us down more than once and he hasn’t coached college ball in 9 years, none in the NIL era
I agree Pope wouldn’t have been on the radar if he didn’t play here, but I think there’s a rough analogy to the hiring of Joe B Hall after Rupp. Hall’s credentials were: Rupp’s top assistant after Harry Lancaster transitioned to AD, played one year of varsity ball at UK, an unimpressive head coaching record at a couple of Division 2 schools (Regis and Central Missouri). Gale Catlett went on to have a long career as head coach at Cincinnati and WVU but he didn’t have the Kentucky ties or head coaching experience.
Of course one of Hall’s best moves came two years into his tenure when he hired Leonard Hamilton as an assistant.
Probably not. He offered Pope knowing he’d take the job. And hoped that he’d be able to field a decide team before the portal closed.
That’s not happening. Outside of Williams, who is the 58th ranked dude by CBS, Pope has failed in the portal. Beaten like a drum by the big boys.
With all that said, I’d rather have Pope than the used car salesman scumbag.
That’s not happening. Outside of Williams, who is the 58th ranked dude by CBS, Pope has failed in the portal. Beaten like a drum by the big boys.
With all that said, I’d rather have Pope than the used car salesman scumbag.
Pope hasn't been on the job a month which makes the question ridiculous. We watched Cal over the past 8 years nearly destroy the program via a thousand paper cuts. Surely, we can give Pope a couple of seasons to fully get his system in place before judging him. It is going to take a minute to get the word out that UK is no longer a layover spot for players traveling to the NBA. The new Kentucky will be a place of give and take, not just simply a place for players to take without giving their absolute best in return for what they get. GBB!!!!!!
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This.
And given UK elevates coaches I expect him to win a title and make a few final fours in his tenure.
OP,
I heard that comment too, and it brought me here. That seems strange that Barnhart can't make his own decisions. I wonder who blocked him? Certainly not Eli Capiluto. I'm thinking it was some of the boosters, and it makes me question who is really running things in the athletic department. Like many things at the University, it all comes down to money.
I agree. I'm happy with Pope. Yes, he is unproven, but I'm willing to give him a chance before I want to crucify him.🤣 I am glad that Donovan wasn't offered especially if we had to wait a couple of weeks. We didn't have that luxury of time to wait. And like I've said before, even if we offered and he accepted, there's no guarantee he would have showed up, based on his history with us. One of the two times before, he changed his mind and said no. I do NOT like being rejected 2 times and give him a chance to do it again. Just my opinion, though.
He’s ridiculous overpaid! How is he worth 5.5mil/year when he was making 2 at BYU?
Why not give him a base salary of 3mil and structure in incentives up to 5.5. He also gets an additional year if we reach the sweet 16. That’s a low threshold for UK to be considered a successful season. If the Pope experiment doesn’t work and he just makes a bunch of sweet 16’s. It will make for a very expensive buyout. Clearly Mitch didn’t learn his lesson with Cal.
The internet rumor crap that some of our posters run with is incredible. I recommend you step away from your computer and reset
Complaining that the administration blocked certain coaches from being hired, and then bitching that Mitch made the wrong hire. Stay astray!
Can you not read? I literally said even with the admin blocking people that Mitch should have tried to get Lloyd.
Anyone who believes Mitch Barnhart wanted to hire Chris Beard or Bruce Pearl is just dumber than a bag of hammers. Hopeless. Hasn't paid a bit of attention on how the man operates for 22 yrs.
Pope should have been around 10th on the list not 3rd. Mitch is such a bad AD he already knew he would get turned down 9 times so he skipped to 10. Donavon should have been asked after Nate Oates. Oates has been successful at every job he has had.
The problem is it shouldn't be a decision between Pope or Cal. Cal let Mitch off the hook and instead of making a Blue Blood top of the food chain hire we got Pope. I blame Mitch 100%. If this ends poorly like most of it secretly thinks it will but hopes it won't remember its Mitch that needs to go first.
You could do worse but I was never as high on Lloyd as some others on here.
Frankly, I doubt Mitch really even wanted Dan Hurley. The boosters did but I doubt Mitch really did. Hurley is a great coach but he is a strange bird. If MB had a personality conflict with John Calipari I doubt he’d have had any better relationship with Hurley.
Both of those dudes were assistants at their respective universities. One was explicitly prepped to take over, the other implicitly.
Hurley definitely is on top of his game, but he strikes me as a savant type who is consistently overbearing.
IF not, for sure it will not be because of a lack of effort!! I am ecstatic too!!
Agree. IMO he wanted to hire Drew. After that just to satisfy boosters he made an offer to Hurley knowing it would be turned down. Then he hired Pope.
They were former players at those schools with zero games as head coaches. We are getting a former player experienced as a head coach.
What "blue blood" was going to hire Hubert? None, ever. Same for Duke dude. But they hired them with the expectation their comfort and cultural knowledge of the institutions will make them great coaches. Same logic with UK and Pope.
Exactly, he may fail. But lots of coaches we could have gotten may not have done well. I love giving him a shot. Not like his contract is huge compared to what we have had here. He will give it his all, he loves the school. If he does succeed though watch out because he won’t leave for any other job IMO. I hope He’s Joe B Hall made over. Maybe with 2 titles though!
Exactly how I felt. Those guys didn’t have head coaching gigs anywhere and they are doing just fine. We all laughed at Hubert Davis thinking he would fail. Guess what? He’s built some really good teams, he’s got a monster one for next year and he’s already made a championship game.
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