I watch BYU games and they had a very good offense and was fun to watch. If this is true we all should support him. Some of you need to chill out.
ESPN: Its Pope
- Thread starter Jirao
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Mark is nowhere near that developed or accomplished.
We got Pitino from the New York Knicks and he already had a Final Four in his back pocket too.
The Internet didn't even exist when Pitino was hired. I remember a great bit of excitement with the hire, but that was just within the circle of people I socialized with.
When I first heard it, I didn’t like it. I’m starting to come around to it though. Duke and UNC’s coach didn’t have any wins at all when they were hired. Both have had moderate success so far. All the greats have to start somewhere. I’ll support Pope as much as anyone else and if it doesn’t work out, we do it again.
If this is true there better be a huge NIL package because ultimately that is what is gonna get players going forward
There are no absolute sure things in this business. Looking only among the ranks of the 'proven' can result in missing out on the next elite coach. Maybe Hurley and Oats are that but really any of the others are just question marks until they come here and prove something. And that includes Donovan who I think is too far removed, too rich and too far into his career to be a sure thing.
At some point, yes even at UK, you just have to go find the next 'one.' We can do this even if a Pope type comes here and we have to make a change in a couple of years. I'm warming up to giving Pope a chance. Heck, he was pre-med before going into coaching.
At least we don't have to put up with the charlatan any longer.
At some point, yes even at UK, you just have to go find the next 'one.' We can do this even if a Pope type comes here and we have to make a change in a couple of years. I'm warming up to giving Pope a chance. Heck, he was pre-med before going into coaching.
At least we don't have to put up with the charlatan any longer.
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I have about 30 names higher on my list of preferences.
Mitch has lost his effin’ mind.
Sad thing is, Pope will fail here and his climb up the ladder will suffer. Barnhart set him up to fail all because he's a lazy ass, scared AD who panics.
Pope isnt ready yet and this is a horrible hire.
Congrats to our new Pope! I will fully support him until he gives us a reason not to. Go Cats!
He might fail. But pretty sure he won’t wind up a drunken psychopath.
They'll be on a mission from god
GREAT SELECTION!!! I AM SICK OF CARPETBAGGERS COMING TO KENTUCKY. We should be developing coaches just as Duke and Carolina. This is what a real blue blood does.
I can’t argue. And I very much believe Bruce would have taken the job.
That would have been a perfect scenario, sign Ricky P for 3 years and have MP as associate head coach to take over. But I have watched Pope closely over the last couple years and he is very impressive. Hellazmva lot better X and Os than CCC. Wasn't Pope in Medical school and dropped out to start coaching? My biggest concern is his recruiting top players.
I'd be lying if I said I was impressed, but I'll give him a chance. It just seems Mitch is reaching for someone the fans are familiar with after striking out. I'm not sure he has what it takes to coach here, but I'd love to be wrong.
Cal officially left on Tuesday. Mark Pope was announced 48 hours later to be coming. How many "proven" coaches could of turned it down in that amount of time?
I think it’s time for us to take a long look in the mirror and realize that we aren’t what we think we are anymore. We are losing blue blood status very quickly. If you’re the biggest kid on the block, you should be able to go out and bully your way to making a slam dunk hire. A lot of the problem is that we have a weak AD in charge that cares about the good ole boy system instead of going out, kicking ass, and doing whatever needs to be done to get a coach with a proven track record.
Besides that, no coach worth his salt wants to touch us with a 10 ft pole. They don’t want to deal with the fan base, the expectations, or having to follow up a hall of fame coach that got run out of town who had great success by the inner coaches standards. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Cal has his fingers on the strings for a lot of these no’s we’ve been hearing. As we know, the coaching profession is a close knit fraternity and if I was seriously being considered, I would want to contact my predecessor to get an idea of what I’m getting myself into. Cal is the type of guy that isn’t going to want a big name coach come in and do better than he did. His ego wouldn’t be able to handle the realization that the program is bigger than he was. I could definitely see him telling a prospective coach not to go through the headache of trying to appease this fan base when he’s just going to end up hated anyways. I believe we’re watching the death of Kentucky basketball and we are becoming Indiana by the second. This is a complete embarrassment. I hope it ends well and I have to eat major crow, but I think we can all see the writing on the wall if we’ve fallen so far as to hire Mark Pope. Cal is going to end up getting the last laugh when he thumps us in Rupp next year.
Worse than the Tubby hire. Better than the Billy Clyde hire. That’s…not great. Also a clear downgrade from Calipari, no matter how much I hated him. If this is true, Calipari won. Gross.
Unlike some of the names floated like Beard or a Pitino reunion, I have no personal objections to the guy and will be rooting for him with a clean conscience. That’s something I guess, because from a pure basketball perspective, this really seems like an unnecessary gamble on a guy who just doesn’t have the resume expected for this job. He had a nice team this year after BYU moved to power conference status, but overall, he has no conference championships in the regular season, no conference tournament championships, and no NCAA tournament wins in 9 years as a head coach.
Like I said, I’ll be rooting for him and hope he proves me wrong, but this honestly feels like a repeat of 2007 to me. Struck out with a couple of high end targets, then panicked and quickly hired the next guy we interviewed instead of having a well considered second tier of candidates.
Like I said, I’ll be rooting for him and hope he proves me wrong, but this honestly feels like a repeat of 2007 to me. Struck out with a couple of high end targets, then panicked and quickly hired the next guy we interviewed instead of having a well considered second tier of candidates.
Read that Pope had a top 15 offense in 21 and 23 I believe. But has only had a top fifty defense once in his career. Said that he is still learning. Last five years he is something like 104 and 52 maybe? Been to the NCAA tournament twice and lost first round both times. Not sure he can recruit at this level. Pitino said he would be a good hire. Article talked like he is still growing as a coach. They are working on finalizing the deal by the end of the night if things go well.
Hard to believe you would not at least try for Donovan first. Would have preferred him and Pitino. Just seems like it will be hard for him with the expectations.
Hard to believe you would not at least try for Donovan first. Would have preferred him and Pitino. Just seems like it will be hard for him with the expectations.
What makes you guys think he won't be a good coach at Kentucky? You would think that a fanbase that has been burned by chasing names for players and having no luck chasing names for a coach would be willing to give one of our own a chance. There is no doubt this guy will work his butt off to be successful here and he won't be trashing our fanbase, nor will he be implementing players first crap.
I am not criticizing you, but you have sure brought a lot of bad to marginal news lately. Accurate but not good.
Maybe Pope will excel.
The Cal crowd will piss and moan all day every day he is coach. He wouldn't have been my choice but Duke and UNC have had pretty good results from hiring program guys with no big time head coaching experience. Truth be told most of the BLOWHARDS on here have no idea whether he will be successful here ,time will tell. I for one will give the guy the benefit of the doubt. The last ex player we hired did pretty well as I recall. As for those of you unwilling to give him a fair shot or bleat he " will be on the hot seat from day one" YOU CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL
If Cal is going to thump us, you must be talking about another Cal. Surely you can't be talking about the guy who left here in shame.
If he. Is the coach fine. I'll take it. Give dude a chance get Rondo involved
Maybe some of the coaches did not want to be here if they read these posts. Get behind this guy .
Damn we have some crazy fans. No one knows how this will turn out , why not give him a chance before you jump off the bridge.
Im down. Lets roll. Buddies with Shep and smart as hell. The game has changed. Hurley wasnt impressive when he was hired. A real Kentucky guy who may bring in some alumni assistants. Lets give him a shot!
If the stats you provided were not generated while coaching at Kentucky with resources that are much greater than any he has had before, it doesn't matter.
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Recruiting will be the issue. guessing guys are not going to come to play for Mark. So we will see if the Kentucky name still has any drawing power. If not Mark’s ceiling will be limited. Risky pick.
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I like what I've seen of Pope's offense, and I think other coaches struggle guarding it. But I think first year players may have some trouble executing it well. A lot of 3pt. shots, but also looks like a lot of screening and particularly reading the screen (e.g., take it, turn it down, or cut to the basket instead) that makes it seem like it would take some time to be able to execute that offense. But then again, freshmen struggled with the system Pitino ran at UK in the 90s too (particularly defense).
What kind of name did Danny Hurley have before his success at UConn? He doesn't appear to be having any problems with attracting players.
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