In the latest "Eye on College Basketball" podcast (Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish), there was a segment I found interesting about the success of first year coaches, including of course Mark Pope. There take was essentially, in today's transfer portal and NIL landscape, where talent is spread out more, you now need a good basketball mind far more than you need a recruiter, someone with regional connections, high major experience as an assistant, etc. etc. They pointed to Pope, Kelsey, DeVries (WVU), and Byington (Vandy) as guys whose peers, when asked about them, would tell you "oh yeah he's a really good basketball coach." Link with timestamp to where this convo starts in the pod. (By the way, this is my favorite CBB podcast, and I recommend it to anyone looking for more CBB content.)
Basically, the recipe now is good basketball coach + resources = success. I would add to that, given that there's really no offseason anymore, you need a coach with fire and energy. Pope and UK check all those boxes and then some. And by the way I think Barnhart was ahead of the curve on this, I remember him saying something in his interview with KSR the day after the hire along the lines of, we got a really good basketball coach, and we're going to give him all the resources he needs to be successful.
And while I don't mean for this to be another Calipari thread, he's the elephant in the room in this discussion. They mentioned Cal briefly noting he's an exception to the first year success, and while not saying it explicitly, I think it's clear they were suggesting he brought some of those other characteristics with him to Ark (recruiting, ties, experience, etc.), but not necessarily the "good basketball coach" part.
Basically, the recipe now is good basketball coach + resources = success. I would add to that, given that there's really no offseason anymore, you need a coach with fire and energy. Pope and UK check all those boxes and then some. And by the way I think Barnhart was ahead of the curve on this, I remember him saying something in his interview with KSR the day after the hire along the lines of, we got a really good basketball coach, and we're going to give him all the resources he needs to be successful.
And while I don't mean for this to be another Calipari thread, he's the elephant in the room in this discussion. They mentioned Cal briefly noting he's an exception to the first year success, and while not saying it explicitly, I think it's clear they were suggesting he brought some of those other characteristics with him to Ark (recruiting, ties, experience, etc.), but not necessarily the "good basketball coach" part.
