Grade Mark Pope Thus Far

[BluPappi81]

A

-He deeply understands and passionately articulates why UKBB is special.
-Put together a roster w little time to do so. Molded that squad of players who had never played together and has carded big wins.

Future is bright.

 

[cathouse]

Gave him a B. I think Coach Pope’s biggest mistake to date isn’t any of the losses or his Coaching it’s a Coach he let walk that wanted to stay badly. If he would have keep Coach O I think at least one of last season’s KY players stays. I also think we would have landed 5* Will Riley.

ALL of last year's players had already left BEFORE CMP turned down Orlando for the job.

 

[HoopsDavid]

I would have said A- before yesterday.
Yesterday was concerning. The KSR article summed it pretty well.
I would say B/B+.

 

[Tubbyfan78]

It was an A till the last week.

 

[TFCats11]

It’s been an A for me except last night and the OSU game…

B-, if I add those two in.

 

[Benny and the Catsss]

Guy who wasn't the first choice for coach picked through the leftovers in the portal some of whom weren't anyone else's first choice. Depending on who you listen to, he might have been the fourth or fifth choice. He got a late start building a team from scratch thanks to previous management.

Didn't think UK would be in the top 10 this year. Wasn't expecting to be much above .500 honestly.

Didn't realize how much joy had been sucked from watching games by previous management. When the team gets behind in the first half, I expect a come back now. When the game is close at the end, I expect the team to hang on to a lead, or pull ahead if behind. I'm actually disappointed when UK loses again.

He's doing this without a wealth of high star players. He's doing this with players who hadn't played together before the 2024 tournament was over. He's doing this with players, except for Jaxson, who didn't know his approach, his schemes, his expectations. He's doing this with players who are playing hurt or sitting out due to injury or both.

He gets UK fans. He wants what we want. Just based on statistics, he's smarter than about 98% of the population and 2-3 standard deviations smarter than previous management. And I haven't heard one time where he talked down to ANYONE, no condescending crap whatsoever.

This stuff won't hang another banner, but he stays late after after games and signs autographs for everyone. Who buys ice cream for a crowd because he can't sign all the autographs before he has to leave?

Got my start with UK listening to games on the radio with my dad when Rupp was coach. Lots of ups and downs over the decades. Most of the UK coaches have put banners in the rafters. Pope may not ultimately add any banners in Rupp as a head coach, but I hope he gets plenty of leash to try.

A+

 

[billoliver40]

I went with an A.
Threw a roster together of mid major talent and has won some big games.
If not for all the injuries we would probably only have 2-3 losses.

Pitino went 13-13 in his first season and was actually left a few players to start with.

He was left the unforgettable. Pelphrey, Feldhaus, Woods, Farmer. Pretty sure coach Pope would have enjoyed having them as a start.

 

[Blueathletics]

Too many injuries to judge

 

[gharding07]

Solid B

 

[thberea]

Before the Arkansas game I would have gave him A-. After this game I have to go with C- so far overall, my reasoning for this is I don't like the fact Chandler played so many minutes, he gave us nothing on offense, fair on defense. I think Noah could have helped us on offense, Call hates a zone, I wished we would have zone pressed and maybe 2-3 zone match up to our former players, I know my opinion doesn't matter, we will see them again in the sec tournament

 

[Cats192]

I give him an A.

I'm going to discount the last 3 losses. If you took Butler and Kriisa and for the most part Carr off this roster, you'd have zero faith in it. But since they're injured, everyone keeps saying "Tough luck bud, this is Kentucky, we don't let injuries stop us." But without those players, we're just a bad team.

Alabama, we actually played really well vs a top 3 team in the nation. A team that went to the Final 4 and returned several key pieces.
Vandy: Butler was hurt, Carr out.
Arkansas: Down 2 starters. No actual PG.

My mind is blown that we could actually beat Tennessee in Knoxville.

I think this is the worst team he'll ever have. He had to rush it together. I was super pissed at the Pope hire when it was announced. He exceeded expectatiions when the team was healthy.

Let's pray guys can get healthy and the team can get going again.

 

[BluPappi81]

Guy who wasn't the first choice for coach picked through the leftovers in the portal some of whom weren't anyone else's first choice. Depending on who you listen to, he might have been the fourth or fifth choice. He got a late start building a team from scratch thanks to previous management.

Didn't think UK would be in the top 10 this year. Wasn't expecting to be much above .500 honestly.

Didn't realize how much joy had been sucked from watching games by previous management. When the team gets behind in the first half, I expect a come back now. When the game is close at the end, I expect the team to hang on to a lead, or pull ahead if behind. I'm actually disappointed when UK loses again.

He's doing this without a wealth of high star players. He's doing this with players who hadn't played together before the 2024 tournament was over. He's doing this with players, except for Jaxson, who didn't know his approach, his schemes, his expectations. He's doing this with players who are playing hurt or sitting out due to injury or both.

He gets UK fans. He wants what we want. Just based on statistics, he's smarter than about 98% of the population and 2-3 standard deviations smarter than previous management. And I haven't heard one time where he talked down to ANYONE, no condescending crap whatsoever.

This stuff won't hang another banner, but he stays late after after games and signs autographs for everyone. Who buys ice cream for a crowd because he can't sign all the autographs before he has to leave?

Got my start with UK listening to games on the radio with my dad when Rupp was coach. Lots of ups and downs over the decades. Most of the UK coaches have put banners in the rafters. Pope may not ultimately add any banners in Rupp as a head coach, but I hope he gets plenty of leash to try.

A+

Great summation of why he’s the guy for this moment.

 

[bucsrule8872]

A+

We shouldn’t be this good Year One.

15-6, even though we’re down 2,5 players.

Pretty impressive.

 

[crawfords corner]

People do realize most games UK isn't the more talented team on the court, right?

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I would like you to vote based off the entirety of the season. Include everything in your decision.

For an example:

Massive Wins
The Bad Loses
Injuries
Sub Patterns
Etc.

Tell us why what you voted.

I voted for B, because he is over achieving with his fantastic wins. He also won at TN without key players. However, there has been consistent issues that has not been addressed. I don't base off my decisions off one game, rather off frequency and consistency. Those issues include: Defense, terrible sub patterns, playing chandler more than he should, stale offensive sets, the frequent ISO plays for Oweh. Its the way we lose in these games we should win. We lose nearly the same way every time, without or without injuries.

I voted B as well and you summarized everything so well I have nothing to add.

 

[Hoskins91]

The first season is not even over yet, lol. Anyone that isn't willing to"give him more time" is a worthless idiot if they are a true UK fan.

He gets this year and next regardless. That doesn’t mean we can’t make some fair judgements now.

 

[Hoskins91]

B at best. The bad losses make it that anyone saying A is obviously full of it.

 

[Hoskins91]

People do realize most games UK isn't the more talented team on the court, right?

We’ve lost a few where that is at best debatable.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

He gets this year and next regardless. That doesn’t mean we can’t make some fair judgements now.

I don't see where I ever said that. But man it's great that some of our "fans" are gracious enough to give him some more time.

 

[Hoskins91]

I don't see where I ever said that. But man it's great that some of our "fans" are graciois enough to give him some more time.

So everybody who isn’t willing to kiss his feet should just shut up? Got it.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

So everybody who isn’t willing to kiss his feet should just shut up, got it.

Nope. Nice try. I guess you dont understand that some saying "yeah, I'll give him some more time" at this point in his tenure is arrogant and pompous. See ya. No desire to read any more of your gibberish.

 

[crawfords corner]

Man was left with a bare cupboard, brought 2 players with him and 1 was away from the States for 2 seasons. Had to recruit transfers after quite a few names were already off the board. Two PG who have missed 4 and 12 games. A guy who has had a nagging back injury for nearly 6 weeks now. Coaching in the deepest edition of SEC basketball in history.

Beat Gonzaga, Duke, Tennessee, Florida, and Miss St on the road all the while usually being the least talented and team with the least experience together as a unit. He's done a reMARKable job so far.

 

[billoliver40]

auburn
So everybody who isn’t willing to kiss his feet should just shut up? Got it.

Sooooooo.....how do you go about judging a coach that is the situation Pope (very willingly) took?
Realistically when you look at overall competition this particular UK team matches up poorly with most competition. Teams such as dTennessee, Florida, Alabama and Auburn added to rosters of up to seven returning players with a mix of frosh and transfer. Very few have lost both their starting and backup point guards plus their power forward to injury at the same time and remained at least competitive.
The team has flaws. So does the staff...strangely they say the same thing.

Pointing those particulars out does not make anyone a boot licking sycophant.

The things that bother me are the defense, sub pattern and the tinkering. I'm not sure at this stage what can be done about the defense...how about anyone on here????...
The tinkering with substitution pattern IS something that can be stopped, I would agree with that.
The other stuff....-meh-.
This team has out performed wildly until injuries....and I ask again: which team has a comparable list? Not one, but three contributors.

I await the responses.

 

[Mike_Edwards]

I’d like to interrupt this very scientific poll for a moment to ask just how in the “f” can Pope control injuries? He recruited 1 stud point guard and a very solid back up that provided excitement energy and bravado that we lack elsewhere that also had an unfortunate injury. He did a great job in the time he had up front. The injuries are what they are.

 

[Farsight]

I’d like to interrupt this very scientific poll for a moment to ask just how in the “f” can Pope control injuries? He recruited 1 stud point guard and a very solid back up that provided excitement energy and bravado that we lack elsewhere that also had an unfortunate injury. He did a great job in the time he had up front. The injuries are what they are.

Again this thread is not meant to be tunnel visioned. Yes, we have injuries. Yes, we had no injuries. How did Pope do it with and without? Its a big picture type of poll.

 

[NKYWildcat]

I still say an A but with a couple of question marks....partly out of Pope's control.

• rebuilt an entire roster within a month with mainly mid major grad students, a few P4 starters (Carr, Oweh, JRob), and two local four star freshmen and another McD's All American who had been on a Mormon mission.
• Probably a bit overrated at the moment, but I would say they are in the teens regardless. Preseason ranked #23. To this point, kind of exceeded expectations.
• Been very good versus top level teams, only one loss to a team ranked at the time. Struggled more against teams ranked in the 25-40 range.
• Inconsistent, depends on three point shooting. Because of that, can beat anyone, and can lose to most anyone.
• Both of the expected contributing PGs are out (the backup for most of the season to this point, unknown for the starter), dealing with a nagging injury to the best interior player.
• Recruiting has been solid, but, as we know....recruiting isnt what it used to be, dependent on NIL. So, jury may still be out.
• Defense has been suspect, but not sure if that can't be attributed to the first bullet point. Other than Butler and maybe Chandler, not a good on-ball defensive team on the perimeter. They also produce very little in the turnover department. Jury still out here, too.
• As big of a problem is ball handling and turnover rates in recent games. The point guard situation amplifies this.

Guessing the level of current panic is largely to losing to Calipari's current talented, but overwhelmingly underacheiving team. Anyone who has followed this program when he was coach, especially during his "down" years at UK, know that his teams will rise up a time or two in SEC play and beat someone they arent supposed to. Last night was a textbook example of that.

 

[crestcat]

B at best. The bad losses make it that anyone saying A is obviously full of it.

Since your knowledge far surpasses every one else on the board I guess we should just shut this thread down. As someone who did give CMP an A, screw you.

 

[billoliver40]

B at best. The bad losses make it that anyone saying A is obviously full of it.

Awaiting your response to my previous post.
How are grading objectively against what coach in Pope's situation with injuries not not one but three major players? Name one team. Just one.
If not then your basis for grade is at very most irrelevant.

Our moderator pretty picture as she is graded the coach pretty hard...but that's a different person to disagree with...and still came up with A-. How do you come up with a statement anyone giving higher than a B is full of it?

 

[OmahaCats]

An A for sure. This year should for the most part be a pass. Reason being is he wasn’t able to recruit. He put a team together so fast from the portal. And we’re 6-1 against top 15 teams. Granted we’ve lost 5 to unranked teams. But before the season I thought getting to the tournament and possibly winning a game would be a success. I still think that. Next year, you can put a grade on him

 

[gbl97]

B. He doesn't have the pieces this year and he knows it. He will learn from this and get better pieces next year.

Sorry, but our problems (rebounding, defense, loose balls) are due to our lack of quickness and athleticism. Can't fix that. He will just have to scheme around our weaknesses.

 

[Short-Dawg-69]

Pope lost some crap games….

BUT…. Dude…. Pope won some absolute great games…..
I’m A…. So far as much more than we all expected!!!!

 

[Warf2012]

Would have been a B- before last night but it’s a C overall after last nights disaster.

He’s been an A when it comes to games against top teams but he’s been a D or F vs unranked teams we should roll.

Recruiting has been better than I expected from him but still not where it needs to be. B-

Coaching, particularly in game, has been worse than i expected. I thought he was supposed to be some savant but he’s looked clueless numerous games and has been outcoached by absolute bums such as Kal. His “leave them wide open for 3” strategy has cost us multiple games. He doesn’t make good adjustments during games. A lot of games he makes none at all even when things clearly aren’t working. Even if he does, he waits until after halftime to do it. C-