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GYERO ARCHIVE

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- I love Mark Pope. Integral part of the best Kentucky team I’ll ever see. Transferred here to take a smaller role. Intellectual. Great teammate. Good guy. That’s part of what scares me. I don’t want to have to turn on him.

- His offense is good. He’s definitely a good ball coach. Is he our level? Really hard to say that. Can he recruit here? Really hard to say that.

- But you never know with this shit. Five years ago, Hurley and Oats wouldn’t be on your Top 50 list.

- This doesn’t change a thing for me about Cal. Pope could be a disaster and match that SOB’s last 5 seasons.
 
People trying to explain the decision/thought process of our AD are wasting their time.

Time will tell. If he’s wrong he will finally be held accountable for his contracts/choices.

@Strokin_Bandit how is Pope with X’s and O’s? Does he run multiple defenses?
I don’t know much about his philosophy of defense.

The last I really paid attention to him, he was doing a bunch of European continuity ball screen offense. That was 2 years ago, though. You HAVE to have a stretch 4 and 5 to run that. I watched it because I used to run it in high school. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

What little I saw this year was a hybrid of that style of offense. He ran a ton Zoom action into it. Zoom is all the rage in CBB right now. It’s essentially a 3 man strong side offense. Screen down for the guy getting a dribble handoff OR dribble handoff into an awaiting ball screen.You can do it various ways which means there are counters on top of counters.

Again, you’ll need shooters to stretch the floor. He’ll have to go get the pieces he wants. Reed would thrive in a style like that fwiw.
 
We won't have to hear how he's going to really "push the ball" next year

We won't have to get lectures on how shooting too many 3 pointers is a bad thing

He won't trash the Kentucky fans

By definition, he can't do any worse than his predecessor (over the last half decade) in the NCAA tournament

He actually WANTS/IS ECSTATIC to BE here
 
There’s a chance he crushes it and a chance he flames out.

The bigger problem is that being a beloved former player is going to make it harder to get rid of him if he’s mediocre. Give Pope a few good years and then a later Tubby type run and he’s here a minimum of two years longer than he should be
 
Pay him $5mm and put the other $7mm towards NIL if the boosters are still in on this hire?
Doubt it would have happened if they weren't. I think they want some FUN back in UK Basketball, and Mark Pope's offense is eye-popping. His ability to recruit will determine his ceiling here, and I think that the boosters have probably committed to helping him in any way they can (to recruit that is)
 
Silver lining, Mark's a super smart guy. After his pro career, the guy got into med school at Columbia, after a couple of years decided to to into coaching. Wife worked for Letterman show for several years. Watched the 1995 SEC Tournament championship OT game against Arkansas about 4 weeks ago. Walker and Epps.came up big but Pope was nails the entire game, I forgot how much the guy, not flashy but never flinched, always steady. I'm trying to talk myself into this but he has the intangibles to be great.
 
Again, dude been playing against a stacked deck

all students must enroll in prerequisite religious courses and conform to an honor code that forbids sex, alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, profanity and anything resembling same-sex interests. Also, no beards.
 
We won't have to hear how he's going to really "push the ball" next year

We won't have to get lectures on how shooting too many 3 pointers is a bad thing

He won't trash the Kentucky fans

By definition, he can't do any worse than his predecessor (over the last half decade) in the NCAA tournament

He actually WANTS/IS ECSTATIC to BE here
And, to your point, BYU finished the season ranked higher than UK in Kenpom in 3 out of the 5 seasons Pope coached there.

Pope's most recent team finished 18th in Kenpom while Cal's finished 23rd. Which team had the superior roster?
 
Silver lining is we can be part of his first NCAA tournament win.

Seems Mitch made this hire based off a doctored Wikipedia
Could have happened to anyone

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