IF I'M BEING HONEST

[MasonCoBlue]

I'll be 61 next month and have been a UK fan for life. I was not on the bandwagon of get Cal out of here. I was considering the buyout, along with who would replace him? More so...who would take the position. Even with the frustration of several years, I was very hesitant. When we lost to Oakland...I was done with Cal. Yet still worried about the buyout and not getting a top tier coach.

But when Cal resigned...my first thought...oh crap. Now what do we do? Especially knowing Cal would take our players. Finding a top tier coach played out as I suspected. But my goodness, did we find a diamond with Coach Pope. Heck, even if we weren't doing as well as we are...I'M enjoying the style of play. I'm enjoying a coach who coaches for the University. I'm enjoying players that WANT to be here for the program...not "I'm going to get mine." I'm enjoying playing every play. I'm enjoying how they respect the game. I could go on and on...

Coach Pope is a "BRILLIANT" coach that just needed a chance. One of the best Xs and O's I've seen in a modern offence. How he motivates team winning and unselfishness is quite remarkable.

Now I feel better...lol

 

[will1976]

I'm just happy and give credit to Mitch for making the call!

 

[B.B.H.]

I'll be 61 next month and have been a UK fan for life. I was not on the bandwagon of get Cal out of here. I was considering the buyout, along with who would replace him? More so...who would take the position. Even with the frustration of several years, I was very hesitant. When we lost to Oakland...I was done with Cal. Yet still worried about the buyout and not getting a top tier coach.

But when Cal resigned...my first thought...oh crap. Now what do we do? Especially knowing Cal would take our players. Finding a top tier coach played out as I suspected. But my goodness, did we find a diamond with Coach Pope. Heck, even if we weren't doing as well as we are...I'M enjoying the style of play. I'm enjoying a coach who coaches for the University. I'm enjoying players that WANT to be here for the program...not "I'm going to get mine." I'm enjoying playing every play. I'm enjoying how they respect the game. I could go on and on...

Coach Pope is a "BRILLIANT" coach that just needed a chance. One of the best Xs and O's I've seen in a modern offence. How he motivates team winning and unselfishness is quite remarkable.

Now I feel better...lol

I declared we were Indiana 2.0 when Pope signed. I love overdosing on crow.

 

[ck-2]

I was willing to let one of the student managers coach 2 years to get rid of the fraud that was here.

 

[Bungalow Bill]

What I think is overlooked is if Cal leaves 2,3,4 years ago we don't get coach Pope. Would we have got somebody that we would have been as happy with if the change is made earlier? I'm so happy with Pope I can't imagine anybody else working this well. He's everything I want in a man leading our program. Strange how things work out sometimes.

 

[blue cincy]

I was onboard from the get go with Pope. Just knowing how much he loved KENTUCKY, Its Fans, the school, Lexington and such.

I was not sure how we would do this year till he started getting his roster once he got his coaches, I knew we could be OK this year and would be fine for the future. The future is not as far as Pope is concerned. Players the same. Love the attitude.

 

[ukcatz12]

What I think is overlooked is if Cal leaves 2,3,4 years ago we don't get coach Pope.

I've been thinking this a lot recently. I think if Pope proves to be a long term home run hire almost everyone would have traded that for a few down years with Cal at the end.

 

[Digger-Cat]

I was willing to let one of the student managers coach 2 years to get rid of the fraud that was here.

I will never understand how anyone could still be on the Cal bandwagon after 9-16.

Then, there were still people on his side after Saint Peters, wow that is mind boggling to me.

But, holy smokes, how anyone could possibly think UK was still better off with Cal after the loss to Oakland, just makes no friggin sense.

Like you said, I would take a student manager at that point. Cal was doing absolutely nothing but riding the coat tails of nba prospects so he can say he had more draft picks than everyone else.

That guy is completely washed and out of his mind and those that didn't see it before, should figure it out before the end of this season.

He was destroying this program and we got extremely lucky that he screwed up the way he did.

I hope Mitch learned his lesson too.

 

[ck-2]

What I think is overlooked is if Cal leaves 2,3,4 years ago we don't get coach Pope. Would we have got somebody that we would have been as happy with if the change is made earlier? I'm so happy with Pope I can't imagine anybody else working this well. He's everything I want in a man leading our program. Strange how things work out sometimes.

Yeah I get what you’re saying, but I don’t look at it that way. Pope is doing a great job, has assembled a great roster, and revitalized the fanbase, but that doesn’t change the fact Cal was just mailing it in and had a big fat one sided contract that should have never happened. Meanwhile there were several posters on here saying we would never recover if Cal was fired or left. On the other hand the rational fans of the program knew this wasn’t and isn’t the university of Calipari.
The problem I have is with those people who justified keeping him as the coach. And for them it wasn’t even about the financial hit we would have taken for getting rid of him. They just thought without him we were nothing. Those people are a joke and I remember who most of them are.

 

[ukcatz12]

I will never understand how anyone could still be on the Cal bandwagon after 9-16.

Then, there were still people on his side after Saint Peters, wow that is mind boggling to me.

But, holy smokes, how anyone could possibly think UK was still better off with Cal after the loss to Oakland, just makes no friggin sense.

I've long been accused of being a Cal slurper, so I'll answer.

In the Spring of 2021 the 9-16 season was a complete fluke during a very strange moment in time. Duke had an awful season, Penn St. football had an awful season, weird things happened across the sports landscape. The year before that we had a great team that won the SEC and were in a good position to make a tournament run. We had also mad the Elite 8 two of the three seasons before that. You simply can't fire a coach with Cal's past after a single bad season, no matter how bad it is. Especially during those weird Covid times.

That St. Peter's season we had a legitimately fun and great team for the vast majority of the season. We blew Kansas off their home court. However, TyTy never fully recovered from his injury at Auburn, Grady could barely walk by the end of the year due to plantar fasciitis, and Oscar was a head case before the St. Peter's game (refused to board the plane because he had visions something bad was going to happen). I wouldn't want Cal fired after losing to St. Peter's any more than I would think K should have been fired after losing to Lehigh or Mercer. In a single elimination tournament anything can happen, and quite frankly it was the first time Cal had been upset like that in the first round.

After the Oakland loss I didn't think we would be better off with Cal. I wasn't going to be too excited coming into this year if he were still here. But if you truly believe it was a guarantee we couldn't have been worse off you're kidding yourself. Pope was a great hire, but he wasn't guaranteed. History is littered with schools thinking the grass would be greener with a new coach and getting stuck in a decades long cycle of mediocrity. And there was a lot of pissed off people on this board the night Pope was hired.

Ultimately, it has worked out very well so far. I don't think there's anyone who truly thinks at this point we would have been better off with Cal going forward. But I also think it's perfectly fair to recognize that there was always a risk his successor didn't work out.

 

[Cleatortoises]

How many titles did Joe B, Rick, Tubby, or 🐄 have before they came here?
Zero
Ky is the turbo charger that makes a difference.

 

[bnewt]

Coach Pope may not win a title, but it won't be for lack of effort. He played under one of the best in pitino and is very knowledgeable about the game. He represents uk and it's fan base in a very classy manner. Perfect example is that he and his staff are wearing suits again. Just the little things that make him the perfect fit

 

[MasonCoBlue]

I will never understand how anyone could still be on the Cal bandwagon after 9-16.

Then, there were still people on his side after Saint Peters, wow that is mind boggling to me.

But, holy smokes, how anyone could possibly think UK was still better off with Cal after the loss to Oakland, just makes no friggin sense.

Like you said, I would take a student manager at that point. Cal was doing absolutely nothing but riding the coat tails of nba prospects so he can say he had more draft picks than everyone else.

That guy is completely washed and out of his mind and those that didn't see it before, should figure it out before the end of this season.

He was destroying this program and we got extremely lucky that he screwed up the way he did.

I hope Mitch learned his lesson too.

To me…and I’m speaking for just me…it was the buyout and who would take the program. I was done as well. But we were in a difficult situation.

 

[Mike_Edwards]

Cal was a master salesman with a huge buyout as leverage hanging over UK’s head. He did everyone a huge favor walking away. I wasn’t thrilled with Drew, was hopeful for Hurley because of his recent run especially and came around rather quickly once Mark was named. Now after seeing his passion and what he brings I don’t see how anyone isn’t all in and excited like a five year old on Christmas Eve!

 

[B.B.H.]

Coach Pope may not win a title, but it won't be for lack of effort. He played under one of the best in pitino and is very knowledgeable about the game. He represents uk and it's fan base in a very classy manner. Perfect example is that he and his staff are wearing suits again. Just the little things that make him the perfect fit

Gotta win that title to legitimize that effort. Pope has me believing that he can and will win multiple. Look out UCLA!

 

[TheBlueMax]

I'll be 61 next month and have been a UK fan for life. I was not on the bandwagon of get Cal out of here. I was considering the buyout, along with who would replace him? More so...who would take the position. Even with the frustration of several years, I was very hesitant. When we lost to Oakland...I was done with Cal. Yet still worried about the buyout and not getting a top tier coach.

But when Cal resigned...my first thought...oh crap. Now what do we do? Especially knowing Cal would take our players. Finding a top tier coach played out as I suspected. But my goodness, did we find a diamond with Coach Pope. Heck, even if we weren't doing as well as we are...I'M enjoying the style of play. I'm enjoying a coach who coaches for the University. I'm enjoying players that WANT to be here for the program...not "I'm going to get mine." I'm enjoying playing every play. I'm enjoying how they respect the game. I could go on and on...

Coach Pope is a "BRILLIANT" coach that just needed a chance. One of the best Xs and O's I've seen in a modern offence. How he motivates team winning and unselfishness is quite remarkable.

Now I feel better...lol

I initially felt really good about Mark Pope. Many things to like, his personality and intelligence being two things at the top of the list. What I did not realize was his knowledge of the game and his ability to articulate that to his players. His style of play is modern and off the charts. Recruiting has been brilliant. He is one of us, and is poised to be as successful here as any previous coach. The very compelling story that he is writing is one of the most amazing ones in our history. I love his style and do think that this is a championship contending team destined to improve and amaze us over the course of the next five months.