Those of you saying that UK should have hired Bruce Pearl or 72 year old Rick Pitino, wake the hell up and look at the big picture..... In mid April
Pope inherited a basketball program that over the last 5 years had gone 2-7 in post season play
Pope inherited a basketball program with ZERO players on the roster
Pope wasn't able to recruit a bunch of 5-Star recruits because all of them were already signed some where else.
Pope has a 12 man roster with 3 players out that's 25% of your players. This would be like a college football team with an 85 man roster & having 21 or 22 players not dressing out because of injuries.
Pope put together what roster he could (beggars can't be choosy) Probably not a NBA player on the entire team. With this lack of talent Pope & his UK team has tied an All-Time NCAA record with 8 Top-15 wins. This despite a lack of NBA talent, playing in the deepest, strongest conference in the history of college basketball. Then throw in injury after injury after injury to key players.
NO Coach in this situation could have done any better. You could take Pitino & Pearl combined & they would not have done any better that what Mark Pope has done.
Pope inherited a basketball program that over the last 5 years had gone 2-7 in post season play
Pope inherited a basketball program with ZERO players on the roster
Pope wasn't able to recruit a bunch of 5-Star recruits because all of them were already signed some where else.
Pope has a 12 man roster with 3 players out that's 25% of your players. This would be like a college football team with an 85 man roster & having 21 or 22 players not dressing out because of injuries.
Pope put together what roster he could (beggars can't be choosy) Probably not a NBA player on the entire team. With this lack of talent Pope & his UK team has tied an All-Time NCAA record with 8 Top-15 wins. This despite a lack of NBA talent, playing in the deepest, strongest conference in the history of college basketball. Then throw in injury after injury after injury to key players.
NO Coach in this situation could have done any better. You could take Pitino & Pearl combined & they would not have done any better that what Mark Pope has done.
