I’m an eternal optimist so I’m going to do my best to pump up the Pope hire.
So - the good things about Pope -
- He’s a Kentucky guy;
- He’s a Pitino disciple and all of us old-timers know Pitino ball was the most exciting years of Kentucky basketball. Also heals some wounds from that split.
- Pope is extremely smart; he dropped out of Medical school to be a basketball coach.
- He’s young and energetic and could potentially be here for many years;
- He’s unproven, but so was Dan Hurley just a couple of years ago;
- He’s going to be cheap hire, freeing up a lot of money for other things:
-Plays up-tempo and has some extremely impressive wins on his resume;
- Recruiting deficiencies can be addressed with some really savvy assistant coach hires;
- If he totally sh!ts the bed next year, no expensive buyout, and maybe it’s a bridge year to Donovan;
- From all reports, he’s a genuinely nice guy;
- The Calipari OAD model is done and gone forever. Praise The Lord.
No matter what, next year is going to be interesting.
So - the good things about Pope -
- He’s a Kentucky guy;
- He’s a Pitino disciple and all of us old-timers know Pitino ball was the most exciting years of Kentucky basketball. Also heals some wounds from that split.
- Pope is extremely smart; he dropped out of Medical school to be a basketball coach.
- He’s young and energetic and could potentially be here for many years;
- He’s unproven, but so was Dan Hurley just a couple of years ago;
- He’s going to be cheap hire, freeing up a lot of money for other things:
-Plays up-tempo and has some extremely impressive wins on his resume;
- Recruiting deficiencies can be addressed with some really savvy assistant coach hires;
- If he totally sh!ts the bed next year, no expensive buyout, and maybe it’s a bridge year to Donovan;
- From all reports, he’s a genuinely nice guy;
- The Calipari OAD model is done and gone forever. Praise The Lord.
No matter what, next year is going to be interesting.
