Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL

It almost feels like it is not fair to the fans of other schools for us to be fans of UConn. Almost.

Kentucky was turned down (in no particular order) by: Oats, Hurley, Drew, Donovan, and Wright, and ended up hiring a guy who was the poster child of gaming the efficiency ratings with a mediocre team. Going out on a short, sturdy limb here and saying that Kentucky fans are not going to get excited by first round losses to Duquesne.
 
Pope was Jeff Sheppard’s teammate and roommate at UK. This hire might actually help them retain Reed Sheppard.
 
uconn_jack said:
Its hysterical how some (although not all) are also trying to rationalize that they don't want Hurley anymore because he is obviously an idiot for turning down UK and the bag. Some quotes from RR board:

"Frankly, if we walk away without Hurley after a $100 million offer that he REJECTED...I'd just call it a win and a dodged bullet. He's a freakin idiot to reject that. End of story!"

"Just reading that it is incredibly hard to absorb. $100 million (if accurate) is a absurd amount of money. Literally obscene.
I wasn't terribly interested in Hurley as I thought he would be a terrible fit for UK. But, for him to turn down that kind of money is a red flag IMO."

"He's a (rhymes with cluck)"

"If Hurley really rejected that kind of money cuz he wants to stay in Connecticut where they care more about the womens team then that’s his call but he clearly wasn’t the man for the job"
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As Dan Hurley said himself today: "Once you make a certain amount of money, it doesn’t make that much of a difference in your life."

If you're already filthy rich and you're going to be making $8m/year vs. $12.5m/year does the money really matter at that point?
 
They are under pressure due to the portal closing in a few weeks and players leaving. If they don't act fast they might be playing walk-ons next season. That would be just awful. ;)
 
uconn_jack said:
Its hysterical how some (although not all) are also trying to rationalize that they don't want Hurley anymore because he is obviously an idiot for turning down UK and the bag. Some quotes from RR board:

"Frankly, if we walk away without Hurley after a $100 million offer that he REJECTED...I'd just call it a win and a dodged bullet. He's a freakin idiot to reject that. End of story!"

"Just reading that it is incredibly hard to absorb. $100 million (if accurate) is a absurd amount of money. Literally obscene.
I wasn't terribly interested in Hurley as I thought he would be a terrible fit for UK. But, for him to turn down that kind of money is a red flag IMO."

"He's a (rhymes with cluck)"

"If Hurley really rejected that kind of money cuz he wants to stay in Connecticut where they care more about the womens team then that’s his call but he clearly wasn’t the man for the job"
Expand ...
“Turning down that kind of money is a red flag”

That is one of the all time quotes, for so many reasons
 
If you've seen any of BYU games this year, you'd be impressed. I actually think Pope is a good x's and o's coach. If he's able to get recruits, Kentucky is not going to flame out early. I'm still not sure it's a great hire, but it's not as disastrous as it looks.
 
My boss lives down the street from Billy D and is a pretty close friend of his in Florida. He got the sense that BD was never really seriously considering the UK (or any college) job with the state of NIL, transfer portal madness, etc despite the rumors.
 
Pope’s a good coach. The issue to me seems to be that he’d be available in a week if they continued to strike out but apparently Barnhart went rogue on this one. So it looks pretty embarrassing to the outside observer.

The “no tournament wins” thing is overblown to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s successful there, but the arrogance and entitlement of the fan base - Brad Stevens was not going to quit running the Celtics to coach your team - almost had me hoping he flops. And that stinks because by all accounts he’s a great dude.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Pope’s a good coach. The issue to me seems to be that he’d be available in a week if they continued to strike out but apparently Barnhart went rogue on this one. So it looks pretty embarrassing to the outside observer.

The “no tournament wins” thing is overblown to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s successful there, but the arrogance and entitlement of the fan base - Brad Stevens was not going to quit running the Celtics to coach your team - almost had me hoping he flops. And that stinks because by all accounts he’s a great dude.
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Maybe if he was going to coach Rhode Island. But zero tournament wins going to Kentucky and big blue nation sounds a little underwhelming.
 
SouthBayHusky said:
Maybe if he was going to coach Rhode Island. But zero tournament wins going to Kentucky and big blue nation sounds a little underwhelming.
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DePaul hired a guy who has 7 tournament wins and Kentucky hired a guy who has zero tournament wins. It doesn't mean Pope isn't a good coach but it's Kentucky, if he never played there he would be about their 60th option.
 
SouthBayHusky said:
Maybe if he was going to coach Rhode Island. But zero tournament wins going to Kentucky and big blue nation sounds a little underwhelming.
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Yeah I just think that stat for a guy who set a school record for wins at BYU and had the most efficient offense in the country is a pretty stupid barometer. They lost to UCLA in the first round one year. Hurley’s first tournament win at UConn was Iona. It’s not the be all / end all of what makes a good coach.
 
If anything there might be just a slight what, cultural difference, between what the Kentucky donors are used to and what Pope brings to campus.

Oj6lQU.gif
 
superjohn said:
DePaul hired a guy who has 7 tournament wins and Kentucky hired a guy who has zero tournament wins. It doesn't mean Pope isn't a good coach but it's Kentucky, if he never played there he would be about their 60th option.
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Pope's a much better coach than Holtmann ever was. We'll see what Pope does with a much better talent base, but with immense amount of pressure right away. He has to recruit well (he should be able to, but not Calipari level). Steve Lavin had a bunch of NCAA tourney wins before he got the St. John's job and anyone who knows basketball could've told you he was awful.
 
This was Kentucky's 7th choice. My guess is they will be down for a few years now.
 

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