Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL

Pope coached a very fun to watch BYU team, on offense. The defense on the other hand was wanting, IMO. It could be due to the quality of athlete he could get at BYU though.

He should be able to recruit better at UK, but he is by no means Calipari when it comes to recruiting. I am really curious where exactly he goes in terms of recruiting.

That all said, he has a really weak resume for a coach of a "blue blood", with double digit loss seasons in 7 of his 9 seasons (both single digit loss seasons came in 19-20 and 20-21 which were both very fluky seasons). Also, he's older than Dan Hurley...
 
HooperScooper said:
Pope would come to Kentucky with a résumé that's light for a job generally considered the best in the sport.
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Strange that in an article that references Kentucky being turned down by multiple coaches, they refer to their HC job as “generally considered the best in the sport.” There seems to be some sort of disconnect here….
 
That Guy said:
It is absolutely wild and insane that at this moment, the guy that is about to become the 6th highest paid college basketball coach in the country has not won a single NCAA tournament game.
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And coached BYU to a 5th place finish in the WCC just one season ago.
 
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If this were a script for a movie it would get rejected for being unbelievable.
Kentucky needed a coach so the AD fired himself. Unreal.
I imagine there's more than a few board of trustees wondering just how far the incompetence goes tonight. Chancellor better brush off that resume.
 
This hire reeks of Matt Doherty at UNC. Former successful player, with little coaching success.. thrown into the fire after a long tenured coach. Most likely won't end well after 3 years, because the fan base isn't patient.
 
It's more the school than the accomplishments (reason for the high salary). Hurley, Drew, Donovan, Wright, Oats all would've been offered more than Pope. Consider this to be a second tier offer from Kentucky.
 
superjohn said:
My guess is they didn't want to wait another week or two just to have Donovan tell them to kick rocks. Need to hit the portal like crazy right away and retain and or bring over what you can. It seems crazy they didn't go after at least Pearl and Beard but supposedly Barnhart has some standards. Pearl would win big there right away and it's a fanbase that doesn't have patience.

At least work the backchannels to see if Sean Miller, Shaka, McDermott, Holloway have any interest. There's a bunch of guys across the country who are far more accomplished than Pope, I'm just thinking of guys in our conference who jump out to me.
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From day one I always thought Bruce Pearl always made the most sense to be the next Kentucky head coach. Apparently Barnhart never really wanted to hire Calipari at the time & basically was told he had to- he doesn’t like hiring any coach with any baggage at all so I guess that’s why those names like Beard, Pearl, Miller, Pitino, etc. never were mentioned in this hiring cycle.
 
Kolumbo said:
is that real?!!! wow, that is crazy.

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Super strange with the BYU court & logos in the back drop- lol. I would stay not a good first step or start as the new Kentucky job.

One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen to be honest, but I guess it fits with this entire hiring cycle for Kentucky.

On my, how the mighty have fallen.
 
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.
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I think it may be Barnhart realizing it was time to face reality well ahead of their lunatic fan base, rather than going rogue.

This could turn out to be a good hire. He will have the ability to bring in substantially better talent than he had at BYU. The problems will be a) will that fan base give him time to build something and b) if he does, will anything ever be "good enough"?
 
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gsmooth said:
Whatever people think about Aaron Torres, he hit the bullseye with this tweet.
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Yes on the second part.

On the first, if they hadn't already received a definitive no from Donovan's camp the job would still be open.
 
EBonz30 said:
Super strange with the BYU court & logos in the back drop- lol. I would stay not a good first step or start as the new Kentucky job.

One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen to be honest, but I guess it fits with this entire hiring cycle for Kentucky.

On my, how the mighty have fallen.
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Why would you do that? Slap in the face to BYU and its fans.

Also the uniform thing was super weird.

Yikes.
 
Kolumbo said:
is that real?!!! wow, that is crazy.

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IMG_7892.gif
 
SouthBayHusky said:
I kind of feel sorry for Mark Pope. Even though he has potential, he’ll never get the time to prove it. That fan base can be vicious.
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“Can be”? Someone just posted that they want to “beat the AD to death” and multiple posters are threatening violence on one another. You have to laud their fandom but some of them are downright frightening.
 
This wasn’t a good hire, it was a safe hire. Barnhart had no choice. They couldnt afford the humiliation of being rejected again.
 
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UConnStats said:
Good coach entering a very hard situation with unrealistic expectations.
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And even if he does well some of the naysayer "fans" won't eat crow + any good will built up from winning is, at Kenticky temporary and fleeting. He could reach the final four next year but, if in 3 years he had a first round exit as a higher seed they'd run him out of town, literally.
 
As corny as the uniform thing is, if I’m a UK fan, I’d rather watch that than what the Calipari show had become
 
nomar said:
Why would you do that? Slap in the face to BYU and its fans.

Also the uniform thing was super weird.

Yikes.
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I think it’s actually a video that was taken a few years back when Pope wasn’t able to go back to Kentucky when they were honoring the 96’ Championship team.

Sorry for jumping the gun- as I said was super strange video- lol.
 
EBonz30 said:
Super strange with the BYU court & logos in the back drop- lol. I would stay not a good first step or start as the new Kentucky job.

One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen to be honest, but I guess it fits with this entire hiring cycle for Kentucky.

On my, how the mighty have fallen.
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It's not a "first step". It was several years ago for a celebration of the 1996 championship team he couldn't attend.

I guess it's obvious why it's being passed around as something new though. It does look weird.
 
HooperScooper said:
Pope would come to Kentucky with a résumé that's light for a job generally considered the best in the sport.
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Except by literally everyone else who was offered it, apparently.
 
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BGesus4 said:
As corny as the uniform thing is, if I’m a UK fan, I’d rather watch that than what the Calipari show had become
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Leebo said:
It's not a "first step". It was several years ago for a celebration of the 1996 championship team he couldn't attend.

I guess it's obvious why it's being passed around as something new though. It does look weird.
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Ya- see above- I mentioned that earlier- appreciate the feedback.
 
Odds of him getting Schiano'd? Are they gonna take to the streets?
 
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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Uconn Huskies Wow GIF by NCAA March Madness
 
Getting a single digit seed in the tournament at a school where pre-marital sex will get you kicked off the team is the finest coaching job i’ve ever seen.

Love Hurley but.. Was Mark Pope the real COTY?
 
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