Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL

[HooperScooper]

Pope was Jeff Sheppard’s teammate and roommate at UK. This hire might actually help them retain Reed Sheppard.

You mean keep him from entering the NBA Draft where he's expected to be a lottery pick? Yeah, O.K.

 

[HooperScooper]

Pope would come to Kentucky with a résumé that's light for a job generally considered the best in the sport. He does not have an NCAA tournament win, and No. 11 BYU lost to No. 6 Duquesne 71-67 in the first round this year. In the 2021 tournament, No. 6 BYU lost to No. 11 UCLA in the first round.

Sources: Kentucky nearing 5-year deal with Pope

A former Kentucky player, BYU's Mark Pope is finalizing a five-year deal to be the Wildcats' next head coach, sources told ESPN.

www.espn.com

Who knows if he'll be a good coach at Kentucky but his resume doesn't exactly look to be the type of coach Kentucky would hire. Kentucky fans have to be going nuts over this.

 

[superjohn]

He didn't exactly sound overly optimistic after the Duquesne loss

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[SouthBayHusky]

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.

 

[gsmooth]

Mark Pope is a good coach, but this certainly isn't a hire that would reinvigorate or excite the fanbase, nor should it. In fact, this is a big serving of humble pie to them. It shows that they can't just throw bags of cash and think anyone and everyone would drop their current gig and speed race over to fill the Kentucky coaching job.

How is Mark Pope as a recruiter? This could be a down year for Kentucky before things get better.
They will get humbled at least twice by Arkansas next season.

 

[gsmooth]

Whatever people think about Aaron Torres, he hit the bullseye with this tweet.

 

[ihatepants]

More than I expected. That's around Hurley's current contract without incentives, right?

 

[HooperScooper]

More than I expected. That's around Hurley's current contract without incentives, right?

About as crazy as Cooley's contract.

#Hurleyneedsaraise

 

[Kolumbo]

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is that real?!!! wow, that is crazy.

 

[gsmooth]

I basically despise Calipari but next year I would love to see Arkansas win only two games, both against Kentucky.

I don't hate or even dislike Calipari like most UConn fans do. I pretty much let all of that go once he left his highly successful stint at UMass and even moreso after UConn has beaten him in twice in 2011 and in 2014. Having said all of that, unless I had some betting interest on Calipari's team, I don't think I have ever rooted for a team coached by Calipari in a particular game. I don't actively root against him, mind you. I will be rooting for Arkansas in those 2 games against Kentucky, though.

 

[That Guy]

More than I expected. That's around Hurley's current contract without incentives, right?

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.

 

[Kembafan]

is that real?!!! wow, that is crazy.

Pretty awful of him to do that on BYU's home court. He seems like a psycho.

That said I think he's a good coach from what I've seen of BYU.

 

[Kolumbo]

More than I expected. That's around Hurley's current contract without incentives, right?

Well, if it's 5 years and averages $5.5 mill, maybe it starts out at $3.5 mill or $4 mill with the option of getting -canned if he doesn't win. Who knows.

 

[Kembafan]

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.

I don't understand why they had to pay him so much.

 

[stick]

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.

That's crazy that they're paying him that based on his accomplishments.

 

[Leebo]

Pretty awful of him to do that on BYU's home court. He seems like a psycho.

That said I think he's a good coach from what I've seen of BYU.

It's from a few years ago for UK's first night or whatever.

 

[Kembafan]

It's from a few years ago for UK's first night or whatever.

Oh lol thanks. Not as bad but still he could've done it elsewhere.

 

[UConnSwag11]

They can’t get upset that they’re hiring a coach without a tourney win when the last five years for them was close to the same

 

[caw]

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...

 

[USNA90]

Pope would come to Kentucky with a résumé that's light for a job generally considered the best in the sport.

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….

 

[SL Husky]

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.

And coached BYU to a 5th place finish in the WCC just one season ago.

 

[speckle]

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.

 

[Castlevania]

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.

 

[Bboy Lace]

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.

 

[EBonz30]

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.

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.