Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Kentucky to Hire Mark Pope LOL

Well, I guess he won't be returning to Provo anytime soon. Who does this in the arena of the school you're leaving? SMH what an butthole.

The clown show is in full force in Big Blue Nation. Get the popcorn.

Mark-Pope-clown.jpg
 
Waquoit said:
"Hey son, would you mind foregoing being drafted in the Top 5 so you can stick around and do my college bud a solid?"
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Not saying he will but Clingan has been mocked in the top 5-10 picks and Bilas reported there is a chance he stays. There’s reasons to go or stay for every kid and it’s their decision at the end of the day. Has nothing to do with “doing a solid”.
 
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ihatepants said:
How about Mark Pope's take on Hamilton?
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Thank god Hurley doesn't rap.

His cringy antics aside, I honestly think they made a great hire in spite of themselves. This guy cares about UK, he ran a great offense at BYU, he's passionate, smart, yada, yada. We just don't know about recruiting but it's Kentucky and he'll have assistants to help there.
 
bazz&boujee said:
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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I know you're making a joke and it's funny but I don't get all the people rationalizing this as a great hire and Pope as a great coach. BYU is a program that's made the NCAA over 50% of the time going back to 89-90 under three different coaches before Mark Pope. Dave Rose, Steve Cleveland, and Roger Reid...not exactly household names. Pope did nothing special there, never won a tournament game, and never won a conference or tournament title in the WAC or WCC.

Paying this guy $5.5 million per year is insanity, he'll be making more money than all but 5 or 6 coaches and making more than Hurley currently makes, Scott Drew, Kelvin Samson, Nate Oats. Hubert Davis makes $2.6 million.
 
superjohn said:
I know you're making a joke and it's funny but I don't get all the people rationalizing this as a great hire and Pope as a great coach. BYU is a program that's made the NCAA over 50% of the time going back to 89-90 under three different coaches before Mark Pope. Dave Rose, Steve Cleveland, and Roger Reid...not exactly household names. Pope did nothing special there, never won a tournament game, and never won a conference or tournament title in the WAC or WCC.

Paying this guy $5.5 million per year is insanity, he'll be making more money than all but 5 or 6 coaches and making more than Hurley currently makes, Scott Drew, Kelvin Samson, Nate Oats. Hubert Davis makes $2.6 million.
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He’s definitely a risky hire. But I watched a few byu games and they run a great offense and seem really well coached. Also imo you wanna hire a guy who wants the job.

They definitely overpaid him by a mile. No argument there.
 
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While it has been fun, I think the Kentucky horse has been dead for a few hours. Which other program warrants mockery and derision?
 
bazz&boujee said:
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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You get expelled for drinking tea at BYU
 
Tenspro2002 said:
The worst thing for Kentucky fans is how utterly small-time they look, and they know it.

When JC abruptly retired and got KO as his nepotism hire, it made us look small time, as if we were afraid of a national search resulting in this sort of outcome, i.e. getting lukewarm interest and panic-hiring a C-lister. Kentucky is steering directly into it, which is even worse.
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When Dean Smith did the same thing, did UNC look small?
 
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UK fans had bigger dreams.

And I'd be lying if I said I don't understand their frustration. No, Dan Hurley was never exiting UConn after back-to-back national championships. And I'm not surprised that, in the end, Scott Drew just couldn't pull the trigger and leave the Baylor program he built from nothing. So I don't think it's reasonable to be frustrated that Barnhart couldn't land either of those coaches. But there's a big gap between where this search started and where it ended. And, frankly, any fanbase would be frustrated to watch a search close with the hiring of a man who was really only a candidate because he wore the jersey three decades earlier (Pope) when it began with hopes of either hiring the man who won the 2021 NCAA Tournament (Drew) or the man who won the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Tournaments (Hurley).

www.cbssports.com

Kentucky moved quickly to hire Mark Pope but Wildcats fans will need some convincing it was the right move

Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart will need to sell UK fans this hire was the right choice
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
BugsyCT said:
Who does this in the arena of the school you're leaving? SMH what an butthole.
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I knew people don't read threads before posting, but I guess there's no reason to keep replying to posts like this.
 
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boog204 said:
“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.
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Have you ever been to rural Kentucky? If so you’d understand.
 
Here is a guy who built a program at a low mid-major, then at a low major (not exactly sure how to classify BYU over the past few years) who now goes to a power school. I actually think it makes sense to hire a guy like that. We’ll see how it works out. If they give him a couple of years, I suspect he will build a pretty solid program. Year1 will likely be rough though.
 
I really wanted to come in here all scolding-like, wondering about karma gods taking notes on the needless pigpile of flat-out dishing after our team's epic success.

We got validation & relief that our principled guy didn't just say, "Nope" to a reported record-setting pay package, but that the full staff is returning and the already stated ambition is going for 3.

So what's the point of going hard at UK? Is it necessary. Now?

Granted, I'm the guy walking around Kentucky's largest metro in UConn wear, and I'd like to stay safe. I can remember going to Yankee Stadium and muting my enthusiasm for the Red Sox, and even more so bringing a young Suffolk County townie to an Islanders-Rangers game at the Garden and telling him as we walked in that wasn't allowed to cheer. He was uncomprehending & unhappy, until he got stoned in the stairwells after the first period, and got a better feel for the home crowd...but still didn't want to return.

I'm glad I pushed myself to stick around for page 2, because I liked these 3 posts...

inWV said:
No one wants to go in and clean up after Cal.
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A simple, realistic take, that made me briefly consider my own bad jokes. Maybe something about Kenny Payne doing a reverse Pitino and going from Louisville to UK; or the possibility that Pope could one-up Pitino by promising recruits multiple wives instead of "escorts," (which @NowInStorrs has already gotten close to); or even wanting to shift things away from creating ill will between UConn & UK and instead just trashing Squid because there we have some history. Master of fact, I hear that he summoned the proud history of Razorback basketball when he was introduced in Fayetteville by mentioning Nolan Richardson's "40 minutes of hell," and chuckled that he could relate because he'd just finished up "40 minutes of March Madness." Whomp whomp.

Woodson said:
Half ass search. Did they even meet with Seth Greenberg??
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This was the one that got a literal LOL out of me. Maybe there was some fun to be had here.

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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Okay, this could relieve some of the guilt in laughing at others' misfortunes.

By page 3, I flipped back to thinking it's not really my business. I'm sure there are some good posts that I won't see. I'm not sure I'll miss them.

I do kind of wonder if there was video of smoke from a Lexington chimney after the announcement that Kentucky got their Pope, and if so, what color. Whomp whomp redux.
 
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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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Vicious is putting it lightly. They make Philly and Raider fans look like saints. They are stalkers, make threats and can be violent.
 
bendm said:
Will be a lot easier to do with 5* recruits and elite transfers.
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Or maybe not. Maybe the 5* recruits won't listen to him. He's not used to coaching players like that.
 
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WhereistheDove? said:
TBD if he’s going to be able to get those guys at the rate UK fans will demand. He’s never so much as attempted to recruit the level of player he’ll be expected to land now. I’m sure he’ll get some based on the Kentucky brand and NIL, but TBD how consistently.
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My point was the caliber of player is guaranteed to be better than what he had at byu and they were still a top 15 O their first Year in the big12.
 
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