They ran off a guy who lost to Oakland to hire a guy who lost to Duquesne. He's a decent coach but Kentucky needs more than decent. In this day and age, when the SEC has many other elite coaches and UK just cant sell their blue blood status to recruits because other schools can pay as much or more, I dont see Kentucky being a perennial Top of the SEC team under Pope. The league is just too good. They'll be ok but not what they once were.
Mark Pope to Kentucky
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
“He has nine years of head coaching experience in D-I: four at Utah Valley, the past five at BYU. His career record is 187-108, with a 110-52 mark at BYU. Pope is 0-2 all time in the NCAA Tournament.”
I can only imagine how we would react if we lost a coach with Calipari‘s résumé and replaced him with this 😳
I can only imagine how we would react if we lost a coach with Calipari‘s résumé and replaced him with this 😳
It’s not a splash hire, but I think it’s a good hire. Pope is a good X’s and O’s coach and runs an innovative offense. BYU has its recruiting limitations. The Kentucky name almost recruits itself.
Not anymore. Its a different sport now. Everyone has the same level mid-major transfers so you have to be able to coach.
There's no way he can be worse than Cal has been the last 5 years.
I agree. It’s all about $$ now. And I know Kentucky has boosters, but so do a ton of other schools.
This hire is somewhere between us actually hiring Stallings, and if we had hired Schmidt. Very, very blah.
Look around. These blue blood schools aren't replacing legends with the hottest names on the market anymore. We act surprised every time.
Let's put it this way--when Cal left, the UK program and AD had much higher aspirations for this hire than Mark Pope. I doubt he was in their top 20. With cheating now the legalized norm and with everyone doing it, UK is not nearly as attractive of a job as they liked to believe it was.
That's so true and about as well as it can be said. 💯
The SEC is so loaded with coaches, I dont see UK being a high-middle team in the SEC. Like 5 through 8 most years. He just cant go out and say "I coach Kentucky, come on." Everyone else is paying top dollar and its hard to decipher which mid-major transfers are the best even if he did have his pick of the litter, which he doesnt. He's not a bad coach but in a league that has Barnes, Oats, Beard, Pearl, Calipari, Jans, Buzz and newbies who look good like Paris, Golden, and Byington, what's going to differentiate him?
he runs good stuff and he embraces ‘analytics’ such as playing your best lineup most of the time, so he’ll be an upgrade on calipari
can he throw together a credible roster for next year and recruit at a high enough level to succeed at kentucky? doubt it
he’ll have to put together a very strong, connected staff, but, again, not hard to improve on cal—he’s taking bruiser, reacquiring brad, and john welch had already bailed on him
pope should get the boosters to throw some scratch at brandin knight
can he throw together a credible roster for next year and recruit at a high enough level to succeed at kentucky? doubt it
he’ll have to put together a very strong, connected staff, but, again, not hard to improve on cal—he’s taking bruiser, reacquiring brad, and john welch had already bailed on him
pope should get the boosters to throw some scratch at brandin knight
Cal's actual coaching is very underrated. He lost recently because he wouldn't adapt and continued to recruit and play babies vs 24 and 25 year old men. And he said at the post game Oakland presser that he wouldn't stop doing it. The game changed and he didn't.
UNC, Duke, and Syracuse all hired alum to replace a Hall of Fame coach. None of these hires will have anywhere near the success, for multiple reasons. Kentucky just joined that list, although Calipari has underperformed in recent years.
The same thing that has always differentiated UK. Recruiting. They will outbid the competition for recruits they want.
Difference is Scheyer, Davis and Autry were all groomed by the people they replaced. Not the case with Pope.
calipari’s coaching may have been unfairly maligned through 2019 but he has been mailing it in since. his first mistake against oakland was adjusting his starting lineup in the wrong direction by starting 5th year tre mitchell and the team that lost to st. peter’s was transfer-heavy
i don’t know what happened with him & nike but at some point duke started beating him for the best prospects, then he had to start making promises to camps. he got shaedon sharpe but kentucky didn’t
they have one SEC tournament win this decade. you can’t have results like that and let kids use the program as a way station
i don’t know what happened with him & nike but at some point duke started beating him for the best prospects, then he had to start making promises to camps. he got shaedon sharpe but kentucky didn’t
they have one SEC tournament win this decade. you can’t have results like that and let kids use the program as a way station
They cant. Other SEC schools can pay just as much. He's going to need to outcoach them with similarly-talented players.
Cal's last 4 years have been one of the worst 4 year stretches in program history.
No idea what next year's roster will look like, but starting in 25-26, the product should be better.
Huh? Is this a joke? The SEC is taking basketball extremely seriously. Look who their coaches are.
Theoretically they could. Realistically, they can't & won't. UK will spend more. If they have to go back to sucking out loud at football to get their basketball right, that's what they will do. It's Kentucky.
Basketball player payrolls are so low that I cant see Alabama saying "Oh man, Kentucky's payroll is $5 million/year and we just cannot go above $3 million/year." Its not a lot of money.
relative to football i mean
that’s where the arms race is for boosters at bama or lsu
perhaps ironically this has also been true at kentucky in the NIL era, because cal couldn’t get along with them
They can fund football and also have $3 million - $5 million/year basketball payrolls.
Well, they better get ready for 3 or 4 more. This is a very underwhelming hire for Kentucky.
Made the tourney twice in his career and lost as a 6th seed both times. The definition of meh.....
He left both Utah Valley & BYU much better than what he inherited.
He was obviously doing something right at BYU. I thought the move to the Big 12 would be a Trainwreck. A 10-8 conference mark was very respectable, imo. Jamie Dixon is entering year 9 and still hasn't been above.500 in league play.
We'll see how it plays out, but I wouldn't bet against him. He's really bright, charismatic, and hard-working. Regardless, it's good to finally turn the page on Cal. Other than the glimpsew of individual talent, UK basketball has been largely unwatchable since 2020.
And were being run out of the gym by Duquesne until a late rally. To Pope's credit, I didnt think BYU had much talent. We had better players. Duquesne had better players. But they went 7-2 at home in the Big 12 and beat SDSU at home and also a depleted KU team on the road and that's all it takes to get a really good seed out of the B12.
Number of wins per year over the 10 years prior to him taking over BYU - 19, 24, 22, 26, 25, 23, 24, 26, 32, 30. It's not like they were in bad shape. Wins since he got there 24, 20, 24, 19, 23(B12). He maintained status quo.
Underwhelming hire for a program the caliber of Kentucky. There can't be many in their fanbase happy about this.
If we had an opening this year and we hired Mark Pope, I'd give it a B or B- grade. He maintained status quo at BYU and his team looked like they didnt belong on the same court as Duquesne. For Kentucky, this is a D hire.
Of course not. Not happy at all. However, I think most are happy to get rid of Cal without paying a cent. That's practically manna from heaven. It somewhat helps that he's actually a former Wildcat with a ring.
Not sure what the next 4 years will bring, but surely Pope can do better than 60-46 with 1 NCAA tourney win to show for it. They have only have one win in the SEC tourney in the last 4 years, a quarterfinal win over Vanderbilt.
The Cal - UK marriage turned sour years ago. It's been downright toxic since the loss to St. Peters This was a divorce that needed to happen. I think the expectations were wearing on Cal. I think the change of scenery will be good for him too. He's still going to bring in tons of talent.
The worst that can happen is UK is looking for another coach in 3 or 4 years. Regardless, this was a necessary change and saves a shitload of money.
Michigan did similar when they hired Howard to replace Beilein. That didn't work and they replaced Howard with a very workmanlike, non-splashy hire. It's the trend.
What? There were 15,000 people there for a Spring Sunday afternoon press conference.
Whether you like Pope or not, you are going to the pep rally. Its Kentucky. They arent going to "boycott." They'll complain on social media but still go to the games and pep rallies.
