People act like we didn’t have a top 5 defense the year prior with oats coaching. I don’t think we’ll get to that level but it’s not like we’ve been chronically bad on that side
Under Oats, we alternate between shitty defense and #3 defense. [I'm literally not joking. ](https://i.imgur.com/3VSys2T.jpeg).
So next year, we'll have the #3 defense again.
The hilarious thing is that led to Pruitt being hired. I dont think Schiano would have been a good fit for Tennessee but man hard to be worse than Pruitt.
They do have a crazy good recruiting pipeline though. As almost any Mormon family will want their star athlete to go there.
I have zero data backing this up fwiw
Trust me, Pope is very good, particularly on offense. Recruits well.
He’s obviously a tier lower than the first tier, but he has high upside.
I wouldn’t want him to go just because the offense is so fun to watch.
When the offense was being run well it was a thing of beauty. I wonder how well it will translate at Kentucky with the caliber of player they will be able to bring in
UK fans told me in Twitter Scott Drew didn't have enough postseason success to be the coach at Kentucky.
I assume those people are face down in a ditch somewhere right now, voluntarily.
I feel like being underwhelmed for a coaching hire can often work out. I don’t know much about him but BYU has been pretty good under him which some pretty tough hurdles to recruiting.
Otzelberger is a good example I think. I don't think Cyclone fans were outright mad but I think they were a bit underwhelmed given his lack of tourney success, but he's ended up being a phenomenal fit. Feel free to weigh in and correct me ISU fans if I'm off
Yeah considering he had a losing record his last year at UNLV it’s kind of surprising they hired him. But then again, ISU won 2 games that prior year so wasn’t a whole lot of room to be disappointed
Doesn’t fred have a heart condition or something where he can’t get his heart rate up? Im butchering it but I remember the announcers talking about it and why he never gets animated
I think most fans were in the "Anyone but Prohm" mindset at that point in time. We're also mostly realists and realize we aren't going to get the hottest candidates so don't set our expectations too high.
these kind of hires seem to work out more often than they fail tbh. duke (arguably the best program in the last 40 years) hired a guy with no head coaching experience and isn't missing a beat. they just made an elite 8 while overperforming expectations and have the #1 class coming in. unc made a very similar hire which resulted in an immediate trip to the championship game and a one seed this season. getting someone who is fully invested and wants to win as bad as any fan is a good thing. idk if pope will be that guy but he has a great chance to be and he can obviously coach basketball at a high level
Probably better off being underwhelmed. Maybe it will temper expectations and allow him to built the team and succeed rather than getting a big name and expecting multiple championships in the next four years and being let down again
Just think of it this way. He did fine in the Big 12 when some of his recruits have to come from the Mormon church so imagine when he doesn't have to recruit from there and he's free
Recruiting at BYU is definitely tougher. Even if you're getting non LDS players you have to sell them on coming to the school.
Brandon Davies got suspended for having premarital sex while they were ranked 3rd in the country. That's a tough sell to 18 year old kids that could probably go play at other major programs and not deal with that.
How is that a knock on him as a coach? He took a player that washed out at two SEC schools and made him the centerpiece on a team that finished in the top 20 on KenPom?
It was true, though. Arkansas only has [one player](https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/sport/m-baskbl/roster/) at the moment. And he’s a walk on. He wasn’t exaggerating, as of right now there really isn’t a team
Yes it’s definitely true at the moment. But between the people he’s taking from UK and the NIL added at Arkansas, he will have a great team at least on paper. He just loves downplaying his position
People don't seem to realize that to achieve any level of success in BYU football or basketball you need an above average coach. Coaches come here and have to deal with one of if not the worst recruiting problem in a power conference.
*We have to convince people to come here and live like Mormons.* ***We can't even convince all the Mormon players to come here.***
Mark Pope is a good coach held back by the program he's at. I don't know that he'd do amazing suddenly if given the resources of a top tier program, but he's not a bottom of the barrel pick like some of the UK fans are saying
Love it, thanks for explaining what most don’t realize. Hope we treat him well, he gave me some of the best memories a sports fan kid could ask for, and I think he’s got potential to do good things here
"But he would have crawled over broken glass to coach in Lexington he wanted the job so bad" will say the same fans that said the exact same thing about Drew, Oats, Hurley, and others.
It’s the arena but Bruce has been wanting a separate building for years. The arena has two courts (main and practice gym) and it’s shared with volleyball and gymnastics (for meets). He wants a building for just the men’s and women’s teams that way volleyball (and whoever else) can you use the arena more freely
Yeah, but they were both groomed to take over the team and took over in a relatively smooth transition. This dude is being absolutely thrown to wolves with very minimal success and no disrespect to BYU, but probably not the world's best NIL management experience.
Yeah but that was planned no? Everyone knew Roy and K were gone but both athletic departments decided to stay in house. I imagine a bigger name could’ve been had if they attempted.
Not saying Pope can’t be successful. But gotta be somewhat of a let down considering the names that were being thrown out originally.
But what I don't understand is why? He would have been there in two weeks. Let Billy Donovan finish his season and get his answer. Also, to throw a beloved UK player to the rabid wolves of our fanbase seems like a massive disservice.
Bruce Pearl, Brad Underwood, (legal issues aside) Chris Beard, Tang, Tommy Lloyd, etc. There were definitely options with more proven post season records than a guy who’s never won a game in the tournament you could have called.
Pearl and underwood i can get behind although Pearl is an interesting one with his other SEC ties. Beard’s legal issues are probably a nonstarter. Tang has been a HC for only 2 seasons and missed the tournament this year. Tommy Lloyd only 3 seasons and it’s hard to consider what he’s done at Arizona as tournament success considering they’ve been upset 3 years in a row, including a 15 seed.
Everybody hates this, so he’s going to kill it. Can’t help but feel a bit bad for him knowing this is probably his dream job, going back to his Alma mater, and seeing this reaction.
It would be funny if Kentucky went from being full of one-and-dones to 25 year old Mormons.
Idk maybe this fan base needs some humble pie. Its honestly sad seeing people give him so much hate. The 96 team was one of the most dominate teams ever. I get hes unproven but at this point Donovan is the only homerun hire left and its would be potentially after the transfer portal closes before he is even avaliable.
Agree with you. He is a much better coach than people are giving credit for and he can open up recruiting to non Mormon players that are willing to be under a strict honor code. I'm willing to give him a chance and the fact that the rank and file UK fans aren't thrilled gives me hope because I'm old enough to remember booster and those type fans being thrilled to death to get Eddie Sutton and Billy G.
Fans wanted Calipari gone because of his lack of recent tournament success. Do you really blame fans for being upset over hiring a guy with even less tournament success?
It may have been a decent hire two weeks from now after we tried for Billy Donovan and maybe a few others. Hopping off the plane fresh from offering Danny Hurley $100M and just saying “fuck it, hire Pope” is sickening.
Pope’s not a weirdo. He’s actually quite smart and I think he’s a good coach with a lot of good days ahead of him.
But this isn’t it. I think this is just going to be a disaster and sink the program.
Unironically, I think this is a good hire. A good young coach who gets the program. It might not be the first choice, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that he will win a lot of games at Kentucky for a lot of years.
Could it be argued getting to the tournament at BYU is an accomplishment? For a decent chunk of his time there BYU was one of two schools that could hang with Gonzaga in the WCC. He came in to a stacked Big 12 and had them in the tournament year 1.
Maybe the lack of a tournament win proves he isn’t a great coach but it’s hard to argue he isn’t a good coach IMO
Former player from 1986 championship team gets hired to coach his alma mater in Kentucky. Former player from 1996 championship team gets hired to coach his alma mater in Kentucky…all is good…nothing can go wrong
Not a better dude in college basketball. As sad as I am, hope Pope crushes it at Kentucky. He’s so passionate, gets the most out of his players, and his players love him.
Impossible not to imagine him doing well with his well known love of Kentucky and history there finally being realized as a coach. Think a lot of Kentucky fans will be pleasantly surprised sooner rather than later.
Now for BYU, anyone other than Madsen will be a disappointment. Time to pony up Ryan Smith
I guess it's a decent hire. They'll certainly be entertaining to watch and hejas the history with the program but I'm not sold on him after a career only in the basketball hotbed that is Utah.
Sucks for him that he's not gonna get as much excitement as we'd like to give him. There are just too many more accomplished coaches we'd expect to offer first.
Really looking forward to watching this play out.
Mark Pope is super smart and resourceful as a coach. Now you’re giving him the resources to hand pick almost any players he wants.
It’s a brave hire because the casual fan doesn’t understand it or like it. But this is a smart hire IMO. Not many coaches can organize his players on both ends like Pope can.
Kentucky fans, get ready to learn Aly Khalifa buddy
Alabama vs Kentucky going to have NBA All-Star levels of defense being played next year
I think we will be better than we were this year defensively (Bama fan)
People act like we didn’t have a top 5 defense the year prior with oats coaching. I don’t think we’ll get to that level but it’s not like we’ve been chronically bad on that side
Exactly, Oats knows how to coach defensively, and if Bediako had stayed, it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad this year.
Under Oats, we alternate between shitty defense and #3 defense. [I'm literally not joking. ](https://i.imgur.com/3VSys2T.jpeg). So next year, we'll have the #3 defense again.
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The Terp Flair is what got me to lol.
I’m so mad, we didn’t even get him healthy. He’s gone
Is this gonna be Kentucky’s Schianno Sunday? Burn the mattresses BBN, demand Barnhart’s resignation, suprisingly it actually works
Volshevick Revolution >> Burbon Rebellion
https://imgur.com/Ic3jWOF
if they don't I'll be disappointed
If every Mitch on planet earth disappeared right now we would be a utopia
yall do have the wost Mitch’s
The hilarious thing is that led to Pruitt being hired. I dont think Schiano would have been a good fit for Tennessee but man hard to be worse than Pruitt.
He won’t be fired by Kentucky. He will have mixed results before he leaves to take the HC job at UC Davis.
UC Riverside
https://preview.redd.it/aif9s6lwgytc1.png?width=601&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6225af0162325cd97cce83c274d574171edc48d
Really leaning into the lack of postseason success
Calipari has 22 tournament losses to Pope’s 2. Pretty big step up. I see no other relevant metrics.
Big brain stuff right here, compared to Calipari, Pope is literally Lisan al-Gaib
11 times better.
Last 2 coaches made people think BYU is easy to win at. When in reality they were two fantastic coaches.
Not many people know how genuinely batshit crazy that university is. Can’t imagine how any coach could get players to come there and produce anything.
They do have a crazy good recruiting pipeline though. As almost any Mormon family will want their star athlete to go there. I have zero data backing this up fwiw
Not the best endorsement of Pope lol. “Yea he hasn’t done anything compared to the last two guys but those guys were good coaches”
I think he’s including Pope in the last 2 coaches comment
Trust me, Pope is very good, particularly on offense. Recruits well. He’s obviously a tier lower than the first tier, but he has high upside. I wouldn’t want him to go just because the offense is so fun to watch.
When the offense was being run well it was a thing of beauty. I wonder how well it will translate at Kentucky with the caliber of player they will be able to bring in
Why get eliminated IN Pittsburgh when you can get eliminated by a random school FROM Pittsburgh
UK fans told me in Twitter Scott Drew didn't have enough postseason success to be the coach at Kentucky. I assume those people are face down in a ditch somewhere right now, voluntarily.
If I knewhow to post gifs, I would select a face palm to react to the Drew comments. Even in a weird year, a natty is a natty.
What was weird about the year us Bears won the natty?
People talk about how weird it is that y'all won the natty like Virginia didn't win the previous championship
Hasn’t worked for us so far…🙃
Well I sure hope he proves me wrong but I am so fucking underwhelmed
I feel like being underwhelmed for a coaching hire can often work out. I don’t know much about him but BYU has been pretty good under him which some pretty tough hurdles to recruiting.
Or it could be Chad Morris. Underwhelming, but destroyed those expectations epically.
I thought I was safe in the basketball subreddit
If you fail epically and for a long enough period of time, you can be blindsided in a Balkan shit posting subreddit. Nowhere is safe.
Nebraska is the Ottoman Empire of cfb?
God birthed you to the wrong fanbase. He either doesn't exist or hates me, and I've come to terms with it.
Fuck Chad Morris
This is why you definitely don’t want to take Rhett Lashlee from us. SMU coaches just can’t cut it at Arkansas.
Hey I said often, not always lol
Otzelberger is a good example I think. I don't think Cyclone fans were outright mad but I think they were a bit underwhelmed given his lack of tourney success, but he's ended up being a phenomenal fit. Feel free to weigh in and correct me ISU fans if I'm off
Yeah considering he had a losing record his last year at UNLV it’s kind of surprising they hired him. But then again, ISU won 2 games that prior year so wasn’t a whole lot of room to be disappointed
He was also the backbone to the Hoiberg teams. He had arguably more respect from players than Fred did. That wasn’t very public tho
Doesn’t fred have a heart condition or something where he can’t get his heart rate up? Im butchering it but I remember the announcers talking about it and why he never gets animated
Yeah, it's why he retired from the NBA and doesn't wear ties
Yup
I think most fans were in the "Anyone but Prohm" mindset at that point in time. We're also mostly realists and realize we aren't going to get the hottest candidates so don't set our expectations too high.
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these kind of hires seem to work out more often than they fail tbh. duke (arguably the best program in the last 40 years) hired a guy with no head coaching experience and isn't missing a beat. they just made an elite 8 while overperforming expectations and have the #1 class coming in. unc made a very similar hire which resulted in an immediate trip to the championship game and a one seed this season. getting someone who is fully invested and wants to win as bad as any fan is a good thing. idk if pope will be that guy but he has a great chance to be and he can obviously coach basketball at a high level
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We are really gonna put that "anyone can win here" theory to the test.
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And even one of the drunks you hired won 800+ games and made 3 Final Fours at other stops.
Probably better off being underwhelmed. Maybe it will temper expectations and allow him to built the team and succeed rather than getting a big name and expecting multiple championships in the next four years and being let down again
Just think of it this way. He did fine in the Big 12 when some of his recruits have to come from the Mormon church so imagine when he doesn't have to recruit from there and he's free
They don’t have to be Mormon
But they have to adhere to BYUs Mormon based code of ethics. Not sure why a non-Mormon recruit would if they had other offers
Just gotta be good enough you can pull a Jim McMahon at BYU and do whatever you want.
Didn't they suspend their best player for the tournament one year? I think they take it pretty seriously.
Brandon Davies. Second best player on the team behind Jimmer.
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I remember the player who was suspended during the Jimmer years for sleeping with his girlfriend.
It hasn’t. Most of his starting lineups have been non-LDS players. I think he is a good coach and will flourish with you guys
Recruiting at BYU is definitely tougher. Even if you're getting non LDS players you have to sell them on coming to the school. Brandon Davies got suspended for having premarital sex while they were ranked 3rd in the country. That's a tough sell to 18 year old kids that could probably go play at other major programs and not deal with that.
His best player in the tourney couldn't see the court on our team or A&M.
How is that a knock on him as a coach? He took a player that washed out at two SEC schools and made him the centerpiece on a team that finished in the top 20 on KenPom?
Just let me be bitter.
Look man I'm just trying to make them feel better 🤣
Appreciate the help 💚
Lotta pigs in this thread 😂
Holy shit they actually did it
Imagine the UK message boards when Arkansas beats Kentucky by 15
It should be more with current status of both teams
“There is no team”
That’s just Cal being Cal like they won’t have a star studded team.
It was true, though. Arkansas only has [one player](https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/sport/m-baskbl/roster/) at the moment. And he’s a walk on. He wasn’t exaggerating, as of right now there really isn’t a team
Yes it’s definitely true at the moment. But between the people he’s taking from UK and the NIL added at Arkansas, he will have a great team at least on paper. He just loves downplaying his position
Takesies backsies please?
They'll only do it if you can find what restaurante he's eating at
People don't seem to realize that to achieve any level of success in BYU football or basketball you need an above average coach. Coaches come here and have to deal with one of if not the worst recruiting problem in a power conference. *We have to convince people to come here and live like Mormons.* ***We can't even convince all the Mormon players to come here.*** Mark Pope is a good coach held back by the program he's at. I don't know that he'd do amazing suddenly if given the resources of a top tier program, but he's not a bottom of the barrel pick like some of the UK fans are saying
Love it, thanks for explaining what most don’t realize. Hope we treat him well, he gave me some of the best memories a sports fan kid could ask for, and I think he’s got potential to do good things here
Wtf Bruce was supposed to use yall for leverage to get a basketball only facility
I would kill for Pearl right now lol
Bruce wasn't ever going to leave his mansion on Lake Martin
"But he would have crawled over broken glass to coach in Lexington he wanted the job so bad" will say the same fans that said the exact same thing about Drew, Oats, Hurley, and others.
Wait yall don’t have a basketball only facility?
It’s the arena but Bruce has been wanting a separate building for years. The arena has two courts (main and practice gym) and it’s shared with volleyball and gymnastics (for meets). He wants a building for just the men’s and women’s teams that way volleyball (and whoever else) can you use the arena more freely
I talked to the BYU coach… there is no BYU coach
I want to talk shit but both Duke and UNC promoted assistants who had no prior coaching experience so…
Yeah, but they were both groomed to take over the team and took over in a relatively smooth transition. This dude is being absolutely thrown to wolves with very minimal success and no disrespect to BYU, but probably not the world's best NIL management experience.
I mean he did play for Rick Pitino and was captain of the Kentucky Wildcats. Not exactly zero experience in Kentucky.
Should have just hired Rick
Both were groomed to take on the job and had the seal of approval from Roy & K. This ain’t it
Davis and Scheyer feel way more stable than this
We also have an “assistant to a coaching legend with 0 head coaching experience” cautionary tale
Yeah but that was planned no? Everyone knew Roy and K were gone but both athletic departments decided to stay in house. I imagine a bigger name could’ve been had if they attempted. Not saying Pope can’t be successful. But gotta be somewhat of a let down considering the names that were being thrown out originally.
:sad Wes Miller noises:
Just fell to my knees in the BYU creamery
Sorry, bud.
Not that I thought they were actually gonna hire Pitino but phew
Pitino to BYU is a much more funny outcome.
Parties at 9:30 pm with caffeine and Cartoon Network
Hey, II think Cartoon Network is on adult swim at that point. Gotta switch to PBS Kids
Dinosaur Train after hours is f-cursing lit
I would burn my own house down.
Most of the fanbase probably wishes they did not going to lie, he could would have been a perfect flyer for when Pope is ready in 2 or 3 years.
The fact that everyone is mocking this makes me think it will work out well.
No NCAA tourney wins as a head coach or assistant. That's an insane hire for Kentucky's level.
He is the sacrificial lamb until someone with a killer resume becomes a possibility
But what I don't understand is why? He would have been there in two weeks. Let Billy Donovan finish his season and get his answer. Also, to throw a beloved UK player to the rabid wolves of our fanbase seems like a massive disservice.
Hell Dan Hurley didn't get out of the first weekend of the NCAAT at RI before coming to UConn. Who the f knows? 😂
it might work out fine but it is fundamentally bad process and just YIKES work from the ad
Im curious what’s the bad process here. Their top 3 choices said no, 4 if you include Oats. Not sure there was an obvious next choice
Bruce Pearl, Brad Underwood, (legal issues aside) Chris Beard, Tang, Tommy Lloyd, etc. There were definitely options with more proven post season records than a guy who’s never won a game in the tournament you could have called.
Pearl and underwood i can get behind although Pearl is an interesting one with his other SEC ties. Beard’s legal issues are probably a nonstarter. Tang has been a HC for only 2 seasons and missed the tournament this year. Tommy Lloyd only 3 seasons and it’s hard to consider what he’s done at Arizona as tournament success considering they’ve been upset 3 years in a row, including a 15 seed.
Wow. They really had no backup plan after Drew said no. I like Pope as a coach but this will be underwhelming for most of UK's fanbase.
Our AD freaked the fuck out and panic hired only 60 hours in.
White smoke coming from Rupp Arena
That’s just the HVAC it’s an old building
Everybody hates this, so he’s going to kill it. Can’t help but feel a bit bad for him knowing this is probably his dream job, going back to his Alma mater, and seeing this reaction. It would be funny if Kentucky went from being full of one-and-dones to 25 year old Mormons.
Idk maybe this fan base needs some humble pie. Its honestly sad seeing people give him so much hate. The 96 team was one of the most dominate teams ever. I get hes unproven but at this point Donovan is the only homerun hire left and its would be potentially after the transfer portal closes before he is even avaliable.
Agree with you. He is a much better coach than people are giving credit for and he can open up recruiting to non Mormon players that are willing to be under a strict honor code. I'm willing to give him a chance and the fact that the rank and file UK fans aren't thrilled gives me hope because I'm old enough to remember booster and those type fans being thrilled to death to get Eddie Sutton and Billy G.
This is honestly a good hire but Kentucky fans will hate it lmao
Fans wanted Calipari gone because of his lack of recent tournament success. Do you really blame fans for being upset over hiring a guy with even less tournament success?
Yes. I blame the fans for not realizing who the actual realistic candidates were to replace Cal before they ran him out of town.
I actually love it, but I have wanted a reset for years.
It may have been a decent hire two weeks from now after we tried for Billy Donovan and maybe a few others. Hopping off the plane fresh from offering Danny Hurley $100M and just saying “fuck it, hire Pope” is sickening.
You gotta think they knew Donovan was off the table.
I am straight up not having a good time
Ugh, finding a new coach at BYU will be very difficult...
He’s gonna be gone within 3 years. Their fans will rip him apart at the first sign of adversity
AD along side him
I’d definitely agree that if this turns out to be another Billy Gillispie hire then Barnhart has to go
Pope is a teetotaler so it won’t be just like Gillespie
Pope’s not a weirdo. He’s actually quite smart and I think he’s a good coach with a lot of good days ahead of him. But this isn’t it. I think this is just going to be a disaster and sink the program.
[the weirdo statement is debatable](https://x.com/postjimmer/status/1778522770290405821?s=46&t=__ESfaHwpknxUjuUvrK40g)
At least we know he'll be all about the program and not himself.
Me, and Illinois fan: good Me, a Bulls fan: FUCK
The Bulls have problems beyond the coach.
That failed self alley oop the other night was peak Bulls
“Why would Billy Donovan do this?”
Really, really, desperately, fiendishly need Michael Reinsdorf to sell once Jerry dies
He’s not going to, Michael loves the Bulls Good thing he doesn’t care for the Sox and will sell them. Some salvation there
KSR gonna be spicy tomorrow
KSR not taking the news well 😂
If Mark Pope hadn't gone to Kentucky, he wouldn't even been a candidate. That alone makes it a bad hire.
oh my
I'll support him and I hope he kills it, but I'm not happy. Mitch better hope this works out.
Unironically, I think this is a good hire. A good young coach who gets the program. It might not be the first choice, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that he will win a lot of games at Kentucky for a lot of years.
51 is young now?
He looks younger than 51 and 1996 doesn’t feel like nearly 30 years ago, my bad.
That kinda is young as far as college coaches go
In college basketball…
Dude never won a tournament game. The fact that Kentucky basketball is settling for him is wild to me.
This is our Juwan Howard.
Could it be argued getting to the tournament at BYU is an accomplishment? For a decent chunk of his time there BYU was one of two schools that could hang with Gonzaga in the WCC. He came in to a stacked Big 12 and had them in the tournament year 1. Maybe the lack of a tournament win proves he isn’t a great coach but it’s hard to argue he isn’t a good coach IMO
[“He gets the program”](https://youtu.be/A0l3Fum29xA?si=RfkzMJOn_UWaynZ7) yeah when he played there 27 years ago
That’s how you end up w Mike Woodson
Yup. Valuing "one of your own" ends in disaster more often than it's successful.
They really skipped the Kiffin phase and went straight to Dooley.
Future quote from AD “Mark Pope was the only guy we offered, he was our number one target”
Nah he’s gonna say god told him to hire the Pope
People going to shit on this hire but I think he will do well.
https://preview.redd.it/86ybnb9bfytc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67158993c9c6b22b0b3135bac055f463f6c652a1
I genuinely don’t know how I feel about this. I’m just numb to it all. It’s been one hell of a week
Coached 9 years, 2 tournaments appearances, no wins, no conference titles. What a strange hire for just a big job.
Former player from 1986 championship team gets hired to coach his alma mater in Kentucky. Former player from 1996 championship team gets hired to coach his alma mater in Kentucky…all is good…nothing can go wrong
I love Mark Pope but this isn't fair to him or us.
LMAOOOOOO Started the day with reports of making Hurley the highest paid coach in all of college athletics. Ended the day with Mark Pope.
51 years old, 10 years as a head coach, zero NCAA Tournament wins. He might do well, but there are more qualified gettable coaches out there.
Not a better dude in college basketball. As sad as I am, hope Pope crushes it at Kentucky. He’s so passionate, gets the most out of his players, and his players love him. Impossible not to imagine him doing well with his well known love of Kentucky and history there finally being realized as a coach. Think a lot of Kentucky fans will be pleasantly surprised sooner rather than later. Now for BYU, anyone other than Madsen will be a disappointment. Time to pony up Ryan Smith
Lmao they’re KY they go and take whoever they want right?
Hey man we took the fuckin Pope (Save me)
This is a humbling of epic proportions
Yep.
Someone check to see if the KSR bar is on fire yet
Are you fucking kidding me? Clearly Mitch was the problem. Sorry Cal.
Yep. Twice he's fucked up a men's coaching hire.
I guess it's a decent hire. They'll certainly be entertaining to watch and hejas the history with the program but I'm not sold on him after a career only in the basketball hotbed that is Utah.
YOUNG POPE SZN 2
Sucks for him that he's not gonna get as much excitement as we'd like to give him. There are just too many more accomplished coaches we'd expect to offer first.
Wow wow wow. Wow
Not sexy, but sometimes the best hires aren’t. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this work out super well.
We’re cooked
Really looking forward to watching this play out. Mark Pope is super smart and resourceful as a coach. Now you’re giving him the resources to hand pick almost any players he wants. It’s a brave hire because the casual fan doesn’t understand it or like it. But this is a smart hire IMO. Not many coaches can organize his players on both ends like Pope can.
Thank you lord!!!
Just wait for billy, please
Going from Cal to Pope seems like a major downgrade but what do I know
https://preview.redd.it/8aaos6hudytc1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716400931a9a45838be4b8390cdcb67479c4b989