It looks like Drew to UK - Nope Drew turns down Kentucky - UK scrambles and turns to Mark Pope (BYU)

I woke up feeling similarly. His offense is beyond entertaining and he seems incredibly smart and likable. Just hope he can recruit. I'll never feel that he was proven enough for the offer but I hope he does well despite this.

 

Pitino is a great coach, but he will be 72 before the next basketball season starts. He would have been a three to five year bandaid, not a long-term fix.

 

I agree that when hiring alumni, if your conference or greatest rival wouldn't even sniff the coach your school is hiring, then it's very likely a bad hire. Spurrier had proven himself worthy of a bigger job when Florida hired him by making Duke, yes Duke, a competitive top 25 team annually. If Florida didn't hire Spurrier in 1990, some other big school would have sooner rather than later. Pope? No way in heck does KY even mention his name if he wasn't an alum.

I guess for KY, if Pope can at least match Cal's success level, he'll get a little extra leeway as an alum. If Pope falters, then in 3 or 4 years, the expectations for the next guy will be lowered a bit at the start, and again, KY fans will have a little more patience. But still, this looks like a panic hire, and Pope isn't a guy any other blue blood wouldn't have looked at with his current resume.

 

It’s gonna be very interesting to watch. Pope had maximum roster continuity at BYU. Didn’t depend on the portal. Lots of LDS kids. Usually had experience. Kentucky is the polar opposite. I am curious how he approaches prep recruiting and the portal, which is more where they had issues. Between that the covid year and transfers, it became so much harder to play that many freshmen significant minutes against guys who were 3-4 years older, more experienced, and more physically developed.

 

that's a refreshing take DDC..

 

I was so beat down from the used car salesman BS---that even if we get our ass kicked and I can see progression I will be fine with it. I hope to have more players stay longer than 8 months.

 

Well, if it’s a Pope, UK need not worry about scandalous affairs with women…..

 

Yep. I've read many of your posts on the subject the last few years.

 

also 4 tickets to the KY Derby and the Masters

 

Kentucky will still be good. They're always good. The question is, will they be good enough to satisfy the UK fanbase? In 15 seasons, Calimari took them to 7 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, and 1 National Championship, and that wasn't good enough.

 

UK is seeing mass defections right now. Pope will have to hit the portal fast and hard to end up in the top half of the SEC next season.
I don't know much about the guy but he seems a decent fellow. He'll stitch something together if UK ponies up the NIL dough, but I doubt it'll be a great team right out of the gate.

 

Is the Pope catholic?

 

I absolutely want all of them to leave except Reed. The culture needs to be flushed and I honestly could care less if we lose tons of games if the building and healing process begins.

 

Mark Pope huh? Hmm interesting hire. Lets see how cat fans are responding to this and....

Oh lawd. Hang in there guys. If you can win a Natty after Billy Gillespie Im sure Mark Pope can't do anything that bad.

 

This 100% reeks of being of a similar vein as LSU Ed O/Tom Herman wherein LSU obviously made a panic and even a revenge hire when Tom Herman was yanked out from under them by Texas.

 

One big difference is an alumnus of UF will be extremely well educated. It is very hard to get into UF & the university is very selective as it can be based on the pool of applicants.

UK on the other hand accepts literally 95% of its applicants, where the bar is essentially whether you are smart enough to properly fill out the application. Limiting options to only those who graduated from UK leaves one with the shallowest of pool of talent to choose from…

 

People are underwhelmed by his record but his team was expected to finish at the bottom of the Big 12 and he took them to within one game of finishing 3rd in that league. On the otherhand, his team couldn't beat the teams they were expected to trounce but pulled off some big wins on the road at places like Kansas which are very tough. His teams do play with pace and throw up lots of 3 pointers. He is an alum and supposedly Kentucky is the only place he would go if her were to leave BYU.

 

I'm probably in the minority, but I think this guy can be very successful at UK if (and that's a big IF) the fans give him a chance. It will be fascinating to watch.

 

Would Hubert Davis gotten the north Carolina job if he wasn't a Tarheel?

 

Davis was the heir apparent for the UNC job, and was first assistant to Roy Williams for years before taking over. While Davis had no head coaching experience before taking over, there are examples of a blue blood hiring away another school's heir apparent. Three years ago, Arizona hire Tommy Lloyd, Mark Few's heir at Gonzaga, even though Lloyd had zero head coaching experience. And years before that, Kansas hired the aforementioned Roy Williams from UNC before he had head coaching experience. So to answer the question, being an alum didn't hurt, but Davis was qualified, and would've been hired even if he wasn't.