Time to say it

[WeWant9]

I know Pope gets year 3, but I really hope Barnhart retires this summer. Honestly, if he is back for another year then I truly question what the overall goals are of UK athletics.

I do not have much faith that Pope is the guy for this job, or that he has enough runway to try and figure it out. The program is falling behind in ways I didn't think were possible for UK basketball (granted that's not all on Pope). If I was Pope, I'd do whatever I could to land Stokes. If this season ends as its going, there would be zero momentum, zero recruits, and zero excitement heading into the offseason. That's a death sentence for any coach.

[ganner918]

I was.... shocked at the hire and just thinking "wow, he's gonna have to prove it to me, I can't believe we're having to take such a risk like this." I was actually encouraged after year one, seeing us beat a lot of good teams and persist through adversity. I figured if he'd been able to put that team together that quickly starting from zero, surely he'd get better talent (and have better injury luck) in the future and that he was on his way to proving himself... "Jimmies and Joes" can go a long way to making a coach look better and we just didn't get them and certainly aren't getting them out of high school next year. Meanwhile the coaching deficiencies are getting highlighted more and more.

[bthaunert]

Fact is...it was a terrible hire when it was made and it's still a terrible hire. Mark Pope was probably the 30th - 40th most qualified person for the job. And we went after him as the #3 candidate. Dude would have crawled to Lexington if he was the 107th candidate. There was no need to panic and move to him so quickly.

Pope hasn't finished in the top 4 of his conference the last 4 years, soon to be 5 at the end of this year. You're telling me, we hired a guy that struggled in the WCC and Big 12 (26-23 in conference) the 3 seasons prior to UK and thought he would magically become better because he came to Kentucky? We hired a guy who left 2 programs (Utah Valley & BYU) where they got better after he left and we thought he would be good at UK?

I said it during the search and I will say it again. Once your top 2 candidates (one of the top 2 was meh anyways) turned you down, you should have immediately turned to Kelvin Sampson. Would he have been short term hire? yes. Would he have had a lot better chance building the program up to where it needs to be prior to turning it over to someone else? absolutely. He is the best coach in college basketball not named Danny Hurley.

So, we know Pope is here next year and I get that we aren't going to fire him after 2 years. Joker got 3 years and Pope will get 3 years. But where do we go next? Tommy Lloyd? TJ Otzelberger? Maybe a guy like Josh Schertz? Number 3 might be a stretch but I'm not sure what the answer is. That scares the hell out of me with Mitch. I think Mitch has done some great things with the athletic department in his years here. But, he's also screwed up a lot lately with contracts and hires. He needs to retire, they need to turn it over to someone like Cam Walker from Utah State, who did some great things at UT as Deputy AD. The dude is brilliant and has the pulse of the new world of college athletics big time.

Anyways, I'm just frustrated. I hated the hire the moment it happened, got swept up by nostalgia with the introductory press conference and have come to realize it's just not going to work. What cannot happen is he makes a Sweet 16 run next year (which adds an additional year to his contract thanks to Mitch) and people be satisfied with that.

[ganner918]

GOOD coaches find a way to make adjustments to play to the strengths of the hand they've been dealt due to injuries. For the last two years, Pope has not made the correct adjustments. So what does that make him?

Last year I think he achieved about as much as he could have after all the injuries. We managed to play through a point center a lot of the time and were winning games against good teams with a heavily depleted roster when ALL our point guard options were sitting out hurt.

The bigger problems aren't in adjustment to injuries - it's the slow starts last year and this year, the failure to show up and compete and getting beaten by teams we should expect to win against, the substitution patterns that by now he should have enough data collected to know aren't working, the persistent defensive struggles, the inability to recruit out of high school, the lack of closing on top portal targets, and the failure this year to assemble a roster that fits the system he wants to run (and after a year where injuries hurt us bad only having ONE point guard who'd already had injuries in his past).

[***St.Patterson-54***]

GOOD coaches find a way to make adjustments to play to the strengths of the hand they've been dealt due to injuries. For the last two years, Pope has not made the correct adjustments. So what does that make him?

[Matt Dillon]

It was a little easier for the football stadium to be empty for an outside game against Vandy where it was really cold and raining. It's tougher to keep people away from nice, warm, dry Rupp arena.

That's true and, for the record, I wasn't advocating anything. I haven't been to a game of any kind in decades so I wouldn't be boycotting anything anyway.

[Pete Hogwallop]

In my opinion, you nailed it with this statement "If Rupp is empty, the powers that be will notice". If enough fans quit attending the games I believe that would do it. That's what got Joker sent packing.

It was a little easier for the football stadium to be empty for an outside game against Vandy where it was really cold and raining. It's tougher to keep people away from nice, warm, dry Rupp arena.

[Matt Dillon]

That is the problem. As long as the rich donors are happy, then Barnhart is going nowhere.

So I guess the average fan really has no say in who runs the program.

I guess we have to sit here and take it.

Anyone else have any suggestions, or are we just stuck here complaining to each other about all of this?

They say we ran Cal out of town, but we really didn’t. He chose to leave, right? We really have no power as a fanbase. The greatest fanbase in college bball and we are pretty much powerless.

In my opinion, you nailed it with this statement "If Rupp is empty, the powers that be will notice". If enough fans quit attending the games I believe that would do it. That's what got Joker sent packing.

[bucsrule8872]

I agree about getting into their pocketbook. I wonder how much NIL money comes from the avg. fan as opposed to deep pocketed donors and big companies?

That is the problem. As long as the rich donors are happy, then Barnhart is going nowhere.

So I guess the average fan really has no say in who runs the program.

I guess we have to sit here and take it.

Anyone else have any suggestions, or are we just stuck here complaining to each other about all of this?

They say we ran Cal out of town, but we really didn’t. He chose to leave, right? We really have no power as a fanbase. The greatest fanbase in college bball and we are pretty much powerless.

[Pete Hogwallop]

I agree about getting into their pocketbook. I wonder how much NIL money comes from the avg. fan as opposed to deep pocketed donors and big companies?

None of it comes from me, so I don't care about the fake rumoured amounts.

[largebluej]

I agree about getting into their pocketbook. I wonder how much NIL money comes from the avg. fan as opposed to deep pocketed donors and big companies?

I'd speculate a tiny % of NIL comes from the average fan. Like less than 10%. More likely less than 5%.

[Matt Dillon]

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Well, give them a cookie & send them to bed early. I mean, they aren't going ashore on D-Day, they're playing a game.

While not going ashore on any D-Day, I would imagine playing a lot of minutes in a college bb game would be very demanding.

[Matt Dillon]

All I can say is that no one is happy with this season or the direction of the program right now, but it is what it is.

Until we can figure out how, as fans, we can get rid of the powers that be, we really have no way to retaliate except to not buy merchandise, not buy tickets, not watch games on tv/streaming and not donate to NIL. That is pretty much the only way we can “vote” anyone out at UK. If Rupp is empty, the powers that be will notice. Our ratings go down, the powers that he will notice. If NIL money decreases, the powers that be will notice. Until you get into their pocket book, no one is going to do anything.

But it’s Barnhart that needs to go first. As long as he is in charge, I fear the same mistakes will be made. Even if Pope realizes he is in over his head and steps
down, can we trust Barnhart to find the right man for the job? I have my doubts.

I agree about getting into their pocketbook. I wonder how much NIL money comes from the avg. fan as opposed to deep pocketed donors and big companies?

[bucsrule8872]

All I can say is that no one is happy with this season or the direction of the program right now, but it is what it is.

Until we can figure out how, as fans, we can get rid of the powers that be, we really have no way to retaliate except to not buy merchandise, not buy tickets, not watch games on tv/streaming and not donate to NIL. That is pretty much the only way we can “vote” anyone out at UK. If Rupp is empty, the powers that be will notice. Our ratings go down, the powers that he will notice. If NIL money decreases, the powers that be will notice. Until you get into their pocket book, no one is going to do anything.

But it’s Barnhart that needs to go first. As long as he is in charge, I fear the same mistakes will be made. Even if Pope realizes he is in over his head and steps
down, can we trust Barnhart to find the right man for the job? I have my doubts.

[Spica Orbit]

Another problem, compounded by the injuries that you rarely hear mentioned, is the fatigue factor. When you have to go to your bench to replace injured starters then when the replacements get tired there's not much, if any, relief on the bench for them.

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Well, give them a cookie & send them to bed early. I mean, they aren't going ashore on D-Day, they're playing a game.