Coaches

[bthaunert]

Good move by LSU

It's such an insane time in college sports. LSU terminates the guy because he's on an FBI wiretap committing major sanctions (at the time) and then a year later has other allegations. And 6 years later, he's back...what a time to be alive!

[Cawood86]

Good move by LSU

[EKYCat]

what does everybody think about Will Wade leaving NC State and going back to LSU

Whatever Will got in trouble for is now legal. I think he's a little scuzzy though!

[Pete Hogwallop]

what does everybody think about Will Wade leaving NC State and going back to LSU

It's shady. It was probably the plan all along is my guess. I don't think LSU is aspiring to be the model for high ethical standards, though.

[TrueblueCATfan]

what does everybody think about Will Wade leaving NC State and going back to LSU

[UKHoops01]

I love BBN. I do not think there are many fanbases that can compare to us. When we are rolling, we are rolling and taking everything over. If you've ever been to the SECT or big NCAAT game, it truly is a sea of blue. With that said, I do not think this past season was one of our finer moments. Not blaming anyone, just think the fanbase is antsy as we haven't won anything of worth in awhile; the last FF and title seem further and further away. Heck even winning the SEC has been bleak.

I think the media just looks down on the state of KY and looks at BBN as a bunch of low class hicks. Anything we do is taken out of context. I will be patiently waiting for Wilbon, and the rest of the media, to throw a fit that UNC is firing Davis- a guy who went to a title game and had won around 70% of his games. We all know that won't happen, but shows you the double standards. One of the reasons I don't bother with sports media, rather talk with people on boards.

I love our fanbase as well, even though I'm not naive enough to not recognize that we have our flaws. However, I think they're blown way out of proportion. There's definitely a glass half empty/glass half full dichotomy to the BBN fanbase. One section of our fanbase never seems to be satisfied, is loud and vocal, and gets the ire of the media and opposing fanbases (and some in our own). That's the part that people publicly like to scorn. But then there's the cheerleader portion that doesn't think critically and doesn't have a negative thing to say and is all 'rah, rah, rah'. Truth be told, I always appreciate the mix of the two...kind of balances each other out, since the truth is often somewhere in the middle.

[WeWant9]

I love BBN. I do not think there are many fanbases that can compare to us. When we are rolling, we are rolling and taking everything over. If you've ever been to the SECT or big NCAAT game, it truly is a sea of blue. With that said, I do not think this past season was one of our finer moments. Not blaming anyone, just think the fanbase is antsy as we haven't won anything of worth in awhile; the last FF and title seem further and further away. Heck even winning the SEC has been bleak.

I think the media just looks down on the state of KY and looks at BBN as a bunch of low class hicks. Anything we do is taken out of context. I will be patiently waiting for Wilbon, and the rest of the media, to throw a fit that UNC is firing Davis- a guy who went to a title game and had won around 70% of his games. We all know that won't happen, but shows you the double standards. One of the reasons I don't bother with sports media, rather talk with people on boards.

[Pete Hogwallop]

I think our fans get a bad reputation. Wilbon was evidently railing on us the other day talking about how we fire coaches. We've fired 2 coaches in 50 years. One was for cheating and the other was an alcoholic madman (great hire Mitch). Some of our fanbase is delusional. Some of any fanbase is delusional. But let's compare what we've seen over the last several years to some of the football schools. 22-14 this year would be like Ohio State or Alabama going 7-5. How long do those coaches stay around? Ohio State fans (I work with plenty of them) were ready to run Ryan Day out of town when he lost 1 game to Michigan. He won the title that year. If DeBoer loses 4 games again this year he's gone. Double digit losses don't cut it here. And they especially don't cut it when some of those losses are total blowouts where we aren't even in the game (Gonzaga, Michigan State, Ohio State). The majority of our fans are rational. We don't expect a final four or a national title every year. But, we do expect to have a fighting chance. At least be in the conversation. And right now, we're not an afterthought.

Actually, I think our points are closely related. Yes - a bunch of UK fans are delusional and irrational (some of them are fake fans, too, that are stoking the fire), however fans and just people in general these days want to complain about everything. At the first sign of difficulty, someone needs to be fired because they are "trash". It's depressing to think too much about.

[EKYCat]

Nice post! Yes-I feel the "fans" and today's rampant complainer culture are significantly to blame. It gives the impression that things are much, much worse than they are and then others pile on in a mob mentality. And they are not accountable to those off base opinions.

I think our fans get a bad reputation. Wilbon was evidently railing on us the other day talking about how we fire coaches. We've fired 2 coaches in 50 years. One was for cheating and the other was an alcoholic madman (great hire Mitch). Some of our fanbase is delusional. Some of any fanbase is delusional. But let's compare what we've seen over the last several years to some of the football schools. 22-14 this year would be like Ohio State or Alabama going 7-5. How long do those coaches stay around? Ohio State fans (I work with plenty of them) were ready to run Ryan Day out of town when he lost 1 game to Michigan. He won the title that year. If DeBoer loses 4 games again this year he's gone. Double digit losses don't cut it here. And they especially don't cut it when some of those losses are total blowouts where we aren't even in the game (Gonzaga, Michigan State, Ohio State). The majority of our fans are rational. We don't expect a final four or a national title every year. But, we do expect to have a fighting chance. At least be in the conversation. And right now, we're not an afterthought.

[Pete Hogwallop]

Nice post! Yes-I feel the "fans" and today's rampant complainer culture are significantly to blame. It gives the impression that things are much, much worse than they are and then others pile on in a mob mentality. And they are not accountable to those off base opinions.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Pope is going to get another year whether we like it or not.

A. He either learns from all this and get his house in order and excels or
B. He's finding a realtor about this time next year....

Many have short comings and Pope is no different, I think he is smart enough to learn from this and a lot of the blah blah blah towards from him the end of the year, I truly believe he just didn't have time to absorb it all and like us, was probably in shock things went the way they did.

Now we get to see how far down he can dig.

I could tell he was lying and sugar coating things for quite a while now, he's just not a good lier. I assume that was bothering him as well keeping his mouth shut trying to hold it all together. One thing for sure, he does know how it is at Kentucky and he knows that stuff won't fly, can't hide from any of it.

Still doesn't make up the wild substitutions and at times a seemingly lack of feel for the game on the sidelines. No excuse for the recruiting unless hopefully they know something we don't.

One thing is for sure, he starts the new season with his back up against the wall.

If it was true Mo was messing with Moreno's woman, or Johnson pouting over PT, or JQ drawing a big check watching everyone else work hard with players talking jealous. The Lowe injured no impact at all, Aberdeen trying to learn a new position on the fly, Garrison pouting because in reality when team was healthy, he was probably the 4th option of the bigs, Then you have Oweh not 100% to start the year, Williams going down when the team was starting to look good, Chandler (a what is he even doing at UK he's not UK material from some) playing big minutes and getting touches, this may have been worse than Team Tubby Carruth days. In all reality, what coach could survive all this?.. Oh and maybe the single most important thing of all, these players are all getting paid and getting paid well, good luck trying to get a young man with a lot of money in his pocket to do something he don't really want to do...

If Pope isn't going to make it, what's another year?? I know many have talked about a lot of up and coming coaches but If I am being honest, personally Im not sure what coach out there right now actually feels right for Kentucky. Nobody really standing out to me. The punk from Florida i wouldn't wizz on him if he's was on fire, Hurley at Uconn is a jerk can't stand him, May aint leaving Michigan, your boy in Alabama actually needs to win something, all bark no bite year in year out.

That leaves the old dudes. Pitino would be my choice but he aint looking for Karen Sypher, he's looking for a woman that can realize the signs of a stroke. Calipari could have retired here became GM lead recruiter ushering in a new coach but I suppose the beef with him and MB ,the boosters and all that finally wore on us all including him, that aint happening. Bruce Pearl, some like him some don't but I respect the energy, dude is animated for sure but still, he aint never won nothing. Donovan was the only choice for me two years into Marshall when Rick left but ,Rick sold him out and recommended Tubby. I suppose Tubby was hired to run a clean ship but also break down that old barrier about Kentucky basketball and people in general, who knows? Still I thought it was a undocumented agreement that if you coach Kentucky then you run and trap like Pitino just like you did in Georgia but Tubby stubborn, just decided he was going to do it his way, whatever..

The unicorn is still Jay Wright but the only way that ever happens is if he gets bored and actually feels sorry for the Kentucky program in general if it keeps going the way it's going.

I finish on this note. Are the UK fans the problem? Are we too hard on every move, every detail, 24/7 365? Sometime I think we are and then you hear players family such as Johnson coming out and airing it all out, same with JQ's dad. Yes it is very easy to say yes you are right maybe we are wrong but then again back to reality, screw all that noise. Those are all just excuses from people who have failed to live up the expectations. I am sure these players didn't mind cashing the checks or enjoying the benefits of playing basketball at Kentucky. Besides, if you can't take pressure at Kentucky, can you take pressure in the NBA where there are 12-14 guys on the same team that can do everything you can do maybe more unless of course you are that one freak basketball player. Now correct me if i am wrong, I didn't see no John Wall, Ad, Cousins, Towns, or a few others on this team. Besides, all that UK FANS ARE CRAZY BS TALK is just what it is, BS TALK. Go see what Yankee fans, Boston Dodger fans, Cowboy Eagles 49ers, Celtics Lakers fans, Bama Georgia Ohio State football, list goes on and one. As matter of fact, you don't even have to level up that far, most storied colleges and franchises, the core fans are all the same, no different than UK fans, we all want to win and expect more, UK is no different... The old I didn't do my job blame it on the fans talk is getting old to be honest...

[Cawood86]

I loved Joe B as a former coach/person around the program. He followed up a legend about as well as you could. I just don't count a guy who was on the UK roster for less than 10 games in his playing career and left midseason as someone who coached at his alma mater like I do all of the other guys listed.

To each his own....Joe B was more than just a few games guy to me

[bthaunert]

Bad take imo....most beloved coach at UK not named Rupp. Kentucky born and bred. He was on the Fab Five team. He left to play. Terrible take

I loved Joe B as a former coach/person around the program. He followed up a legend about as well as you could. I just don't count a guy who was on the UK roster for less than 10 games in his playing career and left midseason as someone who coached at his alma mater like I do all of the other guys listed.

[Cawood86]

I never count Joe B. In his only year at UK, he played 3 games first semester (0 points) and bolted and was playing for Sewanee the second semester the same year. He was actually on a different team when UK won the title in 1949....I never understood why they say he won a title as a player and a coach when he quite as a player.

Bad take imo....most beloved coach at UK not named Rupp. Kentucky born and bred. He was on the Fab Five team. He left to play. Terrible take

[bthaunert]

Joe B Hall did extremely well

I never count Joe B. In his only year at UK, he played 3 games first semester (0 points) and bolted and was playing for Sewanee the second semester the same year. He was actually on a different team when UK won the title in 1949....I never understood why they say he won a title as a player and a coach when he quite as a player.