LSGrayson

@ScoopLexington With NIL, you can build quicker than ever. Don’t give me it takes 2-4 years to build a program. Programs are built in 1-2 years if you have a staff full of evaluators and recruiters -esp considering the resources UK has.UNC didn’t stand for it I see &he took them to ‘chip game

Done with the dumbasses. This offseason I’m officially calling out Kentucky fans bullshit and stupidity. We should have higher expectations here, not satisfaction with being average.

@greeves1969 Next time go for this..

@buchsbaum_86677 @CameronWaddle @mostlysports @clubtrillion Absolutely. Cal against administration, Cal was against the fans, Cal was against winning the big games. You are correct, it was time for him to move on & yes re-energize himself because he had become a grumpy, losing basketball coach at UK. Barnhart sht the bed on Pope true.

@CameronWaddle @mostlysports @clubtrillion Heinsight will always be 2020. After 2024 and the fact that Kentucky lost to a double digit seed twice in a three year span and that they hadn't been to a Final Four since 2015, they made the right decision moving off of Calipari. They just didn't choose the right successor

Revisionist history has completely shifted the views of many people when it comes to the ending of the John Calipari era in Lexington. Here is a clip from @mostlysports a couple years back after we fell to Oakland. It’s a rant from @clubtrillion, a former Ohio State Buckeye basketball player, and a guy who has no affiliation with Kentucky or Calipari. These are his thoughts and it’s truly what the state of the program was at the time. Two total postseason wins since 2020 with him, one in SEC tournament and one in NCAA tournament. I will forever love John Calipari, and he’ll likely forever be my favorite coach, but it was over at Kentucky. Whether you want to blame it on him, administration, others, doesn’t matter. He’s doing well at Arkansas, but his time at Kentucky was done. I just don’t get how people have forgotten what the end of his time here was like. Yes, he gave us one of the best runs in College Basketball history in his prime at Kentucky, but the ending was far below the standard in Lexington.

@XavierWallaceJR @DarrellBird @KentuckyMBB @CoachMarkPope Yet when the media asked him in December if he needed to take a mid-year transfer, he said nah we’re good. Even if Jlow was there, they needed a true PG. now was there any, I’m not sure but the question was brought up to him for sure.

@DarrellBird @KentuckyMBB @CoachMarkPope He’s full of it. Love your stories Darrell but pope is ridiculous.

Everybody had theories about the impact of Jaland Lowe's injury on @KentuckyMBB season. Now, @CoachMarkPope explains it all, and it's even more complicated than believed. 247sports.com/college/kentuc…

@DocLanceP @mrBobbyBones So a guy who owns a radio show and a bar, not a UK grad but is a UK fan who has zero access to anyone on campus coach or administration..is making high level decisions & phone calls in order to sink the program. Ha! I mean I can’t stand the guys politics but that’s irrelevant. 🙄

@Grayson70Ky @mrBobbyBones Yes, they call and ask his opinion... and when they do not he organizes fans to cause trouble.

I’ve had my issues with Matt. And issues with Kentucky fans (mostly faceless avatars). But no one loves Kentucky sports more than that guy. No one has dedicated more of their life on the media side to Kentucky sports than Matt Jones. Fan base is eating itself. 👏 x.com/RunItBackFDTV/…

@micahpe1 @ChrisFisherKY Hey I agree so we have no idea who was or wasn’t…and I wasn’t a Scott Drew fan either so he actually went after two guys who I thought weren’t the answer. All I know is I look at where Pope was and what he did in those jobs. It didn’t warrant the UK job.

@Grayson70Ky @ChrisFisherKY The top choice Scott Drew isn’t exactly killing it. Kentucky may have a false reality on who actually was interested. Obviously MB couldn’t be like yeah we tried to find someone better but no one better wanted it…🤷🏻‍♂️

Mark Pope's first 2 seasons at Kentucky: 46-26 Todd Golden's first 2 seasons at Florida: 40-29 Golden also had 3 straight 10+ loss seasons at San Francisco and was 23-22 in the WCC. Pope may succeed at UK, he may not. But don't tell me you know definitively because you don't.

@micahpe1 @ChrisFisherKY I think the question begs why was he hired based on his previous coaching positions..agree we can’t do anything about it but the issues of getting behind so badly game after game, losing big, UK looking like it gives up during game, ability to not land top players says short stay

@ChrisFisherKY Yelp. It could be true that Pope wasn’t ready for a job like Kentucky but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn. Players learn and so do coaches. Cal was hired as a well seasoned coach, Pope is naturally going to have more growing to do.

@TerrellTres He knew this in Dec & I believe what I heard from him was he was good with who he had…we all saw it but he didn’t. For a guy so smart & knowing the assignment, not sure he’s bball smart nor did he understand he can’t avg 12losses + losing at home +team giving up at times etc

Mark Pope: “Losing J-Lo (Jaland Lowe) affected so many guys on this team.” Brings up Jasper Johnson first. Says it was unfair to ask him to play backup point guard minutes. Says Denzel Aberdeen had to learn a position he wasn’t used to at point guard.

@ASeaOfBlue That’s just weird. We wanted Cal gone because he wasn’t good those last years so why would he say we were better than those years. Theoretically he’s correct but I thought he knew the assignment. The assignment wasn’t being a bit better than the previous coaching staff

Mark Pope makes his claim for how Kentucky is doing better than the end of John Calipari era aseaofblue.com/kentucky-wildc…

@mailman42431 @DocLanceP @mrBobbyBones So you are saying that Matt Jones organizes fans to rally against the university and he makes high level decisions as it relates to UK?

@Grayson70Ky @DocLanceP @mrBobbyBones And I’m assuming you’re delusional

@mailman42431 @DocLanceP @mrBobbyBones I assume you are being facetious..

@DocLanceP @Grayson70Ky @mrBobbyBones Do you not listen to the show? When have they asked his opinion. He’s pretty clear that they don’t

@DocLanceP @mrBobbyBones Not sure how he has any influence over major decisions at UK…he isn’t on any UK board that I know of and honestly do you think they have administration calling him asking his opinion? Unless I am missing something, Matt Jones isn’t calling shots at UK, right.

@mrBobbyBones Counter-point: He does NOT know ball, and his having any influence over major decisions at the University has already been disastrous and will only get worse.

@CBeasmoreSports He could have taken a mid-season transfer but I remember he said he liked what he had. I knew then we were screwed. There wasn’t anything on the court that should have given him positivity of the PG position.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope knew that they were short in the point guard position and his expectations on the roster this past year: "Well, we thought we were going to have depth, physicality, and size, and thought we were going to go wave, after wave, after wave. We knew going in that we were a little bit light at the point guard position just because of changes that happened in the roster late, in the Spring last year. That was one place we had some nervousness and then those worries came true." #BBN

@DanWolken @YahooSports Absolutely nailed it. Pope took this job & why wouldn’t he. Lots of cash but he didn’t deserve it which brings us to Barnhart. He’s an issue along with the President. There needs to be a complete overhaul at UK. Pope is in his over his head unfortunately, on and off the court.

After an inept loss to the kind of coach you could easily envision at Kentucky, Mark Pope is now on the clock. He has one year to get it right. Column for @yahoosports sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-b…

@Sam_Vecenie Horrible roster construction by Pope and staff. That’s a fact. Risk wasn’t worth the reward. Was staff told how bad his knee was? I assume so and still paid him to sit all season (minus 4 games)

It’s really hard to hear people give the “if their two best players didn’t get hurt” excuse for Kentucky. Their best player/transfer was literally coming off of a torn ACL late last season and they still spent a ton of money to bring him in! That’s a roster choice not bad luck.

@CBeasmoreSports “Continue to do a good job at it”. That’s what the fan base wants..if 12-14 losses per season is his expectation, he can leave. That isn’t what we want here. Go be good somewhere else.

Mark Pope on the roster construction for next year with many eligible to return to Kentucky: "Well, retention is a great part of this. We have good young players, we are starting with a first year Center (Malachi Moreno, Power Forward (Andrija Jelavic), and sophomore two-guard (Collin Chandler), and it wasn't the plan coming into the season but it was what we ended up with and those guys' are getting some great experience and they are going to get better and better and better and so we will start there and then kind of built off from there, we have done this for two years and we will continue to do a good job at it." #BBN

I wasn’t hyped about him I can tell & I knew a lot of people that weren’t. It would have been different if Pope would’ve been really successful at his prior stops. Guess how many wins he had in NCAA tournament before UK? And his many losses he averaged. But Barnhart choked. Bad

@KentuckyZone What do you mean, look at the list of players he’s got coming in! 😂😂 honestly it’s embarrassing to be a UK coach with zero recruits when teams like Missouri are out recruiting you badly. It’s a bad, bad look

Just feels inevitable with Pope. We’re wasting time. Next year will be much of the same. Hope I’m wrong. But i just don’t see him as the guy.

@CarterElliott__ Absolutely. He sucked his last 5 years as a coach. I mean that lightly and Oakland n St. Peter’s would agree

They hated John Calipari and wanted him gone

@BigBlueCarti Averaging 13 losses per season. Billy G was chased out and honestly Pope should be as well but he’ll get one more year unfortunately

Mark Pope in 2 years at Kentucky: 46-26 Overall Record 20-16 SEC Record 3-2 SEC Tournament Record 1 Sweet Sixteen 1 Round of 32 Thoughts?