What does being a Mormon have to do with anything in this context? No Sunday games???
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
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IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
To play devils advocate on Pope, I saw Robert make a couple good points in his slack:
While Kentucky had the better seed than BYU this year, Kentucky finished 23 in KenPom while BYU finished 18, even though Kentucky had the better talent.
BYU also had 3 starters who were transfers, so it looks like Pope understands the transfer game pretty well.
I don’t see him attracting the same type of talent as Cal, but maybe he doesn’t need to?
Robert also mentioned than Pope could be the guy that follows the guy that leads you to “the guy” next time around.
But - if this goes through, I def see UK falling down a notch in the college bball pecking order.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
I really hope this is Geoff, otherwise we would probably risk us losing any of our guys or potential guys.
If Geoff left would that jeopardize Jeremiah's commitment? Since Jeremiah seems to be the only guy on our roster, committed, or interested who Geoff was the lead guy for.
I'm just going to put this out there. If we had just lost Underwood and Whitman hired Pope as our head coach, I would be very disappointed.. I love the state of our program, but Kentucky is Kentucky. So if I'd be disappointed (and I think many of us would), that's saying something about the optics of this hire.
Wasn't Geoff the lead for Boswell way back when? I doubt that really matters though
If you think about it, Mark Pope is a safer hire than Jon Scheyer was. At least he has some big time coaching experience at a major program. Pope did okay for himself in his first year in the Big 12. He isn't the splash hire that Kentucky's fanbase hoped for but he is a young up and coming coach on the rise and is an alum. At least it's not Billy Gillespie
I'm pretty sure their AD preferred not to go the route of Bruce Pearl or Chris Beard or Sean Miller due to their past baggage. This is a safe route to go for them. They ran Cal out of town and this may or may not work out for them but at least there's a floor of getting to tournaments with Pope. Beyond that, Kentucky's fanbase better get their expectations tempered down a bit
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Some of the names mentioned by Borzello as possible replacement for Pope at BYU:
-Mark Madsen, Cal head coach
-Barret Perry (UNLV assistant; Former Portland State head coach; native of the state of Utah who played in college in the state as well)
-Alex Jensen (Dallas Mavericks Assistan; Mr. Basketball in state of Utah in high school; played for Utah and was part of national runner-up team in 1998)
-Chris Burgess (University of Utah assistant; was previously BYU assistant from 2019-2022)
-Mark Madsen, Cal head coach
-Barret Perry (UNLV assistant; Former Portland State head coach; native of the state of Utah who played in college in the state as well)
-Alex Jensen (Dallas Mavericks Assistan; Mr. Basketball in state of Utah in high school; played for Utah and was part of national runner-up team in 1998)
-Chris Burgess (University of Utah assistant; was previously BYU assistant from 2019-2022)
Pope has more of a resume than Jon Scheyer did. Have you seen Pope's record since he got to BYU? This is not Matt Doherty
Does it really make sense for Kentucky to hire a 70 yr old coach? I don't care if it is Rick Pitino. It is a short term band aid. They would have the same issue 5 yrs from now. Hire a younger coach who will potentially be there for the long haul if successful. St. John's made a move to get back into relevancy. Kentucky doesn't need to do that. They just need the right fit
Mark Pope is a far superior coach to John Groce. This is simply the type of opinion from someone who has never seen a BYU game. Mark Pope didn't have a flash in the pan NCAA tournament success. He has proven he can build a program at a good basketball school. BYU is historically a good basketball school. I believe they were overrated throughout the season but they were still a fringe top 25 team IMO and they held their own in the Big 12. Groce could never hold his own in the Big 10 with his own players he recruited. The only success he had was the team he inherited from Weber
Two things:
Kentucky does recruit itself to a degree. Billy Gillespie got some big recruits in his failed gig before Cal.
This isn’t 2010 or even 2020 recruiting.
The transfer portal and Kentucky NIL $ is a top level recruiter in this new game. If Pope can coach, he can put together his kind of team that will win games because he will have talent just by being at Kentucky!
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Agreed. Pope is about to get eaten alive.
I think UK is hitting the coaching carousel again within 5 years.
POWURR
- From Downtown
“Hopefully one of Mark Pope’s wives says no”
Scheyer was hand picked and groomed by coach k. Even then I don't Scheyer is a great coach.
Pope will probably have some success just because of the amount of talent that ones will buy but I don't buy him dominating the SEC like that fanbase expects and I don't think he will recruit as Cal simply because Cal is a special recruiter.
You've got Oats at Alabama who is probably a top 2-3 coach in cbb, Barnes at Tenn, a very well funded Cal at Arkansas, Pearl at Auburn, and two rising head coaches in Golden and Parris that I like more than Pope. Then you still have Buzz Williams, Chris Beard, and Chris Jans in the conference.
Is that fanbase going to be happy finishing between 3rd and 7th every year? Because that is a lot of good coaches with good NIL that will put together good teams and I don't think any of them are getting out coached by Pope.
Mark Pope is quite an underwhelming hire for Kentucky. I am shocked they couldn’t get a candidate with a better resume
Wow a very underwhelming hire by UK.
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I think Pope will have more success than Jans and Lamont Parris. Parris' system has a ceiling and I don't think he'll ever achieve extreme levels of success. The SEC will be a difficult conference to compete in but Pope will likely get better talent at Kentucky and his offensive scheme will be one that a lot of players will want to play in. Reed Shepard would probably thrive in his system if he stays for another year.
I agree that he likely won't be dominating the SEC but that is because of all the good coaches that are in that conference. Kentucky's fanbase will need to temper their expectations similarly to what has happened at Indiana
| 2019–20 | BYU | 24–8 | 13–3 | 2nd | Postseason not held |
| 2020–21 | BYU | 20–7 | 10–3 | 2nd | NCAA Division I Round of 64 |
| 2021–22 | BYU | 24–11 | 9–6 | 5th | NIT Quarterfinals |
| 2022–23 | BYU | 19–15 | 7–9 | T–5th | |
BYU Cougars (Big 12 Conference) (2023–present) | |||||
| 2023–24 | BYU | 23–11 | 10–8 | T–5th | NCAA Division I Round of 64 |
| BYU: | 110–52 (.679) | 49–29 (.628) |
Enough said....The fact that you compared Pope to John Groce is sheer craziness. Winning a couple games in the NCAA tournament does not make you more qualified to coach at a high level. The tournament can be kind of fluky. He's only had 2 cracks at the tournament so far so this is a very small sample size to judge him on. He never got to an NCAA tournament at Utah Valley but proved he could make the transition from a smaller school to a bigger school fairly easily. His track record appears to be someone on an upward trajectory.
Jon Scheyer also never won a tournament game before he got handed over the Duke job. That decision isn't looking so bad either. Maybe you need to focus more on the long term than looking at what he's done so far in a small sample size.
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Illini4Chief
- TENNESSEE
Time to start the BU to BYU discussion? Just sayin.....
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