Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky has won only one NCAA Tournament game in the last three seasons, one major reason that former coach John Calipari felt it was time for him to move on and leave for Arkansas.
New coach Mark Pope talked about winning national championships and the importance of Kentucky’s basketball tradition at his introductory press conference Sunday. Kentucky fans who had felt lost since UK’s exit from this year’s NCAA Tournament after an upset loss to Oakland suddenly had hope for next season even though Pope may not have one player on this year’s UK team on his roster when next season opens.
While Pope talked about not wanting to temper expectations for next season, what does he think is a fair expectation for his first season at UK?
“I would try to temper expectations, but that is not happening, you are not allowing that. So why try?” he said to the Rupp Arena fans. “We are trying to win and our goal is to win every game we play. That is what we are shooting for, trying to win.
“Listen, and when we lose a game, if that happens, we will pick ourselves up and reassemble and be resilient and relentless and try to win the next one. That is the DNA at Kentucky.”
17 Responses
We all do need to try and temper our expectations for this year but precedent would suggest that could be very difficult. The Fraudster had us positioned for a Top 5 recruiting class every year. It will be hard to let go of that expectation, but we will be better served if we can transition away from OND. I am a little surprised that things aren’t moving along a little faster with staff and team construction. It should be time to move away from celebrating the coaching hire and securing solid commits. It does seem like the Pope is throwing a lot of darts up against the TP wall. All coaches should have at least a short list of coaching hires and maybe Pope has but think it has been reported that only 1 has been mentioned so far. Let’s hope some fruit drops from the trees the next few days.
With the right transfers and new recruits I feel KY’s BBN will do good this next season.
Resilience sounds like the Unforgettables. Pitino produced incredible teams at UK and Pope is going to follow that pattern.
I saw an article showing that the Top 10 transfer targets have already committed to their new school. I know that Mark is trying to put his staff together and is talking to our players and his players at BYU. Convincing Reed and Adou to stay another year would be huge. Signing Kalifa would be nice too. This group with Perry, Burks, and Chandler would produce a competitive starting five, but it would be nice to get a couple of more bigs and a SF. Time may not be on our side, but any team without Calipari will be a welcomed change.
I thought there was an expectation that several BYU team members would follow Pope to UK including the egyptian?
Kind of like expectations UK players would go to Arkansas. Just takes some time even if it does happen
I just found out today that Kentucky has a regulation that prohibits the coaches from hiring an assistant until the job opening has been posted for 7 days. That explains why we haven’t been hearing of Pope’s hiring of assistants. Why has this not been publicized by the media so thousands of fans would not be thinking that Pope is just dragging his feet.
The media loved coach CALcified.
They want Coach Pope to look bad and fail.
Not exactly sure which media you mean
The media that refused to ask him the tough questions.
The TV media that thinks that now he’s gone, Kentucky BB will collapse and never make a comeback.
The media that thinks BBN are all crazy rednecks and how dare we criticize the King.
That media doesn’t want Coach Pope to succeed.
All jobs like that have to be posted but coaches normally go ahead and get guys in place before official announcement is made
By the middle of next week, Pope will have his staff hired and by the end of the month we will know what the nucleus of our roster will look like. Has anyone heard anything on Thiero? Sheppard? Kalifa? Mitchell? Avila? Whatever team can be assembled, it will be a Kentucky team…not a Calipari NBA farm team.
I think Avila is a no contact.
I would be intrigued by Antigua joining this new staff. In a weird way a feel like Reed leaving is final OAD punch in the gut from Calipari. Very excited to see how this program evolves under Coach Pope. I have full confidence in him
I would like Antigua back as well
I had not planned to attend on Sunday however my son sent a text to me asking if I wanted to attend. He sent the same text to his mother. Of course that sealed the deal and we had a great time. It was more than a Press Conference or Pep Rally! I have never experienced anything like this before. Coach Pope understands his assignment- He understands BBN. He has a player’s perspective. Looking forward to supporting his efforts. Be patient BBN.