He hasn’t won any Big 12 titles or even close; has 2 first round NCAA losses as best results. If Pope gets the job, says a whole lot about current status of Kentucky job imho.
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Okay, sure. But did Mark Pope do any of those things? He did not.
In his nine years as a head coach, he's never won a single tournament game. Aside from making the semi's in the CBI, he's also lost in the second round of the NIT. These hypothetical regular season titles also never happened -- not in the Western Athletic Conference nor the West Coast Conference. In his one year in the Big 12, he had an impressive 10-8 conference record.
Give me Sha's record any day.
Also, not sure it is solely AD’s choice at Ky. There are a lot of $ guys who may not buy Pope. We’ll see
That's fine. Mark Pope, again, never did that at any of his stops.
2 ncaa wins and 3 straight trips. Blew out Vandy as a 14 seed. Plus lost a battle vs Rick and Louisville in round 2.
Redenbacher
Well-known member
Even Fanta is putting Pitino in play. Of course it makes it for great clickbait too.
Mark Pope was 16-15 his last two years in West Coast Conference games.
L J S A
Well-known member
I don't think he's really in play. But the more big names say no, and the more the Mark Popes of the world enter the picture, the more the money people will whine for Pitino.
His predecessor also already built a very solid program:
Dave Rose (basketball) - Wikipedia
And saint peters ain’t Siena!His predecessor also already built a very solid program:
Dave Rose (basketball) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Kentucky hiring BYU’s Mark Pope on 5-year deal, Rick Pitino calls it ‘an unbelievable choice’
Rick Pitino says it would be 'awesome' if Kentucky hired Mark Pope
www.nj.com
I stamd corrected, 2 wins.
But again to me the MUCH bigger accomplishment is the 3 straight conference regular season and Tourney titles.
As we know you can finish 5th in the MAAC and go on a run and make the NCAAs by stealing the automatic bid.
That is my larger point. And I stand by it.
I don’t think anyone is arguing Fran’s resume leaving Siena vs Shas isn’t better.
But don’t you think Sha’s chance to go an have a real dominant run in the MAAC was kinda cut short by the fact he made an Elite 8 at freaking St. Peter’s!?
The ironic thing is that I actually agree with you. Regular season titles + conference titles do show more about what you've grown than just NCAA wins. But Sha, again, has a better track record of that at St. Peter's -- being top 3 in the MAAC his last three years there while his predecessor only cracked that once in 12 years. Pope inherited a healthy BYU program and mostly maintained it.
So what?His predecessor also already built a very solid program:
Dave Rose (basketball) - Wikipedia
His 3 year run began 3 years after he took the job. He did not inherit a great roster.
Guys believe what you want.
Louisville and Kentucky are not hring a coach who has never won a conference title, who has 1 NCAA appearance in 6 seasons with no NCAA appearances at his only high major job. No BET wins.
It ain't happening. You can say he is a great coach but one run as a 15 seed ain't going to do it. Sorry.
Kevin Willard went to the NCAA's 4 straight years 2016-19 and the COVID year he had his best team, 2020. They shared the BE regular season with Nova and Creighton and were projected to be as high as a 3 seed in most brakcets. Then they just missed Tourney in 2021 and made it in 2022 before he took the Maaryland job. But it took that type of run for him to get a job like Maaryland.
What 3 year run are you referencing? He’s 26-23 last 3 years in conference with 1 NIT win.
Not if Pitino stayed at Iona. Not a chance.I don’t think anyone is arguing Fran’s resume leaving Siena vs Shas isn’t better.
But don’t you think Sha’s chance to go an have a real dominant run in the MAAC was kinda cut short by the fact he made an Elite 8 at freaking St. Peter’s!?
And I maintain if Iona had not been upset in first round to Rider in 2022 they would have beaten SPC in final.
And he definitely could havce kept SPC near top but schools like Siena would have figured it out and along with Iona which are just better jobs.
Again he is a good coach. With a bright future.
But for someone with an incredibly THIN RESUME you are certainly projecting a lot fo success for him based on very little evidence.
Do you think they should hire Mark Pope?
His 3 year run at Siena. I am comparing mid major or even low mid major coaches,