Will Mark Pope Succeed at Kentucky? Analyzing College Basketball

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00:00 [MUSIC]

00:05 >> Do you think that Pope will be successful there?

00:09 >> I think he will be successful there.

00:13 I just don't know what success is now.

00:16 I mean, I look at Kentucky, how quickly they became disenchanted with John Calipari.

00:23 Remember 2020, we have no tournament.

00:26 2020, the Kentucky team wins the Southeastern Conference by three full games.

00:33 They owned, I did a piece then, they owned the last eight minutes like maybe

00:37 no college basketball team had ever dominated the last eight minutes of games.

00:42 They just absolutely because of the three guard attack,

00:45 they had locked down games at the end and

00:48 won the Southeastern Conference by three games, then no tournament.

00:52 Then they come back the following year with a freshman oriented group and

00:56 they can't work with the freshman at all in the summer or the fall.

01:00 The freshman failed as they did at Duke.

01:02 And then they get upset and all of a sudden everybody's mad.

01:06 So I just don't know how,

01:09 like if you put together a Southeastern Conference championship team,

01:13 let's say in year two.

01:14 And then you lose in the second round because you get upset or

01:17 maybe you get a bad draw or maybe somebody gets hurt.

01:20 All of which happened to Calipari at the end.

01:23 I don't know how Kentucky fans react to that.

01:28 I hope that they have great patience with someone who is one of their own.

01:33 Someone who is a rising coach with a great offensive mind, but

01:36 I can't promise that.

01:37 >> They don't have patience there.

01:40 Those people are crazy.

01:42 And let me tell you something else.

01:44 I wanna see, and no, I have nothing but respect for Pope.

01:47 I thought he had a very creative offense at BYU.

01:50 I thought he did a great job in Provo.

01:52 I think he'll do a good job in Lexington.

01:54 I wanna see him win a national championship and go to four final fours.

01:59 Then we'll start judging him.

02:02 When he does those five things, then I'll say, wow,

02:06 this guy was really a great hire because that last coach, he really sucked.

02:11 The guy that won him a national championship and took him to four final

02:14 fours, and those fans there are so insane.

02:17 That going to the final four don't cut the mustard.

02:20 If you don't win at all, it's a failure.

02:23 >> I will say this, Scott.

02:24 One of the things that I pointed out after John was on the verge of departing.

02:30 At that stage, I said basically, the guy who's coaching in the championship game

02:35 tonight or tomorrow night or whatever it was, lost to a 14 seed,

02:42 a 15 seed, and a 16 seed in consecutive years.

02:46 And then in the fourth year played for the championship.

02:49 And there's nothing to tell me that John Calipari could not have done that

02:56 at Kentucky if he continued to be embraced by the fan base

03:01 in the way that he was in the middle 2000s.

03:04 I hear all the time things changed in 2015 when they lost with an undefeated team,

03:10 and it was never the same again.

03:12 Gosh, that's a pretty high standard, Scott.

03:14 They didn't win with an undefeated team, therefore,

03:17 you can't ever feel the same.

03:19 That disappoints me because the guy is a great coach.

03:25 They weren't going to get a better coach out there because there are very few of

03:29 them, and it's not easy to convince those who are.

03:34 I mean, maybe you could say right now Dan Hurley's a better coach.

03:36 He's got two titles in the last two years.

03:38 So yeah, he's better, but he's also not leaving UConn.

03:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:45 (bells chiming)

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