Coaching Carousel 9 - People die climbing mountains

[AUFC]

I don’t see the Les Miles to Calipari similarities

Was being a little facetious but just saying they are 2 elite coaches who won at their home bases who got run off by vicious fanbases. Coach O comes in and wins a title 4 years later for LSU.

College basketball NCAA Tournaments are much more of a crapshoot though. The SEC is way more competitive these days than it used to be but UK is still an easy place to win at/attractive landing spot for other elite coaches so I'm sure whoever they hire will have some success.

 

[Techster]

“Let’s get rid of Calipari, and let’s get someone who can WIN” is a bold move by the Kentucky AD and fan base.

It sounded like Kentucky pulled a move similar to what GT did to Paul Johnson.

They didn't want to fire him due to amount of the buyout, but donors and AD pulled a lot of resources and made it known they were fine if he went elsewhere. Cal pretty much all but said NIL was an issue at Kentucky, and now Kentucky is opening up the NIL vault for whichever coach comes next. The problem with that is you better have someone already lined up.

 

[ESPNjacket]

It sounded like Kentucky pulled a move similar to what GT did to Paul Johnson.

They didn't want to fire him due to amount of the buyout, but donors and AD pulled a lot of resources and made it known they were fine if he went elsewhere. Cal pretty much all but said NIL was an issue at Kentucky, and now Kentucky is opening up the NIL vault for whichever coach comes next. The problem with that is you better have someone already lined up.

That isn't what happened with Paul Johnson.

 

[ESPNjacket]

 

[Techster]

That isn't what happened with Paul Johnson.

I think my wording is wrong. My reference was more under Sasquatch (aka Bobinski) there was an effort to starve CPJ of resources. Bobinski wanted "his" guy in, and had several donors in on working towards that. I know for a fact from one of my business contacts a few high level donors were no longer happy with CPJ and refused to donate if CPJ was still the coach. The biggest thing is Bobinski "starved" CPJ of resources, and CPJ alluded to that in an interview:

Georgia Tech football: Why Paul Johnson is happy with Todd Stansbury

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson is notoriously difficult to please. When he's not satisfied with something regarding his football team – scheduling, for instance – he has never been hesitant about making it clear.

www.ajc.com

That was pretty well known at the time. CPJ also said in an interview that he was close to leaving GT under Bobinski because of it. Then 2014 season happened and Bobinski left shortly after. Even under Stansbury, certain donors still refused to give CPJ support...their money, their prerogative.

 

[RamblinRed]

Will be interesting to see what happens with KY now that Hurley has given an official no.
I will say I did like his comment "Once you make a certain amount of money, it doesn’t make that much of a difference in your life"

Said one source on Hurley to Kentucky: “They could offer $20 million a year and he wouldn’t go.”

 

[KeystoneJacket]

 

[slugboy]

Ugh, sorry, I’m sharing the Jon Rothstein post



Here’s Norlander—maybe Kentucky has a new coach tomorrow

 

[MtnWasp]

That's the kind of hire I was expecting. If he says yes.

9 year head coach, 5 years at BYU. 110-52 (.679), 49-29 in conference (.628)(10-8 in his one year in the Big 12). Never won a conference championship, went to the NCAAT twice in 9 seasons, losing both games in the first round.

He's squarely in the "Up-and-Comer" category.

Crazy expectations have severely tarnished the job from a coaching perspective. Pope will be the next piece of meat in the Chick Filet pressure cooker.

 

[dtm1997]

The streets of Lexington will run red with the blood of suicidal Kentucky fans.

I personally think they're being overly dramatic, but let them feel how they gonna feel.

 

[dtm1997]

 

[Techster]

Wonder how many UK fans thought "Why didn't we go after Rick Pitino?!!" after the news of Pope broke.

 

[Peacone36]

i think it's hilarious. At one point in January/February UK went 6-6 and people were talking about boosters coming together dump Cal and maybe it was time to move on. They won five in a row to close the season and all that talk disappeared. Then two first round losses in SECT and NCAAT and it rises again. He says screw it and takes another gig and i guarantee they are going to act like some jaded cop when he returns to town.

 

[slugboy]

Wonder how many UK fans thought "Why didn't we go after Rick Pitino?!!" after the news of Pope broke.

A lot of them—also Pearl, Shaka Smart, Rick Barnes, Donovan…

Seems like this is underwhelming. Also, it seems to slow down the coaching carousel—who is BYU going to poach seems less of a big deal than UCONN or even Baylor.

Is Pope an upgrade over Calipari? People are wondering how long the AD lasts

 

[dtm1997]

Warning - this is very loud, if you're wearing headphones or in public.

 

[CEB]

Warning - this is very loud, if you're wearing headphones or in public.

I hope all of their concerns are very well founded…

 

[MtnWasp]

I think the key point is that Calipari truly was the PERFECT coach for Kentucky. Any move they made was going to be a move down. That simple fact made any and all other candidates highly skeptical of the job.

Calipari may not have been as nimble as he could be to catch on to the fact that retaining talent was to emerge as a key to winning in the 2020's, but Cal's comments upon taking the Arkansas job strongly suggests to me that Calipari my have actually been hindered by lack of support at Kentucky. So, the lack of nimbleness may have actually been above Calipari at Kentucky, and that their model of acquiring elite, one-and-done high school talent every year, and needing to reload with inexperienced players every year may have been encouraged from above.

I am eager to see how Calipari handles roster management at Arkansas and see how much different it is compared to how he did things at Kentucky.

As for Kentucky, the AD made an unequivocal gaff. Pope may turn out to be Da Bomb, but more than likely Kentucky nation will have to eat a large portion of humble pie and learn to be appreciative of wins when they come. That is certainly what they need.

It is notable that both UNC and Duke avoided this problem of succession of the emperor by nurturing the successor from within in Hubert Davis and John Scheyer.

 

[GTRX7]

That's the kind of hire I was expecting. If he says yes.

9 year head coach, 5 years at BYU. 110-52 (.679), 49-29 in conference (.628)(10-8 in his one year in the Big 12). Never won a conference championship, went to the NCAAT twice in 9 seasons, losing both games in the first round.

He's squarely in the "Up-and-Comer" category.

Crazy expectations have severely tarnished the job from a coaching perspective. Pope will be the next piece of meat in the Chick Filet pressure cooker.

Cal lasted 15 years. Read that again. 15 years! He finished with one of the worst consecutive 4-year runs in the history of the program, and yet the AD still had a public press conference with him just one week ago to say they support him and are bringing him back (before Cal turned around and left). I get that the UK fanbase is absolutely rabid and have crazy high expectations, but aside from Billy Gillespie (who was an unmitigated disaster on and off the court), Kentucky's track record with coaches has tended to be a very stable one. If that history is your idea of a school having unreasonable expectations, not supporting a coach, and having a quick trigger as soon as he has a bad year, you and I will just have to agree to disagree.

 

[dtm1997]

 

[GTRX7]

I think the key point is that Calipari truly was the PERFECT coach for Kentucky. Any move they made was going to be a move down. That simple fact made any and all other candidates highly skeptical of the job.

Calipari may not have been as nimble as he could be to catch on to the fact that retaining talent was to emerge as a key to winning in the 2020's, but Cal's comments upon taking the Arkansas job strongly suggests to me that Calipari my have actually been hindered by lack of support at Kentucky. So, the lack of nimbleness may have actually been above Calipari at Kentucky, and that their model of acquiring elite, one-and-done high school talent every year, and needing to reload with inexperienced players every year may have been encouraged from above.

I am eager to see how Calipari handles roster management at Arkansas and see how much different it is compared to how he did things at Kentucky.

As for Kentucky, the AD made an unequivocal gaff. Pope may turn out to be Da Bomb, but more than likely Kentucky nation will have to eat a large portion of humble pie and learn to be appreciative of wins when they come. That is certainly what they need.

It is notable that both UNC and Duke avoided this problem of succession of the emperor by nurturing the successor from within in Hubert Davis and John Scheyer.

The idea that Cal was hindered by UK is laughable. Cal absolutely had lost a lot of support in his last years from fans and boosters, but that was 100% Cal's own fault. He alienated the primary boosters by pushing them aside and ignoring them, he alienated the fans by constantly talking down to them despite increasingly worse results, and he alienated the administration and basically had zero relationship with the AD at the end. He clearly felt it was more important to win "his own way" than to adapt. It seemed he relished in proving his own fans "wrong" instead of adapting and being in it with them. The idea that the administration was the one forcing him to still play primarily with 1-and-dones in 2024 is, quite frankly, ludicrous. That was all Cal. And he had six more freshman commits lined up for next season ready to run it all back again (with what was almost certainly going to be a worse team than this year). He also refused the university's general NIL and started his own basketball collective that has largely failed. At the heart of it, UK's fans are the biggest reason the program is as massive as it is, and he basically threw all that away and took it for granted in the later years.

Again, 15 years is a long time. Sometimes relationships just sour and changes need to be made and a new voice is needed in the locker room and to the fans. I think this is a win for everyone, including Cal, Kentucky, and Arkansas. I can't say I am overwhelmed with the Pope hire. In fact, I was really disappointed when it was first announced. But I am still more optimistic than I was for another Cal run next season. Leaves to be seen if Pope will succeed, but he will certainly galvanize the boosters and the fanbase in a way we haven't seen in a while under Cal. The amount of NIL that has already been raised to support him is pretty clear evidence of that.