- Arkansas got John Calipari and Kentucky got Humility. UK hired Mark Pope. His greatest achievement as a coach? A first-round exit from the NCAA.
- Kentucky fans wanted John Calipari gone. They got their wish. What they didn’t get was Billy Donovan, Scott Drew or Dan Hurley.
- Mark Pope’s BYU Cougars lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Duquesne.
In the hours and days following Kentucky’s first-round NCAA tournament loss to Oakland, Big Blue Nation issued a relentless battle cry for athletic director Mitch Barnhart to fire John Calipari.
Barnhart assessed the situation and decided to retain Calipari, the veteran coach who led UK to the national championship in 2012 but has been unsuccessful in the tournament in recent years.
Calipari’s $33 million buyout likely influenced Barnhart’s decision, but whatever the motivations, Barnhart called it correctly. Calipari remained Kentucky’s best option.
This became clearer after this week.
Too bad for Kentucky that Calipari gave the fans what they wanted: a coaching search.
Calipari went to Arkansas, and while Razorbacks fans celebrated the hiring, Kentucky fans convinced themselves that someone better than Calipari would replace him. Someone like UConn’s Dan Hurley, the Chicago Bulls’ Billy Donovan, or Baylor’s Scott Drew.
These big fish stayed put.
Now the Wildcats are forced to swallow a giant slice of humble pie.
Arkansas plundered a career game-winner from its conference rival and Kentucky hired Mark Pope from BYU to replace Calipari.
Arkansas came off the carousel with the better coach.
The Hogs have hired a talent assembly maestro. Calipari will galvanize Arkansas’ NIL investment. Although the peak of his career was behind him, Calipari had a bad season, losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Pope has never made it past the NCAA first round in nine seasons as coach, including five at BYU. To be fair to Pope, his 2019-20 Cougars were probably his best team, and the NCAA canceled March Madness that season due to the COVID pandemic.
That will be little consolation for Kentucky fans.
How did this hiring go? You might turn to social media Thursday night for the predictable meltdown. Or, believe the Kentucky fan who texted me: “I’m physically ill. »
Better fill your stomach, because Pope inherits a reconstruction.
Calipari’s 2024 recruiting class fell apart after he defected to Pig Land. The pope must pick up the pieces of a program that has hurt pride and a list that needs repair.
At least he knows the terrain. Pope played at Kentucky. He was captain of the Wildcats when they won the national championship in 1996 under Rick Pitino.
What Kentucky basketball hiring tells us
This coaching search is a reminder that even a blue blood rarely produces a hire that meets the expectations of a voracious fan base.
Kansas did better than most by pulling Bill Self from Illinois to replace Roy Williams. Even Self, however, had never been to a Final Four before becoming the nation’s top coach at KU.
When legends retired at North Carolina and Duke, those schools promoted longtime assistants. Neither Jon Scheyer nor Hubert Davis had any head coaching experience when they took over from Mike Krzyzewski and Williams, respectively.
Fellow blue blood UCLA optioned Mick Cronin in a fallback plan after Rick Barnes turned down the Bruins in 2019.
The truth? Coaches who make really good money at a good job aren’t always eager to leave to make even more money at a great job.
Drew cited God and his longtime calling to Baylor as to why he is staying put. Donovan has the NBA. Hurley already coaches a blue blood where he runs the sport.
They didn’t need Kentucky as much as Kentucky needed them.
NOTICE:Scott Drew chose comfort over challenge in Kentucky basketball – many of us would
Kentucky welcomes Mark Pope, not Bruce Pearl
I thought Kentucky had better options than Pope behind Hurley, Donovan and Drew.
I trumpeted Auburn’s Bruce Pearl for the job. I think it would have been a resounding success. A coach who takes Auburn to the Final Four could win Kentucky a national championship. Illinois coach Brad Underwood’s career is booming. Would Pearl or Underwood have left good gigs for Kentucky? Not sure, but there was a better chance of one of those two leaving than Drew leaving Baylor, where he’s coached for more than two decades.
Pope is not without redeeming lines on his resume. I am very impressed with how effectively he has transitioned BYU to the Big 12, a premier hoops conference. The Cougars winning 23 games this season in their new digs are among Pope’s greatest coaching accomplishments. And yet, they lost to Duquesne in the first round of the NCAA. Hours later, Calipari’s Wildcats lost to Oakland.
That night, Kentucky fans demanded change. It took a few weeks, but they figured it out. I just don’t see how this change is positive.
Arkansas got Calipari and Kentucky got Humility.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btopppmeyer.
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