NCAAB Coaching Carousel

[robe]

Pope will get run out town in 3 years. But he will have made millions. 2 straight 5 place finishes and no NCAA tournament wins. If I was a Kentucky fan I would be pissed

[robe]

I think Madsen is overrated. Go with a top assistant and BYU just moves on. I actually think we will be fine without Pope. In one of his shows he said Fueger ran the team. I meet him at the KU game he seems like a humble guy who can do well. Fortunately for his soul he will need to convert in the next couple of weeks. 

[NorCalCoug]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:24 PM, jdgaucho said:

 

Remember that BYU's in the Big 12 now.  So who you looking at?

I have a sneaky suspicion that UNLV Assistant Barrett Peery will be BYU’s next HC.  But we’ll see…

Kentucky hiring Pope was a surprise to me.  A blue blood hiring a guy that hasn’t won a single NCAA Tournament game is shocking.  I actually think Pope could do well there.  I wish him the best all the same.  I’ll definitely pay more attention to Kentucky now.

[jdgaucho]

 

[Rosegreen]

On 4/12/2024 at 7:48 AM, NorCalCoug said:

I have a sneaky suspicion that UNLV Assistant Barrett Peery will be BYU’s next HC.  But we’ll see…

Kentucky hiring Pope was a surprise to me.  A blue blood hiring a guy that hasn’t won a single NCAA Tournament game is shocking.  I actually think Pope could do well there.  I wish him the best all the same.  I’ll definitely pay more attention to Kentucky now.

Peery will be interviewed and a YBU blog said sources indicate that Peery is well liked by the administration. 

[utenation]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:35 PM, Pelado said:

There's been an unwritten rule that BYU head coaches have to be temple-recommend holding members of the CoJCoLDS.  That unwritten rule was publicly disclaimed when Diljeet Taylor was (deservedly) hired as BYU's head coach for the women's cross country team.  Unfortunately, I think they'll stick to the unwritten rule for the two highest-profile coaches (football and men's basketball) which is severely limiting.

A few names I've seen thrown around that might meet that threshold are Mark Madsen (currently head coach at Cal, former head coach at UVU) and Chris Burgess (current assistant coach at Utah, former assistant at BYU).

I'm hoping they expand the search to include candidates that can respect BYU's mission while not necessarily being members of the CoJCoLDS.  That's probably still a somewhat shallow talent pool, but can hopefully provide some really good options.

 

On 4/12/2024 at 8:48 AM, NorCalCoug said:

I have a sneaky suspicion that UNLV Assistant Barrett Peery will be BYU’s next HC.  But we’ll see…

Kentucky hiring Pope was a surprise to me.  A blue blood hiring a guy that hasn’t won a single NCAA Tournament game is shocking.  I actually think Pope could do well there.  I wish him the best all the same.  I’ll definitely pay more attention to Kentucky now.

I admire BYU for sticking to their values but it’s also a hindrance for getting good coaches. BYU basically has to capture lightning in a bottle and cross their fingers on coaching hires. 
 

I think Pope is going to get tarred and feathered by the Kentucky fanbase.  I would never hire a coach with zero Big Dance wins. Especially for a job like Kentucky. 
 

They are obviously looking at Pope’s 20 win seasons and saying”he’ll have better talent here”. Risky, risky. 

[robe]

The AD is getting a lot of heat for the Pope hire. 

[robe]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:22 AM, Rosegreen said:

Peery will be interviewed and a YBU blog said sources indicate that Peery is well liked by the administration. 

Who else did they mention are getting an interview. They need to bit the bullet and hire the gentile Fueger. 

[Cougar/Frog]

Pope did great for BYU this season at BYU.  BYU was supposed to finish at the bottom of the Big 12 and that didn't happen.   I think Pope is a good fit for Kentucky.

[NorCalCoug]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:22 AM, Rosegreen said:

Peery will be interviewed and a YBU blog said sources indicate that Peery is well liked by the administration. 

It would be interesting to see if his unique style of play is well received and successful in Provo.  He probably isn’t the top candidate, I just think he ends up the guy.  It’s certainly a more unconventional prediction.

[NorCalCoug]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:34 AM, robe said:

The AD is getting a lot of heat for the Pope hire. 

Not gonna lie, I’d be furious if I was a Kentucky fan.  He doesn’t have the track record that a blue blood like Kentucky should attract.  I still think that Pope does well there, but@utenationsummed it up well with “risky, risky”.

[utenation]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:39 AM, Cougar/Frog said:

Pope did great for BYU this season at BYU.  BYU was supposed to finish at the bottom of the Big 12 and that didn't happen.   I think Pope is a good fit for Kentucky.

All that matters is post season success.  BYU definitely did better than expected in the B12 but the B12 couldn’t make it past the S16 this year with 8 bids. I’d call that a fail, especially for all the hype. 
 

Losing to a no name 11 seed that got whipped by Illinois the next game isn’t impressive. 

[Rosegreen]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:05 AM, utenation said:

 

I admire BYU for sticking to their values but it’s also a hindrance for getting good coaches. BYU basically has to capture lightning in a bottle and cross their fingers on coaching hires. 
 

I think Pope is going to get tarred and feathered by the Kentucky fanbase.  I would never hire a coach with zero Big Dance wins. Especially for a job like Kentucky. 
 

They are obviously looking at Pope’s 20 win seasons and saying”he’ll have better talent here”. Risky, risky. 

On paper it seems way worse than when they hired Gillespie and they never gave him a chance, booted him after two seasons. His last season was an NIT run that included beating Lon Kruger and UNLV. 
 

Pope is going to have to win quickly or he gets the hook. 

[Wyobraska]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:01 AM, Rosegreen said:

On paper it seems way worse than when they hired Gillespie and they never gave him a chance, booted him after two seasons. His last season was an NIT run that included beating Lon Kruger and UNLV. 
 

Pope is going to have to win quickly or he gets the hook. 

Feels like a Harsin situation at Auburn to me.  There will be powerful boosters who are working on getting rid of him from day 1 to bring in a bigger name coach.  The only thing that might give him a little more time is that he played there.  

[ph90702]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:34 AM, robe said:

The AD is getting a lot of heat for the Pope hire. 

He was turned down by the big names.

Jamie Pollard took a lot of shit for hiring TJ Otzelberger, and that was a home run hire.

[Rebels2k3]

BYU should hire Dave Rice

[utenation]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:20 AM, Wyobraska said:

Feels like a Harsin situation at Auburn to me.  There will be powerful boosters who are working on getting rid of him from day 1 to bring in a bigger name coach.  The only thing that might give him a little more time is that he played there.  

In the early reports Pope will make $5.5 per year at Kentucky. I haven’t seen any buyout info but I bet it’s big. 
 

Pope has to be near perfect in this job. You’ll have plenty of “I told you so” on his first loss from big boosters and delusional fans.  Get out the pitch forks. 

[robe]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:48 AM, NorCalCoug said:

Not gonna lie, I’d be furious if I was a Kentucky fan.  He doesn’t have the track record that a blue blood like Kentucky should attract.  I still think that Pope does well there, but@utenationsummed it up well with “risky, risky”.

His 2020 team was good, mostly left over from Rose. I was beginning to wonder if he was the guy until this year. If I was a Kentucky fan I would be livid as well. I hope he does well. He was decent at UVU and until this year just average at BYU. 

[Pelado]

On 4/11/2024 at 10:53 PM, jdgaucho said:

 

I really hope it's not Madsen.  Because then Cal opens up again.

It won't be.

On 4/12/2024 at 7:34 AM, robe said:

Pope will get run out town in 3 years. But he will have made millions. 2 straight 5 place finishes and no NCAA tournament wins. If I was a Kentucky fan I would be pissed

They are.

On 4/12/2024 at 10:48 AM, NorCalCoug said:

Not gonna lie, I’d be furious if I was a Kentucky fan.  He doesn’t have the track record that a blue blood like Kentucky should attract.  I still think that Pope does well there, but@utenationsummed it up well with “risky, risky”.

They really are.

In spite of his lack of post-season success at UVU and BYU, I think he could be pretty good at Kentucky.  He should be able to get much better athletes to Lexington than what he could convince to come to Provo or Orem.  And he is no stranger to using analytics to get the best out of his players.

I thought his dearth of NCAA tournament victories would preclude him from getting the offer from Kentucky.  He obviously wasn't their first choice, but he probably sold himself and his plan really well.  Kind of reminds me of when the Eagles hired Andy Reid and their fanbase was reportedly apoplectic that they were hiring a guy that hadn't even been a coordinator.  But when he went in for the interview, he was so well prepared to be a head coach that they hired him even though his loftiest position to date had been as the Green Bay QB coach.  And he's turned out to be a pretty good head coach.

[utenation]

On 4/12/2024 at 7:46 AM, robe said:

I think Madsen is overrated. Go with a top assistant and BYU just moves on. I actually think we will be fine without Pope. In one of his shows he said Fueger ran the team. I meet him at the KU game he seems like a humble guy who can do well. Fortunately for his soul he will need to convert in the next couple of weeks. 

I think Madsen already turned down BYU.  I don’t think BYU is a step up from being in the ACC.  BYU will lowball the next coach.  Just because Madsen is LDS doesn’t mean BYU is his dream job. 
 

Cal is getting lowballed on media revenue but not ACC conference revenue. They can still pay coaches. You can get better athletes at Cal and not have to pig wrestle the honor code either.