For the sixth straight year, Kentucky Basketball has failed to reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after getting blasted by Iowa State in the Round of 32.
Mark Pope has been responsible for two of those seasons, while John Calipari was responsible for the previous four. And while Calipari is now having success at Arkansas, it has to be pointed out that he authored one of the worst four-year stretches in Kentucky Basketball history before Pope took over.
That included a loss to 15-seed Saint
Peter’s as a 2-seed, a loss to 14-seed Oakland as a 3-seed, and a 9-16 disaster campaign during COVID. Kentucky also had just one NCAA Tournament game and one SEC Tournament game during that span, making for a stretch so bad that even Calipari himself knew he needed to leave for a restart elsewhere.
That made it pretty easy for Pope to do a better job in his two seasons thus far, even if both still ended with double-digit loss seasons and a lot more questions than answers.
During his Monday radio show, Pope made sure to point out the “progress” the program has made in the two years following Calipari’s departure.
“I’m not talking about meeting the standard of where we’re trying to get. Clearly, we did not do that, but we are making progress. In the four years before we got here, we won one game in Nashville. In the last two years, we’ve won three games in Nashville.
“And clearly, the seed hasn’t been as good, but in the last two years, we lost to the No. 5 and the No. 6 team in the country to be put out of the SEC Tournament. In the four years previous, we lost to No. 9, No. 35, No. 67, and Number 81 to be knocked out of the SEC Tournament.
“In the last two years, we’ve won three games in the NCAA Tournament. In the previous four years, we won one game total in the NCAA Tournament. That doesn’t tell the whole story, but for the people that love Kentucky, they just want to know that we’re making progress.”
Whether you believe Pope is good enough to be the head coach of a blue-blood program is one thing, but there’s no denying he has done better than Calipari did at the end of his tenure. That included the Cats’ Sweet 16 berth last season for the first time since 2019, as well as a record-tying eight wins vs. top-15 teams.
Saying this, what are your thoughts on what Pope said? Sound off in the comments section!
Add us to your “Preferred Sources” on Google for more Kentucky Wildcats content! Go CATS!!
