What The Hell: Kentucky Is Reportedly Hiring Mark Pope To Be Its Next Head Coach

I'm stunned. I almost - almost - have nothing to say because what the fuck is happening? Mark Pope? I don't care that we moved on from John Calipari, it was time. But how do you end up on Mark Pope? This is fucking atrocious. You're telling me the only outcome was try to pay Danny Hurley a shit ton of money, pray that Mitch Barnhart being friends with Scott Drew would work out and then ... this? 

Mark Pope is about 15th on my list of coaches I'd hire. Right off the top of my head I'd much rather have Sean Miller, Bruce Pearl, Tommy Lloyd, Will Wade, Todd Golden, Shaka Smart (yep), Chris Beard, Rick Pitino or Billy Donovan. There's nothing about this that makes sense. Pope has been at BYU for 5 years without a Tournament win. Fine, weird shit happens. He's lost to teams seeded below him both times. You can hardly pitch staying in the family with Pope being a former player. That's not going to excite this fanbase who wanted someone, anyone with a better track record. 

Positive? At least Pope runs a modern offense and has decent schemes there. That's all I got. He played at Kentucky? Those are the only two positives I can think of in this moment. How is this what Mitch does with his job on the line? You had to make a better hire than Mark Pope. Don't get me wrong, I hope Pope goes undefeated for eternity now, but it doesn't make any goddamn sense. Where's the conversations with coaches that everyone agreed should be higher on the list? What was the plan?

Again, it was time to split up with John Calipari. But Mark Pope? Have fun explaining this, Mitch.