He was really the only one in the sports media that I know about that was bullish on UK from the jump. He did take a wait and see approach when Pope was hired, but as the roster was being built, he saw how it was coming together and rated us higher than anyone else.
Aaron Torres deserves some love
- Thread starter TomTraubertsBlues
- Start date
Yeah. He’s a little annoying sometimes but it’s one of my fave college sports podcast and he’s typically pretty solid on takes
Yes he was, all summer long too. He talked about how we were at worst a top 15 team.
I get that; I like to see people be happy but Aaron needs to somber up a bit. He is just too enthusiastic.
Once the roster started coming together, I really started to get more comfortable with Pope. The rally was exciting for sure and it was fun, but we still had to build a team that could win some games. He did a masterful job (along with the rest of the staff- it's not ALL Pope) putting this together in just a few months.
Lots of season left and no telling what will happen, but we're off to a damn good start.
Good watch….let this man join BBN haha
He also has Arkansas as one of his final four picks because “Cal thinks he has something to prove “. That it one of most ridiculous picks and for a stupid reason that I have ever heard . Did he not have “something to prove “ his last few years here ? Kinda makes me question his basketball sense.
I think those brick layers might miss the big tournament.
He assembled a hell of a staff. It shows how lazy Calipari was, he was content to have his best buds who did nothing except be a yes man for him. Illinois has done fine since losing Antigua and Chin too so who did the work there? Antigua was good recruiting but what did Chin bring exactly?
I've met him multiple times and he's a great dude. I don't know if y'all remember Cals first year we played UCONN in MSG and it was a war. Wall scored like our last 15 points but Torres wrote a brilliant article called "A Final Four in November" that really caught the moment and excitement of the game and of that team. Read it sometime. He became a partial UK fan ever since.
Yeah, he makes some good points here. I agree with him. The roster Pope built here is solid. No, there aren't many NBA lottery types on this roster but you've got experience galore and you've got shooters and you've got defenders here as well. I love this group. I think they're gonna compete for an SEC regular season championship and tournament title. I think the potential is here to make a deep NCAA-T run as well. And they beat a very good team in Duke. I was also impressed with them, just more impressed with UK.
I also agree that it's nonsense to think that this team is "fringe top 25." Now, did I expect them to be ranked in that range pre-season? Of course I did. But did I think it was accurate? Not at all. We have 4 double-digit scorers against high major competition here, guys with tournament experience. And we've got a bunch of solid defenders, defensive poy guys. And we've got some of the top shooters in the nation here. And look at this coaching staff- excellent across the board. And that starts with Mark Pope, who may not have won titles but has shown himself to be a great basketball mind. If you've paid any attention to this off-season, I don't see how you bet against this guy. He motivates. He runs great stuff. He loves being at UK. This is his dream job. I would not be surprised to see him get the best out of this group.
I also agree that it's nonsense to think that this team is "fringe top 25." Now, did I expect them to be ranked in that range pre-season? Of course I did. But did I think it was accurate? Not at all. We have 4 double-digit scorers against high major competition here, guys with tournament experience. And we've got a bunch of solid defenders, defensive poy guys. And we've got some of the top shooters in the nation here. And look at this coaching staff- excellent across the board. And that starts with Mark Pope, who may not have won titles but has shown himself to be a great basketball mind. If you've paid any attention to this off-season, I don't see how you bet against this guy. He motivates. He runs great stuff. He loves being at UK. This is his dream job. I would not be surprised to see him get the best out of this group.
Chin brought nothing apparently. He’s one of the ones that didn’t even log in to the shooting system I think. Just ridiculous
Aaron Torres is a fun watch. Mind you, he may be the only sane Uconn fan haha
He did those things intentionally, so maybe it wasn't all laziness. As far as a staff, I agree that he just wanted to get his friends and cronies a paycheck without asking them to do anything at all basically.
A media personality is tooting their own horn?
kRaZy tawk!
I'm thinking it is in the actual job description, especially in the current environment where everything is so spread out and no networks doing the promotion.
I've been bullish on Mark Pope for about 5 years now. Even at Utah State I thought that he may wind up coming back to UK. Moving to BYU and doing well there was a huge step in that direction. Of course I thought that he would be at BYU for another couple of years before UK came open.
I can’t believe he is a UCONN guy, if you looked at his videos and watched a bunch of them you would think he’s a UK fan, or at least is a reporter of Kentucky sports.