Anonymous SEC coaches

Jul 3, 2025
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Good one Anonymous poster.
Only anonymous because of the changeover.

And I don’t care enough to spend time trying to get the name corrected.

The point point is the same. Injuries were not the cause of our defensive problems last season.

Butler was the only defender that missed time.

And our defensive rebounding was the root cause of our poor defense. Butler didn’t help that even when healthy.
 
Jul 4, 2025
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Only anonymous because of the changeover.

And I don’t care enough to spend time trying to get the name corrected.

The point point is the same. Injuries were not the cause of our defensive problems last season.

Butler was the only defender that missed time.

And our defensive rebounding was the root cause of our poor defense. Butler didn’t help that even when healthy.

I think butler had an impact. I think injuries in general did as it disrupted continuity. And we DID begin to improve down the stretch of the season. So having everyone healthy then could have made a difference.

BUT, we spent the first 2/3 of the season just sitting back and letting teams pick us apart. Pope eventually adjusted and we were a little more aggressive. It took way too long to recognize that however.

I agree it was mostly about scheme and not personnel. With Oweh, Butler, and Amari we should have been much better on D than we were. Hell, Andrew Carr was not a bad defender at Wake either.

The good news, Pope DID recognize it and DID make an attempt to adjust. It was just too late and we were too depleted for it by then for us to make a deep run.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2009
39,774
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Other than Butler who was injured that could guard?
Him and Jaxson, he wasn’t the best defender but when your best two point of attack defenders are down it really hurt us with so little rim protection outside Amari. We didn’t really have the team speed to be lockdown but if Butler was healthy with Jaxson with the strides that Chandler and Brea made we could have easily been good enough to beat UT again and make a final 4.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2009
39,774
69,385
113
Only anonymous because of the changeover.

And I don’t care enough to spend time trying to get the name corrected.

The point point is the same. Injuries were not the cause of our defensive problems last season.

Butler was the only defender that missed time.

And our defensive rebounding was the root cause of our poor defense. Butler didn’t help that even when healthy.
I do agree with our rebounding issues that hurt for sure.
 
Jul 3, 2025
48
60
18
I think butler had an impact. I think injuries in general did as it disrupted continuity. And we DID begin to improve down the stretch of the season. So having everyone healthy then could have made a difference.

BUT, we spent the first 2/3 of the season just sitting back and letting teams pick us apart. Pope eventually adjusted and we were a little more aggressive. It took way too long to recognize that however.

I agree it was mostly about scheme and not personnel. With Oweh, Butler, and Amari we should have been much better on D than we were. Hell, Andrew Carr was not a bad defender at Wake either.

The good news, Pope DID recognize it and DID make an attempt to adjust. It was just too late and we were too depleted for it by then for us to make a deep run.
I agree our defense would have better with Butler playing. But he's the only defender that missed time. He would not have made us a top 10 defensive team in a 16 team conference. We were supposed to be better. Amari was supposed to be a great defender. But he couldn't guard his shadow. Brea, Jaxson, Almonor, Chandler, Carr, Garrison, Kerr, Perry and Noah just could not guard. All zone bodies and zone speed playing man to man against elite athletes. Oweh and Butler were good on ball defenders. But just put them in pick and roll and they were beat too. We had almost ho help defense at all.

Exacerbated by terrible defensive rebounding. I watch Almonor in the SEC tournament duck under the basket so the ball wouldn't hit him. Our scheme, if there was one, last season seemed to be just slow them down a little and outscore them. Was that due to coaching preference or lack of personnel?

Seems to be the latter. None of them were next level talent. It was a patched together team and we really never got to see what it could have been because of injuries.

This season will define Pope's system. He has the pieces now to show how he intends to play. We had guys last year that just couldn't play defense. They did try. Now we have guys with the ability to be very good defenders and the athletic ability to play against athletic players.

Will they? We do have bonafide rebounders now too.

I think Pope should have played a lot of zone last year and I hate zone defense. But we had zone bodies. Maybe he was message sending like Pitino did his first year. he intended to implement his system and foundation no matter the score.
 

rick64

Well-known member
Jan 25, 2007
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Officiating is so d@mn inconsistent it makes playing D even more difficult. 1st half they call everything, 2nd half you can get away with anything. Absolutely infuriating.
 
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Jul 3, 2025
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Officiating is so d@mn inconsistent it makes playing D even more difficult. 1st half they call everything, 2nd half you can get away with anything. Absolutely infuriating.
Agreed. Officials are terrible. But they are terrible for both teams. Especially SEC officials.

The worst in basketball.
 

Eastkybball

Well-known member
May 7, 2019
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Officiating is so d@mn inconsistent it makes playing D even more difficult. 1st half they call everything, 2nd half you can get away with anything. Absolutely infuriating.
I agree! Last years sec officiating needs to be investigated. They were clearly letting teams beat us around on defense but we couldn’t touch em.
 
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Anon1751372455

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Jul 1, 2025
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Please POPE, GET AGGRESSIVE Defensively. MAKE OUR GUYS lockdown, crazy defenders. I know the offense will be there, I just get concerned about D.
 

Vek96

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Jul 4, 2025
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The best thing about Mark, is that he loves this program. He loves this State, and, he loves our fans. He understands, and embraces the passion our fans have for the tradition of Kentucky Basketball.

The piece of crap before him, despised the tradition, the State of Kentucky, and especially, our fans.
 

BleedBlue63

Active member
May 1, 2009
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Agreed. Officials are terrible. But they are terrible for both teams. Especially SEC officials.

The worst in basketball.
Sometimes when they announce the officials ahead of time, and I see it, I know we are probably going to lose. I do not like Doug Show as a referee. Tony Green, Pat Adams, Jamie Luckey. When I see who is about to referee a UK game and I don’t know any of the names I think OK, we’ve got a decent shot to win here. It’s just about the talent now.
 

Cleatortoises

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Dec 24, 2018
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I agree our defense would have better with Butler playing. But he's the only defender that missed time. He would not have made us a top 10 defensive team in a 16 team conference. We were supposed to be better. Amari was supposed to be a great defender. But he couldn't guard his shadow. Brea, Jaxson, Almonor, Chandler, Carr, Garrison, Kerr, Perry and Noah just could not guard. All zone bodies and zone speed playing man to man against elite athletes. Oweh and Butler were good on ball defenders. But just put them in pick and roll and they were beat too. We had almost ho help defense at all.

Exacerbated by terrible defensive rebounding. I watch Almonor in the SEC tournament duck under the basket so the ball wouldn't hit him. Our scheme, if there was one, last season seemed to be just slow them down a little and outscore them. Was that due to coaching preference or lack of personnel?

Seems to be the latter. None of them were next level talent. It was a patched together team and we really never got to see what it could have been because of injuries.

This season will define Pope's system. He has the pieces now to show how he intends to play. We had guys last year that just couldn't play defense. They did try. Now we have guys with the ability to be very good defenders and the athletic ability to play against athletic players.

Will they? We do have bonafide rebounders now too.

I think Pope should have played a lot of zone last year and I hate zone defense. But we had zone bodies. Maybe he was message sending like Pitino did his first year. he intended to implement his system and foundation no matter the score.
Chandler got on the floor because of his D originally.
 

Cowtown Cat

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2015
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Him and Jaxson, he wasn’t the best defender but when your best two point of attack defenders are down it really hurt us with so little rim protection outside Amari. We didn’t really have the team speed to be lockdown but if Butler was healthy with Jaxson with the strides that Chandler and Brea made we could have easily been good enough to beat UT again and make a final 4.
I do kinda see his point. However, defense is more of a team thing than an individual team thing. Take away arguably the best defensive guard in the country and that’s gonna hurt any team, regardless of who they are. That’s especially true when said defensive guard is your PG, whom matched up with the opposition’s PG and/or best offensive player. Not to mention, all those injuries which really hampered our defensive chemistry.
 

Cowtown Cat

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2015
22,208
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I agree our defense would have better with Butler playing. But he's the only defender that missed time. He would not have made us a top 10 defensive team in a 16 team conference. We were supposed to be better. Amari was supposed to be a great defender. But he couldn't guard his shadow. Brea, Jaxson, Almonor, Chandler, Carr, Garrison, Kerr, Perry and Noah just could not guard. All zone bodies and zone speed playing man to man against elite athletes. Oweh and Butler were good on ball defenders. But just put them in pick and roll and they were beat too. We had almost ho help defense at all.

Exacerbated by terrible defensive rebounding. I watch Almonor in the SEC tournament duck under the basket so the ball wouldn't hit him. Our scheme, if there was one, last season seemed to be just slow them down a little and outscore them. Was that due to coaching preference or lack of personnel?

Seems to be the latter. None of them were next level talent. It was a patched together team and we really never got to see what it could have been because of injuries.

This season will define Pope's system. He has the pieces now to show how he intends to play. We had guys last year that just couldn't play defense. They did try. Now we have guys with the ability to be very good defenders and the athletic ability to play against athletic players.

Will they? We do have bonafide rebounders now too.

I think Pope should have played a lot of zone last year and I hate zone defense. But we had zone bodies. Maybe he was message sending like Pitino did his first year. he intended to implement his system and foundation no matter the score.
Ummmm Chandler was a very solid defensive guard, especially for a freshman.
 
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