For you Nate Oats and Pearl lovers.
Sure sounds like bitterness coming from our fellow sec coaches.
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Anonymous SEC coaches
- Thread starter Eastkybball
- Start date
For you Nate Oats and Pearl lovers.
Sure sounds like bitterness coming from our fellow sec coaches.
I love anonymous coaches but it’s no surprise we weren’t the best defensive team, but a lot of that was due to injuries.
Other than Butler who was injured that could guard?
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.
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.
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.
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I do agree with our rebounding issues that hurt for sure.
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.
why are you on this board. Go back to your team board. Really annoying.
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.
The past is the past, we have basically a new team this year. I am optimistic.
I would UK has been my team since before you were born.
And if legit questions annoy you then maybe you should just skip over them.
It wasn’t even a hard question.
Obviously it stumped you so you had to resort to the personal.
Have a good day!
Agreed. Officials are terrible. But they are terrible for both teams. Especially SEC officials.
The worst in basketball.
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.
Not Sleepers Media. Those tools are the absolute worst. Don't give them any clicks or attention. Talk about lazy commentary. That and they can't get over their personal biases.
Yep. OP needs to find some better content.
When other coaches are saying things like that, you must be doing things right. Go Coach Pope and GO BIG BLUE!
Sure beats hearing that we are “the easiest team in the country to prepare for.”
Please POPE, GET AGGRESSIVE Defensively. MAKE OUR GUYS lockdown, crazy defenders. I know the offense will be there, I just get concerned about D.
Mark pieced together a team last minute, and got us to the 2nd week of the tournament for the first time in 5 years. And, now he’s locked and loaded for year two. Let them run their mouths.
Kinda agree. But sometimes you gotta let them talk off the record to get their real opinion.
On the record you get coachspeak.
Yesterday's History, Tomorrow's a Mystery. Im excited today about everything CMP is doing
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.
The piece of crap before him, despised the tradition, the State of Kentucky, and especially, our fans.
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.
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.
Ummmm Chandler was a very solid defensive guard, especially for a freshman.
This years team will rebound and defend much better than last year simply because of more athletism and physical presence.
Natty or bust. Sounds like we’ve got a coach that understands his fan base.
I don’t agree they are terrible for both teams. The bias and agenda are very clear some games.
Defense is all about athletes. When you have a team put together in 2 weeks this is what happens. This year he had more time to vet and manage his transfer roster. This year will be a better barometer of what we will be defensivly under Pope.
Carr was an adequate defender and had some good blocks. His back injury slowed him down. Probably affected his rebounding. Kerr was supposed to be our defensive spark plug with his energy. That didn’t last long.
I agree they were not great defenders but injuries took one completely out and slowed one for a good period of time.
Agreed that Jaxson and Brea were not good defenders or rebounders, but they could shoot their Azz off.
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Carr was not a good defender.
Kerr was a defensive liability at every stop.
We had 2 very good to great defenders in Butler and Oweh.
And Butler was hurt half the season.