With this level of talent but a new batch of players do you expect to drop some games at the beginning of the year that they shouldn’t? Seems like everyone has the same problem of gelling together at the beginning of the year now.
Do you expect early losses?
- Thread starter Skyguyb27
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Tough schedule to start the season means we probably drop a few. As long as it’s not a loss to some cupcake at Rupp, I’m fine with a few losses early on.
If Oweh comes back I got us number one. We should be able to beat everyone in the country.Maybe I’m biased. I just look at what Pope did last year with a team short on athleticism so a team full of athletes I can’t wait to see. Pope has never had these kind of horses to work with and he’s just getting started. Hope it’s run and gun this year. Kentucky needs to get its respect back and make teams fear us again. It’s time.
Does a bear sh** in the woods?
Kidding aside the schedule is tough and barring this team being all-worldly I absolutely expect it.
Kidding aside the schedule is tough and barring this team being all-worldly I absolutely expect it.
Definitely could be but Pope had the guys ready from the jump last year. We will see if he can get this group going early as well. I would much rather finish the year hot going into the tournament.
Yeah if we make it thru this schedule with minimal losses like 2 or so we will be really good. Even if we have a couple more slip ups than expected I expect us to be in the thick of it at the end. Kinda Houston like, they struggled at the beginning of the year and didn’t lose the rest of the way.
40-0 is the expectation.
I won't be bothered by early losses if they happen. But we have a much deeper, dawg-ier roster than last year, with much more in-system experience. And the level of the top-tier challenges we face out of the gate is frankly a little lower than last year, although we certainly have an exciting OOC schedule. Plus we have better exhibition games to tune with. I'm a long way from expecting early losses this season.
I asked Google Gemini this and apparently the answer is yes. Also the Pope is Catholic.
Water may or may not be wet, however. It depends on how you define some things. Go figure.
I think pope is excellent at getting guys to gel before the season starts and we saw that last year, should be even better to start this year as we have at least some continuity unlike last year.
The first teams that bullied us last year and exploited our lack of tough athleticism was Georgia Tech and Ohio State. And both of those teams were kind of mediocre. Since we should have better toughness. Maybe we don't lose to teams like that.
#1 entering SEC play and undefeated if OO comes back.
I think we could drop an unexpected game but ONLY because the team is a bit younger/more inexperienced. Those come from behind games against Duke and Gonzaga were really about coaching but also how sound almost every player was. Almost no mistakes. So the one downside to next years team, we may see a little more of that.
But at the same time, next years team is a LOT more talented.. so while we might lose to a Gonzaga, I dont think this team drops a game to the likes of Clemson or Ohio St.
But at the same time, next years team is a LOT more talented.. so while we might lose to a Gonzaga, I dont think this team drops a game to the likes of Clemson or Ohio St.
I expect early losses. If you play the best, you are bound to have an off night or lose to a good team time to time. Even 1996 lost to UMass at the very beginning of the year. I’m always going to be looking at HOW we performed more than strictly the result if I’m analyzing a potential contender. I expect us to be a handful to deal with for anyone.
Yes I think we take a few lumps early because I expect JQ to miss more time than some say but it's not a big deal.
Exhibition games against Purdue and Georgetown will tell us a lot about this team. If we go 2-0 against them, I would not expect any WTF losses. If we don’t???
No . I expect no losses . W e will blow all teams out by twenty or more . Number nine .
6 to 8 loss season will be a great year. I know we are good, but don't discount Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama. All I have read on here is how everyone except us will be weaker. I'll go on record and bet anyone that the SEC will be a land mine for most road games. Trust me, Texas and also Ole Miss will be a ***** to play. We could easily end up being the 2nd or 3rd best team in the SEC. Louisville, Duke, Illinois , and UCLA also says "hold my beer." I appreciate our thinking but to assume we reloaded better than anyone else is foolish to think. In the world of NIL, there will be plenty of loaded teams in the 2025 - 2026 season. One last thought, "Bucky Ball' at aTm could be a new problem. They will be difficult to prepare for because they are going to be so different.
I do not expect a loss. Could a loss happen, no doubt!!!!
Louisville at Yum Nov 11, plus the rest of the hard schedule. Counting the 2 exhibitions, depending on how much fine tuning Pope has to do with the team, each learning how to play with 13 other guys that are just all about as good as yourself, can be hard.
Will be fun and anxiety ridden early season for me as a fan. You want the best for the guys, but it is all up to them. They have to come together. They have to lift one another up, pull each other along. Pope and coaches will be there to push them but it will be those 14 to 15 guys when coaches are not there that make or break the season. They come together and all things are possible with the number of W's the manifest. Just look at Kansas, the players there did not mesh, did not play for one another.
Again I expect this team to be one of the great ones, at least on paper right now.
Louisville at Yum Nov 11, plus the rest of the hard schedule. Counting the 2 exhibitions, depending on how much fine tuning Pope has to do with the team, each learning how to play with 13 other guys that are just all about as good as yourself, can be hard.
Will be fun and anxiety ridden early season for me as a fan. You want the best for the guys, but it is all up to them. They have to come together. They have to lift one another up, pull each other along. Pope and coaches will be there to push them but it will be those 14 to 15 guys when coaches are not there that make or break the season. They come together and all things are possible with the number of W's the manifest. Just look at Kansas, the players there did not mesh, did not play for one another.
Again I expect this team to be one of the great ones, at least on paper right now.
I’d have to see the entire schedule, but I wouldn’t be surprised to go into the SEC slate undefeated.
No. We will lose a few, but I expect to win every game we play. Good blend of talent, experience, and continuity. Defense, toughness, and depth were addressed, but shooting will take a dip I'm sure. I think the overall product will be better.
I’ve seen a lot of great UK teams over the years. In 1978 the Cats just imposed their will upon teams. I think our current team may duplicate this and we are F-ing loaded from top to bottom, and I have a man crush on CMP
GBB
GBBI think even without injuries last year the achilles heel was always going to be super athletic teams. I think Pope fixed that. This looks like a loaded talented roster and with Pope’s coaching ability, I really think this team is capable of putting beat downs on some good teams assuming they gel. I consider this team a major upgrade and last year was a SS team in a stacked college basketball season. I think we may drop 1 or 2 but I honestly believe if OO comes back this team is gonna be a juggernaut to try to beat by the end of the year. I’m thinking 6-7 losses and nobody wants their bracket come March.
GBB
GBB
Losses happen but this team shouldn’t lose many early
It's a completely new team, I expect to lose some because no one gets through unscathed but when and how many with a near entirely new team again is hard to predict.
I predict a fun season where we are proud of the team and our coach puts them in position to win and not only to get drafted.
I predict a fun season where we are proud of the team and our coach puts them in position to win and not only to get drafted.
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There won’t be any games that I expect to lose. That doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. If we lose a couple before SEC play, it won’t mean the sky is falling. But I will go into each game feeling like we should win.
No doubt, I think a season with 6 to 7 losses is gonna be the standard in the SEC for top teams going forward. There are just not a lot of easy games anymore. You maybe get 1-2 games a year you should pencil in for a win like a bad LSU or USC team. That’s 2 OOC and 4 conference losses. That’s a heck of a year.
No more than late season loses. We're stacked AND experienced . NO EXCUSES we're 12/13 deep of legit talent. 1 lottery pick , 1 or 2 more 1st rounders , best from the court defense in country and not a bad back court defense , grest rebounding an rim protection, shooters , passing sn ball handling. There's no weakness here othen maybe pg depth if you must nit pick.
I don’t know about Ohio State. We’ve lost three straight to them.
If we don’t start out hyper focused on the task/goal then we will probably struggle in the Blue/White scrimmage and take an unexpected loss.
It's been ten years since we've been to a F4 or had a One Seed. It's time. So, I would expect maybe 4 losses in the SEC because it's still going to be a really good conference and road games are brutal so that means we can only drop one or two in the OOC. This also means we will probably have to win the SECT in order to get that One Seed. Let's do it!