Honeymoon over?

ChicagoCat90

All-American
Oct 12, 2014
1,880
5,296
97
Calipari was blessed to have Harrelson, Liggins, and Miller his first 3 years here. It could have been a completely different first 3 years if he started from scratch like Pope had to do this year.

Although I'm frustrated by the beat down, I won't start going hard on Pope until I see how he does with high level talent like he has coming in next season and beyond. With that said, it still won't stop me from venting on this forum.
 

bnewt

Heisman
May 29, 2001
8,853
11,022
113
This!

Pope is going to have to get some Alpha’s. From what I can tell, Johnson and Lewis are and if we land Wilson, he seems to be.

Moreno is not an Alpha yet for sure. I would love to see him get more fire in the belly and get on his teammates a$$ a little when they don’t even try to get him involved.

If Pope wants a player led team, he has to recruiter leaders/winners.
Must get another big man that can at least block shots and rebound as well as a scoring forward. Wouldn't hurt to get another shooting guard.
 
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NerlensCat

All-Conference
Feb 12, 2013
1,122
1,941
0
Must get another big man that can at least block shots and rebound as well as a scoring forward. Wouldn't hurt to get another shooting guard.
I think it will be easier to pinpoint specific needs in the portal next year. Lanier would have gone a long way this year.
 

blackcat714

All-American
Apr 30, 2017
3,876
5,230
83
No it is not. In sports, you are measured by what have you done for me lately! Another Cal apologist. The dude was broken we both needed a separation!
Hopefully Popes first year will be better than Billy Clyde’s last one
 
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Zuma75

Senior
Mar 19, 2017
339
492
63
It's a losers mentality to use the last 4 calipari seasons as a measurement of success this season. Raise your standards a bit.

Let's compare to caliparis first 6 seasons. This is UK and that's what we should strive for and expect from Pope over the next half decade or so.
Cal's first 6 seasons were way above the normal even for UK. A couple final fours and a championship per decade was the average before Cal.

 
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Cawood86_rivals

Heisman
Feb 20, 2005
36,711
64,715
0
LOL. He threw this first team together on the fly and had to drive three hours to get Carr. Get out of here.
Yes. This fanbase makes me shake my head sometimes. None of these guys ever played at UK before. All from other teams and freshman. Roster not officially settled until May I think.

The OP post just blows my mind. How quickly they lose their perspective.
 
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Skyguyb27

All-American
Feb 12, 2008
4,463
7,432
113
Believing they have the potential is right,, but not expecting it like a bunch on here do.. That has to lead to living a miserable life for some..
I agree with that. They have the potential to make it to the FF but I don’t expect it by any means. It’s not a birthright, it’s earned not given. Maybe Brad can back me up on this.
 

Tayshaun4Three

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2016
2,093
4,201
113
Fast forward to tomorrow and then you’ll have half the people on this site bending over backwards to protect this type of nonsense. You’ll hear about how the people who are being over critical of Pope, entirely disregarding the context of what our personnel is, are actually just good and passionate fans. Fans are supposed to say the coach is worse than Cal, every player is trash, etc. Therefore, I will just point to these type of threads and shake my head, nodding, fully aware that this is the type of culture this website has created. Rather than a nuanced discussion about what happens in the game, it is a hot potato game of hot takes about why we are the worst team in the SEC, etc. In reality, this team has always been flawed and it isn’t because Pope put Koby Brea in the game and he got beat off the dribble — it’s because we have a roster that was exclusively built out of the portal. These are the types of pieces that you build around elite players who are not specialists. If you got your hopes up for 40-0 or expected zero chemistry issues or zero mental challenges with a roster with twelves guys who each have zero former teammates, that’s kind of a failure on your own part to recognize that this road would always have bumps and bruises given the roster constraints. Rant over.
 

MegaBlue05

Heisman
Mar 8, 2014
10,311
19,649
66
Not for me.

Tonight was disappointing. Embarrassing. But if I an being honest, I expected to be no better than 10-2 right now with losses to Duke and Gonzaga.

I like the culture change in the program of making it more about Kentucky than the NBA. I consider myself a realist, and realistically I didn’t expect to be a title contender in year 1 with a roster assembled in a month from nothing. We returned 0 points and 0 rebounds from last year.

It takes more than a bad loss on finals/Christmas week for me to turn against our first year coach.
 

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
27,923
66,036
113
This is an assclown post. The fact Pope even has this team at #4 with wins over Duke and Gonzaga. And a decent UL team is amazing. The talent is not great. Half of these guys would be the 8th or 9th man on a UK level squad. And no, that's not a shot at these players. It's just a fact. Pope knows that too.
 

jeffky

All-American
Sep 22, 2017
3,531
6,806
0
Embarrassing loss to say the least and we know more losses to come in the sec. Concerning to see them playing so bad late in Dec against a 4 loss team. This team lacks intensity and that falls on the coach. I don’t see much improvement over the last month and that’s surprising. Sometimes a loss makes you better so let’s believe that will happen. Hoping they will right the ship but a lot of fans are not happy tonight and I’m sure a lot will be directed at the coach.
Beavis And Butthead Comedy GIF by Paramount+
 
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wildcat111

All-Conference
Dec 9, 2020
1,426
1,642
113
Embarrassing loss to say the least and we know more losses to come in the sec. Concerning to see them playing so bad late in Dec against a 4 loss team. This team lacks intensity and that falls on the coach. I don’t see much improvement over the last month and that’s surprising. Sometimes a loss makes you better so let’s believe that will happen. Hoping they will right the ship but a lot of fans are not happy tonight and I’m sure a lot will be directed at the coach.
Look for a lot of embarrassing losses in the SEC.
 

EliteBlue

Heisman
Mar 27, 2009
16,751
20,269
0
Didn’t read all the post

But no

Year one expectations was to make the tournament with a hodgepodge team and win a game in the tournament. A sweet 16 was a resounding success.

Just because we have been over performing didn’t change that.

This years goal is purely to be good enough tk get recruits to buy in to the future of Kentucky.
 
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Jul 28, 2006
11,296
16,072
113
Honeymoon over? LMAO.....HELL NO!!

I honestly expected us to be around .500 at season's end, and we may yet end up with that record because we're playing without "elite" talent at every position. That's not a knock on our guys by any means, it's just the truth.


Our current coach is a beloved former player, one who helped bring a championship to Ky. He also LOVES this state, it's people and the university ; can you say that about our last coach? I'll stand by CMP , thank you very much.
 
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CB3UK

Hall of Famer
Apr 15, 2012
63,389
104,797
78
Fast forward to tomorrow and then you’ll have half the people on this site bending over backwards to protect this type of nonsense. You’ll hear about how the people who are being over critical of Pope, entirely disregarding the context of what our personnel is, are actually just good and passionate fans. Fans are supposed to say the coach is worse than Cal, every player is trash, etc. Therefore, I will just point to these type of threads and shake my head, nodding, fully aware that this is the type of culture this website has created. Rather than a nuanced discussion about what happens in the game, it is a hot potato game of hot takes about why we are the worst team in the SEC, etc. In reality, this team has always been flawed and it isn’t because Pope put Koby Brea in the game and he got beat off the dribble — it’s because we have a roster that was exclusively built out of the portal. These are the types of pieces that you build around elite players who are not specialists. If you got your hopes up for 40-0 or expected zero chemistry issues or zero mental challenges with a roster with twelves guys who each have zero former teammates, that’s kind of a failure on your own part to recognize that this road would always have bumps and bruises given the roster constraints. Rant over.
Testify brother, testify!

I'm not sure what some fans expected this season, given how things progressed this offseason. Im going through this season with zero expectations and just enjoying watching rhe guys play. Next year I'll start to ramp up my expectations. But barring a complete all systems failure this year, Pope basically has a free pass.
 
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jeffky

All-American
Sep 22, 2017
3,531
6,806
0
Embarrassing loss to say the least and we know more losses to come in the sec. Concerning to see them playing so bad late in Dec against a 4 loss team. This team lacks intensity and that falls on the coach. I don’t see much improvement over the last month and that’s surprising. Sometimes a loss makes you better so let’s believe that will happen. Hoping they will right the ship but a lot of fans are not happy tonight and I’m sure a lot will be directed at the coach.
Discover No Way GIF by ADWEEK
 

yoshukai

Heisman
Dec 21, 2002
28,465
39,575
102
Calipari was blessed to have Harrelson, Liggins, and Miller his first 3 years here. It could have been a completely different first 3 years if he started from scratch like Pope had to do this year.

Although I'm frustrated by the beat down, I won't start going hard on Pope until I see how he does with high level talent like he has coming in next season and beyond. With that said, it still won't stop me from venting on this forum.
Don’t forget Patterson
 

Tayshaun4Three

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2016
2,093
4,201
113
Some of us just can’t learn to trust Pope more than our PTSD. Cal really did an number on the fanbase. You’d think we are the worst team in the SEC if you looked at most threads