BG also played most or all of his minutes today at his natural position...the 4. And he played it very, very well until he got yanked after that foul. Still not sure what that was for, really.
Injuries Matter
- Thread starter I’m The Village Idiot
- Start date
You can say that all you want. We should've won that UNC game and Lowe being out is not an excuse because we were winning most of that game. We were up with 6 or 7 minutes left. We lost because we went on a scoring drought playing selfish ball.
I'm not even mad about the UofL loss. I'm mad about a 13 minute scoring draught. And laying down against Zaga.
Hopefully those days are behind us.
People don’t understand this is not reasonable. They complain we have so many mid-tier guys yet also want us to have insane depth at every position. There’s only 15 roster spots and people have to accept roles. So…well played!
But having one true point guard is a mistake. I think Pope was betting on Aberdeen and JJ but they are just not point guards at all.
I agree. But we did have one signed. He left. We tried to fill depth with someone who could play multiple positions—-that was Aberdeen and he hasn’t proven to play PG great. I’m sure Pope will take that as a learning point for future consideration.
Again, no one is saying you have to go get 3 5-star dudes to be backups. And Lewis backing out does suck. But the lack of any depth behind Lowe is a bit odd. Maybe JJ was supposed to be it, but he's yet to work out. It's a bit frustrating that we're in the exact same spot as last year.
The recruiting however has been a little concerning- and it's hard to say how much is JMI or Pope.
I'm willing to give Pope grace on it because he's landed dudes like Butler and JQ and Oweh. That JMI deal is just awful and I'm afraid it's starting to show. Mitch has been awful in the last few years.
Do you watch the games? Or are you drunk? We were down 7 to SJU in the first half today. We outscored them by 19 in the 2nd half. Do you understand what the difference was? If you don't, its ok, Ill mark you down as option A
I've also seen us play like crap WITH Lowe as well. The difference here is JQ for sure. We need both healthy to be good- that's understandable.
Their absence does NOT excuse the lack of effort we saw at points earlier in the year- and our defense has gotten MUCH better as well.
Yep. And it hurt our roster construction.
Of course they matter. The issue before was the lack of effort and quitting against msu and Gonzaga.
Why do we keep getting n massive holes against good teams? U do that n March and u run into a team like UT and can't ever catch up. It is a glaring issue still that ive yet to see explained on here.
3 point shooting still has to improve immensely to go anywhere that matters.
If we stay healthy I'm cautiously optimistic. Big if.
Why do we keep getting n massive holes against good teams? U do that n March and u run into a team like UT and can't ever catch up. It is a glaring issue still that ive yet to see explained on here.
3 point shooting still has to improve immensely to go anywhere that matters.
If we stay healthy I'm cautiously optimistic. Big if.
Well that’s his responsibility. We don’t say well, he tried. Not his fault. It IS his fault.
And it’s not excusable.
We are Lowe going out from being finished so it’s not something you just say oh well, he tried. Mark has a lot to learn and he’s still learning.
Excellent post. I’ve had similar thoughts about Aberdeen. And I also agree right now Pope just isn’t ready for this. Maybe he will be, but we’ve got another issue. He can’t recruit. It looks like he’s going to try and tape a team together from the portal but it might only be guys willing to sell themselves to JMI. We don’t need freshman to lead us to championships because they don’t do that. But we need SOME and he can’t get them. I would make a change at the end of the year I’ve seen enough to know he’s not ready for this. If he wants to make we wrong, go to the final four, win the SEC, and bring in the championships. Anything other than that and I’m not wrong. Next year is year 3.
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I love JQ’s game. And he brings us something this team desperately needs. They don’t finish well, and he grabs those offensive boards, and he finishes.
lol you hang banners for jokes during the press conference and beating Alabama 1 out of 4 times. Are you seriously talking about someone hanging banners early? You have been hanging banners for nonsense over the years to a constant basis. Calipari could beat morehead and you stripped naked and ran the streets. What a joke get real.
Umm, that’s his former coach and mentor. lol. He is COMPLETELY a pope crusader lol. Good lord. Pope could go 0-40 and he’d say he needs more time. Yall are insane.
Doesn’t mean some of what he might say isn’t true.
That’s fine, but it doesn’t matter. If you do not perform to the standard you cannot stay here injuries or not. Coaches get fired for numerous reasons, including injuries sometimes. Pope has had many issues here, number 1 he’s not recruiting well at all. He’s lost all of his main targets. He hasn’t coached well either. Add in injuries and team turmoil.
He’s the coach he’s responsible for it all. The scoreboard is all that matters here. And it the scoreboards aren’t right he’s got to go either way. This is Kentucky, we don’t make excuses. So I understand the injuries and said that for a while but our problems expanded from there. So I’d hate for him to derail due to injuries, I really would. But end of the day he’s got a job, figure out how to win to Kentucky standards. Not recruiting a backup point guard makes the injury excuse irrelevant.
I like him, did he vote for Al Gore
JQ HUSTLES on every possession & sets a great example for OO & MM.
OO twice tried to be the main ball handler which made him look selfish.
Definitely a new dynamic that certainly gives reason for hope.
OO twice tried to be the main ball handler which made him look selfish.
Definitely a new dynamic that certainly gives reason for hope.
I figured the dynamic would change with JQ. And I always knew he’d play. No way pope is recruiting a guy that won’t play. No way. That’s another really great thing right now to me, is seeing the Calipari circus gone. That just shows you he really is the only coach who will pull nonsense like that. Pope cares about the program, I’m not high on him succeeding here but he does care about this place.
Listen to the interview. He made A Lot of points about the great job Pope is doing
Well, your demise of the season and the Pope tenure don't look the same today, do they? I'm glad! Are you?
You must not have ever read anything I’ve written. I’ve never wanted to fire Pope in year 2. I’ve been one of the ones that are completely adamant he’s here for year 3. I was making a point that the lack of a back-up is on him, but he’s also had bad luck that may have been out of his control (one PG de committing, potentially not being able to find another late in the portal).
We’ve got a shot to salvage something which isn’t what we do here. Kentucky hasn’t been Kentucky in going on a decade. No I love this program and love it being the greatest of all time. Today means very little in the grand scheme. You have to win one at a time and they did that, but until Kentucky is Kentucky, I definitely won’t be happy. I don’t print St. Johns wins on popcorn boxes and storm the court for being 8-4 but beating Tennessee either.
Ill concede that I haven't followed you and I may be wrong about YOU. But there are MANY that deserve way more than you received in my post. Thank you for being a real fan of UK!
Pope is firmly on a warm seat and should be until he shows he’s up to the standards here. Pope wouldnt even argue that he hasn’t proven that. Why are you acting like a win against a now unranked) St. Johns teams is a championship and everyone can go home now? It’s a must win and badly needed game, but are you lost? This is Kentucky not northeastern Kentucky.
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You may be the VERY worst at bashing on MY team to this point. IDGAF what you think. Good day and Merry Christmas!
My god man. I always thought you were a pretty good poster but your tirade against Pope is getting to be a bit much. Yes, we’ve under-achieved. Yes, the roster construction is his responsibility. But Pope can’t control decommits or injuries, both of which have hurt this team. If Lower and JQ and Diabate had been healthy all year, we probably have a very different record and feel very differently heading into the SEC slate.
Fans can both be disappointed with the four losses and be happy with the seeming turn-around this team has made since Gonzaga. There’s nothing wrong with having a little hope now that we appear to be healthy or the first time all year. No one I’ve seen feeling that way is saying this is like winning a championship. Just that it’s progress we desperately wanted/needed.
I was on the fence about wanting him gone at year's end. I believe in giving dude's time. But with the portal and NIL, that leash is shorter- and that's DOUBLY true at blue bloods. You have to be able to produce and recruit.
Had we lost to IU I think that would've been BAD for EVERYONE- you, me, BBN, Pope, Mitch, etc.
Luckily that didn't happen. And we've got a shot to get better and make a run if we stay healthy and Pope chills out with his mind boggling sub patterns. Seriously, it's the one thing from Cal I wish he didn't inherit.
I'm still a bit concerned about recruiting. And that JMI deal isn't helping.
Agree with everything. And I think Lowe being healthy/playing will make the sub-patterns much more consistent. He’s trying to figure out what rotations he needs and that’s probably hard to do with two key cogs, one being your only true PG, out.
I suppose- he does have a bad habit of pulling guys when they get going though.....
He's done it to Jelly. A couple of times to Moreno. And he did it to JQ today.
STOP DOING IT. lol