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Is there any hope?

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bleedsblue5

Senior
Jul 1, 2025
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Can this be fixed? Does Pope have the backbone to fix it? What changes can he make to fix it?
I think we have to change how we play, we do not have the shooters to shoot 30 3s a game, so what can we do to fix this?
And don't even get me started on defense, heck you can have an off shooting night if you play good D but we DON'T!

I am just mad as the next person, but I would rather these issues early on and get these guys attention now.
We made a poor shooting team look like the Golden State Warriors last night, it is not them having a lucky shooting night they were just wide open.
 
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RunninRichie

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
27,809
65,723
113
Kick Oweh and Garrison off the team. Fire Jason Hart/Cody Fueger bring in a recruiter and defensive guy. Scrap this whole sum of parts nonsense. Recruit real difference makers. Tell them what they want to hear at times. Hire a basketball GM, remove Mark Fox (LOL) from that position. Bring someone with real business acumen in. Who can help/guide players and coaches with NIL. The team needs to be ran like a business. This is the commonwealth’s religion and team.
 
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U

UKBB4Ever

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
1,018
1,609
113
How do you fix this? I'm certain Pope wants to win. So it would follow he's doing everything he knows to change this. It's not working.

We aren't even competing. How do you put the desire to win in a player? I've never seen someone gain that. They either have it or they don't. Pope has put together a whole team of those guys. He had to see that in the recruiting process. Yet he took them anyway.
 
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B

buc puppet

All-Conference
Mar 22, 2004
678
1,221
92
RunninRichie said:
Kick Oweh and Garrison off the team. Fire Jason Hart/Cody Fueger bring in a recruiter and defensive guy. Scrap this whole sum of parts nonsense. Recruit real difference makers. Tell them what they want to hear at times. Hire a basketball GM, remove Mark Fox (LOL) from that position. Bring someone with real business acumen in. Who can help/guide players and coaches with NIL. The team needs to be ran like a business. This is the commonwealth’s religion and team.
Click to expand...
so.......hire Cal?
 
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B

buc puppet

All-Conference
Mar 22, 2004
678
1,221
92
It's way too early to freak out. But I feel like this thing could swing bad before it does good. This has a woodson/Indiana feel to it and maybe even a doherty/UNC feel. Hire the hometown hero and win the press conference. Then what? When you cut through it all you've hired a coach who hasn't really won before and has never recruited elite talent. If he had not played here then he would have never been considered. Last year was a lot of fun and cannot be discounted. But right now we are in Hell.
 
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T

TTTblue24

All-Conference
Feb 1, 2004
3,613
2,026
113
Still not sure what exactly hart does, what recruits has he brought in with all these “connections” we heard about. The bench can be a great motivator regardless of the money these players are making, I’ll ride with heart and hustle and want to vs entitlement and bank accounts. If players aren’t willing to buy in and truly show that fire and drive like last year, then they can ride the bench or leave if they want.
 
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K

Ky_Bred_Cat

All-Conference
Dec 28, 2014
2,112
3,915
113
This may just take throwing the original plan in the trash and starting over from scratch. Ditch the 30 3's per game strategy and base playing time on who's playing defense and showing the most hustle and potential. This would mean the coach actually ignoring names on the back of jerseys and focusing solely on the front.
 
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B

bleedsblue5

Senior
Jul 1, 2025
190
445
63
UKBB4Ever said:
How do you fix this? I'm certain Pope wants to win. So it would follow he's doing everything he knows to change this. It's not working.

We aren't even competing. How do you put the desire to win in a player? I've never seen someone gain that. They either have it or they don't. Pope has put together a whole team of those guys. He had to see that in the recruiting process. Yet he took them anyway.
Click to expand...
The guys that seem to be hungry imo is as follows.
Denzel, Chandler, Moreno, Mo, and Noah (Noah is just limited)
Out of the rest that I think could maybe be coached in to some fire with mins? - Cam and Jelly.
After that the other guys just need to sit until they can prove they really want it.
I will take my losses with the above guys. Sit Otega and Garrison along with Johnson until they really want it.
 
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RunninRichie

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
27,809
65,723
113
bleedsblue5 said:
The guys that seem to be hungry imo is as follows.
Denzel, Chandler, Moreno, Mo, and Noah (Noah is just limited)
Out of the rest that I think could maybe be coached in to some fire with mins? - Cam and Jelly.
After that the other guys just need to sit until they can prove they really want it.
I will take my losses with the above guys. Sit Otega and Garrison along with Johnson until they really want it.
Click to expand...
Rotation should be, Jelly, Mo, Moreno, Denzel, Chandler, Noah, Kam.
 
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H

HogCoyote

All-Conference
Jan 20, 2013
964
1,254
93
It can be fixed but he's got to stop stroking kid's egos letting them scrimmage for shoes, get out of running by winning a game of Call of Duty. He's going to have to start motivating them by putting their butt on the bench and leaving them there. Brandon Garrison doesn't want to play defense or rebound or cut the right way, fine put your shooting shirt on and take a seat. Otega Oweh, you don't wanna play hounding defense and play in the flow of the offense, you want to go one on one and show off that broke jumper for the NBA scouts fine, show it off on the bench and draw you NIL over here while you watch your draft stock plummet. Either buy in or sit down. No more Mr Nice Guy. Its time to play to the Kentucky standard or sit down til you prove you have the passion for the program on your chest and not the name on your back. That's how Mark Pope fixes this.
 
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Burly Peters

Burly Peters

Senior
Jul 4, 2025
232
512
93
No. And I say that because of what I'm seeing and hearing from Pope. Someone who had resolve to get this in hand would need to cut the cancer out of that locker room and get to coaching up what's left. Go scorched earth and build it back up. I don't think Pope has that in him. Clearly.
 
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U

UKBB4Ever

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
1,018
1,609
113
bleedsblue5 said:
The guys that seem to be hungry imo is as follows.
Denzel, Chandler, Moreno, Mo, and Noah (Noah is just limited)
Out of the rest that I think could maybe be coached in to some fire with mins? - Cam and Jelly.
After that the other guys just need to sit until they can prove they really want it.
I will take my losses with the above guys. Sit Otega and Garrison along with Johnson until they really want it.
Click to expand...

bleedsblue5 said:
The guys that seem to be hungry imo is as follows.
Denzel, Chandler, Moreno, Mo, and Noah (Noah is just limited)
Out of the rest that I think could maybe be coached in to some fire with mins? - Cam and Jelly.
After that the other guys just need to sit until they can prove they really want it.
I will take my losses with the above guys. Sit Otega and Garrison along with Johnson until they really want it.
Click to expand...
OK. That's fine with me. Something has to be done. I'm doubting there will be. And Pope won't be asking us anyway.
 
H

HogCoyote

All-Conference
Jan 20, 2013
964
1,254
93
RunninRichie said:
Rotation should be, Jelly, Mo, Moreno, Denzel, Chandler, Noah, Kam.
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Can someone explain to me what people have seen in Jelly? It took me a few minutes to even figure out who you all were talking about. But all I've seen him do is get beat on defense, stand around on offense and miss open 3s. So what big effort things have you all seen that I missed? Maybe I was too hyper focused on other lazy efforts from other players to see the great things Jelly was doing in these games, so I genuinely would like to know.
 
RunninRichie

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
27,809
65,723
113
HogCoyote said:
Can someone explain to me what people have seen in Jelly? It took me a few minutes to even figure out who you all were talking about. But all I've seen him do is get beat on defense, stand around on offense and miss open 3s. So what big effort things have you all seen that I missed? Maybe I was too hyper focused on other lazy efforts from other players to see the great things Jelly was doing in these games, so I genuinely would like to know.
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He can shoot and rebound. Better than BG.
 
K

Ky_Bred_Cat

All-Conference
Dec 28, 2014
2,112
3,915
113
Just curious (haven't considered this until now) with NIL is the school obligated in any way to retain players, or is their money free and clear and they can be let go? I haven't heard of this happening anywhere and it would be terrible from an optics standpoint.
 
BlueBlood96Cat

BlueBlood96Cat

All-Conference
Jan 5, 2022
2,679
4,708
113
bleedsblue5 said:
The guys that seem to be hungry imo is as follows.
Denzel, Chandler, Moreno, Mo, and Noah (Noah is just limited)
Out of the rest that I think could maybe be coached in to some fire with mins? - Cam and Jelly.
After that the other guys just need to sit until they can prove they really want it.
I will take my losses with the above guys. Sit Otega and Garrison along with Johnson until they really want it.
Click to expand...
Love Collin but let’s be honest. He’s supposed to be the 10th guy at a program like Kentucky. I’ll give him credit I seen his face red and he had some fire about him. He looked like the only one irritated to be down twenty. All summer I wasn’t under the impression that Collin Chandler was gonna be our main peice. As much as I love him we are fooked. I can’t keep tryna say nice things about players I don’t feel are UK level.

He’s a good peice to have off the bench like I said as a 9th 10th guy to make them griddy energy plays. At no point in time should that be the caliber of player Kentucky is rolling out there.

I remember when we had the Cub Scout molester dude running point. This feels like the same without the Cub Scout stuff.
 
Ukwazoo3

Ukwazoo3

Senior
Jul 6, 2025
220
531
93
Ky_Bred_Cat said:
Just curious (haven't considered this until now) with NIL is the school obligated in any way to retain players, or is their money free and clear and they can be let go? I haven't heard of this happening anywhere and it would be terrible from an optics standpoint.
Click to expand...
I don't know, but I guess if we just booted them, they'd still collect it all. Unless they were booted for not following rules, etc. But I have no idea.
 
B

buc puppet

All-Conference
Mar 22, 2004
678
1,221
92
BlueBlood96Cat said:
Love Collin but let’s be honest. He’s supposed to be the 10th guy at a program like Kentucky. I’ll give him credit I seen his face red and he had some fire about him. He looked like the only one irritated to be down twenty. All summer I wasn’t under the impression that Collin Chandler was gonna be our main peice. As much as I love him we are fooked. I can’t keep tryna say nice things about players I don’t feel are UK level.

He’s a good peice to have off the bench like I said as a 9th 10th guy to make them griddy energy plays. At no point in time should that be the caliber of player Kentucky is rolling out there.

I remember when we had the Cub Scout molester dude running point. This feels like the same without the Cub Scout stuff.
Click to expand...
Yeah he is basically Derek Willis. But he is being asked to be Malik Monk
 
RunninRichie

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
27,809
65,723
113
BlueBlood96Cat said:
Love Collin but let’s be honest. He’s supposed to be the 10th guy at a program like Kentucky. I’ll give him credit I seen his face red and he had some fire about him. He looked like the only one irritated to be down twenty. All summer I wasn’t under the impression that Collin Chandler was gonna be our main peice. As much as I love him we are fooked. I can’t keep tryna say nice things about players I don’t feel are UK level.

He’s a good peice to have off the bench like I said as a 9th 10th guy to make them griddy energy plays. At no point in time should that be the caliber of player Kentucky is rolling out there.

I remember when we had the Cub Scout molester dude running point. This feels like the same without the Cub Scout stuff.
Click to expand...
He’s a sniper and good defender. He’d be the 7th man off the bench on great UK teams.
 
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KentuckyStout

KentuckyStout

Heisman
Sep 13, 2009
10,555
19,802
65
No.
Apparently the off-season was an all systems failure. You can’t and won’t fix this during a season. We couldn’t see it, but the problems manifest in this go far beyond making adjustments or tweaking anything.

Kentucky Basketball blew a head gasket. All it can do is keep pouring oil and water into it in order to make it to its destination, which will be a merciful end to this season.

This is going to be a brutal season. At the end of it there will continue to be many more questions than there are answers. We are nearly a full decade into an era of steep decline, and this program may never climb back out of it.
 
B

bleedsblue5

Senior
Jul 1, 2025
190
445
63
I think Cam Williams HAS to play more. I want Denzel, Chandler, Cam, Mo and Moreno with the mojarity of the mins. First guys off the bench are the ones that show in practice how much they want it.
 
BlueBlood96Cat

BlueBlood96Cat

All-Conference
Jan 5, 2022
2,679
4,708
113
KentuckyStout said:
No.
Apparently the off-season was an all systems failure. You can’t and won’t fix this during a season. We couldn’t see it, but the problems manifest in this go far beyond making adjustments or tweaking anything.

Kentucky Basketball blew a head gasket. All it can do is keep pouring oil and water into it in order to make it to its destination, which will be a merciful end to this season.

This is going to be a brutal season. At the end of it there will continue to be many more questions than there are answers. We are nearly a full decade into an era of steep decline, and this program may never climb back out of it.
Click to expand...
I asked not long ago are we turning into Indiana right before our eyes?
 
KentuckyStout

KentuckyStout

Heisman
Sep 13, 2009
10,555
19,802
65
BlueBlood96Cat said:
I asked not long ago are we turning into Indiana right before our eyes?
Click to expand...

We are in exactly that same trajectory and it comes down to the people in the administration.

Mitch Barnhart is a cancer - it’s people like him in administrations that are program destroyers. He has set Kentucky basketball back a full decade.

Kentucky Basketball will continue to decline, as will Kentucky Football as long as he and others like him are involved.
 
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F

Farsight Clone

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
1,029
1,978
103
RunninRichie said:
Kick Oweh and Garrison off the team. Fire Jason Hart/Cody Fueger bring in a recruiter and defensive guy. Scrap this whole sum of parts nonsense. Recruit real difference makers. Tell them what they want to hear at times. Hire a basketball GM, remove Mark Fox (LOL) from that position. Bring someone with real business acumen in. Who can help/guide players and coaches with NIL. The team needs to be ran like a business. This is the commonwealth’s religion and team.
Click to expand...
Bench them first with limited minutes. Then don't play them. Then kick them off the team. Needs to show progression. But other than that, I do agree.
 
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