Wayyy too early to know that imo. We will find out — in my mind, we have the roster THIS year to know whether Pope is that dude or not. I caught flak for saying it but I don’t care —- we lose 10 games this year and my confidence majorly drops.
Jaland Lowe hurt?
- Thread starter ComebackCats98
- Start date
Damn. One second, we were the deepest team in the country, no injuries could derail this team, then bam… down our best pg and it feels like a bigger blow than it should be.
We know Aberdeen can fill in, but all eyes are on JJ. He needs to grow up quickly. He has skills, but he has to stop trying to be Steph Curry. He has to run the offense and let the ball cycle back to him before he pulls the trigger. Ball needs to touch the paint first.
We can get through this, but JJ is the key.
It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do with Lowe. If he has to have surgery, he's done.
I do wish Pope brought in another elite level pg, that's the most important position.
We know Aberdeen can fill in, but all eyes are on JJ. He needs to grow up quickly. He has skills, but he has to stop trying to be Steph Curry. He has to run the offense and let the ball cycle back to him before he pulls the trigger. Ball needs to touch the paint first.
We can get through this, but JJ is the key.
It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do with Lowe. If he has to have surgery, he's done.
I do wish Pope brought in another elite level pg, that's the most important position.
Man seriously tho. And it puts me in a hard place because I absolutely love Pope and want him to succeed but this nice stuff really bothers me. Like really really bothers me. You don’t have to yell all game or yell at all. Just quit being Mr Rodgers like you said. Seriously you can’t win like that.
Tennessees point guard said F Kentucky then proceeded to destroy us in the tournament. Louisville says F Kentucky and then embarrassed us. You have to get mean. This is my main complaint with Pope.
Take away what players we have or don’t have. Get some fire about yourself. Kentucky isn’t a sportsmanship award job. That’s why I said Bruce Pearl would win a championship here.
oh yea I forgot he’s too sleazy for our oh so morally right program and state.
That's fair. I think the next three months will tell us everything we need to know about what Pope's teams are made of. People say, "he needs time." Not when you have a $22 million dollar roster.
St. John's, MSU, UNC, Indiana, and Gonzaga. I could see UK dropping 2 of those which would put us at 3 losses in the pre-SEC conference. With Lowe now made of glass, it could get interesting. Road games at Florida and Arkansas don't look promising. UK will drop 2-3 other road games. Probably will drop 1 or 2 home games.
Ten losses is not out of the question.
If it happens, Pope gets one more year to turn it around and seriously contend for a Final Four. I am not a fan of how they assembled this overpriced roster.
Last edited:
Not being a crappy fan or negative for no reason… but from the eye test my honest opinion we will lose more games than last year and be a lower seed. We over achieved last year with that group imo.
What's scary is that Johnson is the guy who I was hoping would be taken out of the rotation before the Lowe injury. He's a gunner who can't play defense and offers very little when his shot is off.
I was hoping Kam Williams would start getting Johnson's minutes. But I think you're right. Johnson will probably get point guard minutes now, and that absolutely terrifies me with Michigan State, Gonzaga and UNC on the horizon.
He did he hurt his finger I saw on a thread back in the summer whenever he was at Pitt and then had another injury. Kid is very injury prone
We gave up 96 points. People are rightfully gonna be upset about that
Nah.
Dude has a $22 million dollar salary cap, and he still hasn't landed a single top 10 kid.
That matters.
Then he went out and landed a bunch of non shooters to bring into a system that is heavily reliant upon shooting.
That matters.
We have a regular Pope Legion of Doom starting here. By the way, Tubby had teams sniffing in 2003, 2004 and 2005 that were stopped by injury, refs and bad luck. Just saying.
He’s gonna have to be better than Tubby. Tubby was far below Kentucky standards. And I’m a huge fan of the ‘03 and ‘04 teams btw
None of that matters either. He went to tge sweet 16 with a team he built from scratch. Thats the only thing that matters. His peers would just call those people idiot fans
Well, why do you think we gave up 96 points? (Never make a strawman of your opponent, make a steel man. That’s the power of pure intellectualism).
03 was deadly. Nasty freaking defense. Best team in the country that year.
Tubby had bad knees though. Couldn’t kneel to the AAU.
I love Tubby, my friend. Tayshaun Prince is my all-time favorite player. ‘03 was the exception, not the rule in the Smith era.
99 we were a 3 seed
00 we were a 5 seed
01 we lost in the S16 and lost double digit games
02 we were a disappointing 4 seed
03 and 04 were good years despite failure to reach FF
05 was a pretty good year by UK standards
06 and 07 we stunk, 8 seed both years
Tubby was a sub-par UK coach
The pace of play by both teams and quality of shot making led to the 96 points. We weren't ran off the floor, it was a good game. If we had scored 97 points, you wouldn't say jack diddly about 96 points. You are just looking for something to whine about after a loss. We played a tough team in their building, while we were shorthanded. There are only a handful of teams in America that would have had a chance to win in that building as well as they shot it last night.
Do not forget ... if you do not win the SEC tourney or the NCAA ... that is 2 more losses.
So you thought the defense was good? It was just because of pace? Did you review the film?
Y’all must be kids with how much you are hyping up a season where we lost double digit games and got our *** kicked in the sweet 16
No, because Moreno is just as good, if not better right now. Garrison is what he is. I'd say most people would agree with this sentiment.
I do agree that MOST PEOPLE are saying it. Hell, even KSR said it in the Rapid Reaction after the game. My challenge to you is this: sometimes things become agreed upon but aren’t true. Go rewatch the game and compare how we were playing defensively while BG was in the game and while MM was in the game. Then, during each play ask yourself what we are trying to do versus what we are accomplishing. You might find BG is doing a lot that goes under appreciated.
Saw the game and reviewed the film. I thought we had good moments and bad moments defensively. Kind of looked like a team playing their 3rd game. I doubt Pope loses any sleep over wanna be critics film studies
Certainly not a kid, just not a spoiled, unreasonable fan
Considering Pearl retired a year after we almost hired him, I think it’s unlikely he would’ve been our coach for even 5 years.
Obviously it’s early to be making any sweeping proclamations on Pope and his ability to get the job done. I think he’s a smart guy who will figure it out, and what he lacks in “edge” he may be able to make up for with his drive and desire to succeed in his dream job.
That said, in the event it doesn’t work out, I will be keeping an eye on Will Wade. Edge, grit, a nasty streak, mean, call it what you will, he has it. Of course Barnhart will never hire him, but surely MB is on the verge of retirement…
Hold on, you’re strawmanning again. I don’t think Pope does or should lose sleep about what film junkies think lol. Cmon, big bro — it isn’t necessary to take a nasty tone over a basketball disagreement. What Pope should lose sleep over is his defensive gameplan. It was bad. He knows it and he will fix it, or at least I’d hope.
vs. Louisville
Moreno played 17 minutes:
8 points, 5 rebounds
Garrison played 23 minutes:
3 points, 6 rebounds
vs. Valpo
Moreno played 21 minutes
18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists
Garrison played 18 minutes
12 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
vs. Nicholls
Moreno played 17 minutes
5 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist
Garrison played 23 minutes
8 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist
Garrison has played 63 minutes
Moreno has played 55 minutes
Going off that, Moreno has outscored and outrebounded Garrison. Garrison is yet to show any improvement from last year. Moreno already appears more polished after only 3 college appearances. Garrison obviously needs minutes, but Moreno leads him in what I would consider the two most important statistical categories for a big man. Neither of them are potent rim protectors.
I mean I’m the NIL era….might as well get the one making strong *** offers before it was legal. Boy what he would do here!! I’m game. Seriously UK needs a little bit of a slime ball. No sarcasm. I don’t want our head coach to win a Nobel peace prize.
Garrison is an inferior rebounder and scorer to Moreno…we don’t disagree there.
Stop with 22 million BS. No one knows what any team paid for any player except that player and team. It's all speculation. Some.people believe anything
Realistically, UofL scored 1.3 points per possession, and they missed 7 straight FTs at the end. You’re not going to win many games when you give that up on defense. I and others looked at the turnovers after the game and said well, we cut those down and we likely win. Maybe, but if you look at total possessions Louisville only had one more than UK, it was the defense that lost that game. 88 points ought to be enough.
The good news is if we get a healthy JQ back this season, we might have the best defensive big in CBB.
I agree with you 90%. I said before the season, I won’t worry about a Pope team having a bad offense until it happens. Defense on the other hand, remains to be seen, and I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the players who show out on that end.
However, my caveat is Garrison doesn’t rebound very well for a center. And you can play the best defense imaginable but the defensive possession doesn’t end until the ball is in your hands…
Edit—I read further down the thread and see where you said you believe Moreno is the better rebounder. So maybe we agree even more than 90%, ha
Last edited:
Im not taking a tone fella, just disagreeing with what I think is an absurd argument 3 games into the year
He isn’t an elite rebounder. No argument from me there. If you can’t switch on defense because your big is getting zipped by for layups though the rebounding doesn’t help so much. I’m thinking Mo at center could be an option if Pope is brave enough
I know it's JJ's style to play that way, but that way doesn’t work at this level unless you are truly elite at this level.
JJ has shown he can get to the rim and he's actually very crafty when he gets there, but his issue is, he's wired to score, but if he's going to run point, he needs to focus on getting assists.
IDK, Pope is supposed to be good at getting guys to adjust, hopefully he can do it in short order with JJ.