Just like last year, Pope over promised before the season started. This time though he got a little bit ahead of himself, talking about championship caliber team similar to 96-98 teams. Perhaps he got self blinded by the exorbitant NIL payroll of 22 M, thinking that if analytically the pieces seems to work , they will work in reality. Building a team is a tricky business. Last year he didn’t have much time to overthink, and he got the best available players , which also were super seniors who could learn his system on a fly….
This year is not working yet because :
1) returning players development and freshmen is way behind expectations . Chandler is the only one that shows an improvement but I suspect that is more because now he has a year of basketball under his belt than anything else. So, do we have the right helpers next to Pope on the bench ?
2) After the last year PG debacle , Pope didn’t learn . In his analytics maybe the PG position is not as important but this is hurting the team For a second year in a row.
3) Right after TN NCAA game, I was pleading that if Chandler, Noah , Garrison or Perry will play significant minutes this year we will not be good. Perry left us, Chandler , Garrison and Noah are still here. Okay Chandler is maybe an energy guy from bench but should not be a starter.
We did not get any starters from Portal for championship team . Everything we got were subs. The only starter we had one the team for getting number 9 is Oweh. However, he mentally, skills and attitude wise regressed big time after the nba feedback and new upgraded nil Paycheck.
4) the schedule was build heavy upfront , with little breaks between important games , which makes me wonder if Pope overestimated this team timeline development or he didn’t pay attention. The preparation for some games UL, MS and Gonzaga was horrible.
5) Pope is not sure what to do. I suspect that last year he consulted with Coach P, BUT this year they are playing each other….when you dont have the shooters to run your offense , as an experienced and smart coach you could adjust your offense and defense to fit the players you got for 22 M. Pope needs to go back to do drawing board and make adjustments based on the personal. He needs to assign coaches to specific players for development.
6} Pope and staff ‘s body language on the bench and side line is too passive and defeated. You cannot ask players to have a great body language when 6 coaches look defeated . These are not adults even if they received nil paychecks. These are young players that need to be demanded excellence. But that starts with coaches. Did Pope or any assistant got at least a warning from Refs this year? When coaches on the bench don’t show a pulse , how is the team supposed to improve or show any fight ?
I previously said that Coach Pope would need at least 2-3 years to develop the program. Unfortunately, Coach Pope over promised and overspend this summer , to the point where he lost a lot of the goodwill he had last year. I like Coach Pope but he needs to toughen up and make some decisions, on the personal ( coaching and players).
This season is still long, let’s make it more pleasant and develop these players, make some changes in the game strategy and win some games against ranked opponents. Starting next week Kentucky will not be ranked. We need to be strategic about our next games and Ws.
This year is not working yet because :
1) returning players development and freshmen is way behind expectations . Chandler is the only one that shows an improvement but I suspect that is more because now he has a year of basketball under his belt than anything else. So, do we have the right helpers next to Pope on the bench ?
2) After the last year PG debacle , Pope didn’t learn . In his analytics maybe the PG position is not as important but this is hurting the team For a second year in a row.
3) Right after TN NCAA game, I was pleading that if Chandler, Noah , Garrison or Perry will play significant minutes this year we will not be good. Perry left us, Chandler , Garrison and Noah are still here. Okay Chandler is maybe an energy guy from bench but should not be a starter.
We did not get any starters from Portal for championship team . Everything we got were subs. The only starter we had one the team for getting number 9 is Oweh. However, he mentally, skills and attitude wise regressed big time after the nba feedback and new upgraded nil Paycheck.
4) the schedule was build heavy upfront , with little breaks between important games , which makes me wonder if Pope overestimated this team timeline development or he didn’t pay attention. The preparation for some games UL, MS and Gonzaga was horrible.
5) Pope is not sure what to do. I suspect that last year he consulted with Coach P, BUT this year they are playing each other….when you dont have the shooters to run your offense , as an experienced and smart coach you could adjust your offense and defense to fit the players you got for 22 M. Pope needs to go back to do drawing board and make adjustments based on the personal. He needs to assign coaches to specific players for development.
6} Pope and staff ‘s body language on the bench and side line is too passive and defeated. You cannot ask players to have a great body language when 6 coaches look defeated . These are not adults even if they received nil paychecks. These are young players that need to be demanded excellence. But that starts with coaches. Did Pope or any assistant got at least a warning from Refs this year? When coaches on the bench don’t show a pulse , how is the team supposed to improve or show any fight ?
I previously said that Coach Pope would need at least 2-3 years to develop the program. Unfortunately, Coach Pope over promised and overspend this summer , to the point where he lost a lot of the goodwill he had last year. I like Coach Pope but he needs to toughen up and make some decisions, on the personal ( coaching and players).
This season is still long, let’s make it more pleasant and develop these players, make some changes in the game strategy and win some games against ranked opponents. Starting next week Kentucky will not be ranked. We need to be strategic about our next games and Ws.
