Was super specific on all the injuries and gave time tables. (Lowe fully practicing (questionable tomorrow), Mo maybe next week (has torn ligament), JQ aced strength test and practicing vs low level competition). He also acknowledged right now we are not a good team but we have potential to be a great time. Talked about the offensive flaws and how they are improving them. Overall great press conference for Pope and I am excited to see how we figure things out. And when we are fully healthy I still have us against any team in the nation. Video
Pope had a great press conference today
- Thread starter BigBlueBuckets
- Start date
I thought he had good press conference as well. He had a lot more energy and I felt like he was straight about the team having a problem and he intends to fix it. I hope he does!
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Enjoy the journey! Bumps in this one. Hopefully getting ready to straighten it out.
If they can start getting it right makes the season even more interesting , dramatic and eventually enjoyable.
Good to hear he’s forging ahead and feels we can be great.
If they can start getting it right makes the season even more interesting , dramatic and eventually enjoyable.
Good to hear he’s forging ahead and feels we can be great.
I think he inadvertently assuaged a lot of fan fears by addressing things so directly. Hopefully, he keeps it up. Would like to hear what exactly we're doing to fix the alleged conditioning issues and the glaring offensive issues, but recognition that there's a problem and that it's not all sunshine and rainbows right now is a great start.
Pope will have the last laugh and his detractors will slink away like Bill Murray after blowing up a golf course.
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Nothing but excuses this team should have already been ready.
You’ll be the first to suddenly go quiet when your fun goes away and we get healthy. Your low hanging fruit will be gone and so will you.
Cope with Pope, Baller. If we win/turn it around, I'll be here cheering the team on. Just like last season. While you'll be on your 10th account...
Nothing has led me to believe we can turn this around. Poor roster construction, Pope not clicking with recruits. Getting blown off the court. Taking million dollar flyers on guys with ACL tears. Looking defeated after MSU. It's hallmarks of a rookie coach. Let's not forget the rumored team/staff turmoil. Paying 2-3 million for Brandon Garrison. Last season was fine. But, there were also lots of warts. Losing to Calipari in Rupp, getting blown off the court by Ohio state, being down in pretty much every major game. But rallying to come back. The ole miss game. Coming out with 0 energy in some games. The red flags were there. We just had better players to cover up for that. Andrew Carr, Lamont Butler, and Koby Brea arent walking through that door.
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Lol, we're to the point that we are having to celebrate press conferences because everything else is going so poorly.
"Guys, just ignore the fact we suck because Pope was great in his press conference. He told me what I wanted to hear. That means we're back baby and you're all suckers for ever doubting him because of this awesome press conference!"
Wtf happened to UK basketball?
"Guys, just ignore the fact we suck because Pope was great in his press conference. He told me what I wanted to hear. That means we're back baby and you're all suckers for ever doubting him because of this awesome press conference!"
Wtf happened to UK basketball?
Its December 4th. Let the season play out for God sake
This post title alone means we've sunken to a new low.
I do not like us against any of the top five even fully healthy, even finally having our system mastered, and that's in an impossible world where Lowe is not only healthy but reliably healthy long term.
But I still love our coach and I still love our guys.
But I still love our coach and I still love our guys.
Glad hes more upbeat which tells me lowe is about to play.
That said, not a fan of him characterizing the high ankle sprain as a torn ligament. While its technically true, he obviously chose that verbage to make it sound worse than it is to give the situation more cover. So we will see how this plays out.
I just hope we get one of these games. This has potential to really go off rails if we keep losing, and the road doesn't get better.
That said, not a fan of him characterizing the high ankle sprain as a torn ligament. While its technically true, he obviously chose that verbage to make it sound worse than it is to give the situation more cover. So we will see how this plays out.
I just hope we get one of these games. This has potential to really go off rails if we keep losing, and the road doesn't get better.
With Pope, we need less talk and more action! I’d like to see a big win tonight 
We all do, a lot of us have lost faith that he is the guy. That said, all of us hope he proves those of us wrong and becomes the coach we all want him to be. Everyone wants him to succeed. We all love him and he is a true Cat for life.
Then just ignore everything he says he didn't make excuse You have been unbearable this year. I don't know what's got into you but all you do is spur negative ****. We are all frustrated with results but one or two to do better. I don't get that feeling from you at all.
All they were talking about was the press conference and thought it was a good approach of having one some of you guys just look for **** to *****. About
Here's the thing he still has to do these press conferences if he doesn't say anything or says it the wrong way everybody bitches about for this time it was more straightforward and upbeat, and everybody still bitchesWith Pope, we need less talk and more action! I’d like to see a big win tonight
I’m tired of UK spinning in the mud. Im restless.
I actually feel the same way its just that some people are just so toxic in the way they put down this team and coach so early in the year. I know for a fact some want him to fail because of their illogical worshiping of Cal
I think we've entered the phase of annoyance where EVERYTHING Pope says is evaluated for hidden intent and finding more reason to be upset with him.
"Technically true"=True.
A severe high ankle sprain=at least partial tearing of the ligament. Most high ankle sprains aren't returning to play in a week or two. If you do fantasy football, guys miss huge chunks of time over a high ankle sprain. Guys go on 4 week IR for a high ankle sprain.
I don't think there's some hidden agenda or punishment or whatever. I think we saw a 200+ lb guy fall on Mo's ankle. Mo's injury is real. And he's recovering as expected.
If we were winning, people wouldn't have the doubts. We're losing, people are upset. So everything becomes another Pope failure.
And I was talking about the need to hype up press conferences when we the on the court product sucks, but here you are looking for **** to ***** about as you say.
Say what you will be Richie ain’t running! Nothing wrong with expecting better than what we’ve got so far. Pope knows it. Stop making excuses for him.
Literally no one conversationally describes a high ankle sprain as a tear.
I don't mean to have some big drawn out argument over how coaches speak when describing injuries.
Fact: Some high ankle sprains involve some degree of tearing of the ligament.
Fact: Mo has a high ankle sprain.
Fact: Pope said there is a ligament tear.
I would argue the piece of semantics that actually matters here when he says "ligament tear," he could mean partial tear not a complete tear.
I don't know that "Pope said something I've never heard another coach say" really means anything here. All the facts line up. You're just mad he didn't describe it the way that you're used to hearing.
FWIW, I'm a Primary care physician in the sticks. I'm not an orthopedist. But I diagnose and manage a great deal of sports related injuries.
I just don't hear a coach say "ligament tear" and think he's trying to trick us or do something bad for his own benefit. He's telling you the severity of the sprain. If I had an MRI that showed a partial tear, I'd tell the patient and their family that they have a partially torn ligament. Because that's true.
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Well I will give him props if that's how he handled it.
You know, trying to be fair.. I'll say this. It IS his 2nd year. And we probably should have switched these two seasons, where last season was off to a slow start, and this season was stronger. But that doesn't always happen. I try to apply the same logic with Cal and any other coach, to Pope. Not every year is going to be great, and last year might have spoiled us a bit, in a coaching process that probably should take a few seasons.
What I want to see more than anything is him control the team, have them playing the whole 40 minutes, and have them engaged. Everything else can be fixed (recruiting, work on defense, etc). But that is what we have to see more than anything, and we have to see it if he wants to continue to coach here. He has have control of the team.
You know, trying to be fair.. I'll say this. It IS his 2nd year. And we probably should have switched these two seasons, where last season was off to a slow start, and this season was stronger. But that doesn't always happen. I try to apply the same logic with Cal and any other coach, to Pope. Not every year is going to be great, and last year might have spoiled us a bit, in a coaching process that probably should take a few seasons.
What I want to see more than anything is him control the team, have them playing the whole 40 minutes, and have them engaged. Everything else can be fixed (recruiting, work on defense, etc). But that is what we have to see more than anything, and we have to see it if he wants to continue to coach here. He has have control of the team.
This is probably the most honest, fair post I've read.
We should have found a way to beat UNC. 10 minutes without a FG is unacceptable. We honestly could have beaten Michigan State if guys didn't just sleep walk through the game.
When I watched Caleb Wilson vs us, the guy was DESPERATE for those rebounds. Every ball off the rim, he looked like it was the last 5 seconds of the game and he was trailing.
We don't have to have Calen Wilson. But if our guys had his rebounding mentality and effort, we would have beaten UNC. I honestly think that would have helped us beat Michigan State also.
And I do absolutely think Pope deserves hell that they're not locked in. They're not rebounding like the game depends on it. There's always another rebound. Someone else will get it. There's another 30 games. We can try hard on the next one. I have ZERO doubt he sees the problem and is upset about it and trying to fix it. But...you just can't have this.
The other stuff: most of it can and will get better. You can't expect Pope to land ANYONE for his 1st season. He showed up in April. Not a lot of uncommitted HS kids. Portal is already popping off. It is what it is. Ideally he could start that year and land guys for 2025. But you're already behind the other HC's that have been digging their roots in with those recruits. I think you really have to give him until next season.
He doesn't have access to 3 guys that are supposed to start. I know everyone is going to say "This is Kentucky, no Excuses, we win games." But the Lakers lose when they're missing starters. The Celtics lose when they're missing starters. Kansas loses when Kansas misses starters. I don't know that Kentucky on the front of the jersey has some pixie dust magic that makes us unbeatable when we're starting guys that were never supposed to start.
And again, we can blame him on the roster construction. But we've seen the starting PG for 1.5 games. People are mad as hell that we don't have a backup PG, but then say Lowe isn't going to matter anyways. We haven't seen the expected lottery pick big man AT ALL.
If you want to hammer him for Brandon Garrison--do it. He thought the kid would take a leap. He hasn't. But a few week ago it was "Pope is just too nice to bench kids that need benched." And then BG's minutes have gone down all the way to 9.
I appreciate his honesty. But this is the bottom line: we're not gonna be fully healthy for at least a couple weeks. We're very likely to lose every game against good competition for the rest of December. We're likely to be 6-7 or 7-6 at best heading into SEC play. Even when we get healthy, we'll need another couple weeks, most likely, to adjust to the additional players. That means going .500 in a good SEC is likely. So, where are we? On the outside looking in regarding the NCAA-T and needing to win the SEC-T to get a poor seed. Chances of improving upon last season's results are slim. Chances of avoiding another injury are almost NIL. We are an average, at best, team, barely in the top 50. Do we really want honesty or have our ears tickled?
I really appreciate the honesty. This is not a good team at all. And who is feeling sorry for us and promising to take it easy on us? Nobody. Even when fully healthy, how good is this team? Dioubate can't shoot outside 5 feet. Jalend Lowe is a better distributor of the basketball but he's a sub-25% shooter. Quaintance might be an NBA talent, but how much can he add in what will surely be short minutes off the bench halfway through the season? This season is a wash, a bust. I hate it. It would take a miracle for this team to have a good finish.
And let's face this- Gonzaga will destroy this team tonight. If we're within10pts of them at the end, many will be saying it's a moral victory.
I really appreciate the honesty. This is not a good team at all. And who is feeling sorry for us and promising to take it easy on us? Nobody. Even when fully healthy, how good is this team? Dioubate can't shoot outside 5 feet. Jalend Lowe is a better distributor of the basketball but he's a sub-25% shooter. Quaintance might be an NBA talent, but how much can he add in what will surely be short minutes off the bench halfway through the season? This season is a wash, a bust. I hate it. It would take a miracle for this team to have a good finish.
And let's face this- Gonzaga will destroy this team tonight. If we're within10pts of them at the end, many will be saying it's a moral victory.
Pope understands the assignment. One thing is for sure the guy is very smart.
I applaud Pope for working to have a schedule full of games that UK fans are excited about playing
It sucks he can't have the team we wants out on the floor during this with injuries. I thought we had a legitimate final four contender with this team, and maybe that was a reach taking all things into consideration but I'm still convinced UK is an elite team and will compete in the SEC for the championship. We aren't now but we are 2 weeks away from getting there. - unless we get another injury
It sucks he can't have the team we wants out on the floor during this with injuries. I thought we had a legitimate final four contender with this team, and maybe that was a reach taking all things into consideration but I'm still convinced UK is an elite team and will compete in the SEC for the championship. We aren't now but we are 2 weeks away from getting there. - unless we get another injury