Pope still believes (coaches show)
- Thread starter TheResistance
- Start date
You need talent at least a couple first rounders one a top ten pick. The last coach had the right formula until he packed it in after 2015. Mark popes coaching abilities well he’s no tubby smith who could with without talent. Mark needs a loaded roster to win it appears. He couldn’t get it at byu bc of their restrictions he said. The actual problem is his personal culture doesn’t not lend itself to bringing in dawgs. Mark has brought in alot of players with mental baggage this season. They are all 3-4-5th choices. He has nothing established for next season. No recruits. Players have been struggling to pull the trigger on UK and then the losing started.
Like making the choice to continue to play violin music as the ship is sinking?You can, it's your choice
Sure, you made a choice, but does that choice change reality?
Well we see what a whole team of role players get you.... Right now we sit at 7-4 and 0-4 against ranked teams..... I believe we need a few star players to go with some role players. What we don't need again next year is a team full of all role players...
Recruiting is dead. We will have to hit the portal again next year. There's no culture being built here. But, we beat Indiana.
I don’t know the guy at all, but my feeling has been that the responsibility falls at the feet of the UK President, for the most part.
I don’t get the impression that he’s well-aligned with the sentiments of our fanbase.
True if we don't get Collins and Stokes we are done next year and we will be right back where we are now.... We will have to settle for 3rd and 4th strings at every position again.... So definitely recruiting is dead cause we aren't getting Stokes and Collins!
Not just the high school ranks. We whiff on portal stars too.
I don’t think so. But who knows really. I thought Sharpe would play also.
What is your definition of reality? Then I can answer your doom n f..king gloom question
Yeah, I agree. They're not a good shooting team. But I do think at least part of the brick-laying is mental. When they're feeling good, suddenly everyone can shoot. Look at these 3pt shooting stats in individual games...
Valparaiso: 1st half: 7-13 (53.8%)
Loyola: 1st half: 8-14 (57.1%)
Tenn Tech: 2nd half: 12-17 (70.6%)
NC Central: full game: 12-29 (41.4%)
None of those games involved just ONE player getting hot. In every case, it was multiple players making shots. Now, some of that is just poor defense or lesser competition resulting in open shots. But that can't be the only explanation, because we've seen guys brick wide open threes against our better opponents.
My conclusion is this: the team isn't a good shooting team (no need to sugar coat that) BUT at least part of their problem is mental, not mechanics or ability. So, they COULD be a better shooting team than we've seen from them against good competition IF they could shoot with confidence instead of the air balls and bricks we've seen so often. So, this is like another indicment- they're mentally fragile. When shots begin to fall, everyone gets in on it. But when shots aren't falling early in a half, NOBODY can seem to make one.
My big picture conclusion: this team needs to start every game expecting a defensive struggle. They need to focus on defense first every game- play physical defense, help defense, block every shot, force turnovers, get out on the break to get going. In the half court, they need to assume every shot is missing and go after every offensive rebound. They need to work to get interior shots on every possession, unless a wide open 3 presents itself. Every team we're facing has learned how to stop our high-out screen sets and not allow open looks. So, instead of trying to force that square peg, cut to the basket, drive to the lane, points in the paint, play inside-out instead of that 5-out offense Pope likes to run. I think that's the way this team has to play to win.
Last edited:
Last year was one of the most fun I’ve had watching UK basketball in a long time. Ridiculous post.
It was fun due to how bad we’ve been, but not fun in typical UK fashion. That’s kind of what I’m getting at about our standards going down. UK really shouldn’t be happy with last season at all, maybe a little more understanding than usual, but not happy. Tubby was ran out over better results than that. He’s probably thinking damn, I might survive Kentucky today.
Losing 3 straight to Alabama, getting put out by Tennessee in the sweet 16, nowhere near winning the SEC, losses to Georgia etc. that’s not UK basketball. I can agree that given the circumstances it’s not as bad as a season like that would be, and I liked those guys, but if we accept that as “fun seasons” we will no longer be the greatest program on earth. And to me it’s a real concern. I know our rivals would love us having that season routinely while they play in final fours, win their conference, and hang banners. It’s just not acceptable here especially in the NIL era where you can build final four teams instantly at top NIL programs.
I thought the last Cal year was a lot of fun tbh...until the end.
Same as last year. The final 2 losses (vs Bama and TN) really left a bad taste in my mouth and that has carried over to the early stages of this season. Just this nagging feeling that when the chips are down and when you need a win against an elite opponent...Pope can't get the job done. We were so thoroughly outclassed in those last 2 losses...I can't unsee that.