For me: It seems like he's trying to find his "lane" and its neither high nor low. Right in the middle. Which would work at most other schools, but not UK.
Why? First year Pope had guys that worked with his system – S16. Second year Pope went out and got talent that didn't fit – R32.
If Pope is finding a balance of fit and talent, that's a good thing. You can have talented guys that don't work in your system. You can have guys with great fit who are limited. Talent
and fit is important... Could also mean he's cutting down rotations so there aren't too many mouths to feed and there's more money and minutes to go around.
Maybe that's what it means. Maybe not. Regardless, I think a few folks are still infected with Cal syndrome. Like the world will end if we don't have 10 first round draft picks that play fun ball but get slapped into the hardwood by a Staples executive. An all or nothing mentality is a cancer. We don't have to be #1 in everything everywhere all the time to win big. We made it to the final four in 2011, the championship game in 2014, and won it all in 1998 when nobody thought we had a prayer.
The beauty of Kentucky Basketball is that there's no one way to win. We've had success across decades with different coaches. You can't tell me Cal and Pitino share an ounce of coaching philosophy.
Pope has another year. He could do something terrible with it or do something great with it, but to say that a system won't work at UK is just odd to me. We need to let the results next year speak for themselves, IMO.
