I’m still confused with the make up of this team how it’s not attack attack attack. Go crazy on D make easy baskets force turnovers throw the ball inside be scrappy and make it ugly. I still don’t know our game plan.
So, after telling us that he has all pieces…
- Thread starter Vek96
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paying more might not even be the answer, i think theres a world where we were the highest bidder for a lot of the guys we missed on
It’s inexplicable why someone would say no to Oates. The only thing I can say is there is an AD who doesn’t care about winning and a growing segment of the fanbase that aren’t UK fans at all or the were fans and now are totally apathetic. They just like watching. When I talk to someone about Oates and they tell me “there’s a list blah blah” I tell them they are a loser and a problem. We don’t used to have fans afraid of great coaches. Instead of saying there is a do not hire list pick up you sack and confront our ad. It’s going to take BBN to rise up on barney. Again inexplicable. They will throw bricks through bill curry’s window, threaten tubby but our AD has a nice easy go of it for a quarter century. Fans have treated this guy like a golden calf. The clowns who defended him because fb had a couple spurts they did so at the cost to our bb program. And what did you get out of it? A vacated 10 win season brushed under the carpet. Our media won’t even question the loser AD because they are scared he will cut them off. Until the fanbase stands up and demands the resignation of this loser this guy who hasn’t met a bad contract he loved. This guy who has hired more bad coaches than any other uk AD. This guy gets a free pass 25 years I just can’t believe this. A little football success gets you as an ad a lifetime deal as AD. If it doesn’t change fast I’ll just be done with college sports and I suppose a lot of others here will join me.
This isn’t UK sports any longer this is church of barnsack now. As soon as UK let outsiders in they have taken this thing from Kentuckians and in the church of barnsack selling a million hats is more valuable than a UK title.
Based on 2026 recruiting, did Pope miss on evaluating or did he just miss getting the main targets?
The difference in how Alabama ran their offense to get the shots they want and whatever we were doing was stark.
A person didn’t need to know much basketball to see the difference.
They had guys get injured and the replacements kept playing the same way.
We made that one dude off the bench look like an AA.
This is not new. We had a guy at Clemson last year have a career rebounding game.
It’s like the first time Pope has ever seen the opponents play is at tipoff
But we aren’t even running that. We aren’t running any offense. I’ve seen better schemes at the Y.
Even at the Y they will pick and roll or back screen. And ride a hot hand.
It’s not Cal’s either. There’s no sloppies. No pin downs, no dribble hand offs. No 5 outs and just take your man.
There is some ball movement with Lowe but no accompanying player movement.
I wish someone could say what we are doing on offense?
Oats comment in how our post players don’t pass outside of Moreno was jarring…I didn’t even know that …but Oats had us gameplan
while pope acted like he was surprised bama shot that many threes
I hate this, because I like the guy, but if I'm being honest, those videos make me cringe. Like, make it stop.
As I watch the games and really focus in on the players I just don’t see All conference guys that will be playing in the NBA. Oweh ends up getting some decent scoring stats, and looks like could have NBA potential in some aspects, but the rest of them look very average. JQ might get drafted on potential , but that’s it. Just not much there as exceptional players.
Yeah, I mean, these guys aren't even running the weave. I mean, just run that every once in a while to make it appear that we are trying to do something different.
its funny bc when we first got pope, the first sources say was talking about how recruiting would be worse but it wont be bad
i never thought it woukd get to a point where we couldnt get any freshman to come
No matter what profession you are in, supervisor positions like being a head coach can be harder than expected and can cause an unbelievable amount of pressure on someone. Honestly, I bet Coach didn’t realize how hard this job is even though he played at Kentucky. Mitch of all people should know that it takes an experienced coach to handle this job and I blame him for the current situation our basketball program is in. Pope didn’t have the resume, and even his biggest defenders here are forced to admit that. I like Pope and think he’s a good person, but I’m starting to believe he’s not good enough to coach here. If that turns out being the case, it sucks because he’s an alumni and loves this program
I believe we offered Wilson and several others more than where they ended up.
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Expectation management is a big part of why this season has been such a disaster. Had Pope pulled a Cal and said let’s pump the brakes and let these guys grow as a team, there would not be the furor that exists.
Pope compared this team to ‘96 and STUPIDLY leaked the $22 million number. He had a nice 6-7 month stretch in 2024 where it looked like he was up for the job. He has been a train wreck since we beat Florida in Rupp a year ago.
Pope compared this team to ‘96 and STUPIDLY leaked the $22 million number. He had a nice 6-7 month stretch in 2024 where it looked like he was up for the job. He has been a train wreck since we beat Florida in Rupp a year ago.
Man the players are just like us. They are better at basketball but besides that they see everything we see and I’m sure have a lot of the same opinions of Pope. They don’t respect him.
Honestly in highschool I never wanted the nice church boy coach. I always like having the coach that cussed us a little in the huddle. Told us to get our **** together. Treated us like grown men. Not 10 year old boys in a spelling bee.
That was my thought last year when they showed the lockeroom talk, and the guys proceeded to come out in Rupp and get their asses handed to them. I honestly believe he's got issues with depression. If the room were almost filled with water, he'd likely ask everyone to take a deep breath and let it all out, while reminding everyone to keep both feet on the ground.
I never would have had respect for a guy that wasn't going to rip my tail if I didn't do my job and I wouldn't feel like a guy like Pope is tough enough to lead the team.
But, then I see what Signetti is doing at Indiana and he appears to display some of the same features Pope has, only he tries to act tough sometimes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing either.
So it can work, but you damn sure can't be friends with your players and compliment them endlessly the way Pope does.
There's definitely some if that "fake it til you make it" with Pope, I'm just not sure how much of it is fake.
They drink Brawndo! The Thirst Mutilator.Found 'em
Exactly. I don't care if you press but for the love of God please have everyone besides bigs extend the half court ball pressure.
Who cares if you gamble and over extend a passing lane or get beat off the dribble?!?!? We're giving up baskets anyway. Might as well dictate pressure and try to get the basketball. Newsflash, you can't score without the ball and neither can the opponent.
he refuses to answer questions like that, he'll just mumble "yeah we're always considering everything"
Exactly. It's not just this season. That's why I can't blame our guys too much. It's the coaching. Look at how we lost big games late last year. Same template. Pope is outclassed in big moments
To me, it was the first major step in the right direction and then he quickly regressed back and played BG more than JQ.
Cal’s first 6-7 years here was THE perfect head coach for UK basketball. I think the Wisconsin loss broke him in some ways. I think he wanted 40-0 so so bad.