No more slip ups at Rupp Arena because we’ll be underdogs in all the road games except one.
Tough road. 9 Quad 1 games left
- Thread starter akaukswoosh
- Start date
Well, at least you're owning it! That's progress. Good for you!
Grab that combo guard from the G-league and I am taking UK over anyone else left on our schedule
who is going after coach’s families?
idk about Pope’s family but I haven’t heard anything like that.
and when Cal was here, nobody ever gave Ellen any grief like that, people loved her here to the end
Now Brad…maybe not so much
I doubt Pope will do that after his comments in the presser last night
Times have changed. Teams have gotten better and IMO I just think it’s silly to ignore that
we can be good. We can be very good. Compete for titles some seasons. Prob win a few before our time is up. No one is dismissing that’s the goal. But gone are the days of domination. There’s just other elite programs now
Except we haven't even sniffed a title in over 10 years. UConn, Duke, Kansas - they all continue to win. Why aren't we?
How many times did cal embarrass the program over his last 4 years, with way more talented rosters...in your opinion of course
He's pretty damn good. Only shoots the three at around 30 percent though. But I mean..he's a take.
Noledynasty2490
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Plenty, what does cal have to do with it though?
The issue is, he can't guard anybody and to this point, all he's shown us that he can’t shoot in actual game situations.
With 6 losses and one hell of a tough schedule upcoming, I don't think Noah is the guy we want to lean on here.
Just. A point if reference , cause a lot of people didn't want him gone.....yet there were some embarrassing moments there as well
It doesn’t matter if times have changed. Time are always changing. We just have to change with it to remain the premier program. Other teams are winning at a high level and we are not. We have more built in advantages than any other team. Our results these last 10 years are absolutely unacceptable.
I think you’ll find that most who complain about pope wanted cal gone. Pretty sure ukcowboys didn’t want him gone
Uh, fans don’t complain about winning. Why would they? Not sure if you’re joking.
Or we can deal with the hand we’re dealt with and get a new coach. A coach who can’t recruit high level/lottery talent does not need to coach at Kentucky.
I wanted Cak gone way B4 most others. Not ready to throw the towel in on pope just yet. The injuries have derailed both his teams so far. Has he made some bad coaching decisions? yes. Entire first halves of games have been absolutely horrible, head scratchers...like he forgot how to coach. But he can coach, he has proven that with last year and the second halves this year. I would give him 1 more year and a healthy squad for a full season and then decide his fate.
Stfu. You can “what if” all day long. The reality is that they do not have injuries and they have sure fire lottery pick talent. We came in with one pg, an injured big and spent 22 million on this. It baffles me that fans like you think this **** is acceptable. I’m so f****** tired of not being Kentucky anymore. It will not change with pope at the helm. He cannot relate, he cannot recruit at the level needed.
I guess we’ll see what happens. I just kind of think pope is what he is, I don’t think he’s a terrible coach but I also don’t think he’s a great coach. He’s just mediocre and his track record proves it. Would love to see him prove me wrong.
I mean not really. The programs at the top are the same programs that always have been.
Puts all the eggs in the basket to get to a title game next year or next man up..
Pope may not be a great coach… yet, but, I'll say this, he is turning this patchwork of a team around and has some nice wins the last couple weeks. There is noticable improvement both individually and as a team.
We were in a deep hole and we had major team issues, you don't turn things around like this if you suck as a coach.
Yeah, MSU, LSU, UT and Texas aren’t world beaters, but those are all very good wins and a couple of those teams have more talent than we have. We were also down big in both those road games.
I think Pope will be elite in time. He's learning some hard lessons right now and we know one thing is for sure, he will put in the work and always put UK first.
The question is, are we willing to give him the time it's going to take to be great? I don't know the answer to that.
We were in a deep hole and we had major team issues, you don't turn things around like this if you suck as a coach.
Yeah, MSU, LSU, UT and Texas aren’t world beaters, but those are all very good wins and a couple of those teams have more talent than we have. We were also down big in both those road games.
I think Pope will be elite in time. He's learning some hard lessons right now and we know one thing is for sure, he will put in the work and always put UK first.
The question is, are we willing to give him the time it's going to take to be great? I don't know the answer to that.
What exactly are these advantages that we have. I keep hearing this but honestly we do not.
there’s a reason why we ended up with Pope instead of “insert big name coach”.
we aren’t the “it” school anymore
Money. We paid 22 million for our players - you think this is the best we could have bought for 22 million? Also, if we had 22 million for our players - you don't think we could have gotten a "insert big name couch" instead of Mark Pope?
Leaning on Noah, I’m pretty sure, won’t be the plan. Having him shoot when he’s open, rebound, and play the best defense he can, will be the plan when he’s in. He did play ok defense while he was in last night. Just got excited and committed a couple quick fouls. Hell, running over that guy I was ok with anyway. Might make him not want to set that screen next time or move and get an illegal screen call.
If we had that amount for our players, we had an ample amount for the head coach and apparently we still ended up with Mark Pope. So no. Sadly. I mean being able to offer the most money is great........but in terms of finding a head coach it didn't seem to help.
Also 1) the 22 million who knows if that's even accurate and 2) IWe don't know what other schools have in terms of NIL as well. I'm sure UK isn't the only school with large NIL amounts to spend.
I just don't see anything with Noah that tells me he should be playing more than cigar minutes. He's slightly better than a walk on.
He has 2 things going for him, he has great instincts and he's intelligent, but if I was an opposing coach and I saw Noah check in, I would go right to iso and make him try to guard one on one. Easy money.
You're nuts if you think UK doesn't have massive advantages.
The money UK dedicated to basketball, is more than any other program, plus, there is no other program that can match fan support and the lights are brighter here. Every game is on ESPN, every youtube channel prioritizes UK (because the fanbase) and at UK, basketball comes first. Every game, press conference, open practice and recruitment, is a major production here. There is no program like UK.
And the reason Pope is the coach, is not because we couldn't attract a higher profile coach, it's because Mitch is a huge wuss. He didn't even consider guys like Pearl, Oats, the guy at Texas Tech, the guy at Iowa state, or anyone at the NBA level. He probed Hurley, who isn't leaving UConn and he approached a guy down in Waco that is coasting, because he's his church buddy. That's it, it's not because UK couldn't get better. Bruce Pearl would crawl here.
Just the money and fan support alone, are massive advantages that UK has, I don't get how anyone can deny that.
Honestly, that’s just human nature. Nothing unusual about this. Most people aren’t happy unless they’re miserable.
That’s what people do. People love to complain. We can have 10 straight days of nice weather, and you mention this to someone, they’ll say yeah, but it’s going to rain next week.
5-7 Quad 1 wins with that record and we are in as a 10 seed IMO. Won’t be many teams with that many quad 1 wins.
That being said I think we finish more likely 20-11 than 18-13 but with all the injuries and inconsistent play anything is possible with this squad. 20-11 means 7-9 quad 1 wins and a 4/5 seed likely. 14 losses or less on selection Sunday and we are in.
So last years team didn't play hard without Krissa, Butler, Robinson, a back injured Carr who was a shell of himself, Oweh with his face busted open, and heck even Perry (I know, I know) had a wrist injury in the tournament? Or this years team didn't play hard against Tennessee on the road recently?
Early in the year I would have agreed with you about THIS team not playing hard. They played me brand basketball and were selfish and all trying to get theirs and quit at the first sign of adversity. They haven't exactly righted the ship and became world beaters by any means and probably won't, but the team plays hard now. Some of them individually are just terrible IQ basketball players and individually sleep through games and only show small spurts of effort. Definitely not trying to glaze Pope, he is what he is as our coach. And as long as he has the job, I am going to want success for our team, but I'm going to be a rational fan who understands unrealistic expectations after unfortunate events. Marshall expects to win every game they play, especially in the 60's and 70's. Do you think when the football plane went down in 1970 that they expected to still win the national title or they'd revolt? Or how about in 71 when they hired a new coach, new staff, and the roster was completely empty?
Personally I'd be much harder on this UK team if they were healthy. I'm not giving them a pass, but the season isn't over yet either. Too soon to sit in the corner and cry into my beer like most of the Debbie's on this board.
Because we had an overpaid coach named Calipari who quit on the team years ago. He signed players that he could get to the NBA quickly to stroke his ego as the one and done guy; but that didn't do anything good for Kentucky basketball. He didn't coach them, he counted on them to be talented enough to win without him doing much of anything and we see how that all turned out.
Now we have a coach who loves Kentucky. He had ZERO players when he got here and he was hired late, but he still go to sweet 16 in his first year. This year started rough, but has been getting better. Now another injury is going to really impact this team, but the coach can't do anything about a broken foot.
This "he loves Kentucky" talk again. Sheesh
UK should have an elite coach. Is Mark Pope an elite coach?