What is wrong with this fan base??
- Thread starter Popesdenimshorts
- Start date
No one is asking for the #1 class. They're asking for a top 10 player who can make plays in the clutch. You know, like those losers like Brandon Knight, Anthony Davis, Ron Mercer, Antoine Walker, Julius Randle, Karl Towns, and MKG who only made a Final Four or won a title here.
But you're right. Pope's plan of landing second and third tier transfer portal guys and relying exclusively on them seems to be working wonders now that he's 29-17 at Kentucky with four straight losses to ranked teams.
People screaming for a new coach 8 games into his second season are what makes this place a cesspool of negativity. It's also why none of the established winning coaches they pretend we could get would never come here. Pope is an up-and -comer. He'll have a great career. Ride it out.
Those Duke fans calling the 8th game of the season a "must win" are morons. Don't be that.
Saul it might take Pope some time to settle. It happens, but I do realize that slipping this early the way he is is going to hurt him. Hopefully he can get his footing quickly. But I don’t think in this case we have to worry much, I think this was a “give him a shot” situation. Tons of upside and can fire quickly if it doesn’t work. So I’m not as worked up as u was with Calipari. Calipari was working on modern goat status and putting us back at 90’s levels and he was close. Then I felt he was tanking it for his demands and hurting the brand. With the contract, much bigger issue. If Mark aint it, pull the plug and go get Oats.
For sure. Wouldn’t blame Mark at all. I don’t want to make it about him. He’s doing this for the program and he’s doing what he can. His family is family as far as I’m concerned win or lose. He’s not getting ran out of here with hate. Mitch Barnhart on the other hand? You damn right. 100% on him.
It’s important note and I think Michigan basketball NIL is up there with Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke. Bigger basketball NIL than UNC and they love him and I think that’s the job he had wanted for while. Might be wrong on that but I believe he stated that. So I usually don’t Say this, but we might not have a shot at him. I laugh when people say that about most coaches because Kentucky will take just about who they want. But Michigan is a basketball juggernaut in the making, they’ll be the new blue blood over the next 20 years imo. It’s a unique case even Kentucky might not pull off. Not sure he’d leave it it’s where he wants to build his legacy and they can give him elite NIL.
I 100% want to be wrong. And I’d hire him 100%. The Kentucky brand with May would probably equal multiple championships possibly.
The problem is this. We had the same story last year. This year he had all the money available to get the guys he needed and he didn’t do that. This staff can’t recruit, they evaluated this roster terribly. We have no backup PG. Why do our guys continually get so hurt? The evidence is mounting that the job is too big. We are Kentucky, we shouldn’t be happy we lost to a ranked team. Guess what, Pope is now 1-7 his last 8 ranked games. That doesn’t cut it here. Excuses don’t change that fact. He is going to be close to a .500 coach pretty soon with the amount of losses that could pile up this year.
I’m not giving up on Pope yet, I just brought it up because of all the people mentioning Pearl and oats. I hadn’t seen May’s name brought up at all. Maybe he will retire at Michigan but I think they are the first big name program that offered him the job.
Exactly, what do we have for next year that leads us to believe it will get better? The same flawed roster can potentially return!? The star recruits in the fold? The transfer portal where we can’t get the guys we actually wanted? How can people not see this?
Why are we not even running our system? It’s a huge flag that they recruited a team to supposedly address our short comings last year and at the same time recruited players who can’t run what he wants to run.
Watching some in the past say they hate the top Freshman (one and dones) and now say we are screwed without them is shameless.
Yeah that’s a joke, I understand why Pope hired him but he’s not qualified for that job and it is massively showing. He’s a glorified ball boy it appears.
Actually, we've been saying we need a balance for 6 years. Pope went too far to the right. Cal went too far to the left.
I was hopeful that Pope would do a good job here. He put together a solid team last season, and did a good job overall considering the injuries we faced. A sweet 16 run in year one was a success in my book.
This roster and this season are the polar opposite. There's time to turn it around, but I am not sure that we have the personnel or the chemistry to make that happen. Last night was uglier offense than I thought possible for a Pope coached team.
Clown 
thread. Not a damn thing wrong with the fans. They expect excellence. Just like fans of Duke, Connecticut, etc. what’s wrong with you clown?
thread. Not a damn thing wrong with the fans. They expect excellence. Just like fans of Duke, Connecticut, etc. what’s wrong with you clown?
It’s always straw man with some I’m seeing this a lot lately. I have said and many have said repeatedly the freshman were good for the brand, the NBA representation was something we didn’t have and it was awesome taking the place of the pros mantle from UNC. Freshman by themselves don’t win championships though, heavy heavy freshman don’t win championships. But having a few elite freshman and a few stud upperclassman and some upperclassman role guys is what you want. I will say, most of these freshman classes haven’t been any good it just so happens this one was. I don’t think that’s going to be every year. So this is a year to year thing you have to evaluate and mix this for the best formula. I do think upperclassman are more important and that’s what Mark is doing. We also brought in really good freshman this year, Jasper will be really good. But he’s AAU right now.
So mix a freshman or two who can light it up with also having majority upperclassman. If you want to win titles, this is how.
That's @Baller Cal, @Dude Luv, @Cardsstink, @Dubya C Dubya, @Blue Tsunami, @Cold Stout Beer. Very werid guy.
He’s not going to get the time in the NIL era to build a team. Teams change yearly and so far he made terrible decisions with vast resources. Plus his coaching and staff appears very weak, and injuries(while unlucky) are becoming a trend fast. His record is getting pretty bad here. We all know that won’t cut it.
It's all about having a PG vs no PG. Imagine a Football team with NO QB. They don't have a single QB to play. Unless you have Lynn Bowden, it won't work.
Lowe just being out there will change everything as people won't be running around pitching in. It 's a total mess right now. The difference will be night and day if he can come back soon and play the rest of the year.
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I haven't given up on Pope, but with each loss I have less and less hope for the season. If guys don't get healthy you are looking at not making the tournament. That's how bad this team is at the moment. Hopefully things change really soon.
I think Cardsstink likes to troll. Nobody has that kind of personality. He’s pretty funny actually, he pulls it off good I have to give it to him. It’s like trying to have a conversation with someone but the rule is you have to eat nails at the same time. It just sucks but it’s the rule, you have to. When you’re doing it you just want it to stop.
Going 1-7 or 1-8 against ranked opponents is a problem and deserves criticism. It doesn’t matter if you walk on water or not, you can’t do that at UK.
I am sick of hearing JQ as an excuse to not win games before Jan. Pope should have had a good idea when he’d return and planned accordingly for games before he returned. Sorry but ACL issues have historical data on possible return dates and before the season started wasn’t a reasonable expectation. By that logic Pope should give a scholarship to a quadriplegic and then he will have an excuse for every game.
I’m sure there are some, but not many. Those that are, are just bigoted jerks. I know too many Kentuckians to believe that there are a bunch of bigoted jerks in our fan base. I think there are plenty that disagree with his religious beliefs but very very few that have a problem being UKs coach or judging him based on those beliefs. He will be judged on his quality of character. Which is really really high. And, ability as a coach, which right now is very much in question. And fairly so.
Lowe is going to fix the chemsitry issues, fix the 3 point shooting, fix the rebounding? Interesting.
So many people are putting way too much stock into Lowe. I don’t think these people have actually watched him play. He’s an average college point guard who shoots a low percentage and takes a lot of bad shots. He is not the savior everyone pretends he is. And he’s never going to be healthy this season, anyway. If he comes back it’s only a matter of time before the shoulder gets re-injured. It’s unrealistic the expectations people are putting on that guy
JQ is not a legitamite excuse but having NO point guard is. No coach would have much success in November and early December playing 3 top 20 teams without a PG. Laughable.
Without 3 starters, anyone with a brain would lower expectations. Try and buy one: it'll come in handy.
I have one and know when a coach is in over his head and lost. But sure going 13 minutes without a field goal is amazing..
If losing 3 games with multiple starters out is cause for saying the team sucks and calling for the coaches head...yeah, you should lower it my guy
Wrong. Having him out there settles things down instead of what we are seeing now........guys out of their place and a total cluster F. PS, could he possibly shoot worse than what we are seeing now?????? lol. Guys that are missing shots on the run right now will be spotted up and able to shoot in rhythm when he comes back. The can hit a lot of threes as we hae seen against lessor competition when they gave time to get set.
Cal fell out of love with the fans, and back in love with the NBA. Ever since his epic screwing the pooch in 2015 he turned his eyes toward doing anything possible to make sure his guys were drafted and rich. If those players did something great while in school, that was a bonus.
Lowe is a good piece who will open up the floor somewhat, but he's one guy and will be dealing with that shoulder probably off and on all season. I had hoped that Aberdeen and JJ could step in and take the load over for a while, but it isn't working.
This team lacks a lot more than just Lowe right now. The pieces and parts don't fit as well together this go round, and the chemistry and leadership for winning basketball are lacking. Quaintance will help, but he again will need time to adjust and get rolling.
Jelavich and Moreno will need a lot more minutes going forward. Pope should also play Hawthorne and Potter too. Potter can play the stretch 5 and give us some size. You have to play the guys who are willing to go out there and work.