I’m not saying he has to do the same thing in his first year to be successful here. I’m saying people saying it’s impossible for him to have done better have short memories.
What's your biggest concern with Pope moving forward?
- Thread starter WildcatUKx
- Start date
Having no NCAA Tourney wins and success is the concern. Until it’s achieved, this will hang over him.
Call also had one of the great recruiting classes of all time which he brought with him plus guys like Miller already on roster, hardly the situation Pope found himself in when he arrived. Your comparison is complete horse ****
He wasn't here to recruit for this season you moron. All recruits were already taken before he was hired. What a troll
As you said earlier, he could have recruited better at BYU and brought those guys with him…
I didn't go through every post to see if this is a repeat. I watched a podcast that in Popes 9 years of being a head coach, 50th was the highest defensive efficiency rating in the 9 years, and most years it hovered around 100, except for this year it's 199. Biggest concern going forward it sounds like Pope has never been a defensive minded coach. Can he change?
I’m not as concerned with him being nice to players. Both him and Cal seem to think we can play defense the RIGHT way. Without fouling like they play in the league.
Our opponents are taught by the coaches to put their hands all over who they are guarding. Foul 10 times a possession. It’s insane to say but you must cheat to win anything in the SEC.
Recruiting.. Cheat
Signals…. Cheat
Defense… foul, can’t call them all.
Both CMP and Cal have wanted to win without cheating.
That's an astute point. It's something I've said for years. Not just Cal and Pope. Most every UK coach. It's not that they aren't cheating. It's that the other teams in the SEC coach to play in the SEC to SEC officials. They aren't doing anything post season anyway. So they just want to play SEC basketball to bide their time to spring football. Avery Johnson was an exception at Alabama. He didn't coach to play with SEC officials and he was ousted.
And you see it in the post season. SEC teams for the most part fail when they don't have lousy SEC officials to play with. On the other hand, UK thrives, last handful of seasons excepted, when they get away from SEC officials. It's just a mindset. Do you want to be a regional team? Or do you want to be a national power?
It's slowly changing with conference expansion but if the SEC brass doesn't change to keep up then the growth will stall.
If his defensive efficiency rating doesn't improve, it might be a short-lived experience as coach here. Yes, high octane offense is fun to watch, but that's not primarily what UK fans want.
Yeah, that’s the troubling part. I’d like to think this year’s defensive woes are just a one off exception, but the truth is that for his entire career the story of Pope’s teams has basically been the same: good offense, bad defense.
I love the good offense part, but he’s gonna have to make some changes to his defensive approach.
There is one rebuttal to the offensive approach. Nate Oats went to the final 4 last year and Alabama defensive efficiency was 100.
So you are saying the guys he could recruit at BYU were good enough to bring to UK. You don't seem to think much of UK do you,DO YOU
The 2014 team defending like this enroute to the title game
Opponents Points per 100 possessions:
78.6
120.6
105.5
123.2
119.2
The 2014 was a sieve except for in the opening round game against Kansas State in their tournament wins.
Just surveying posts in this thread, here's what is clear:
Pope won games here that he had no business winning. That led to optimism and hope. Pope also lost games here that he had no business losing. That led to excuses and justifications. This happened in the non-conference slate, then again in the conference slate. An added element in SEC play — multiple core players injured. But still, we beat Tennessee despite this, then lost to Arky.
My biggest concern now: he continues to be wildly inconsistent and those who try to justify and excuse the losing, sit around here and justify and excuse the losing for several years (as they did with Cal).
Pope won games here that he had no business winning. That led to optimism and hope. Pope also lost games here that he had no business losing. That led to excuses and justifications. This happened in the non-conference slate, then again in the conference slate. An added element in SEC play — multiple core players injured. But still, we beat Tennessee despite this, then lost to Arky.
My biggest concern now: he continues to be wildly inconsistent and those who try to justify and excuse the losing, sit around here and justify and excuse the losing for several years (as they did with Cal).
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Yeah I actually thought about this a lot today.
For so long we all were wanting Cal to play a different style of offense. Take more threes, play a more exciting brand of basketball. And in the last year, he finally did that. And the same this year under Pope.
But a part of me can't help but think that's part of the problem. The guys that make the offense run the last two seasons also happen to be the biggest liabilities on defense.
There needs to be some balance here. Or else our seasons will end poorly.
Nate Oats is weird. Seriously, I have no idea if he's a decent defensive coach or not.
114th
3rd
92nd
3rd
111th
40th
I don't know exactly what to make of that LOL.
Looks like the NBA, really. A team will will 124-113 one night, then turn around and lose 133-119 the next. And most of the players could care less if they won or lost...
I agree with this. But when you point any of this out you’re labeled a troll or told to go cheer for the team in Fayetteville.
I certainly Pope can get just an average defense in the years to come to go along with a high octane offense. I have my fingers crossed.
If they can defend the 2, they become good at defense.
If they can't, they are bad. They go through cycles of developing good defensive bigs, losing them, and then developing some more.
Recently, adding Omoruyi is a big help. Stephenson/Omoruyi/Dioubate is a big upgrade over their main defensive bigs from last season.
Oh why couldnt he have recruited better, maybe they were a mid major until last year and last years recruiting cycle was already chosen their schools before Pope made huge Big 12 wins to prove himself in a big boy conference.
His recruiting class for next year is pretty damn good, two top 25 and the other top 30.
BYU could be a bit of a special case given their religious aspect.
Bringing Saunders along with Knell to UK would've been great. They are quite good. However, they are both married. That changes the equation a tad.
I guess I’m old school. But for me, there is absolutely zero excuse to play with poor effort. I feel that these kids are soft and they do not play with max effort. That really concerns me because pope seems to tolerate it. If you’re gonna suck then that’s fine. But at least suck while going all out. It takes zero talent to play hard. To hustle. To dive for balls. To invite contact.
I am truly embarrassed that we don’t play hard
I am truly embarrassed that we don’t play hard
This is the most apt post I've seen, given the title of the thread assigned by the OP. I have no "concern with Pope", with respect to the prospects for the U.K. basketball program, moving forward. And, to be honest ... I'm not terribly concerned about this aspect of the situation, either. It pleases me to no end that Pope is an immensely smart guy - just as a matter of raw intellect. I'll never worry about whether Pope is "smart enough" to figure anything out ... including the need to, and how to, protect his own health and the well-being of his family against the unreasonable expectations of U.K. basketball fans, generally - and from the monumentally outrageous expectations of many on this board, in particular !
And with that said ... Go 'Cats ! ! !
I don't doubt that Pope is highly-intelligent and plenty "smart enough" to figure things out, but I cannot understand his seeming lack of emphasis on defense throughout his career. It appears his approach has been far too offense-centric, but I could be wrong. More has to go right for you to be highly-successful with one-dimensional schematics, it seems to be. GO CATS !!
He just needs high level talent at PF and C positions in addition to a PG from the portal. He will win big with better higher caliber players. May sound like a "duh" but that's the next hurdle.