Eddie was a really good coach. His first season, he was so close to winning the National Championship.
Will Pope win a Title at UK in his 5 year contract?
- Thread starter Farsight Clone
- Start date
I really hope he does great here because Pope is an alumni and a good guy. A couple of things that concerns me is how he coaches defense and how he handles playing time with his players. I’m not name dropping the player, but one guy played so bad in that Louisville game that his butt should have been on the bench. He literally just stood around on offense, had 5 turnovers (louisvilles whole team only had 6), played horrible defense but still played almost 30 minutes. No excuse for that.
I don’t have data for Pope as a defensive coach at Kentucky, but at least like that he acknowledged the issues after the game. Hopefully the right adjustments are made. With the offense we have, even being a pretty good defensive team makes us threatening
We start playing better defense this team has potential to be really good. Good thing about it, it’s early in the season and they have time to fix the issues we have seen against Georgetown and Louisville.
Hell yeah, they got time and talent. That’s why it’s on Pope to get it done
2 7-2 National runner-up in '66 was mediocre in your book?The SEC wasn’t as strong at that point. Nowhere near as strong as it would become in just the next decade, thanks to ascension of teams like Alabama and Tennessee. Now, you’re absolutely right about that 1970 team, one of the very best teams in school history, although regrettably a disappointment Elite Eight loss derailed what was clearly the most talented team in the nation even sans Casey. I don’t pretend to have been around then, but it’s pretty well documented that Rupp’s fan support had dropped by that point. The 1970 team was more the exception than the rule by the year. For every 1964 and 1970, you’d have mediocre or bad teams or underperform. And I say none of that to undermine the great Adolph Rupp who I hold in very high regards. The man built the house we live in.
Well, of course not. I’m saying by that point things were a lot more hit and Miss. Perfect example was the year right after 66. Returned Riley, Dampier and Jaracz and stunk.
Agreed. That “1” is 1970, which we already talked about. I love Rupp personally, in fact, even an apologist for him. There really ain’t much debating though the 1940s and 1950s were a very different product than 1960s and early 70s….and yes there were people wanting him out by then