Purdue lost to a team that lost to GEORGETOWN!
Everyone just chill.
Go Cats!
Everyone just chill.
Go Cats!
You think we’ve got it bad
- Thread starter Catfan2010
- Start date
That’s what I said yesterday. Purdue must be bottom of the BIG losing to that team lol. Concerning part is we had our complete team out there, although 3 future starters were out. Not a huge deal.
Those exhibitions are trash and we see this year after year, fans losing it because they subconsciously feel like it’s a real action because it mimics an actual game.
Even in football we would rarely ever go 100% during scrimmages with other teams. I’ve begun to notice a theme, I just don’t think some people played much sports that are commenting, and that’s fine. Don’t get me wrong I know many people who love my teams that didn’t play much. Not a put down at all, but when you don’t understand why Mark is guarded with injury reports, and you misinterpret live action for scrimmages and believe it tells us a lot, I have to wonder. But then again, even I allowed the Purdue game to mean something when in reality it didn’t.
I’m ready for live action so people can lay off about a practice. I personally believe this will be a top 3 team to end the year, no worse than top 7/8. But let’s see what happens during a live game, we’ve got people using the blue / white game to show data thus far, that’s unreal stupid. Nobody, in any sport, goes 100% during practice games. That’s not what they’re for, they are for mimicking a game so a coach can utilize it for conditioning and whatever he’s wanting to work on.
You mean Purdue practiced with a team that practiced Georgetown. Everybody’s record is still 0 - 0. Don’t see any L’s yet.
Great point.
It certainly hurts to lose and look bad but I’m just not worried.
How good would last year’s team have looked on October 30 playing a decent team without Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa, or Amari Williams? We would have looked like ish but that team still holds the NCAA record for most top-15 opponents vanquished in a single season even WITH all the injuries that came along and kept them from doing probably even much better.
It certainly hurts to lose and look bad but I’m just not worried.
How good would last year’s team have looked on October 30 playing a decent team without Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa, or Amari Williams? We would have looked like ish but that team still holds the NCAA record for most top-15 opponents vanquished in a single season even WITH all the injuries that came along and kept them from doing probably even much better.
Yeah, though we’re UK, not Purdue, they’re not our benchmark.
Hate the GTown effort, still think the team is fine. We will need JQ to play sometime in January though. You need a difference maker with a ton of talent, and that can't arrive in February, that's not enough time.
Historically no, but lately they are one he the benchmarks. What they did under Keady and the rest is irrelevant to what they currently are. And lately they’ve been one of the best under Painter.
And yay we beat them bad.
Which is why I said if you all think we won’t need a full team to beat Purdue in the tournament or something they are crazy. As you just laid out these scrimmages are just glorified practice against different players. Good things can be learned of course but overall nobody is really trying to win 100%. Heck you can’t even foul out of some of these exhibitions.
During football in high school, we had a practice game against Martin Westview in Tennessee. Justin Harrell was on Martin Westview. We played a lot of pros that year during the State championship, Memphis Melrose put a lot of pros out around that time. But we all knew who Justin Harrell was, and knew he was headed to Tennessee. I hated UT with an unhealthy passion so I wanted to absolutely destroy him as a D lineman. Wouldn’t have hurt my feelings if he was done for a career and I’m the one who ended it. We were pretty dirty at that time.
Justin Harrell threw us around with no problem. We were recycling guys in and out, got manhandled. I’ll never forget Justin laughing and Talking **** like we were a joke, and taking us no issue at 50%. He wasn’t even trying. I did rip through once and got through I’ll never forget it lol.
At this level, those guys are not going to risk a lot and they’re not going to show a lot during practices. They don’t have to. I say all this to simply convey that we have yet to see 2025/26 Kentucky play a single minute yet. At this level they have no interests is doing much during these glorified practices. Even in baseball in college the practices were just to get everyone some game action so our timing was better synced for the season. It’s not about actually trying to win.
If you aren't going full speed in a scrimmage, and I'm talking about real opponent, then you are not a competitor. Any team I have ever been a part of, you went full speed. Even joint practices, you aren't going to let another man embarrass you. That's what a lot of people's gripe was. It was the effort or lack of it. Pope always talks about what an honor it is to play for UK, but I don't think they quite get it yet. They looked more like they were ready to make their next Tik Tok .
You’ve got walk through, half speed / full speed scrimmages but you never go full speed in basketball this late in the season to avoid injury. It’s not that you don’t play hard but specifically in basketball you have to avoid some contact and work on things which is what they were doing. I’m not sure Pope was focused on what were focused on. I even noticed against Purdue both UK and Purdue were avoiding some of the typical contact. Looked like it to me, but there’s no way to know what exactly Pope was working on. I highly doubt in D1 basketball just before the season starts anyone wants an injury to some degree.
I’ve coached and played all levels of sports. Played college ball too. Trying to kill your man during a practice stops at high school. Guys that were promised to go higher levels many times don’t take many snaps outside of regular games especially in a sport like football. In baseball it’s all for timing, I never threw 100% during a scrimmage. Most of the guys working for higher levels stop to avoid a meaningless injury.
Even guys outside of that I highly doubt are going 100%. Not at this level.
Let's hope you're right. I just didn't like their energy at all.
I mean I get it, you want to practice how you’re gonna play. My main point is this close to the season it’s kind of the time to work on things you need to improve and it helps when it happens with a game time atmosphere. These are more pro levels now, I just highly doubt they’re gonna risk full game speed That’s why I’ve said I’m not sure what Pope is doing. If he wanted them full throttle then we have a problem. At these levels I doubt it, but we’ll see soon enough. And it’s not that I think they shouldn’t even try, I just think from my experience you can’t always go by scrimmages. Add to it they’re pros now, and we talkin about practice practice.
We’re gonna be fine. I didn’t like it that we showed zero urgency against Georgetown either. We were without our two main PG options and of course our starting center. I still think we are a top 5 team this year.
I will say this, if we gotta play a quality team without Lowe and Aberdeen we are likely cooked. Especially if Chandler plays the point. He’s just not an effective PG. He can’t get us into our offense. Our offense was totally handcuffed with Chandler at PG. He’s a 2/3 at college level. No doubt about that.
I will say this, if we gotta play a quality team without Lowe and Aberdeen we are likely cooked. Especially if Chandler plays the point. He’s just not an effective PG. He can’t get us into our offense. Our offense was totally handcuffed with Chandler at PG. He’s a 2/3 at college level. No doubt about that.
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The plus side of these exhibitions:
It's fun to see the team in action.
The downside:
It lends itself to positivity/negativity spirals lol
It's fun to see the team in action.
The downside:
It lends itself to positivity/negativity spirals lol
Energy and hustle are going to the most vital and important aspects of this team this year, IMHO, because if they don't at least equal or exceed the effort put in against them, they will be beaten. Count on that. The upside of it is, we have the players to do that this year.
Everybody out there wants to beat Kentucky. That will never change. So they got the bullseye on thier backs already, well enough. Grow into proving you're the #3, #2, #1 team as the season progresses, and stay on top of it from the get go. Blow some good teams out along the way, get some real swag to carry. THEN see what they say about them.
Start the season off strong and win. Everything else will take care of itself.
Personally, I wont put that much in on looking at an overall picture of college basketball until about feast week, I imagine. Just a little into the early season. Then we will know much more about the pecking order.
I think we're primed for an epic season.
Go Big Blue !
Everybody out there wants to beat Kentucky. That will never change. So they got the bullseye on thier backs already, well enough. Grow into proving you're the #3, #2, #1 team as the season progresses, and stay on top of it from the get go. Blow some good teams out along the way, get some real swag to carry. THEN see what they say about them.
Start the season off strong and win. Everything else will take care of itself.
Personally, I wont put that much in on looking at an overall picture of college basketball until about feast week, I imagine. Just a little into the early season. Then we will know much more about the pecking order.
I think we're primed for an epic season.
Go Big Blue !