2 mistakes in roster construction

Ridinwithpope said:

I hear a broken record of how bad Popes roster construction was this past year. I firmly believe that it’s not as bad as people make it sound and there were only two mistakes that he made. Those two mistakes are the reason why we are in the position we are at. Those two are the gamble on JQ for 2-3 million and the hope that BG would step up and be as good as Amari was last year. Probably another 1-2 million. Our biggest weaknesses are not having a point guard for depth, had Lowe and acaden. One left and the other got hurt for the year. We don’t have a big to help Moreno. Moreno was supposed to be 3rd string. BG ineptitude and JQ being hurt totally crushed this team financially that could have gone to two players like a Wilkerson and a Caleb Wilson. I firmly believe those two decisions caused the mess we are in; however, I still have faith that he won’t make that mistake again. To defend Pope, he had Kam to give Chandler rest and vice versa, instead he now has Noah. He had Lowe to rest Aberdeen.. now he has Jasper. Injuries killed this team and should not reflect on roster construction… you can’t blame the coach for that.

In regard to BG, the main thing Pope is catching heat over is continuing to play BG. He might have to give Noah or Johnson a minute or two to rest CC, OO, and DA but he can sub MoD for MM and AJ so there is no need to keep playing BG.

Ridinwithpope said:

I hear a broken record of how bad Popes roster construction was this past year. I firmly believe that it’s not as bad as people make it sound and there were only two mistakes that he made. Those two mistakes are the reason why we are in the position we are at. Those two are the gamble on JQ for 2-3 million and the hope that BG would step up and be as good as Amari was last year. Probably another 1-2 million. Our biggest weaknesses are not having a point guard for depth, had Lowe and acaden. One left and the other got hurt for the year. We don’t have a big to help Moreno. Moreno was supposed to be 3rd string. BG ineptitude and JQ being hurt totally crushed this team financially that could have gone to two players like a Wilkerson and a Caleb Wilson. I firmly believe those two decisions caused the mess we are in; however, I still have faith that he won’t make that mistake again. To defend Pope, he had Kam to give Chandler rest and vice versa, instead he now has Noah. He had Lowe to rest Aberdeen.. now he has Jasper. Injuries killed this team and should not reflect on roster construction… you can’t blame the coach for that.

It’s worth noting that CMP went against his training and medical staffs recommendation on JQ . But we still had the highest offer for Caleb Wilson. UNC was close . Wilson chose UNC because Hubert Davis promised to build the offense around him. His pitch was “come be our Cooper Flagg “.

I actually think trying to account for injuries was one of the biggest issues. And I hope he doesn’t do it next year. We tried to have two of everything and when you do that, your top end suffers. Build the best starting 5 you can and go from there. If injuries happen, they happen. BBN Will crush you either way so give yourself the highest ceiling.

BG has to be one of the laziest big guys I've ever seen at UK. You might get one good game out of him every so often, but no consistent effort game in and game out. So frustrating.

yoshukai said:

It’s worth noting that CMP went against his training and medical staffs recommendation on JQ . But we still had the highest offer for Caleb Wilson. UNC was close . Wilson chose UNC because Hubert Davis promised to build the offense around him. His pitch was “come be our Cooper Flagg “.

How did he go against recommendations? JQ and his dad wanted to play a week before the St. John’s game. I haven’t heard about Pope going against medical advice.

I’m The Village Idiot said:

I actually think trying to account for injuries was one of the biggest issues. And I hope he doesn’t do it next year. We tried to have two of everything and when you do that, your top end suffers. Build the best starting 5 you can and go from there. If injuries happen, they happen. BBN Will crush you either way so give yourself the highest ceiling.

I firmly believe that if our consistent minutes are Lowe, Aberdeen, Chandler, kam, Malachi, oweh, Mo, jelavic, and unfortunately due to the mistake BG.. we are in second place in the sec and a top 4 seed. If we get something for JQs money… we are talking about maybe an elite 8 or better.

Ridinwithpope said:

I firmly believe that if our consistent minutes are Lowe, Aberdeen, Chandler, kam, Malachi, oweh, Mo, jelavic, and unfortunately due to the mistake BG.. we are in second place in the sec and a top 4 seed. If we get something for JQs money… we are talking about maybe an elite 8 or better.

Or better yet…if we simply get more of St. John’s JQ rather than it being the only real game of JQ — we could have made a final four. Ultimately no one will ever know. With this said, I love your screen name. I too am riding with Pope. Unashamed (albeit frustrated atm.)

Ridinwithpope said:

How did he go against recommendations? JQ and his dad wanted to play a week before the St. John’s game. I haven’t heard about Pope going against medical advice.

After the St John’s game CMP was saying how thrilled he was that things had turned out like this because he consulted with his trainers and medical staff before pursuing JQ in the portal and after reviewing JQ’s injury and the timeframe they had to work with they advised against bringing JQ in to play this season. But he went against their advice and brought him in anyway. Appears they were right.

BG sucks and you could tell from his skill set he was not going to improve. Lowe was our 3rd or 4th Pg choice and was a low efficiency volume scorer that struggles on D. Horrible decision on Pope on that part.

I’m The Village Idiot said:

Or better yet…if we simply get more of St. John’s JQ rather than it being the only real game of JQ — we could have made a final four. Ultimately no one will ever know. With this said, I love your screen name. I too am riding with Pope. Unashamed (albeit frustrated atm.)

Very frustrated at the moment, but I don’t understand the doom and gloomers. The way I see it.. pope made 2 mistakes in the offseason.. and one of those mistakes was going after a lottery pick.

yoshukai said:

After the St John’s game CMP was saying how thrilled he was that things had turned out like this because he consulted with his trainers and medical staff before pursuing JQ in the portal and after reviewing JQ’s injury and the timeframe they had to work with they advised against bringing JQ in to play this season. But he went against their advice and brought him in anyway. Appears they were right.

Oh wow I didn’t hear about that. Thanks for the info. If that is the case.. definitely a huge mistake.

Ridinwithpope said:

I hear a broken record of how bad Popes roster construction was this past year. I firmly believe that it’s not as bad as people make it sound and there were only two mistakes that he made. Those two mistakes are the reason why we are in the position we are at. Those two are the gamble on JQ for 2-3 million and the hope that BG would step up and be as good as Amari was last year. Probably another 1-2 million. Our biggest weaknesses are not having a point guard for depth, had Lowe and acaden. One left and the other got hurt for the year. We don’t have a big to help Moreno. Moreno was supposed to be 3rd string. BG ineptitude and JQ being hurt totally crushed this team financially that could have gone to two players like a Wilkerson and a Caleb Wilson. I firmly believe those two decisions caused the mess we are in; however, I still have faith that he won’t make that mistake again. To defend Pope, he had Kam to give Chandler rest and vice versa, instead he now has Noah. He had Lowe to rest Aberdeen.. now he has Jasper. Injuries killed this team and should not reflect on roster construction… you can’t blame the coach for that.

His roster construction featured one major flaw. The biggest flaw...... Everyone said no. All his top targets, his first option.....they all said no. What we got is what we were left with. This is Popes shortcoming. He can't sell, he can't relate, he can't close. If he doesn't whiff on his top targets then we aren't having this conversation today.

JSquad0070 said:

BG sucks and you could tell from his skill set he was not going to improve. Lowe was our 3rd or 4th Pg choice and was a low efficiency volume scorer that struggles on D. Horrible decision on Pope on that part.

Yes, Lowe was our 3rd and 4th option. You needed a point guard though and he was one of the top portal point guards at that time. What other point guard could have we gotten? He does have some limitations for sure but our too choices said no and went elsewhere. Can you blame pope for that?

Ridinwithpope said:

Oh wow I didn’t hear about that. Thanks for the info. If that is the case.. definitely a huge mistake.

Yeah he just casually mentioned it, because at the time it looked like the gamble had paid off but…………”.not so fast my friend “.

Damage_inc said:

His roster construction featured one major flaw. The biggest flaw...... Everyone said no. All his top targets, his first option.....they all said no. What we got is what we were left with. This is Popes shortcoming. He can't sell, he can't relate, he can't close. If he doesn't whiff on his top targets then we aren't having this conversation today.

That is probably true that his biggest fault were his whiffs. However, in this day and age you have to prove you can win. Pope is trying to get there. May had a final four, Davis went to a title game, ucla is home to Dent.

And to be fair Caleb Wilson and Nate Ament were already off the board and committed before Pope spoke to JQ about coming here in the portal. We couldn't have used JQ's money on them. I'm not saying JQ was a smart investment. That's something entirely different.

Damage_inc said:

His roster construction featured one major flaw. The biggest flaw...... Everyone said no. All his top targets, his first option.....they all said no. What we got is what we were left with. This is Popes shortcoming. He can't sell, he can't relate, he can't close. If he doesn't whiff on his top targets then we aren't having this conversation today.

And he doesn’t coach the ones he has.

If Pope brings back BG to be part of the rotation next year. That tells me one of two things or maybe both are true. 1. My assessment of him being way in over his head. Has no idea what it takes to win at this level are true. 2. He’s not willing to make the hard decisions it takes to win at this level. Sometimes you have to hurt people’s feelings and tell them the truth. BG is not a high level D1 basketball player. Pope needs to tell him to go find a new job. I’m not sure he’s cutthroat enough to have that conversation.

Ridinwithpope said:

Very frustrated at the moment, but I don’t understand the doom and gloomers. The way I see it.. pope made 2 mistakes in the offseason.. and one of those mistakes was going after a lottery pick.

There was a point before the St John’s game that just about everybody on the board declared the year completely over. We have no change to beat St. John’s. Zero. We won. After the game? Well, they just were no good. We had another rough patch to start SEC play losing to Bama and Missouri and most everyone calling for Pope’s job, including me btw. This team has no chance to make the tournament they all said. Absolutely no way of salvaging anything from this season. Don’t even wait— fire Pope now because we all have a crystal ball and there’s not turnaround coming. We won 8 of the next 9 games. When we were set to play Arkansas, some of the “fans” on here even openly admitted that they cheer for Arkansas. And no one gave us any chance at all. But we beat Cal pretty comfortably in Fayetteville. Most of the same posters who were DEFINITELY sure Pope couldn’t make anything of the year were starting to buy the hype so much that even I was like “hold up y’all. You’re forgetting how flawed this team is.” Then, yep we lose the last three games and those folks are right back where they were before. Didn’t learn anything from it. I learned. Don’t act like you know what you don’t. Pope could end in disaster or he could have a little magic left. No matter what happens, every fan on here already knew what would happen. Supposedly.

USARMYWILDCAT said:

If Pope brings back BG to be part of the rotation next year. That tells me one of two things or maybe both are true. 1. My assessment of him being way in over his head. Has no idea what it takes to win at this level. 2. He’s not willing to make the hard decisions it takes to win at this level. Sometimes you have to hurt people’s feelings and tell them the truth. BG is not a high level D1 basketball player. Pope needs to tell him to go find a new job. I’m not sure he’s cutthroat enough to have that conversation.

Agree 99%, the 1% that is left is we have zero commits. Pope has tried to recruit over him and all three center targets chose elsewhere. And unless we get Sayan Keita from overseas or a portal big, we might have to keep Garrison just to field a team next year. Yikes...

Ridinwithpope said:

I hear a broken record of how bad Popes roster construction was this past year. I firmly believe that it’s not as bad as people make it sound and there were only two mistakes that he made. Those two mistakes are the reason why we are in the position we are at. Those two are the gamble on JQ for 2-3 million and the hope that BG would step up and be as good as Amari was last year. Probably another 1-2 million. Our biggest weaknesses are not having a point guard for depth, had Lowe and acaden. One left and the other got hurt for the year. We don’t have a big to help Moreno. Moreno was supposed to be 3rd string. BG ineptitude and JQ being hurt totally crushed this team financially that could have gone to two players like a Wilkerson and a Caleb Wilson. I firmly believe those two decisions caused the mess we are in; however, I still have faith that he won’t make that mistake again. To defend Pope, he had Kam to give Chandler rest and vice versa, instead he now has Noah. He had Lowe to rest Aberdeen.. now he has Jasper. Injuries killed this team and should not reflect on roster construction… you can’t blame the coach for that.

Pope's weakness as a recruiter has hurt with roster building. He has mostly swung and missed on top high school recruits and hasn't exactly killed it in the portal. Without a couple of studs in the mix, it's hard to compete at an elite level.

The whole summer, I heard that Noah is our best 3 pts shooter. Everyone knew if Noah or Chandler or Perry would be getting significant minutes this year, this team will not be great. Perry left. Noah is not rotation material and Chandler not a starter on Kentucky team that supposed to be a final four or title contender. in our last loss , both Noah and Chandler played way too many minutes for their current development . I am not bashing the players. I think they contribute more in the future….. This roster, had many holes not only the bigs. The holes were both on the quality of players brought in and the structure. There was pretty good analysis at each position on a different posting so I am not going to repeat it here. it’s just not accurate to say it’s only the bigs and injuries….

Ridinwithpope said:

Yes, Lowe was our 3rd and 4th option. You needed a point guard though and he was one of the top portal point guards at that time. What other point guard could have we gotten? He does have some limitations for sure but our too choices said no and went elsewhere. Can you blame pope for that?

You just outlined the entire problem… No one blames Pope for taking Lowe, he’s being blamed for having to settle for his 3rd-4th options! Not a Calipari fan, but tell me the last PG he settled on that was his 3rd-4th option? How about Scheyer, or Self… or ANY high major coach? Heck, the little man syndrome himself took Pope’s 1st or 2nd option, while SMU and IU took the other 2🤣😂🤣

I guess I am just still hopeful we have opportunities left with top high school kids for next year. Call me delusional, but I call that being a fan. Not giving up hope until it’s officially over. We are still in the running for stokes, Collins, and Holt. There are reasons why those guys haven’t committed yet. Until they sign elsewhere, I still say why not Kentucky. We have huge opportunities for those kids to come in and be the center piece without oweh and Aberdeen. Call me a hopeful delusionist, but I think it could happen with top high school kids for this coming year.