I’m so tired of being “decent”

darkshadesofblue

All-Conference
Aug 18, 2015
3,511
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Yeah, Pope is a good coach but doesn’t have the elite “salesmanship” to compete at the top level here. You need at least two elite guys to compete at an elite level, it can’t be just good coaching with some decent roll guys. Cal had the salesmanship but didn’t know when to take off the salesman hat. Pope will get one more “show me” year, but right now it’s looking like we’re going to have another average portal haul. The question is are our fans okay with average from now on? I could throw in injuries as an additional mismanaged problem
 
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ZaytovenCat

All-American
Apr 25, 2013
23,887
8,430
97
Cal lowered the expectations of too many UK fans in my opinion.
Spot on. Cal lowered the expectations and now Pope is just hammering it home. You have people here excited and happy to be sitting at 17-8 and it’s absolutely pathetic. They also talk how next year will be Popes best yet and how great we will be while ignoring the fact that we won’t have a top 50 recruit for the first time in a quarter century.

It just took winning 8 of 9 games to get ranked at #25. That’s how far gone this team was. That should never happen here. Of course now we will fall right back out with the loss.

What Arizona, Michigan and Duke are doing is what UK should be doing, period. That hasn’t happened here in over a decade. We have absolutely nobody in a leadership position in the athletic department who knows wtf they are doing. If they did then we wouldn’t have ever got into this position to begin with. We are now Indiana and UCLA.
 

Kjuk24

Senior
Mar 1, 2025
403
413
63
Feels like we’re 17-8 and hoping we can make the 2nd weekend almost every year lately. Also feels like “decent” is going to be our ceiling with Pope.

Today’s game isn’t the end of the world but this program has been far from elite for too long.
This is what you wanted
 

Tri-Countycat

All-Conference
Jul 1, 2025
1,285
2,745
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The first three years of Cal looked a lot different than Popes first two years and that is what we should be looking for. Not comparing Pope to Cal his last 5 years. Cal won the SEC and SEC tourney in year one. Following Billy Clyde. If Pope can’t bring in 2-3 elite guys every year, he is failing at his job. Period. I actually think he might be a better X and O coach than Pat Kelsey but Kelsey is getting Elite recruits. Hard thing to do following the mess that the Cards were in. Pope better get a GM that can seal the deal on players ASAP.
 

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
28,542
68,080
113
Spot on. Cal lowered the expectations and now Pope is just hammering it home. You have people here excited and happy to be sitting at 17-8 and it’s absolutely pathetic. They also talk how next year will be Popes best yet and how great we will be while ignoring the fact that we won’t have a top 50 recruit for the first time in a quarter century.

It just took winning 8 of 9 games to get ranked at #25. That’s how far gone this team was. That should never happen here. Of course now we will fall right back out with the loss.

What Arizona, Michigan and Duke are doing is what UK should be doing, period. That hasn’t happened here in over a decade. We have absolutely nobody in a leadership position in the athletic department who knows wtf they are doing. If they did then we wouldn’t have ever got into this position to begin with. We are now Indiana and UCLA.
I feel like im taking crazy pills. This fanbase has went totally Indiana. Clean cut Indiana boys, candy stripe pants, only 3.0 GPA players.
 

OleTiredBum

Senior
Sep 28, 2025
516
610
93
Feels like we’re 17-8 and hoping we can make the 2nd weekend almost every year lately. Also feels like “decent” is going to be our ceiling with Pope.

Today’s game isn’t the end of the world but this program has been far from elite for too long.
To be honest, beating Cal on his own turf was winning.... That seals the deal for me. Everything else is cake.
 

mhs1964

Junior
Feb 8, 2018
300
317
58
Yeah, Pope is a good coach but doesn’t have the elite “salesmanship” to compete at the top level here. You need at least two elite guys to compete at an elite level, it can’t be just good coaching with some decent roll guys. Cal had the salesmanship but didn’t know when to take off the salesman hat. Pope will get one more “show me” year, but right now it’s looking like we’re going to have another average portal haul. The question is are our fans okay with average from now on? I could throw in injuries as an additional mismanaged problem
The only injury mismanagement involved is JQ. As an old retired doc (not ortho) I had little hope that a guy his size would play at all this year. With all the sports medicine now availailable and the expertise available to a high profile athlete and the staff I thought maybe they had shortened recovery time in the more than a decade since I retired. Alas, it appears they haven’t.
 
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Jan 30, 2004
105,528
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The only injury mismanagement involved is JQ. As an old retired doc (not ortho) I had little hope that a guy his size would play at all this year. With all the sports medicine now availailable and the expertise available to a high profile athlete and the staff I thought maybe they had shortened recovery time in the more than a decade since I retired. Alas, it appears they haven’t.
It's more than injury mismanagement, it's financial as well. Whatever money he got is a sunk cost, it could have and should have gone to someone who can help us.
 

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
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Spot on. Cal lowered the expectations and now Pope is just hammering it home. You have people here excited and happy to be sitting at 17-8 and it’s absolutely pathetic. They also talk how next year will be Popes best yet and how great we will be while ignoring the fact that we won’t have a top 50 recruit for the first time in a quarter century.

It just took winning 8 of 9 games to get ranked at #25. That’s how far gone this team was. That should never happen here. Of course now we will fall right back out with the loss.

What Arizona, Michigan and Duke are doing is what UK should be doing, period. That hasn’t happened here in over a decade. We have absolutely nobody in a leadership position in the athletic department who knows wtf they are doing. If they did then we wouldn’t have ever got into this position to begin with. We are now Indiana and UCLA.
Yep. Calipari lowered expectations intentionally. But I don’t think some of the old cal brigade, now Pope brigade, is all that bright to be honest. Certainly not their fault.

Mark at least hasn’t lowered the bar, he still says this isn’t how Kentucky does things. I do like that.

But if we don’t get a grip on all of this losing we will look back and say it’s been 25 years since we’ve been dominant.

Any fan who mocks Kentucky standards and wants them lowered needs to not off and stay off. Just the other day one of the 5 that do this here stated the all time wins list doesn’t mean anything and “kids today don’t even remember us winning those”. If this is your opinion leave and do not return to anything Kentucky related again. Please.
 

MarkPftw

All-American
Nov 19, 2016
5,247
6,772
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I think we're now tied for the 3rd longest drought without a National Title. It was 20 years from 1958 to 1978..then 18 years from 1978 to 1996...then 14 years from 1998 to 2012..and now 14 years again from 2012-2026. What makes this drought so tough though is we should have won it all in 2014 and 2015..probably should have won it all in 2017 as well..and possibly in 2019..but not only did we not win it all any of those years, those years all ended in heartbreaking losses.
 

Ednunn

Sophomore
Mar 8, 2023
158
181
43
The only injury mismanagement involved is JQ. As an old retired doc (not ortho) I had little hope that a guy his size would play at all this year. With all the sports medicine now availailable and the expertise available to a high profile athlete and the staff I thought maybe they had shortened recovery time in the more than a decade since I retired. Alas, it appears they haven’t.
And yet the downhill gold medal went to 35 year old who last April broke calf, tibia, and tore ACL. Our 19 year olds cant heal. 🤷‍♂️
 

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
28,542
68,080
113
Yep. Calipari lowered expectations intentionally. But I don’t think some of the old cal brigade, now Pope brigade, is all that bright to be honest. Certainly not their fault.

Mark at least hasn’t lowered the bar, he still says this isn’t how Kentucky does things. I do like that.

But if we don’t get a grip on all of this losing we will look back and say it’s been 25 years since we’ve been dominant.

Any fan who mocks Kentucky standards and wants them lowered needs to not off and stay off. Just the other day one of the 5 that do this here stated the all time wins list doesn’t mean anything and “kids today don’t even remember us winning those”. If this is your opinion leave and do not return to anything Kentucky related again. Please.
There's a few who didn't like Cal. But because he wasn't one of us. And didn't respect our tradition or fanbase. So when Pope came in. They fell in love. Recruiting eastern KY boys, bringing back cool uniforms, etc etc. They don't care if he loses. He's just so precious and one of us. Go team go! Lower bowl of Rupp arena crowd.
 

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
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Pope has only has 2 years and has dealt with serious injuries both of those. Too soon to know if he can get us to that dominate phase or not.

JQ doesn’t count he recruited him and he was never healthy to begin with. Lowe is not a dominant guard and a lot of basketball guys including the field of 68 who know a lot about the game think it was a bad recruit to take. Kam is not Kobe Bryant.

We were getting blown out with that roster and everyone deals with injuries.

11 years since we’ve been in a final four. Nearly the same time frame since an elite 8 save 1 year. Pope has been average his entire career and has no recruits coming in. He’s the worst recruiter we’ve ever had at Kentucky.

How long do you think we need to wait and see if he can turn into someone else entirely?
 

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
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The pumpers gotta be opposing fans, right? I mean it's clear to see who benefits from Kentucky being mediocre.
Yes a lot of them are. There’s about 3 or 4 of the 5 or 6 that are not UK fans are committed trolls. Cowboy is not a UK fan, and there’s 2 more that appear not to be. Only a troll would want UK to keep steady with Pope and stay mid.
 
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UKWildcats1987

Heisman
Sep 9, 2021
19,674
34,308
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I think we're now tied for the 3rd longest drought without a National Title. It was 20 years from 1958 to 1978..then 18 years from 1978 to 1996...then 14 years from 1998 to 2012..and now 14 years again from 2012-2026. What makes this drought so tough though is we should have won it all in 2014 and 2015..probably should have won it all in 2017 as well..and possibly in 2019..but not only did we not win it all any of those years, those years all ended in heartbreaking losses.

We had injuries cost us the titles n 2014 and 2015. It is what it is.
 

MarkPftw

All-American
Nov 19, 2016
5,247
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We had injuries cost us the titles n 2014 and 2015. It is what it is.

Yeah, WCS and Poythress injuries did hurt, no doubt..but that 2015 team was so loaded, Kaminsky and company had no business beating that team. We beat them in 2014 with a weaker squad. Looking back though, I should have been expecting it..when we were beating teams 58-38, 56-46, 58-50, 58-44, 63-51, 70-64 in Double OT, etc...the defense was amazing but the offense wasn't there most of the year. That's on Cal. That's why I take 2012 UK and 96 UK over 2015 UK every time.
 
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RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
28,542
68,080
113
Yeah, WCS and Poythress injuries did hurt, no doubt..but that 2015 team was so loaded, Kaminsky and company had no business beating that team. We beat them in 2014 with a weaker squad. Looking back though, I should have been expecting it..when were beating teams 58-38, 56-46, 58-50, 58-44, 63-51, 70-64 in Double OT, etc...the defense was amazing but the offense wasn't there most of the year. That's on Cal. That's why I take 2012 UK and 96 UK over 2015 UK every time.
Wisconsin had the highest or 2nd highest rated offense of the Kenpom era in 2015. And had two top 25 NBA picks on that team. Let's not act like that team was trash. Who just got lucky.
 

MarkPftw

All-American
Nov 19, 2016
5,247
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Wisconsin had the highest or 2nd highest rated offense of the Kenpom era in 2015. And had two top 25 NBA picks on that team. Let's not act like that team was trash. Who just got lucky.


Oh yeah, Wiscy was really good but no way they should have beat 2015 UK unless that UK team didn't have the offense to beat them..and with that loaded UK squad, no way that should have been the case.
 
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UKWildcats1987

Heisman
Sep 9, 2021
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Wisconsin had the highest or 2nd highest rated offense of the Kenpom era in 2015. And had two top 25 NBA picks on that team. Let's not act like that team was trash. Who just got lucky.

And the refs helped them down the stretch. Missed shot clock violation was one of the worst missed calls I've seen. Vegas wasn't gonna let UK go 40 and 0.
 

BigBluefoot

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
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To be honest, beating Cal on his own turf was winning.... That seals the deal for me. Everything else is cake.
So now the expectations for Kentucky is just beating Arkansas?

Kermit The Frog No GIF by Muppet Wiki
 
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