You are the one who brought up Self. Are you claiming Deron Williams would not have been a high draft pick if he had played for Pope?
That was of course only due to injury but that is a legitimate concern that certainly affects where JQ will be drafted. I don't know that I would exactly agree that Moreno excelled but he did show potential. Not just any slob would be in this position just because he played all year in the place of an injured teammate.
I think it's worth summarizing the argument because it's gotten confusing.
The last statement is pretty obvious. You said it was because he has not shown he can get them to the NBA is why he is not getting surefire pros here. This is clearly false as he has gotten guys to the NBA that were far from surefire. If he has shown he can get those guys to the NBA why would more talented guys doubt his ability to get them there?
The more talented guys don't care about Williams and Brea. They are not in the same boat. They relate more to Moreno, who should be an asset for future recruiting assuming he goes high enough.
He has not had the luxury of coaching the level of talent you are clamoring for. You are saying the fact that he has not had them yet is why they don't want to play for him. How can you consider that to be his fault? Do you actually believe Jasper's poor season was Pope's fault?
I think he’d be a lot better off here another year than trying to find his way in the league. Money and playing time wise. Maybe he really wants to leave, I personally have no idea, I just want him back in Blue and White. lol.
. I’ll wish him well either way.Nobody starts out with that luxury. They build connections, they get their hands dirty, they earn reputation. Pope will never be a recruiter.
That's not what you were saying at all. So are you now contending he is not working hard enough to make connections? That is crystal ball level stuff to say he will never be a good recruiter.
It's not about effort. He will not be a Calipari type recruiter regardless of how much effort he puts in. It is what it is, people have different talents. There is talk that he is causing deals to go south by wanting to be too involved. How true it is I have no idea, but the fact is he has not succeeded at recruiting a single elite player.
I think it is a safe bet that he will never be a Calipari level recruiter. Very few ever will. If it is just a matter of wanting to be too involved that sounds like an easy fix. I don't see how you can definitively say he will never be a good recruiter if that is the case. He has really only been in position for two seasons to recruit elite talent and I would argue that he has landed one in Moreno. The first two seasons he was really forced to prioritize experience to a degree because of the roster situation Cal left here as well.
Well, if I had to lay $$$ on who was the most productive big man last year for UK, it would be MM.
I never said that. Good try though. All I'm saying is you can't actually know that for sure. You have very little knowledge or understanding of what may have caused those misses this year.
I don't have any argument if you state it as your opinion. It is definitive declarations I take issue with. I wouldn't go so far as to say more than likely but I would agree it is yet to be proven and only time will ultimately tell.
Sadly, I think 0/14 has sealed his fate. His response wasn't encouraging either -- his answer was to go 0/20 rather than address the root cause. To be fair, and to your point with the JMI interference, the root cause may possibly be something he can't expose publicly.
Pope has not gotten anyone to the NBA.
JQ has a bad wheel...lot of speculation about how he lands whenever he jumps, and that he is clearly favoring the good leg. I think he is in kind of the situation that Daniel Orton found himself in....honestly, a GM is taking a good bit of a gamble on a guy that admittedly wasn't physically able to compete on a knee he had surgery on 15 months ago.Over at Yahoo! Sports, Kevin O’Connor’s new two-round mock draft has Malachi Moreno and Jayden Quaintance going back-to-back late in the first. Moreno gets picked ahead of Quaintance at No. 23 overall by the Atlanta Hawks, drawing comparisons to Jarrett Allen and Cody Zeller in O’Connor’s analysis. “The Hawks can find a true center that can play next to Onyeka Okongwu,” writes O’Connor. Quaintance is next off the board to the New York Knicks at No. 24. O’Connor compares him to Mitchell Robinson, who Quaintance would likely be replacing in New York in this scenario, and Robert Williams III.
Malachi Moreno picked before Jayden Quaintance in new NBA Mock Draft
Malachi Moreno and Jayden Quaintance go back-to-back in Yahoo's new NBA mock draft.www.on3.com
My initial point is that I believe MM excelled on that team given his initial outlook as a replaceable big - your point (I don't know that would exactly agree that Moreno excelled but he did show potential) was that he didn’t.
Honestly bro, you sound like Catphright. You guys the same person?
Yes, and when he does ball out there, the story will be that Oregon's staff untapped his potential and Pope couldn't.
I think it's going to take a few seasons. He needs to fill out some and get stronger.
I like to be positive about our players but I can't go so far as to call 7.8 ppg and 6.3 rpg excelling. He did exceed expectation for year one but that owes a lot to getting minutes that were not expected due to JQ's injury and BG's poor play..
These opinions were clearly erroneous. This far from the first time we have seen this occur.
Oweh is the epitome of a player who doesn’t get drafted. And it’s because he’s a massive risk and most any team that would be interested in them can sign them to a free agent contract after the draft. I mean, there may be a team to take him late real late and he’s definitely the best player of the Mark Pope era. He’s an elite athlete. He’s not an elite basketball player.
Meh, Jasper Johnson was his own worst enemy at UK. Couldn’t/wouldn’t accept coaching. That’s not on Pope, and I’m far from a Mark Pope apologist.
Eh it was definitely popes fault too, you dont play a jasper johnson the same amount of minutes as a trent noah
According the sports-reference metric Noah had a 120.3 offensive rating vs. 106.2 for Johnson. Noah had a defensive rating of 105.6 (the lower the better) vs. 114.9 for Johnson. Johnson had a team high 3.3 TO's per 40 min (outside of Horn in his very limited action). Noah averaged 1.1 TO's per 40.
Nah, just kidding. Actually MM was the sorest spot on the whole effing team.
