winning is fun. losing isnt fun. another 9, 10, 11 losses isnt a fun season. unless we are now a participation trophy type of program.
BB: Kentucky Basketball Pro Day
- Thread starter TheResistance
- Start date
You said exhibitions show who you are. So after we smoked purdue we would’ve been considered a top 10ish team. Then when the gtown game came we wouldn’t. I say exhibitions don’t mean much. You usually don’t run much stuff and just play with rotations. You seem lost. I’m assuming you never actually played or coached ball.
Exhibition games give fans a decent first look at their new team each year. Just a preliminary look at personnel ... not much more.
oh i'm not giving up on the season because of a practice outing. i'm giving up on the season because pope is our coach and the roster has problems.
the outcome of the game does matter. shot 31% from three. sub 70% from the line. blah from the PF/C spot. jasper our best player with oweh coming back from injury. no show from chandler.
guess what happened in the gtown game.....23% from three, 65% from the line, more blah from the PF/C spot. no jasper beer muscles. no show from chandler
sounds like 80% of the games last season.
A lot of people have lowered their personal standards for Kentucky basketball recently, I’ve noticed. Why? I don’t understand, especially not for Mark f*cking Pope of all people. Does the rest of the country making fun of him catalyze some sort of parental instinct within these people or what? Are they a bunch of contrarians desperately trying to prove all the “haters” wrong?
All it takes it seems like to ruin Kentucky basketball is a bunch of fans with a fetish for being made fun of by opposing fans it seems like. “It’s okway my pwecious baby boy, Popey-kins! I’ll make them like you!”
These same people were laughing at Indiana when Crean was being an absolute goober. How the tables have turned.
Wait…wut? Mom (if that’s who you’re talking about) gets a pass, if that’s what you want to call it, because he’s coming off a finger injury AND he was one of the best shooters in CBB last season AND did it against P4/5 opponents all season.
The game Kam had means nothing. I still don’t think he’s a very good shooter. Just okayish. His misses are BAD. And he’s never done it with any consistency against good teams.
Id be willing to bet you whatever you want Wilkins won’t be an NBA draft pick after this year. He averaged like 17 at freaking Furman or wherever. Had a number of stinker games against really bad teams too. Sure, he had 20-something against UConn. One game. Can he do it on a regular basis come Jan/Feb in one of the best leagues in the country? Time will tell.
Lol. Bball IQ and multiple skills? You’d damned well better have that at this level.
I’m nervous for sure. Nervous we will finish middle of the pack in the league, not get to the weekend in the SECT and not make it past the S16…again.
Who’s “giving up”? Voicing concerns isn’t giving up. Some of us don’t prescribe to looking at the bright light until the train runs us over. Sheesh. It’s not a cult.
Doom Squad trying to out Nancy each other. LOL
All it took was one bad season to bring all the negative nancy's to the surface. The outrage doesn’t fit the situation.
All the sudden, the 24/25 season never happened, all they talk about is the losses and now we have dudes trying to say BCG was better, because "he went to a sweet 16 when he was at Texas a&m". The reaching is crazy.
If Pope made a FF this year, it wouldn't be good enough, they will still point to everything that happened in 25/26.
I get being concerned and there definitely should be some anger toward Barnhart, but I don't understand why so many are so upset at Pope that they feel the need to sling hate daily on here. The guy is giving everything he has to win, nobody can deny that.
We were mad at Pope for overpaying for players last year, now we're mad at Pope for not overpaying for Rob Wright, who hasn't won sh*t anywhere he's been?
UK offered him the same deal BYU offered him, which is the going rate for a pg with his skills. Wright wanted a massive bag and that's what it would have taken for him to leave BYU. He wanted to be overpaid and I'm glad Pope didn’t do that.
Jesus, reading these posts in this thread after one pro day scrimmage is sobering. My gawd people, give it a rest. It’s October and dudes are already throwing in the towel and claiming the season a failure. Unreal.
You're putting words in my mouth. It would be a fluke. Just like Tom Crean, Kevin Keatts, etc etc. It wouldn't lead to lasting success.
Nostalgia and boomers. That's all it is. If Pope was from Ohio and played for some random program. He'd be fired last year. They're gonna kill the program, trying to emulate Indiana. It is what it is. Dudes doing mental gymnastics to defend an awful coach. Because he won a title here and signs some autographs after the game. Meanwhile, when Calipari was losing, he got demolished by the same guys in this thread, (me included, Calipari was awful his last 5 years here). When Pope loses, they start the excuses and mental gymnastics "Dan Hurley sucked too" "Injuries" "The SEC is hard", etc etc. Why? Because Pope played here and won a title. Boomer fans will never hold him accountable. Go to facebook, the JP hire just bought him lifetime contract status for the 50+ crowd. He's our Mike Woodson.
I seriously hope our boosters and new AD won’t settle for this BS or Kentucky is done. And based on his stupid comments from the end of last comparing his seasons favorably to Cal’s last few seasons, I fear Pope is not so gracious enough to give up the title. I worry he will resource guard this program like an emaciated pit bull, Kentucky prestige be damed. I hope I’m wrong.
We can’t afford to extend the Pope tenure another year if he ends up 6th-8th in the SEC again. I’m not as worried about the tournament because three straight years of being a middle-of-the-road SEC team is a historical embarrassment (and he won’t do anything in the tourney anyway). It’s inexcusable and something that should’ve never been allowed to happeb.
So meaningless exhibition games show you who you are. But a full season shooting 40% like Kam did freshman season doesn’t mean anything. You and the other guy can’t actually believe the stuff yall post.
Alex is the most talented played on our roster. He has everything you want in a guard. He’s shifty, quick, plays at multiple speeds, can shoot it with ease, has high basketball iq and the list goes on. He was a late bloomer but has all the tools. Also has the size and ability to play the 1 or 2. There is a reason Nate oats the guy y’all are obsessed with wanted him so bad.
Nate Oats would kill it at UK. I've been saying that for like 3 years. Give him our NIL budget, a good staff budget, and watch the fireworks.
He possibly could. I doubt he ever leaves bama though. Got it made there. Plenty of resources, they hired his new wife and he can get away with anything he wants. Also zero pressure. His style even at Kentucky to ever win a title is going to have to be adjusted eventually. The one year they made it to final four the defense played good in the tourney finally. Other than that he tries to out score everyone. I just don’t think he would want to come to Kentucky and know he has to win or he’s on the hot seat. With nil coaches don’t seem to feel the need to take on that pressure anymore. I mean we got nuts on this board saying we suck because of a practice
Coaches at high level CBB aren't wired like me and you. If they were, they'd never leave for better jobs. The "zero pressure" is overblown.
When I was a kid, the UKIT was the biggest waste of time that I tried to believe was somehow meaningful. I suppose Pro Day is the modern equivalent…
I’m not wired for zero pressure. I’m a coach myself and love the pressure. But look at Unc job. They had to go nba and got turned down by everyone. If you can man similar money without the expectations and build your proves how you want why wouldn’t you? Also don’t discount the ego and being the best ever at somewhere like bama oppose to Just another guy at Kentucky.
If memory serves, we already offered him the job.
Its like the Billy D thing, how many times do you need to be kicked in the jimmy?
He was never offered the job.
“Nate Oats pulled his name out of consideration. I mean the job was never offered to me. It didn't get to that point at all,” Nate Oats said”.
Oh yeah, his hands were full with the murder investigation and his player(s) involvement .He was never offered the job.
“Nate Oats pulled his name out of consideration. I mean the job was never offered to me. It didn't get to that point at all,” Nate Oats said”.
That trial is about to start.
Did he release the guy who got caught with the 2lbs of reefer madness?
You know they say, where there is smoke.......
Yea cuz no coach has ever lied about being offered a job. Saban wasn’t leaving the dolphins for bama either. Stoops really wanted to stay at Kentucky instead of go to A&M.He was never offered the job.
“Nate Oats pulled his name out of consideration. I mean the job was never offered to me. It didn't get to that point at all,” Nate Oats said”.
Oats says clearly in that interview he doesn’t want the UK job.He was never offered the job.
“Nate Oats pulled his name out of consideration. I mean the job was never offered to me. It didn't get to that point at all,” Nate Oats said”.
Let’s forget that sour faced whiner as a potential coach.
Hate watching him yell and whine to the refs all game long. Tells me he feels he has to get help from the officials.
Also who in the hell would want a low character guy like Gillespie in charge of a top class program like UK. Ask Patrick Patterson’s mom who told Mitch he had to go. In fact she and the other parents were a deciding factor in his exit.
Billy just didn’t have a close support system and the job overwhelmed him.
if you want sobering......media predictions are starting to roll in. Field of 68 has us ranked 7th in the SEC. i would expect most others to be similar plus/minus 1 or 2 spots. a 7th place finish in last years SEC was UGA at 10-8. throwing in the towel in october seems like a natural reaction to me.
Man we should definitely trust those. They had us top 10 heading into last season.
who said anything about overpaying? here's a concept.....players actually wanting to play for a coach /school and doesnt need to be over paid to get. but with pope....his only hope is to over pay because no one wants to play for him. in the past 2 seasons, only 2 or 3 programs have spent more money on their rosters than UK. but the results dont match so far.
pope failed in getting the best PG in the portal and now we have zoom who is pretty pedestrian.
vs trusting people on this board? oh i forgot....everyone here is a former all american.
Southeastern 16 has us 4th, but who cares? Look at the talent Arkansas, Florida and Texas have, they should be ahead of us. Some have UT ahead of us, I disagree,
But who cares about predictions?
What you guys need to realize is, we're all on the same page here, everyone believes Pope is not the guy, but he has shown what he is capable of and it’s at least worth giving him a fair shake in his 3rd season.
There are too many people in here literally throwing hate at the guy, which is odd, he doesn't deserve that, especially given who he is. The guy would give his left arm for this place and he’s giving everything he has to win and we have guys in here acting like he’s losing 20 games a year.
What he did in year 1 was awesome in my eyes. Had a couple duds, but he had a large pile of massive wins and if Butler, KK, Carr and JR don't get hurt, that's a FF level team, no doubt in my mind.
Pope tried to go off script and built a roster that he thought would be tougher, it was a disaster, but he salvaged it. Look at the seasons Cal had that were disasters (2013 and 2021).
Calipari did worse and was loved here.
So your support for Pope is because he's a former player and he really wants to win? That's amazing. Pope isn't, so he needs to go. It's calling putting the program first. You're really no different than the Calipari defenders of old.
You think these kids are picking their destination because they like the coach? You're lidding, right?
You think Duke gets every kid they want, because they like Jon Scheyer?
Here's one for you, you think those kids are goung to UConn because they like… .Dan Hurley? Come on man.
It’s about money and there is a price range for every level of talent at every position. Why on earth would Pope overpay for a pg that hasn't won crap anywhere he gas been when the kid wasn’t actually looking to leave BYU?
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