The Nancies on this board are like a passenger who whines and bitches the whole way on a road trip and then when you arrive they act like they are responsible for getting everyone to the destination. The trip will be the trip. We all have to take it. You just wish they would shut their pie holes while it was taking place. They add nothing. They just detract. But they think they are the ones who understand how to get from here to there and we would not make it without them. They are wrong.
Garrison quote
- Thread starter bleedsblue5
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You have to take quotes like this with a grain of salt. He’s not going to throw his new coach under the bus after just transferring.
That being said, there could be some level of truth to it. The first part is pretty noncontroversial. It’s obvious to all of us that Oats is the louder and more in your face kind of coach compared to Pope. I’m not sure that’s inherently a better or worse thing because you can point to examples of coaches in both of those categories who have been very successful recently. I do think different coaching styles might be more effective for certain individual players though. Garrison doesn’t always seem like the most self motivated guy, so I can buy it that Oats being more likely to give him a kick in the pants is good for him.
I’m less sure what he really means in the second part, because I don’t think of analytics and X’s and O’s being conflicting concepts or disciplines. Maybe he means that Oats is more effective at actually sharing analytic data with the team and getting them to change their habits based on it, but that would be speculation on top of the aforementioned grain of salt. I lost quite a bit of confidence in Pope last year, but I don’t really see anything to bash him over just based on this interview.
That being said, there could be some level of truth to it. The first part is pretty noncontroversial. It’s obvious to all of us that Oats is the louder and more in your face kind of coach compared to Pope. I’m not sure that’s inherently a better or worse thing because you can point to examples of coaches in both of those categories who have been very successful recently. I do think different coaching styles might be more effective for certain individual players though. Garrison doesn’t always seem like the most self motivated guy, so I can buy it that Oats being more likely to give him a kick in the pants is good for him.
I’m less sure what he really means in the second part, because I don’t think of analytics and X’s and O’s being conflicting concepts or disciplines. Maybe he means that Oats is more effective at actually sharing analytic data with the team and getting them to change their habits based on it, but that would be speculation on top of the aforementioned grain of salt. I lost quite a bit of confidence in Pope last year, but I don’t really see anything to bash him over just based on this interview.
You had better watch it with your stinking facts sir.
The doomers will not stand for it.
FAAAAAR Pope!
Pope has lots of issues as a coach, but not because Brandon Garrison said so.
In his first 8 years of coaching, he won his conference 4 times, made 6 NCAA tournaments and 2 sw 16s.
Now, you do Pope!
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He will have his game of the season against us when we play them. Like he did against OU. I expect that. Otherwise, I wish him the best. He just was never really what I consider a Kentucky caliber player. He just wasn't what we want at Kentucky, thanks but no thanks. No bad feelings, and regardless how well he works out for Alabama ( or doesnt work out) I'll keep what we got on the roster this year without him being on it at all.
We're good.
We're good.
No he isn't and reason enough not to parse his words. I will say the pace Alabama teams play with may be his best fit, less thinking. This will be interesting to watch unfold.
Not understanding what was wrong or controversial about what he said.
No, his insane sub patterns come from a desire to be a girl dad participation trophy style coach, kinda like you see in today’s little league’s.
That won’t work in high stakes MCBB where the players are highly paid professionals, paid to win at a high level, and their feelings and egos need to take a back seat to everything else!
Although, I will give Pope credit for trying to buck that label by wanting to bring in Mark Mitchell. Let’s hope that mentality finally spills over into substitutions and minutes played this season.
I have tried my best to support Pope, but my post was just an observation of what he could improve at.
I agree these days you can't yell at kids all the time anymore, but you can be a bit more intense than he is or has been.
I think honestly our defense resembles his whole persona, It is maybe even technically correct but they looks lazy/disinterested to get the job done 90 percent of the time. But I am in on this team (again) and hope all this works out, but I am and always have been concerned at the lack intensity him and the players have under him have.
I agree these days you can't yell at kids all the time anymore, but you can be a bit more intense than he is or has been.
I think honestly our defense resembles his whole persona, It is maybe even technically correct but they looks lazy/disinterested to get the job done 90 percent of the time. But I am in on this team (again) and hope all this works out, but I am and always have been concerned at the lack intensity him and the players have under him have.
I'm not disagreeing about the wild substitution patterns, but I think a little more thought needs to go into it as to why it had to happen that way. Without Lowe, JQ and Kam especially. Did we really want a lineup of Jasper, Chandler, Noah, Jelly and Garrison on the floor together at the same time? In order to avoid that, and deal with foul trouble, he had to sub in 1 very early, another one earlier than normal, and another one for quick breathers between TV timeouts to make sure we had experienced players on the floor with the (let's face it) not stellar subs. We saw how bad games flipped when they tried to have 3 of those guys on the floor at the same time. Jasper was a walking 8 point swing in the opponents favor every run he got. Noah couldn't hit water last year if he fell out of a boat. And Jelly and Garrison would have 1 good 4 minute stretch in one game out of every 10 games. Only Chandler was solid and that was as long as you kept him off the ball and not dribbling.
So yeah, the sub patterns were head scratching, but honestly looking deeper at it, it was to an extent forced. Especially when foul trouble gets added in. Definitely not a pass on Pope (because he built that roster), but losing those guys to injury and Jasper being super underwhelming, and Garrison not making a year two jump really hamstringed that team. It was going to be painful to watch through it all.
Much ado about nothing. Garrison didn’t say anything negative toward Pope. He wasn’t going to play in front of Moreno, so he did what he should have done for himself and find a place he could start and probably be paid starter level NIL. It’s that simple in my estimation.
And what was Garrison supposed to say, “Oats and AL were not a good fit for me but I picked them anyway.” Fans will naturally often transpose (probably not even consciously) what fits their opinion from innocuous statements made by players after transfer.
And what was Garrison supposed to say, “Oats and AL were not a good fit for me but I picked them anyway.” Fans will naturally often transpose (probably not even consciously) what fits their opinion from innocuous statements made by players after transfer.
July 1st, 2021...This is when the NIL/Portal era started in college basketball. Anything prior to that about needing X amount of years to "build a program" is irrelevant. That said, Pope should definitely get this year. I doubt there will be many still on the fence after this season.
I think Pope's analytics have much more to do with things like his reliance on minutes limits for guys and things of that nature. Oats relies heavily on where shots are taken from and how they are gotten (inside out 3s, shots off the dribble, that sort of thing). His offenses are designed around the analytics of those things. Pope's substitution patterns are built on his. Pope's offenses are designed around Zoom screens and the execution from the mesh point and spacing. You can be analytical, but use different analytics for different things.
I would tend to agree with what BG said, but I'm not sure it means a whole lot. It's an evaluation of coaches from a players perspective. And honestly, a player that doesn't have a very high basketball IQ. But I can't imagine anyone being surprised at what he said.
A lot of truth to this statement. Analytics can build what you do on offense and defense, and it probably should. Analytics shouldn't determine how you manage a game. There's no substitute for experience in that regard.
That's my problem with him and how he uses the data. Data be damned, he's going to run what he runs and seemingly doesn't have a ton of flexibility in that regard. That first team, when healthy, got extremely efficient offensive play. But we never seemed to adjust when the injuries set in. Case in point, when Lowe was done Pope spoke of the "lefty PG issue". Seriously? That just shows next-level hardheadedness and a lack of offensive flexibility to me.
Garrison has a personality type that needs a coach that will light a fire under his *** and hold him accountable in order to be the best version of himself. Does that mean he'll magically become Hakeem Olajuwon over night? Other than probably against us, no, not even close. If he does become that then add it to the list of reasons to move on from Pope I guess. 10 PPG and 6 RPG is what I would consider the best case scenario for him from what I've seen, maybe a little higher depending on how much you believe in the Oats boost.
Absolutely he uses analytics on minutes a good bit. And for the most part he is right. If you look across the board at most teams our top guys have same minutes distribution as all the other teams. People just run with the he doesn’t sub correctly thing and he mass subs because they are told so. When we have had a full roster he subs pretty normal. Now he occasionally brings random ppl in the game and that’s imo for matchup specific stuff or just to see how they playing that game. Also only way to build depth is play guys.
The main thing that hasn’t been talked about that bothers me with everyone killing his sub patterns is roster health. He has been hit with so many random injuries and has never had a chance to build a “SET” rotation and stick with it. He’s been constantly having to find new rotations and new groups that might mesh well. That’s not something easily done in the midst of the season when you have to win games.
Pope held him accountable and called him out a lot of times. Sometimes guys just can’t be reached. He would always respond good for a game or a half then regress right back to where he was. That’s on the kid at that point. If you have to babysit a kid and constantly check him and his motor then it’s on him not any coach.
Doubtful if he had other good years to show for it.
That is the problem a lot of Pope slurpers seem to ignore. Pope has literally never won a damn thing in 11 seasons.
Mark has never won anything at any level as a coach! Oats has won multiple Mac coached the years and multiple conference and tournament championships in the Mac like I said Pope has never won anything in any level not even nothing
Facts are going to make their heads explode. Pope sucks. He’s never done anything.
I don't disagree with your assessment of Garrison (just to clarify I'm not a huge believer in him at all, I always thought he was a net negative on the floor and technical foul waiting to happen from what I saw). My only nitpick is that in college a head coach chooses which players they offer and has some idea of the type of personality they're adding to the team, and what kind of guys fit with them. That part is on the coach. I think Garrison is a better personality fit with an in-your-face coach like Oats, but I also think this years UK team is a better style and personality fit for Pope than what he had last year. We'll know soon enough.
The very first and then most consistently parroted summer reports from 2025 were that BG looked bad. He then had an all time stinker season. One of the biggest regressions I can remember a Uk player ever having and looked like he was actively dogging it.
if you told me BG and Aberdeen were double agents last year, I’d believe it.
if you told me BG and Aberdeen were double agents last year, I’d believe it.
Garrison was too lazy and inconsistent to ever reach his potential while at UK. Maybe Oats is waking his azz up before its too late. We will see. There is a reason he is getting yelled at a lot and I'm sorry that reason is not Pope lol.
Agree on the personality fits. Bigs are the hard to come by and sometimes you have to take a chance. In reality he was going to be a backup so him not showing up but in spurts wasn’t going to be a huge deal. First year it wasn’t really because Amari was so good. Year 2 of JQ came back healthy it would’ve been the same. I think the main problem is garrison or ppl around him view him as some 3 shooting passing savant. He is a good passer and a decent shooter. Problem is he makes boneheaded decisions more often than not. If in 3 years he hasn’t figured it out I assume the 4th won’t be much different.
interesting, not even nothing. Is It possible to win nothing and what would that nothing be. Inquiring minds want to know. Let’s say he loses that nothing, did he really lose?Everyone knows what Pope can do. Even healthy his teams quit. Time to retire that excuse.
Been coaching a long time not to even have a conference regular season or tournament championship dude’s been coaching over a decade get that egg off your face. Mark Pope has Kentucky looking like Indiana Hoosiers basketball.
Seems since they do analytics on everything, they could do analytics on coach intensity vs wins. I do kinda think an intense coach can coax his players to straighten up and fly right when they are sucking. Like Petino did in that well published locker room rant where he challenged his teams' manhood and they went out and won. But then Saint John washed out in the round of 32, like us, so, who knows.
Based on your reasoning though, Pope's previous experience is void, because he coached at small schools.
Pope won more NCAA tourny games his first season at UK, than Calipari had won in his last 5 at UK.
Except when they play UK. Garrison will play that 1 game out of 10 or so to prove his point.
Take mark sears off of bama when he was there and tell me how you think oats season would go. Or take philon off last years team. Just take the starting pg off any team he’s had.
If you say so. But in reality we saw worse than that and the vast majority still didn't want a HC change at the time. They just wanted new assistants.I call.
19- 14 Heads explode.
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