How is it even possible........

[St.Patterson_54_]

.........that a coach who was an ALL HEART big man and captain for a championship team.......


.......doesn't have a CLUE how to teach his own bigs to box the eff out? Or to properly set a screen on the perimeter without fouling?

These are probably 2 of the first 3-4 things I teach all my players as a coach.

BOX THE EFF OUT! A shot goes up? Find a man and BOX HIM THE EFF OUT!

I'm speechless.

 

[RunninRichie]

All fraud big man

 

[Damage_inc]

Pitino coached it out of him

 

[GoneFishin916]

.........that a coach who was an ALL HEART big man and captain for a championship team.......


.......doesn't have a CLUE how to teach his own bigs to box the eff out? Or to properly set a screen on the perimeter without fouling?

These are probably 2 of the first 3-4 things I teach all my players as a coach.

BOX THE EFF OUT! A shot goes up? Find a man and BOX HIM THE EFF OUT!

I'm speechless.

I swear, we could have Steph at PG, SGA at SG, Luka at SF, Caleb Wilson at PF, and Wemby, and we would still lose multiple games. Steph would probably shoot like 35% from three. I swear, we ruin shooters. Obviously, this is an exaggeration, but.......

 

[OldSchoolBrBN]

There are times it is the guards fault for not "setting" up the defense on the ball screen. There are also times that the player using the ball screen doesn't wait for the 'BIG' to come set on the screen as well.. Those things cause unnecessary fouls for the bigs...

 

[UK_Kelly]

I swear, we could have Steph at PG, SGA at SG, Luka at SF, Caleb Wilson at PF, and Wemby, and we would still lose multiple games. Steph would probably shoot like 35% from three. I swear, we ruin shooters. Obviously, this is an exaggeration, but.......

You lost me at Caleb Wilson, you name 4 proven NBA greats then you name Caleb Wilson???? Also we would never know what percentage Steph would shoot because Pope couldn't generate him any shots on the goal.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

mark absolutely has to be the worst big man big man coach all time. It’s like he has no clue how a big should operate, how they should play, rebound, anything really. He has no clue and can’t teach any of it. And for a big man to not be able to do that is terrifying (to a fan of the program he coaches).

 

[UKfan2151]

Just because someone has played the game doesn't mean they are cut out to be a coach. At this point I think you could take the average person off the street that has never played an organized game of basketball and after watching a 10 minute YouTube tutorial on coaching could put a more fundamentally solid team on the court than Mark Pope.

 

[MidseasonTweak]

Pope doesn't expect grit or toughness, so players don't have it. Pope doesn't demand greatness, so players loaf or turn off their ears at practice.

 

[St.Patterson_54_]

There are times it is the guards fault for not "setting" up the defense on the ball screen. There are also times that the player using the ball screen doesn't wait for the 'BIG' to come set on the screen as well.. Those things cause unnecessary fouls for the bigs...

Yep. That's also poor coaching.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Just because he was a bit player on a championship team, doesnt mean he knows how to coach. Not sure why anyone thought those go hand in hand. Its proven year after year that players do not neccesarily make good coaches or GMs.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

But see I don't even think we've really even gotten to the "coaching" with Pope.

Anyone watching last night could see......KU just has better players.

You can take the best coach in the world and put them coaching an untalented team. And sure, maybe he'll help them improve and grab a few more wins that an average coach would not. But there's a ceiling to it.

This all comes down to recruiting. That is where we are failing here.

What I witnessed last night, I didn't come away thinking man Pope cannot coach. I came away thinking there's no way we can compete with that.

It's not as simple as just box out. Some teams can rebound, some teams cannot. It's a skill. They shot better than us, took care of the ball better than us and rebounded better than us.

The only way UK wins this game is if they do what other teams do to upset teams. Go crazy from 3. Instead we shot 4-21. NINETEEN %.

I mean we get into foul trouble and we have to use guys like Reese Potter. And then we wonder why we are staring down a double digit deficit by halftime. There's no depth. And the starters while they do have some talent, aren't nearly what the likes of KU, Duke, Florida etc have.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

But see I don't even think we've really even gotten to the "coaching" with Pope.

Anyone watching last night could see......KU just has better players.

You can take the best coach in the world and put them coaching an untalented team. And sure, maybe he'll help them improve and grab a few more wins that an average coach would not. But there's a ceiling to it.

This all comes down to recruiting. That is where we are failing here.

What I witnessed last night, I didn't come away thinking man Pope cannot coach. I came away thinking there's no way we can compete with that.

I mean we get into foul trouble and we have to use guys like Reese Potter. And then we wonder why we are staring down a double digit deficit by halftime. There's no depth. And the starters while they do have some talent, aren't nearly what the likes of KU, Duke, Florida etc have.

The other thing though, Pope just doesnt have these guys prepared well enough. Last two years we are severely behind. Kansas looked like they've been playing for a year already, despite some of their players only with the team for a short time. This stat really floored me. Kentucky should have been the team with more cohesion, not less.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

I feel like some of that also goes back to players just being good. Kaufman-Renn is in his 5th year.......I think that helps too.

I think if you are a bad team, your just not going to look all that cohesive out there.

*sighs I want to give Pope time here but I dunno anymore. How long can we give this guy?

Year 1.........sweet 16 and people thought oh he just assembled that team in such a shrot time, that's gonna be his worst team here.
TBH.......it might be the best team he has here.

For some reason, people don't want to play for him. That's a big red flag.