They will be in sole possession of second place in the SEC. Texas A&M in Florida play each other Saturday.
If Cats beat UT Saturday...
- Thread starter KYFOSSIL
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That’s a big ask. Hope we can send the Vols home with a loss.
Opinions they finish 4/5 place which means hot seat year 3. We’ll see. Given the circumstances they’re playing much better and right now given how bad it was getting I’ll take it. To me you have to at least sustain this place if a new hire is coming in the next 24 months. Also so if it does go down Mark doesn’t have a bad rep when it’s said and done.
I dont think a 4/5 finish against this closing schedule will mean a "hot seat". The man has done a good job
Oh for sure it’s a hot seat. Would be for any blue. Mark has done a very average job. It’s arguable it’s a little under par.
We’ll see what he does, but anywhere near 5th and a bad tournament showing, with the lots of blowouts, just doesn’t sit good at a premier place.
SEC is a business now and this is Kentucky. I hold out hope that Mark is able to parlay this into recruiting and turn something and I’m glad he’s been able to find his footing a bit here. I try and be objective. it would be very hard for Mark at this point to make it here. It’s just the truth, recruiting is too poor and that’s the lifeblood. He also doesn’t have the final fours yet to gain leverage.
I’m just glad I’m able to watch my cats and enjoy myself and not just get pissed off and annoyed at us getting embarrassed. These guys finally play with heart and hustle and don’t hold the ball and dribble for 20 seconds of every possession. They really seemed to hate each other (especially Oweh and aberdeen) off the court which was visible on the court as well. That beef seems to be squashed whatever it was
even though the Vandy game was massively embarrassing, we’ve still won 7/8 and I’m just gonna enjoy basketball while I can. These guys are just gritty and talented enough maybe they can do something unexpected if they keep this up and get the right matchups in the postseason. We are still gonna struggle with Florida, A&M, Vandy, and Georgia imo because they score so damn easily on everyone. We will see if our ‘second best defense in the sec’ stats hold up against the elite offensive teams in the sec.
go fckin cats
even though the Vandy game was massively embarrassing, we’ve still won 7/8 and I’m just gonna enjoy basketball while I can. These guys are just gritty and talented enough maybe they can do something unexpected if they keep this up and get the right matchups in the postseason. We are still gonna struggle with Florida, A&M, Vandy, and Georgia imo because they score so damn easily on everyone. We will see if our ‘second best defense in the sec’ stats hold up against the elite offensive teams in the sec.
go fckin cats
You’re wasting your time with him. He would be ok with pope being here for 15 years with double digit loss seasons year after year with a 7 seed average and missed tourney on occasion while telling you your a bad fan for not supporting the same.
My Pops was definitely correct. There are some idiots on here.
Good job? 7 losses in an entire season is disappointing. We are mid season with 7 and unranked. A good job would be 0-2 losses at this point and ranked 1-5. I like pope, but this isn’t up to Kentucky standards.
No matter how you try and spin it, no school in America would have Pope on the hot seat in his third year given the circumstances. You lot continuously double down on your dislike of Pope. Like a kid who asked for a Star Wars Lego kit, and instead gets a super large generic Lego kit, but it wasn't the kit HE wanted. You can't even force yourselves to see that Pope is playing 4D chess, has tremendous character and integrity including being a wonderful human being......but muh all-time basketball wins. Do you realize that practically no one in the grand scheme of things gives a **** about the total wins? Very, very few fans today were even alive when all that started. How are we doing TODAY? Where were we YESTERDAY? I can tell you that we had a coach who ONLY care about one thing: getting his guy's into the NBA. That's it. He is a narcissist, a hater of the UK media and its fan base. Someone who never cared for Kentucky tradition or taking it to opponent's throats. He loves playing games close for his own fetishistic reasons. Pope wants to run other teams into the ground. Think he got mad when Brandon stuffed the ball with few seconds put away and the game out of reach? No, Pope loved that and he wants to see the fire of UK teams in the 90s breathe new life. Have faith. Enjoy the journey.
I’m not gonna guarantee a win Saturday, but I’ll be absolutely SHOCKED if UT beats us.
Did u miss the part where we lost 3 of our top 6 players? You probably did.
No I didn’t miss that. I also didn’t miss how bad we looked when we were healthier. The roster is just poorly constructed. We have been very unlucky with injuries, but the results are the results. We have underachieved greatly, Injuries or no injuries. But we are playing better now so hopefully that continues.
They don't want to hear facts. Willfully obtuse FTW!!!
You're just parroting what you heard when we were getting blown out. The roster is coming into its own. Maybe stop drinking and watching reruns of Gonzaga?
My guy we just got destroyed last week. But yeah over the last few weeks we have been looking better overall. Hopefully that continues and we make a run for the sec title and make some noise in the tournament.
We are a single week removed from getting blown out by Vandy.
We’ve also won 7 out of our last 8 and 11 out of our last 14. Not too bad.
I am going to show you just how stupid all this "Kentucky Standards" Bull**** is. Total RR Nonsense.
This is the number of losses per year in order, that Rick Pitino had at Kentucky:
14,6,7,4,7,5,2,5
So, the guy who is universally considered the best coach at UK since Rupp averaged nearly 8 losses a season over his first 5 seasons. He had 0-2 losses exactly once, and that was in his 7th season at UK. So since he wouldn't have had a "Kentucky Standards Good Job" in the first six seasons here, you would have of course fired him before early on. Oh, and that "Kentucky Standards Good Job" Pitino had was only the Greatest team in the history of the program. Not the "Standard" LMAO.
How about Cal? How many times did he have 0-2 losses? Twice. What about 3 losses? ONCE. Now, about 7 or more losses? TEN! More than 10 losses? 6. Kentucky Standard? NONSENSE.
Who are you gonna hire for the job? Hurley has turned down all the money in Fort Knox, but while he has 1 loss this season, he has averaged over 10 losses per season over the previous fifteen season. Here are his losses per season at UCONN in order:
17,12,8,10,8,3,11...you sure as Hell don't want that Chump. Want me to do Oats? Pearl? Who do you want to look up big guy?
NONSENSE!
I think this team will peak at JUST the right time. I see a lot of issues being addressed. Rotations are way better!! He’s sticking with the same starting lineups. We are finally hitting shots. Players seem to be having fun. I have been critical of Pope all year, but, it’s not where we start, it’s where we finish.
Going to be a tough game, but if they play like they have the last two games they will be fine. Considering how the season started and the injuries, Pope has done a good job. At this point as a coach, the main thing he has to address is recruiting at a higher level. When that improves, I think the majority of our fans will be happy with him as our coach.
This is actually a good post. Number of losses with NIL and parity have especially changed how that should be looked at.
Pitino with his losses won the sec and sec tourney a ton and went to 3 final fours and 2 title games n 6 seasons of eligibility. Of course the sec isn't a cupcake conference like the 90s anymore.
They’ll also likely move back into the rankings.
Mark is improving as a coach. Players are learning and getting comfortable with their roles now that Lowe is officially done. Pope switched defenses a few times last night, and on offense, we set a lot of good screens to get our shooters looks.
It’s a shame Kam got injured. He would be another outside threat. Jelavic is improving. Garrison played like I’ve never seen him last night. We need more from Moreno.
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Pope does a good job with coaching the X’s and O’s of the game. Only thing he’s gotta do is improve recruiting and he will have us where we want to be, I believe.
Spot on. He’s got to kill it in the portal this time. Injuries have not helped. I’ll be surprised if we don’t have a very good roster next season.
I keep seeing some posters talking about wishing Calipari was still here. Uh, considering all of the injuries last season and now this season, Pope still has a better record the last two years than Calipari has, despite the injuries. And Calipari has had two loaded rosters at Arkansas, and hasn’t had nearly the injuries to deal with that Pope has had to.
If ithe name ends with 24, expect the thread to be destroyed , intentionally, if its even remotely positive towards the program. Weird trend….
Good post. Tubby only had 1 season out of his first 5 with less than 10 losses and that was with the team Pitino built. Joe B had 2, 10 loss seasons out of his first 5. This "Kentucky" standard some posters bring up isn't a standard, it's an exception.
Pope may do the same thing. He has only been to one NCAA Tournament here and he went farther than Cal did the last several years
I agree with this, but on recruiting, I dont know it its Pope not landing the big recruiting or of he is doing all he can to get them to the table and they are balking at our terms. Maybe its Pope, but I don't know for sure and neither does anyone elee really
I like our chances, but they will be out for revenge. Why does it seem the visitor has won a lot of thr matchups between Tennessee and Kentucky?
Exactly. A lot of these idiots think it's still 1948 and we should be 34-2 every year. Newsflash: other schools play basketball now too. And they're pretty good at it. I wish these clowns could put to rest the "we're Kentucky" nonsense. Parity is here and it's not going away. So get with the times or a lot of you FARRRR Pope boys are gonna be awfully disappointed.
He has got to do a better job lighting a fire under this team, though. I think hes a smart coach who can game plan, make adjustments, etc.. but he really doesnt do the best job getting his team focused. He runs a little too loose of a ship.
Thats exactly right.
Also, I said a month ago that I am old enough to have seen teams turn things around. The announcers last night kept talking a lot about how we looked night and day different from last month. I have seen NC State and Villanova win National Championships with 10 losses. We probably won't do that this season....but I bet the fans that we have who want to can Pope with 7 losses would have been calling for Valvano and Massimino's heads as well. Wait till the cake is baked before you decide how it tastes
I'm not really sure it's a good post. He's saying RP "nearly averaged 8 losses his first 5 years" and tried to make it seem like somehow that's really bad. But here's the thing, he took over a team on probation and didn't have a transfer portal to turn to and STILL, with a 14 loss season, only averaged 7 losses. How is that bad?
Also, back then, teams were full of juniors and seniors.
So is it fair to lump that 14 loss season in with the rest? Heck, he never had another double digit loss season after that. He essentially averaged 6 losses after that first season. That's phenominal.