Back to back years of being soft with pedestrian effort. That is 100% coaching. He doesn't relate to the type of players required to win a championship.
Injuries aside. What doomed this team?
- Thread starter Tri-Countycat
- Start date
Similar to DeVries at Indiana and Tang during his short tenure at K-State, Pope and his staff have no idea how to effectively construct or develop a roster in the portal era. I wish Pope was the answer for UK basketball, but he isn’t and he won’t be.
That’s what I said about JJ, Pope would have to actually coach it out of him. Just because that’s how a players is, you develop them. I would have loved to see DA play off the ball, I think he would have gotten a lot more shots and he was one of our best shooters. I just feel like he was wasted in most games except for Tennessee. When he gave up the ball, he rarely got it back.
I don’t think we were overly talented . DA is pretty good but playing out of position. OO is TO machine and takes plays off , esp on D , and he’s under sized . And he can’t shoot .
moreno is a 3-4 year player , too weak to man up the better / older 5s . Chandler could be shut down by an WNBA backup guard . If we are very talented who is gonna play in the league ??? Next to nobody .
moreno is a 3-4 year player , too weak to man up the better / older 5s . Chandler could be shut down by an WNBA backup guard . If we are very talented who is gonna play in the league ??? Next to nobody .
Our coach is a Post Turtle
Noone has a clue how he got there
He has no idea what to do that he's there
Noone knows how/when hes gonna get down
Noone has a clue how he got there
He has no idea what to do that he's there
Noone knows how/when hes gonna get down
We was ranked 72 in nation in rebounding before heading in the tournament. Lost lot of opportunities due from players not being in position or trying to rebound with 1 hand.
We settled alot even early in the shot clock. that allowed defenses getting too comfortable and easily get outrebounded.
We were ranked 138 in free throw attempts. This tells you what's wrong with our offense. We settled and had less downhill pressure to draw fouls.
Players had too much of a Greenlight to shoot early in the shot clock
We settled alot even early in the shot clock. that allowed defenses getting too comfortable and easily get outrebounded.
We were ranked 138 in free throw attempts. This tells you what's wrong with our offense. We settled and had less downhill pressure to draw fouls.
Players had too much of a Greenlight to shoot early in the shot clock
No PG, kids out of position.
Forcing minutes for Jasper, Noah and at the end, Moreno.
Not boxing out!
Running under screens
Leaving shooters wide open
Lack of movement on offense
Lack of ballhandlers
Forcing minutes for Jasper, Noah and at the end, Moreno.
Not boxing out!
Running under screens
Leaving shooters wide open
Lack of movement on offense
Lack of ballhandlers
All players were role players at best 6th men or worse
We're possibly locked in deep deep 
, for millions upon millions. Name one member of the coaching staff you truly believe is up to Kentucky basketball standards?
, for millions upon millions. Name one member of the coaching staff you truly believe is up to Kentucky basketball standards?The lack of anybody suited to play point guard jumps out as flaw number 1. And it was the second straight year that we had a season derailed by being forced to play without a real point guard.
Point is the most important position in CBB, and we didn’t have anybody suited to play it.
Point is the most important position in CBB, and we didn’t have anybody suited to play it.
When an organization is broken it has to be fixed from the top not e middle or bottom. Pope has to go. He does noting exceptional.
None of them have secured a recruit so they are all uselessWe're possibly locked in deep deep
Well, hindsight shows we had one of the worst rosters in the league. Even if we had Lowe. Ole Miss, Oklahoma, South Carolina, LSU might be the only teams that had a worse roster. How Barnes keeps losing to UK is a head scratcher.
Moreno was put in a position of failure. He had no other post presence with himself and no PG to get the bigs involved. The offense ended up being Chandler, Aberdeen, and Oweh getting theirs. SEC teams knew Moreno wasn't getting the ball much other than to set screens or pass it to C, A, and O.
Pope really screwed the ******* pooch when he signed JQ and didn't add other quality depth.
Pope really screwed the ******* pooch when he signed JQ and didn't add other quality depth.
How can you coach out of someone being too tiny and weak? How can you coach out someone's selfishness when they think they are a star and their father is in their ear telling them they are a star - when your family tells you "you're not the problem, you are a star, it's Coach Pope and his coaching that is the issue, don't listen to him." Then JJ goes and jacks up a 3 directly after dribbling the ball down the court at the beginning of the shot clock. No offense has a chance to run.
JJ is just too weak to play defense. And he doesn't make up for it on the offensive end (for example, sometimes Luka's defense is trash but he generally makes up for it on offense, plus his defensive has been better lately. Anyway, yeah, JJ can't do that.)
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I said it last April what we had and MF wanted to bash and question me so F everyone who bashed me I was right you B were wrong
Have you heard coaches like Pitino or Tom IZZO coach? It can be done but not with a beta like Pope.
Also Puck Fark Mope for dangling the JQ thing to the fanbase all year. He said he was close and might come back for months. He knew what was going on. You could fire him for cause just because of that situation. That a lack of institutional control.
Barnes has tendencies to stop what was working.
First game against Tennessee this season, first half their bigs were dominating us. 2nd half he stops feeding the ball to them.
2nd game nate ament was killing us first half. 2nd half he saw less touches
Kam was really coming on when he broke his foot, kudos to him for coming back and trying to help.
I don’t hate that kid at all. Seems like a great kid and a good player. I think he should have been used more than all year. Better defender, tougher, bigger, and could actually play ISO but never given the green light to do it.
MO was a beast, just couldn’t play him and spread the floor. I wish some had his heart.
Guys.... DA ended up being a solid point guard. I don't understand what is going on in this thread. Additionally, MM was good the first half of the season. He was not put in a position of failure. He was put in a position of opportunity. He literally almost played himself into an NBA draft pick. He just fell off towards the end of the season and the tournaments.
He made a ton of mistakes that cannot be blamed on anyone but himself, especially in the post season.
MM literally almost lost the SCU game for UK because he couldn't hold onto a rebound and it bounced out of bounds.
MM had multiple of the same plays against Iowa State. During a crucial point in the game, he had the rebound, and it again slipped through his hands, the Iowa State player got the ball in the corner and drained a three. That was a HUGE turning point in the game. He also made his first 4 free throws and then missed #5 and #6 when UK was starting to fall too far behind. Lastly, there was at least one other play MM had, in a critical moment, where the ball slipped through his hands because he couldn't keep a hold of it. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the exact play, but I know it happened.
After considering the above, please tell me how Pope or UK failed MM. In the SCU post game MM literally admitted he played horrible and needs to play better. How were any of these situations due to a lack of a better point guard than what DA provided? How would he have been different with someone else at point?
MM needs to spend the off season getting stronger, working on his hands and hand strength, and being able to shoot threes to be able to open the floor up in order to run the type of offense Pope wants (5 out). MM also needs to work on decision making and passing. Please look back to Amari Williams. That is the type of offense Pope wants to run - where the offense flows through the 5, almost like Jokic. He wants a lot of back door cuts. MM isn't a good enough passer to run this offense. Even BG does OK at running this offense. You can literally tell Pope has to run two different offenses based on if BG or MM are in the game because MM is not capable of doing what BG does (in terms of passing, anticipating the back door cut, etc.)
I think a lot of people commenting in threads are just looking for people to blame because they are mad.
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JQ was an athlete. He had no basketball skills besides being more athletic. When you can only make one out of three free throws with nobody guarding you, then you are not very skilled basketball wise. I personally think that his skill set hadn't improved at all and he was just giving NBA teams more reasons not to draft him. His agent probably did a good job shutting him down.
Yeah well I said Steinbach and Alvaro F after we missed on Axel and got bashed for it
Pope put him in the high ball screen for two straight games and not a single pass came to him in the pick and roll and the dad saw the writing on the wall.
No accountability. From the Head Coach all the way to the training staff. And these guys simply did not like each other.
JQ was unplayable at the end of games. He was making one out of every three free throws last year and he had a year to practice and still making one out of three. It was going to be "hack a shack" if he kept playing. It's probably why he quit. Same flaws he had the year before were not fixed.
I mean a stud who could shoot and/or score consistently in the post. I love Mo and his effort.
The fans are the problem. You ran your hall of fame coach out of town and hired No Hope Pope. You got EXACTLY what you asked for, and how you have separation anxiety. Youre so mad at him for leaving you, yet deep inside what you would give to have him back because now you know the grass wasnt greener. Just think, you would have Acuff, Thomas, JQ, Knox, Richmond. Remember, JQ was commited to KY when Cal left. You would be playing in the Sweet 16 this week and probably playing in the final 4 with that lineup. If JQ hadnt gone to AZ state, he probably wouldnt have torn his ACL. KY would have been a beast this year! But look at the bright side, at least Cal is gone!