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Too bad the portal has now closed, and we didn’t get anybody we wanted

Pensacola_Cat_Fan

Pensacola_Cat_Fan

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Apr 14, 2019
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None of the best players have made any decisions yet, but half of this board is up in arms because we didn’t sign Dink Pate, who was so great he landed at Providence, or pay $3.2 million to a guy that scored less than 10 pts/gm and couldn’t guard his own shadow for us last year. Can you just wait a few days to see how this works out? Some of you must be miserable people. By the way, we’re going to miss out on other guys as well. There are HUNDREDS of players in the portal and we certainly don’t need to settle for the Dinks of the world.
 
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TommyMansky

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Pensacola_Cat_Fan said:
None of the best players have made any decisions yet, but half of this board is up in arms because we didn’t sign Dink Pate, who was so great he landed at Providence, or pay $3.2 million to a guy that scored less than 10 pts/gm and couldn’t guard his own shadow for us last year. Can you just wait a few days to see how this works out? Some of you must be miserable people. By the way, we’re going to miss out on other guys as well. There are HUNDREDS of players in the portal and we certainly don’t need to settle for the Dinks of the world.
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I bet you are still blaming Stein for coaching Oregon in the playoffs.
 
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peterpiper09

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season 7 keep bikini bottom beautiful GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
 
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Pensacola_Cat_Fan

Pensacola_Cat_Fan

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philstat said:
Can’t wait to see OP come Monday night and at minimum 50% though more like 75% of the top 25 portal players are are off the boards…and what we end up with…
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I’ll be just as critical of Pope as anybody if he doesn’t recruit a top tier team. But to criticize at this point is just being negative to be negative. Reminder that everybody last year was thrilled with our signees and some even thought we had too much talent.
 
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TommyMansky

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Pensacola_Cat_Fan said:
I’ll be just as critical of Pope as anybody if he doesn’t recruit a top tier team. But to criticize at this point is just being negative to be negative. Reminder that everybody last year was thrilled with our signees and some even thought we had too much talent.
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A podcast or two said too much talent. That is definitely true. Hindsight.
 
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Goingfor9

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Jan 27, 2003
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Pensacola_Cat_Fan said:
None of the best players have made any decisions yet, but half of this board is up in arms because we didn’t sign Dink Pate, who was so great he landed at Providence, or pay $3.2 million to a guy that scored less than 10 pts/gm and couldn’t guard his own shadow for us last year. Can you just wait a few days to see how this works out? Some of you must be miserable people. By the way, we’re going to miss out on other guys as well. There are HUNDREDS of players in the portal and we certainly don’t need to settle for the Dinks of the world.
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Because there isn’t this plethora of talent in the transfer portal so every time someone comes off the board that we were invested in, it’s a major loss.
 
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Tim0808

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Apr 4, 2013
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Pensacola_Cat_Fan said:
None of the best players have made any decisions yet, but half of this board is up in arms because we didn’t sign Dink Pate, who was so great he landed at Providence, or pay $3.2 million to a guy that scored less than 10 pts/gm and couldn’t guard his own shadow for us last year. Can you just wait a few days to see how this works out? Some of you must be miserable people. By the way, we’re going to miss out on other guys as well. There are HUNDREDS of players in the portal and we certainly don’t need to settle for the Dinks of the world.
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Are you still in Pensacola? I was there this week.
 
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Goingfor9

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TommyMansky said:
I bet you are still blaming Stein for coaching Oregon in the playoffs.
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Anytime people bring our fb program into a bb discussion is trying to lower our expectation. The only thing that two programs have in common of course is the school.. one is successful. one struggles, and the culture is to accept the losing. Uk fb fans are happy to see us stick around in a game. Uk bb expectations are titles. Sec, natty, sect. BUT the losing culture of the fb program has taken a toll on a program where it is was more difficult to have a losing season than win a title. In the last 100 years 2 losing seasons. I never hear people talk about it but we have to hold the longest streak wo a losing season. 60 years or something wo a losing season. Should probably be added to “the list”
 
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TommyMansky

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Goingfor9 said:
Anytime people bring our fb program into a bb discussion is trying to lower our expectation. The only thing that two programs have in common of course is the school.. one is successful. one struggles, and the culture is to accept the losing. Uk fb fans are happy to see us stick around in a game. Uk bb expectations are titles. Sec, natty, sect. BUT the losing culture of the fb program has taken a toll on a program where it is was more difficult to have a losing season than win a title. In the last 100 years 2 losing seasons. I never hear people talk about it but we have to hold the longest streak wo a losing season. 60 years or something wo a losing season. Should probably be added to “the list”
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It’s a reference to when Stein was hired that the other poster understands and unrelated to basketball. I was just picking at him.
 
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philstat

philstat

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Jan 3, 2004
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The portal is one thing though when you whiff out on the top 100 HS school players and then the only kid you get is in the low hundreds and you can’t even secure him without hiring his father, to me, this alone is the kiss of death.
 
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preacherfan

All-Conference
Oct 11, 2003
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Yardeth said:
Overpriced and overpaid talent that never jelled as a team and trusted each other, bad coaching or both?
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It is always both. Managing people isn't a science, it is an art. Calipari (2021), Coach K (2021), Roy Williams (2020), all had bad years where both were true.

Anyone who manages people and has dealt with different staff members knows that 1) There is always more to learn, and 2) Sometimes you just can't win. As a manager I could replace a troublemaker. Coaches are dealing with premadonna's that can't be replaced during the season.

All 3 of the coaches above both learned from the experience and also replaced players. My hope is that both are true for Mark Pope. If not, it will be time to move on.
 
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Old Blue Fart

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I agree with the OP about everyone needing some patience but after these last several months, a little confidence would go a long way to settle everyone down.
While I liked what the OP started here, he has to admit UK really needs something good to happen.

But to blast the Dink kid for being not so good as to why he ended up at Providence but say nothing about all the time UK spent in trying to get him to come to UK?

Question is, did Coach Pope get lucky his first year in getting players or is he just bad at evaluating talent?

Getting some good recruits would go a long way in BBN.
 
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Pensacola_Cat_Fan

Pensacola_Cat_Fan

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Old Blue Fart said:
I agree with the OP about everyone needing some patience but after these last several months, a little confidence would go a long way to settle everyone down.
While I liked what the OP started here, he has to admit UK really needs something good to happen.

But to blast the Dink kid for being not so good as to why he ended up at Providence but say nothing about all the time UK spent in trying to get him to come to UK?

Question is, did Coach Pope get lucky his first year in getting players or is he just bad at evaluating talent?

Getting some good recruits would go a long way in BBN.
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I agree with you except for how much time Pope spent recruiting Dink. I keep seeing this mentioned. None of the guys that are in the portal were available when Pope was recruiting him during the year. He was the best option a month ago perhaps, but now is well down the list. So what if Pope wasted his time, as long as he gets the best options today? Now if he whiffs on all of the top guys in the next couple of weeks, then yah, Pope is screwed.
 
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BlueVelvetFog

BlueVelvetFog

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Apr 12, 2016
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Goingfor9 said:
Anytime people bring our fb program into a bb discussion is trying to lower our expectation. The only thing that two programs have in common of course is the school.. one is successful. one struggles, and the culture is to accept the losing. Uk fb fans are happy to see us stick around in a game. Uk bb expectations are titles. Sec, natty, sect. BUT the losing culture of the fb program has taken a toll on a program where it is was more difficult to have a losing season than win a title. In the last 100 years 2 losing seasons. I never hear people talk about it but we have to hold the longest streak wo a losing season. 60 years or something wo a losing season. Should probably be added to “the list”
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You're delusional. Footballs lack of success doesn't pour into basketball. FBs lowest point was in the early to mid 90s under Curry when Pitino was winning titles.

As far as fandom, the best pound per pound are the loyal fb fans.
 
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preacherfan

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Old Blue Fart said:
Question is, did Coach Pope get lucky his first year in getting players or is he just bad at evaluating talent?
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It is a good question. I think it would take a case by case analysis to know for sure. For example, JJ was a big disappointment. Yet, he was from Kentucky, ranked as a 5 star and according to ESPN was neck and neck with Mullins, who played for UConn. I guess we could argue either way but regardless even the "experts" were wrong, at least at this point.

One would be on a solid foundation arguing that Pope missed badly on Garrison but that kid shows so much potential. He just can't seem to put it together. He also struggles to score at the rim. I really don't know. It appears that this year Pope brought in players based on potential and it really didn't work out.
 
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Catphright23

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Dec 6, 2023
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Same ol people whining about everything. Yeah they report we go after certain players and certain are hush hush. You can't take every player. We still have 2 sfs Williams, hawthorne, 2 centers moreno, potter, probably still need one of each. We have Noah but I think he'll be last man. Williams will be a pg. Still need mainly every position but you have guys who can play center and sf, maybe sg.
 
FLBBNFAN

FLBBNFAN

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Mar 25, 2025
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Pensacola_Cat_Fan said:
None of the best players have made any decisions yet, but half of this board is up in arms because we didn’t sign Dink Pate, who was so great he landed at Providence, or pay $3.2 million to a guy that scored less than 10 pts/gm and couldn’t guard his own shadow for us last year. Can you just wait a few days to see how this works out? Some of you must be miserable people. By the way, we’re going to miss out on other guys as well. There are HUNDREDS of players in the portal and we certainly don’t need to settle for the Dinks of the world.
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Not to mention that there are legit concerns on Pates eligibility. I like Chandler but no way is he even close to 3m in my opinion. Too one dimensional right now on offense and he struggled when teams concentrated on taking him out of the game.
 
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