Have a feeling this is a serious post. Maybe my sarcasm meter broke today.
There is FIBA basketball as well...
If Kentucky misses on Kusturica.
- Thread starter Son_Of_Saul
- Start date
There is FIBA basketball as well...
FIBA v FIFA, meh
One of the most clueless posters on the board. Kid is playing in the U17 and focused on that as would any athlete doing the same. When you don’t know the difference in soccer and basketball then some things simply can’t be fixed…..
And the kid is averaging 18 points and 5 rebounds.
Seems like a long kid who sees the floor well and makes good decisions to get teammates involved. What are his assist stats?
ME: Is this kid good enough to impact winning this season?
RR: He’s a projected top 5 draft pick in 2028.
ME: Uh . . . ok, but would what he brings THIS SEASON be more impactful on UK winning than the guys already on the roster?
RR: I mean he’s projected top 5 draft pick!!
ME: Yeah, but that’s a non sequitur, it doesn’t answer my question. The kid could be a projected top 5 draft pick and barely good enough for the scout team next season.
RR: Pope’s got to go all-in for talent like this. He’d be a 5-star if he were in high school.
ME: But what if Pope can get a college All-American (or maybe two All-conference players for the same money) who would likely have a much bigger impact on UK winning than this kid?
RR: Yeah, but are those college guys projected to be a top 5 draft pick?
ME: I give up . . .
If you have a need and have slot 15 open, it is probably best to see what is available to fill that need for this year. If you feel you have a fairly complete roster, landing this kid could be great for next year, letting him get some minutes and learn this year. By season’s end, he could be a vital piece or could be a role player with a high ceiling.
At the FIBA he's averaging 2.8 assists a game after 4 games
You give up, but do you even realize how ridiculous this particular part of your argument sounds?
Show me a top 5 draft pick that would barely make the scout team at UK.
It's just pretend-opinions. Since you're all-knowing, feel free to share your infinite wisdom. You, too, are a clown.
Can't people have fun around here?
Says the guy who heavily implies in every-single-post that he's an insider, lol. FOH
He’s definitely talented. Will grow into a very good player as the season goes on but I think it will take time. This is a tourney against HS kids essentially. I’m with pope on if the guaranteed 2nd year isn’t there we can’t go all out for him. He might not even adapt until then. Hard to predict with a euro so young.
Remember the “Jewish Jordan”?
It’s always been like this on unproven players. Bret Bearup was said to better in high school than a senior Rick Robey.
Dirk Minnefield, Charles Hurt, Bowie and Hord were going to win 4 straight.
It's an exaggeration (probably) in making a light-hearted point. You have every right to love the excitement of recruiting or whatever aspect of CBB you enjoy, but you're going to have to show me the proof/data that projected draft positions of 17-18 yr. old likely OAD kids are a good predictor of the type of players you need to lead a team to a title - or even necessarily an indication that the player will be very impactful to winning as a freshman.
He did start hitting yesterday and combined with today it brought his FIBA perimeter average up to higher than he’s had it all year. I’ll give him that and I hope it continues. Let’s remember we are talking about a total of 9 made shots here after a very lackluster year for that stat—the stat we need him for.
Heck, that's the entire UCLA basketball fanbase and their families.
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And Dent was never heard from again.
The good news here is, now that he landed Costa Rica, he probably gets another couple years there. I'm good with that.
This will require Pope to stop subbing out all his best guys at the same time, because a certain amount of time passed. He needs to learn how to sub without crippling the team and killing momentum.
I get what you're saying, but it's really hard to change the mind of a HS kid. Once he's made up his mind, that's where he's going and with this kid being from a different country, he most likely oniws very little about UK and even less about Pope. I highly doubt he turned his nose up at UK because Pope is a goober. If that was what he was looking at, he damn sure wouldn't choose Cronin over… ..anyone.
Heck, I'm a Ford guy, when I buy a truck, I don't even consider anything else. I think Rams and GMC's look great, but I wouldn't buy either of the others even if they were $20k cheaper for the same specs. I like what I like.
Heck, you could give me a toyota for free and I'd say no. Well, I might take it, then trade it in the next day with 0 miles on it.
It comes down to who gets hot at the right time and also, who is healthy. We have seen way too many mediocre teams catch fire and make the FF after having bad seasons.
This team has really good talent and weaponry for the college game and if they stay healthy, we certainly can make a run.
I onow Pope missed on Stokes, but he’s an NBA guy and a handfup to deal with. I wanted him and I was hoping he would have been a team player, but I like Mom better… .for college ball.
I like Mom better than Stokes too.
And I want Pope to crush it at Kentucky.
But I do worry people are moving the goalposts backwards for Pope a little this offseason. This is his third year and I think it’s fair to expect a better team on paper. I think this team has the potential to far outperform the preseason expectations because we have several high ceiling guys. But this is Kentucky — the expectations should not be preseason 11-15 and hope we get hot.
Pope’s gotta crush it this year. And I hope he does.
Do I think we have some fans who arbitrarily look for reasons to turn on the coach? Yes. I do. I’m not saying names but there were some people on here heavily praising this roster and 100% ready to go after getting Mom. Then we went to add Kusturica and look destined to fall short of that and now they’ve decided the literal exact same roster is bad. That makes no sense to me.
I want Kentucky to be all the way back. And I’m cheering on Pope to do it. If he can’t, I hope someone else can.
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If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it… .
UK has the stage, UCLA is in the shadows and nobody even knows they're there.
I think this team will be better than the Butler/Amari/Carr team, but they need to stay healthy.
But in today's world, with all the money being paid out, programs like UK can't give Pope a long runway. He needs to put up this year. If he doesn't, it needs to be over and this is coming from a Pope defender that wants him to be great here.
Cowgirl has gone on record by saying a S16 is good enough season to keep pope.
I hope you're right - and I'm certainly not suggesting you're not right - because if they're better than a healthy 24-25 squad we all ought to be pretty excited. I thought that 24-25 team had a chance to be pretty good prior to the season, but they were much better as a unit than I ever expected. I would have loved to have seen what that team might have been able to do in the Tournament if fully healthy.
I think Mark's system works, 24/25 proved it, but that team got too banged up at key positions. Even then though, they lost games they should have easily won. The Ohio State game is still a head scratcher to me.
Pope needs to find a way to sustain success. You can't beat duke, then get drubbed by Ohio State and Alabama multiple times and you can't beat Florida, then lose to UGA.
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The Ohio State game was a true head scratcher but the UGA was just a complete hose job where they were allowed to beat the **** out of the players