Was it me or did Milan have a look on his face like “this isn’t going to be good” all night?
Little Rock post game thoughts
- Thread starter Ash Williams
- Start date
Some people just look for reasons to be down on everything. It was an exhibition where we won by 20 and played a D game at best.
That is just Milan. He always looks super calm and unstressed. Some of yall could take some notes from that and apply it to yourselves. Even he said it postgame. It’s just a scrimmage.
We had to pay a one trick pony (who's very good at that trick) 7 million to play for UK.
We constantly have to over pay. Hell it isnt even unusual to be the top bidder and still lose the guy. It's absolutely for the reason you stated.
You talk about that Elite 8 with reverence and pull an excuse (refs) as to why they lost, but when Pope goes to the S16 and loses with a legit excuse (injuries) you scream no excuses at Kentucky. Move those goal posts
Momcilovic says hello
ALR would beat the Hell out of some of the D2/D3/NAIA teams we beat by 50You're arguing that ALR is some sort of powerhouse? LOL
They won the SEC regular and tournament championship, and went farther in the tournament than any Pope team has
Or Brea, Wilkins, Moreno, Amari, Robinson
Take the 2 best players off almost any roster and see what the results are.
8-10 losses is our ceiling I believe honestly if we go by this game.
Some of y'all ain't normal and it shows daily lol.
I won't quote the posts but we've got someone staring at a player's face all night trying to say he's already miserable, a poster agreeing that Pope can't get anyone good while insulting a great player who is currently playing for him, and another who has the brilliant take of where would this team be if two of our best players weren't at UK. Good stuff, guys. I always enjoy scenarios that aren't happening. Maybe I'll start a thread about where the Bulls would've been if Jordan and Pippen went elsewhere lol.
FWIW I doubt Pope gets it done this year and if he doesn't, he won't be here in April. Simple as that. Reading faces, insulting our best player in Oct., being upset that we had the money and paid that player, and doing a "well what if our best players we're at UK right now!" thing is all just kinda out there behavior.
I won't quote the posts but we've got someone staring at a player's face all night trying to say he's already miserable, a poster agreeing that Pope can't get anyone good while insulting a great player who is currently playing for him, and another who has the brilliant take of where would this team be if two of our best players weren't at UK. Good stuff, guys. I always enjoy scenarios that aren't happening. Maybe I'll start a thread about where the Bulls would've been if Jordan and Pippen went elsewhere lol.
FWIW I doubt Pope gets it done this year and if he doesn't, he won't be here in April. Simple as that. Reading faces, insulting our best player in Oct., being upset that we had the money and paid that player, and doing a "well what if our best players we're at UK right now!" thing is all just kinda out there behavior.
I saw more positives than negatives.
MM is an elite shooter. Not a spot shooter either. Dude can score from anywhere with bodies on him.
Hawthorne is raw but kid can stroke the bottom of the net. His length is nice. He wasn’t shy about shooting either.
Mason Williams…wow. He will and should start by SEC if not sooner. High ceiling high floor. Big, strong, athletic, hustles, plays d, can initiate/deliver contact, can score…
Moreno is a first round draft pick. Now he has an elite shooter that opposing Ds will have to prioritize.
Ndjai is interesting. His height and length I think can be disruptive on D. Had a decent little offensive game but I don’t think that’s where he has to be a dude. If he can disrupt passing lanes on D get some blocks…that will go a long way.
Overall great size and length which can help on D. If Pope can get them to buy in on defense, they don’t have to be great, but effort with natural god given length will lead to some defensive disruptions. Those disruptions with an elite shooter in transition can lead to buckets.
MM is an elite shooter. Not a spot shooter either. Dude can score from anywhere with bodies on him.
Hawthorne is raw but kid can stroke the bottom of the net. His length is nice. He wasn’t shy about shooting either.
Mason Williams…wow. He will and should start by SEC if not sooner. High ceiling high floor. Big, strong, athletic, hustles, plays d, can initiate/deliver contact, can score…
Moreno is a first round draft pick. Now he has an elite shooter that opposing Ds will have to prioritize.
Ndjai is interesting. His height and length I think can be disruptive on D. Had a decent little offensive game but I don’t think that’s where he has to be a dude. If he can disrupt passing lanes on D get some blocks…that will go a long way.
Overall great size and length which can help on D. If Pope can get them to buy in on defense, they don’t have to be great, but effort with natural god given length will lead to some defensive disruptions. Those disruptions with an elite shooter in transition can lead to buckets.
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We turned the ball over way too much. That was the main thing. Take care of the ball and get good shots all night and the outcome is much different.
Wilkins is a talent that needs to be reigned in to some degree. I’d rather have his talent than not.
Mason Williams looked good. Hawthorne looked like he could be helpful in spots. We are missing Kam and Noah, who will both be key contributors and know the system.
We are long and have some defensive potential.
I walked away thinking we are fine. Not great, but fine. We have enough pieces that if the chemistry is good we will be a second weekend team.
Maybe that won’t be good enough. But if they play hard every night I’ll cheer for them every night and worry about the rest later.
Wilkins is a talent that needs to be reigned in to some degree. I’d rather have his talent than not.
Mason Williams looked good. Hawthorne looked like he could be helpful in spots. We are missing Kam and Noah, who will both be key contributors and know the system.
We are long and have some defensive potential.
I walked away thinking we are fine. Not great, but fine. We have enough pieces that if the chemistry is good we will be a second weekend team.
Maybe that won’t be good enough. But if they play hard every night I’ll cheer for them every night and worry about the rest later.
My concern against a very inferior team (no stars are going to Little Rock) we had no inside game. If Pope has coaching ability he will stop everyone just jacking shots and instead start working on passing and back door cuts.
we were not a vastly athletically supieror team last night....just taller.
We could get ALOT better as the season begins, or not. I was underwhelmed by our guard play, I'm afraid Florida, Arkansas and Bamas guards will bum rush us I hope I'm wrong but I just don't fell it watching this team at this stage of it development.
We didn’t try to go inside. Guards got In the paint whenever though.
Without even discussing the scoreboard, my biggest concern is our lack of athletic/physical superiority vs this opponent.
We have 2-3 guys that are clearly superior but the rest of our squad looked physically pretty even with the opposition. That's terrifying. At best we'll have to play zone to have any hope of defending while hoping moreno doesn't get in foul trouble.
I don't see any way we finish in the top half of the sec. We'll be blown out by most any team that's good or better. Bama, florida and any great team will probably just name their score. I don't see any way we aren't playing on Thursday or maybe Wednesday again.
This will be Pope's last year and it's really sad he was put in this awful position by an incompetent ad offering him a job he clearly wasn't capable of handling.
We have 2-3 guys that are clearly superior but the rest of our squad looked physically pretty even with the opposition. That's terrifying. At best we'll have to play zone to have any hope of defending while hoping moreno doesn't get in foul trouble.
I don't see any way we finish in the top half of the sec. We'll be blown out by most any team that's good or better. Bama, florida and any great team will probably just name their score. I don't see any way we aren't playing on Thursday or maybe Wednesday again.
This will be Pope's last year and it's really sad he was put in this awful position by an incompetent ad offering him a job he clearly wasn't capable of handling.
Good:
Fine:
offense was supposed to be the easy part for this team and for most of the game it looked anything but. i do not buy the pope's excuse about focusing on defense. missed layups, missed FTs, silly turnovers....if scoring is your calling card, if its your DNA then it should have looked smoother in moments last night and it didnt. at no point did diallo and wilkins look like a guard combo for a top 20 team. at no point did moreno look like a top big man in the country.
i fear our team is worse than last years. just a bunch of guys (minus milan) who are 7-8 point a game players
- milan is very good, understands the game very well, in full control of what he wants to do. 7 rebounds....if he can do that he is 1st or 2nd team all SEC player
- hawthrone need more minutes. only one with any versatility to his game. can make a three, can go in side. got a few deflections on defense. impacted and disrupted the game.
- mason williams, our best guard all night 10 points on 4-5 shoot, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 3 steals.
Fine:
- ndiaye - started out with a bang but then fizzled out the final 25 minutes of the game
- mcbride - the complete opposite of ndiaye, did almost nothing all game long then in the final 5 minutes hits 2 threes
- frank - hustled, walled up the inside, set some good screens
- wilkins - finished the game 4-12, 2-8 but it was worse until the final minutes when he made a few shots. his shot selection was mostly bad. missed an open layup to start the game with a cute finger roll and it was down hill from there.
- diallo - didnt score in the 2nd half and i dont think he even took a shot. a starting PG that just disappears. gets cut off on drives in the lane too easy and has no where to go. struggled to finish.
- Moreno - billed as a top big man in the country yet he is mostly the same player as last year. struggled and didnt look comfortable in the post, 4 turnovers. did great on the glass but i would expect that in a game like this with this level of competition
offense was supposed to be the easy part for this team and for most of the game it looked anything but. i do not buy the pope's excuse about focusing on defense. missed layups, missed FTs, silly turnovers....if scoring is your calling card, if its your DNA then it should have looked smoother in moments last night and it didnt. at no point did diallo and wilkins look like a guard combo for a top 20 team. at no point did moreno look like a top big man in the country.
i fear our team is worse than last years. just a bunch of guys (minus milan) who are 7-8 point a game players
Obviously not. He left Cambellsville, EKU and UMass for better jobs. Topped out at OSU. He also lasted 8 years at OSU and SLU, which isn’t nothing.
I love how you say before the haters. I think you're talking about yourself. I guess Kansas and Stokes are gonna really suck this year too based on their exhibition game same with Tennessee and several other schools that had a really rough start their exhibition.
96 was down DA. Pull one more out of the rotation and they still had a shot to win it all. Same with 2015.
The same number of Elite Eights Dan Hurley had through two years at UConn. Now a question for you....In Hurleys entire career, how many S16s did he have through two years at UConn??? You firing him too? Now move those goalposts
I don’t want to hear or even care about what sunshine pumpers have to say, if anyone thinks our guards are good enough to compete in power 5 college basketball, they are foolish. Once again we have a team with no guards or guard depth, we literally have 3 to start the season and one is a 4 star Freshman. If you watch last night and not think we are cooked, you in Mr Rodgers land of make believe. Or Center position is OK, not game winning but will have some good games and some terrible. I actually like our 4 position. We are OK at the 3, but the 2 and the 1. Ouch
everyone was worried about the PF spot when our biggest weakness is at PG and SG. getting mark mitchell would not change the fact that our guards just arent good enough to win at the highest level
Pope is in a no win situation here:
-If he wins this game by 50, the Nancy's on here will just say ALR is terrible
-If we beat Texas Tech by 15, they'll just bring up the Purdue win and say it's fools gold.
-If he loses to TT, God help us
The way I look at it, we played awful offensively and still won by 20. From what I understand, ALR has a bunch of guys that can shoot the 3 very well and we locked them down.
I'm not sure our guards can play any wors (Sans Williams), so we can only go up from here.
Our defense looked to be ahead of achedule, so that's good.
-If he wins this game by 50, the Nancy's on here will just say ALR is terrible
-If we beat Texas Tech by 15, they'll just bring up the Purdue win and say it's fools gold.
-If he loses to TT, God help us
The way I look at it, we played awful offensively and still won by 20. From what I understand, ALR has a bunch of guys that can shoot the 3 very well and we locked them down.
I'm not sure our guards can play any wors (Sans Williams), so we can only go up from here.
Our defense looked to be ahead of achedule, so that's good.
Every school is overpaying. Do you honestly think those dudes at duke are playing for chump change?
I've consistently seen our fans have these expectations for Moreno that I just don't get.
He's not very athletic, he's not explosive, he has no real post game, he has a small wingspan, his shot looks like a freaking trebuchet, his hands aren't great...
I just don't see the potential or any ceiling demonstrably higher than where he's at now. He'll probably like a 10 and 8 kind of player this year. He's fine but some fans act like he's some lottery pick talent lol.
Everyone is overpaying. The difference is what they're getting. Duke is getting guys that are future nba all stars. We're getting nobodies.
There were moments when Wilkins gave me Jasper Johnson flashbacks. Just chucking shots and turning the ball over.
the wins or losses are completely irrelevant. its not about beating a team or scoring a million points. exhibition games are about figuring out what you are good at and what you are not.
and after one game, against a far inferior opponent it appears our offense needs a ton of work. and what is troubling, some of it might not be fixable. and i think many are in shock, justifiably so because we were told all off season that this team was constructed with offense first and fits with what pope wants to run. no one expected a well oiled machine in its first exhibition game, but for most of the game looked totally useless.
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