I was surprised but then watched film of his offense and read about the respect other coaches had for his system, which is an NBA style system. I really wasn't swayed either way by the pep rally but had conceded that he was worth a shot. I really thought his style would appease a lot of fans that only care about exciting offense. And yes, there's a bunch of those...but I was always a bit concerned with his defensive approach.
His first season, given the short time to put a team together as well as injuries, was not bad and I do think the system appeased a lot of people. We all pretty much agreed that he overachieved and that we'd love to see that offense with better "dudes."
Then it appeared that Pope killed it in the portal and brought in a respectable freshman class. We were all excited about the roster, even though many of us saw the lack of depth at PG. The class was a top 5ish class of frosh and portal guys. So, Pope did good on paper, minus PG depth.
That PG depth became an issue immediately, with Lowe going down in the blue/white televised practice
The day we had been waiting for rolled around...preseason #1 Purdue in an exhibition game at Rupp. Man. we looked unstoppable against a really good team, even without a true PG. Purdue played their starters for a huge number of minutes, btw. But yes, it was just an exhibition.
Then G'Town, another exhibition game and we looked terrible. But hey, it was just an exhibition game, right? Still loots of hope for the season.We rest Lowe for a few games...
Season rolls around and we looked pretty good for the first couple of games, then a short road trip to play Little Brother and we looked really bad out manned everywhere in that game. After the game, Pope eludes to something happening in the locker room before the game. Clearly, we had a problem and that problem is the one this team has had all season long...whatever it is. But we still had a PG, albeit, a banged up one.. and a good showing from DA. We played decent for about 10 minutes but our defense disappeared for the rest of the game and we looked out manned, badly. Still, there was potential, just very disappointing to lose the way we did, to of all teams, UL.. But, we might still have a PG1
The season was very young and the team struggled against decent competition. Chemistry? Something happened before the UL game. We still don't know what it was. It was clear that something was very wrong with this team and we suffered some beatdowns and a close one with UNC.
We clamored that JQ was a world beating beast and debated when he'd play. We hoped that we would be much better when the beast got to play. Sure enough, JQ comes in and we beat a good St. John's team on a neutral court in Catlanta and killed them on the boards. Pretty good ballgame and things looked a "little better".
But the roller coaster ride wasn't over and neither were our injury problems. JQ goes back down, Kam goes down, Lowe is done for the season, Noah misses a few games, Oweh took a while to get going after a preseason turf toe injury...What else am I forgetting?
Bottom line, injuries and continuity have really hurt this team but I think it's more than that. I think this team has chemistry problems and has all along. Not sure what the fix is for it.
But, I do think it sucks for Pope to have such a short leash with all the injuries and chemistry problems happen with some teams. Yes, we expect better than the product we've put on the floor this season but I don't think Pope can be blamed for all of it. Ultimately, it's on him but the roster is not bad...not as bad as the product anyway.
I think there are things he has to do better but injuries, continuity and chemistry are big deals and it's hard to put all of that at Pope's feet after one disappointing season. To me, he has at least next year to right the ship and frankly, I'm optimistic that he can do that. Still not sure he's THE man for the job but I don't see firing him this soon either. My biggest concern is defense, honestly. His system will score points but we haven't seen consistently good defense from him yet, although at the end of last season, we weren't bad on d.
He's got another year so lets get behind him and the team going forward and see what he can do with a healthy team that doesn't refuse to play together. This one has done just that. I'm not sure any coach could fix this team. He should know the chemistry problem and we can only hope our injury luck improves. So, bring some guys back, add some new ones..maybe a defensive minded assistant... and lets lace em up next season before we throw Pope under the bus. If we look like this again, we move on.
One last thing...I'm not a fan of living or dying with outside shooting. We've gotta have both...inside and outside scoring. His system relies heavily on shooting, as does most of college bball. But every team will have off nights shooting the ball.
