Why it went wrong. How to fix it.

[FredmanthecatfanAnon]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

 

[BlueSince92]

How to Fix It:

• Fire Capilouto.
• Fire Mitch.
• Fire Mitch's replacement coz that was a Mitch hire.
• I love Mark Pope but find a winning coach.
• Eradicate JMI Sports from the face of the planet.

 

[loublue22_rivals308424]

we had mediocre players who were soft and didn't play hard, a reflection of the coach

 

[MichaelGray]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

You ever notice how Chandler looks at the ball when he dribbles, you learn to not do that when you first start playing.

 

[OliverSimmonsTwinBrother]

How to Fix It:

• Fire Capilouto.
• Fire Mitch.
• Fire Mitch's replacement coz that was a Mitch hire.
• I love Mark Pope but find a winning coach.
• Eradicate JMI Sports from the face of planet.

This post should legit be pinned at the top of this place

 

[megablue]

Our intentionality was simply very poor.

 

[theBlues]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

You're just talking offense and our defense was worse than our offense this season, or at least just a bad, and it's only going to get worse if we focus on offensive oriented players.

 

[TheGreatGooglyMoogly]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

"They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well"

I'm not quite sure the point you are making here. Players don't have to be great scorers, but they need to be knock down shooters and capable of finishing at the rim?

Pope needs to get someone to coach defense and rebounding. The entire team played defense with their hands down all season. They over-committed every game on help defense leaving wide open shooters. Rebounding was atrocious. It was like none of them were ever coached on how to box out and the cats were murdered on the glass.

 

[FredmanthecatfanAnon]

@googly moogly. The pg’s don’t have to be great scores.
2-4’s need to be.

 

[Dead Cat Bounce]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

I agree with a lot of this, but I would also emphasize:

Our ball handling was atrocious at all points on the floor.

Our passing was lazy and poor, especially in the paint. How many turnovers did we give up on uncatchable, low bounce passes through traffic in the interior?

Our shooting guards were not fast enough to beat their men off the dribble or to create space for an open shot, and all of our guards struggled to finish at the rim in traffic.

Our bigs had terrible hands and terrible shooting touch. Couldn't hold on to passes or rebounds. Shot poorly at close range.

Our basketball IQ was low, especially when it came to valuing possession. In addition to turning the ball over, we frequently took low-percentage shots in situations when we absolutely had to score a bucket. I blame this last one, in part, on the lack of a true floor general. Aberdeen performed well as a point guard, in the sense that he could maintain possession of the ball, but it's not clear to me that we had any leadership on the court. Oweh had the seniority, but his version of leadership was putting the team on his shoulders and bullying through the paint. This team would have benefited from a player-coach like Tyler Ulis. I also blame this last one, in part, on Pope's philosophy of shooting threes. There are times when you should play the percentages and attempt the three, but there are moments when you absolutely have to come away with points. Time and again, when we absolutely needed points, a low-percentage shooter would jack a low-percentage shot.

There may have been some other problems.

 

[UK BasketballFan]

First hire a AD that is capable of hiring a coach that can sign talented players and also a good bench coach.

 

[UK BasketballFan]

First hire a AD that is capable of hiring a coach that can sign talented players and also a good bench coach

 

[Phil_The_Music2]

Aside from injuries, this roster didn’t fit what Pope does well. Pope wanted to be more physical and athletic than his previous roster, he seemed to sacrifice shooting and basketball IQ.
Shooters create space. Good spacing increases shooting percentages.
While Chandler, Oweh, and DA all shot well at times, but none were consistently good enough from 3 to soften opposing defenses.
Inside, MM is talented but not strong enough. BG way too inconsistent. Mo D had great motor, but offensively, a liability at times. Jelly has potential, but didn’t shoot well enough to be that stretch 4 and not physical enough to bully inside.
The pieces didn’t fit. That’s on Pope.

Aberdeen, to his credit, became a decent point guard, but after that, there was no answer.

We have to get players, but not just players, players that fit the system.

Whether Lowe returns or not we need 2 more point guards. They need to be tough and they need to be smart. They don’t have to be great scorers, but they have to be able to handle pressure and defend.
We need knock down shooters at the 2, 3, and 4. They all need to be able to finish at the rim as well
I hope Chandler returns, but unless he gets a lot better, he can’t be our first or second biggest scoring threat on the perimeter.
We need a hoss in the paint that also has good passing skills and the ability to knock down 15 footers.
Pope needs to find players that fit his system. We saw in year one that he can have a good offensive team. We saw in year 2 how ugly an offense can be when he prioritizes players that don’t match his system.
If he doesn’t only learn that but demonstrate that in year 3, he probably won’t get a year 4. I’m hoping that he can pull it off.

I think he over corrected with his roster in year 2. Year one was a group of smart players but not very athletic. Year 2 we were more athletic but lower basketball IQ. Pope's system requires high IQ guys because it's all about reading the defense and making good decisions. We went from Butler and Amari to essentially nobody after Lowe went out.

 

[JohnRambo82]

 

[Artlaibesghost]

IMO it went wrong when our only point guard got hurt. It continued to progress when we had to depend on a freshman to start at Center because the only center we brought in was injured to begin with. Pope should have made allowances in his roster construction for serviceable back up. It continued when the the only stretch 4s he brought in couldn't shoot for crap.Chandler was wildly inconsistent and unable to create his own shot. That left 2 dependable scorers to depend on every night. Aberdeen is a 2 playing the 1 a d it affected his performance. I believe he would have a much better season at his
natural position. Finally that left Oweh our only great player. Often double and triple teamed(unlike last year) when he drove to the hole. Most nights he still persevered but not always. Finally you have Pope's bizarre substitutions at the worst times and you get what we got.

 

[NociHTTP]

Template for whiners:

1. Pope can't build roster
2. Chandler ain't good enough
3. Need a dozen PG's
4. If Pope don't meet my expectations he ain't getting year 4

Does that sound about right?

 

[19CatOfBlueBlood96]

Chandler cant be a main player for us. If a team really puts pressure on him he can't dribble. He's a off the bench energy player.