VernHatton52 said:

No shit!

We didn't have two of our best players. Brea didn't make a shot. We were 6/24 from deep. Perry had to run point nearly the whole game vs a desperate bubble team on the road. Yet we still almost won.

Hell, if we hit some more FTs instead of going 1 out of 2 all of those trips, then we probably do win. Blame Pope if you want, but that's some lazy arm chair analysis if you ask me. The man is keeping us competitive when we can barely field a team.

Get f'n real!

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I think the early season defeats of Duke and Gonzaga built higher expectations than what we perceived after Pope built the roster in April/May. The continued run of of Top 10 wins exacerbated our expectations.

We would have all signed up for the results YTD with what we know now and the litany of injuries.

We are fine. This year is like playing with house money.

Someguywhodoesntlikeyou said:

The people who know say he wants to coach at MSU. That’s his dream job.

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Really.. Michigan St? Does he have ties there or something?

I mean he turned down Kentucky which is a better job for a lot of money. Is MSU going yo offer anything close to what we were?

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Bill Cosby said:

Mike Cernovich has done a complete 180 if that’s actually him (the popular MAGA Cernovich) writing that in 2012.

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I don't know how Cernovich comes back from that. Build a thousand bridges and suck one...

Without Butler and Robinson, we probably win 1 or 2 more games. LSU and Vandy in Rupp are both winnable.

18-13 or 19-12 going into the SEC tourney.

HeismaNole said:

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Left wing people are completely irrational. Who was it that mentioned, "if Donald Trump wins, we'll see a big rise in mental illness and breakdowns"?

A team missing their top three PG’s choked at the end? That’s unheard of.

Farrr Pope!!!!

Bill Cosby said:

These are the same people who thought I deserved to be denied access to healthcare in the event I needed it because I refused the Covid experimental shots, who stunted the growth of an entire generation of kids forcing them to go through their formative years sitting at home alone or learning to communicate in masks, who lost thousands of kids in the Cincinnati school district alone, who supported an invasion of our southern border and the unprecedented human trafficking, etc. etc.

They’re horrible, reprehensible people and their sob stories do not resonate.

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Don't forget that when we had the courage to call out that this disease was made in a lab, they called us racists.

Stylish glasses worn by the Texas coach.

That’s the exact perspective I expect from the neocons. No matter the outcome now, two years of death, misery and expense was worth it.

Putin will pretend it was not a total disaster though.

Edit: I’ve lost track of time. It’s been almost three years to the day.

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I mean to hit 20 for the season just means 1 more regular season win, 1 sec tourney win and 1 ncaa tourney win. If we win 2 regular season then just 1 post season win needed.

Edgarman said:

I honestly feel we should not pass judgement on Pope as a coach until he has had 3 recruiting seasons. One never knows what he can get in the portal this year. I do not think Ament will be a Wildcat and we can't really expect most freshmen to really contribute a ton, especially in the SEC. Let's judge Pope after the 2027 season. I think we will all be quite happy with Pope. I am thrilled with his results this year so far but this year actually has zero indications of his success here. It depends on recruiting, injuries, schedule, and some luck.

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I don’t think it’s on Pope at all.

He can only play the players he has and it wasn’t like he could be all that choosy.

He had to put together a whole team and coaching staff in about a month.

I think most everyone thought Amari was going to be the defensive player we needed in the middle. But he’s not even a decent defender.

Everyone thought Chandler was going to be key once he knocked off the rust. He hasn’t.

Some will criticize the coaching for subbing and situations. But I never go there. With prior coaches either.

They see the players everyday. They aren’t making decisions on a whim and hoping it works

We have to trust the coaching staff on that.

If we can’t trust the coaches on that then it’s time to get one we can.

If we still see obviously wrong guys in situations 2-3 years from now then it’s time for concern.

Pope has done too many great things already to not get the benefit of the doubt.

When Williams is showing he’s not going to guard or rebound who does he put in? Garrison? Carr? Neither are improvements.

When Perry is being bothered by pressure who’s he going to put in now? Oweh can’t run the point.

I read here that Noah could play point. But again, professional coaches see him everyday in practice. They clearly don’t think he can

When you watch the games every SEC has athletic perimeter players that can guard our perimeter players. We don’t have that.

That jumps off the TV that we are overmatched athletically against everyone we play in the SEC.

That’s not fixed in a timeout.

Last night was just so disappointing because we could have won. And really had it won.

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Girthang said:

We weren't favored last night either, because the odds makers weren't emotional.

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UK's basketball program is apparently highly popular among teenage girls aged 12-14.

chroix said:

And nobody could stop Johnson. Kid was sick.

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Butler could have slowed him down. 🙃

I love the Cats but flipping between All Star weekend and USA/Canada looked way more fun.

3Bluefever325 said:

F’ Reed. Got two real Kentucky boys playing for the name in the front that I care much more about. I can’t imagine either one of them ever wearing another teams shirt, unless they’d lost a bet.

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People are only as faithful as their options. If our two true blue Kentucky boys are good enough to go top 5 then they are gone too. But they are not top 5 good so you get to enjoy them for a few more years. Don’t be naive. None of these kids care as much as you and I.

Will be tough to get 20, I’m hoping for 21 but not holding my breath. The end of the game has really damaged my confidence.

I hated to see us lose a game that we should have won lets just try to enjoy what games we have left season will be over before you know it

I like what pope said post game and you can sense the frustration in his voice, you know he’s as upset as we are with how we didn’t close the game out. I too would like to see him ride the hot hand longer but now vandy is for sure a must win with bama next Saturday.

fisherscatfan said:

I thought there was an issue with Oats and custody of kids that he didn’t want to leave the state of Alabama?

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I think it was more that he had a massive buyout.

Also he may or may not have been separated back in March or whatever, but he isn’t divorced.

Common theme to most of our losses: the other team needs the win worse than we do. We haven’t had our backs against the wall. We have been been projected to be comfortably in the tourney all season. Just about every game we have lost, the opponent has come in to the game with something to prove, or on a bad losing streak, or on the bubble. We haven’t had that kind of desperation very often (at UT and vs. SCAR were two of our best games and it was after two straight losses and we played with a sense of urgency).

So, the point is, this team has to be able to match the emotion and intensity with these lower rated teams before we can beat them. They are playing for their lives, while we are just playing to keep or maybe improve our seed line.

I just hope that by the time we get to March we aren’t so use to folding when teams play “life or death” basketball against us that we can’t match their intensity because we have rarely played in “must win” games. Need to treat every game from now on out like it’s a tourney game.