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Depth and adjustments!

Once Dukes big's got hurt, the adjustment from pope to go smaller, with Carr at the 5, did the damage. We simply wore them down. Which is a hallmark of veteran teams that have 4-5 years of conditioning. Duke relied on there two star freshmen, and they folded at the end, both mentally and physically. We have seen that same pattern play out way to many times in the last 5-6 years.
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Scheyer using the "we're young" excuse

He is young. We know that feeling all to well. He will be an elite talent. What we saw tonight, was a group of grown men, outlasting a possibly better talented team. Our older players did not wear out, and crack down the stretch. We also saw a team, still learning how to play with each other, and learning a new system with only 1 player having any clue what pope is running. What's scary, and should have the basketball world worried. is the last two games, UK has not played it best basketball, and found a way to win. Win with most likely lower level of talent than pope will have in the future. Won with his system still not fully ingrained into the players. Key will be getting that talent, and keeping them here for more than a year. If pope can manage that, then look out.

Beating Duke was more than just winning a basketball game.

True. This is the start of the Pope era. Losses will happen. Bad games will happen. Bonehead mistakes will be made. Nobody is perfect. But, to date, Mark Pope is batting a perfect game for what he could have done since being hired. He will be given a lot of grace for the aforementioned blemishes if he keeps being the awesome leader and role model he is, listening to the fans and producing such a sexy and successful hard working product.

Kentucky basketball is BACK baby!

If Boley starts...

Stoops can't afford to lose this game. Boley isn't starting. If he does, it's just for show and GW will get the bulk of the snaps. He's not ready to start against anybody, especially with this OL.


See 2016 New Mexico St game when Drew Barker started... everyone including the coaches thought there was no reason to play Stephen Johnson.
If the OL struggles against Murray then should have their scholly's revoked.
Cutter should be able to manage this game with ease as should be the case with any QB on the roster.
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I’d like to share some embarrassing quotes from myself from back in April

Let's not do this. Anyone saying hey knew exactly how Pope would do so far is being disingenuous. No one knew. We all had hope he'd do well. So far so good!

Pope had (and still has) a lot to prove. He doesn't have a tournament win. That's just a fact.
However, what he has shown is he understands the assignment and can beat great teams. (He beat KU at KU and now Duke on a neutral floor).

Lots of season left and lots of reasons to be excited. Let's celebrate for 24 hours and then it's on to the next!
I knew he would do great at UK. I wasn't sure he would be great year 1. Due to the fact he got a late start and had to put together a complete team at the last minute.
Too many people underestimate just how hard it is to win like he did at Byu with the incredible recruiting restrictions. Yet he still won and beat top ranked big 12 teams.
Yes I know 0 tournament wins but again just getting Byu to the tournament with those restrictions is a great accomplishment.
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This prick

With all the excuses, many we heard from ourselves about the annual losses we took lately, wonder why folks like these Duke writers don't compare player salaries and see if they got their moneys worth?
I know our guys get NIL as well, but if you're getting paid like we do in the real world, then there has to be a "ROI".
Sorry, it just pisses me off when teams win and others can not give them their due.
Down 9 at the half and came out fighting hard. Your cramps are on you; period.
Maybe our shooters had a better night.
We hit 6 more threes and people act like we hit 30 more.
Give our players some credit.
Give our coaches and trainers some credit.

My favorite part….we didn’t play great

I mean credit Duke for that. That's probably the most athletic team we'll see this year. Their defense is real.

Pope's offense is just REALLY hard to guard for 40 min. And apparently he knows of a coaching secret called halftime adjustments that we're not used to seeing.


Their game plan to make us start our offense 30 feet from the basket was a great move with our lack of drivers, but puts a major stress on the legs of those defenders who already struggle with conditioning. And even still, we hit 10 from 3 for 40%. More "on" nights would see us adding a few more to the tally.

But truly how many bunnies did we miss inside? This was a C+ to B- overall game as far as offensive efficiency goes but an A+ on heart, effort and adjustments made needed to win. If we ever get an A level offensive game, idk who could stop us at that point.
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Depth and adjustments!

What I saw in last nights game was that Duke has 10 elite, and I mean elite, level defenders and rebounders. But UK having 10 players that can all score, and who moved with high energy, wore Duke down. Duke players were gassed at halftime, and that Duke defense was never extended in the second half like it was in the first. Also, Coach Mark Pope made constant adjustments to our defense, and mixed in several zone looks, that really slowed the Duke offense down. As talented as Duke is, it appears that they only have Flagg and Kneuppel to do the majority of the play making and scoring. And Flagg is very vulnerable to getting his pocket picked when we doubled whenever he got to the lane. Kneuppel kind of disappeared in the second half....maybe that was our defensive adjustment?
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