We have issues, who doesn’t? Pope is my guy and I love my team!
All the Doom & Gloomers are out
- Thread starter JonathanW
- Start date
When there is no urgency, no effort, and lackadaisical play, undisciplined offensive sets, not going after 50-50 balls
it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to ask questions and criticize the team/coaching. If not, it just means you don’t care.
it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to ask questions and criticize the team/coaching. If not, it just means you don’t care.
Correct, I didn’t read your diatribe about irrational
pessimism. Like I said, if you can’t enjoy this season for what it is then we have completely different personalities. And that’s the ok!
Cool. So what are we allowed to talk about?
He is the weakest on this board. He is only here when we lose. Along with a couple others. If we win they either don't show or they talk about whats gonna go wrong next or how we got lucky. But yea the "eternal optimists" are the problem for him.
The hardest thing about being a Kentucky fan is Kentucky fans. This team was created from scratch in a month from a coaching staff created from scratch in a couple of weeks before that. Have more quality wins than anyone in the country, in the Top 10 deep in January, down two important players and a point guard that is beat to hell but we're on a two-game losing streak and likely 3-games against two Top 6 teams and a road loss against a team having at least it's second best team in a quarter century. The sky is falling!!!
FFS, some of you all need to get a grip! The future looks bright to me. Our defense is lousy but if you thought we were winning a title this year then you're an idiot. We're playing with house money and I've enjoyed this team more than any other in at least 5 years. We have a coach that in his words "understands the mission" and if it looks after a couple of seasons we're not getting closer to the mission, we will move on to the next guy. I'm 98% sure that's not going to be the case but I could be wrong. I understand being upset on a game by game basis and critiquing by game but I don't understand the hand wringing on the state of the program.
FFS, some of you all need to get a grip! The future looks bright to me. Our defense is lousy but if you thought we were winning a title this year then you're an idiot. We're playing with house money and I've enjoyed this team more than any other in at least 5 years. We have a coach that in his words "understands the mission" and if it looks after a couple of seasons we're not getting closer to the mission, we will move on to the next guy. I'm 98% sure that's not going to be the case but I could be wrong. I understand being upset on a game by game basis and critiquing by game but I don't understand the hand wringing on the state of the program.
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This year’s a wash. We’ll see how he recruits and develops talent. That’s still a question mark.
Yeah the half time adjustment was fine … deciding to play insanely bad lineups in the first half should be legitimately open for criticism/ discussion— right ? Running chandler out there ? I’m thrilled with MP but he doesn’t walk on water .. there is such a thing as too nice .
We may very well lose again but like you I expect a war. My hope was we rested Andrew in order to be more ready for this game.
Jax and Brea with consistently poor defensive efforts .. that seems to just never get addressed .
So, lose a more winnable game to save him for a more loseable game, even with him? Not sure I agree with that logic.
We need all hands on deck to beat UT, we didn’t exactly need him in the Vandy game. Yeah we lost but a little better execution and we win. That won’t happen at UT without him IMO. This may be about the rest of the year too, an extra rest he can get is good for late in the year. Come back early and he could be done for good.
Or maybe you just read a sentence rather than the entire message and react pessimisticly to the message. Interesting approach from such a positive sort.
Well if what we heard on post game is true he won't be available against UT anyways so it makes sense he wasn't against Vandy as well too.
The Pope sunshine pumpers aren’t as bad as the Cal pumpers, but we’re getting there. I love Pope. Think he’s exactly what the program needed. I also think having Perry, Noah, and Chandler on the court together in the first half was coaching malpractice. Playing Perry and Noah together was a huge problem as well. Playing Chandler at all, at this point, is just silly. Pope said it himself. If he screws up he needs to hear about it. Well, he screwed up. Those first half lineup combos were absolutely trash. He went away from them in the second half and look how the second half went compared to the first.
Saying Pope is Tubby without the title is, in my humble opinion, negative. Tubbys first full season with his own players was team turmoil if I recall. You are free to your opinion, but there is nothing this year that’s happened that has me feeling concerned or worried about the future.
Bingo - everyone was just happy for the change..
How many people were excited about the roster that we brought in and we knew the SEC was going to be brutal. We put lofty expectations after the comeback against Duke that maybe they can’t play up too without the full squad of healthy players.
Tubby was a REALLY good coach that got lazy recruiting. It wasn’t meant as a negative at all. Cal pre covid and Pitino were GENERATIONAL coaching successes. Like two runs as good as there has been in the sport in my lifetime. My comparison to Tubby and Joe B were merely a level of success comparison and not a detailed analysis. Worth noting Tubby and Joe B were extremely nice guys as well, which added to the comparison. If Pope is here 10-12 yrs I think he could get to a couple Final 4s. Maybe win a title. But I also think he’ll have teams that struggle to stay in the top 25 and get to the second weekend of the NCAAT.
And this is based on this current team, the one currently in the top 10 and projected as a 3 seed, that he put together in 4 weeks with a coaching staff he put together in 2 weeks? This will also, most likely, be the only team he has that returns ZERO PLAYERS - ZERO. When have we ever had a team return ZERO players. Have we ever?? And, based on this season so far, you think we’ll likely have multiple teams that struggle to be in the top 25? How is that not pessimistic exactly? How did Pitino do his first year? Why is your take rational but people that disagree not? Is this the classic case of “the smart pessimist” vs the “dumb optimist”?
Agreed. And unlike the above poster, I know that's not what you were saying or meaning. AT ALL.
People read so much into message boards that reflect their own paranoid fears and suspicions, it's almost impossible to have a discussion.
But that's par for the course here at the Rafters.
after all, that's why we are known as THE RAFTARDS, right ?! 😉
Absolutely the best the SEC has been in my lifetime and probably ever.
We have the least amount of talent we’ve had in probably 12-13 years.
Pope is really doing a great job.
We have the least amount of talent we’ve had in probably 12-13 years.
Pope is really doing a great job.
Tubby finished n the top 25 8 of 10 seasons.
Cal did 12 of 15.
Pitino did 7 of 8 (and the first year counting against him is bs but I have to include it).
So idk why we wouldn't expect a similar 80% finishing n top 25 from Pope.
That's a really fair take. Pope is on a 5 year deal from what I read. We see where we are then.
To ba fair, the game has changed SOOOO much since Joe and Tubby it's kind of hard to compare to today's systems and the game.
They attacking you but your spot on. Kentucky should never except a 10th place finish on the league, ever.
Every team deals with stuff. Auburn was just without the NPOY for multiple games.
There is absolutely no reason or excuse you can provide that would justify UK finishing in the bottom half of the SEC. It’s freaking banana land that this is even a discussion any UK fan would try to support.
I hope they get healthy, get it together and climb back up the standings but I will never be cool with playing on Wednesday in the SECT and finishing that low in the conference.
I don't know a single person who thought this team was winning a title. The issue I have, and I think I speak for some here, is the lack of fundamentals and Pope seemingly not enforcing them. You can't tell me that the difference between a ranked player and a non-ranked one is the ranked one puts his hands up on defense. I fully expected Pope to be about doing all the basic things, and his guys by and large playing their butts off on both ends of the court. That's not too much to ask, and it has very little to do with talent.
Gonna call it right now - we go into Knoxville on Tuesday night and win. One of Jax or Brea makes 5+ threes and we win 78-70 (I expect a lower scoring game than we're used to with the way UT plays). Missing Carr will hurt, but I think Oweh will continue to step up and help on the glass and we'll get a better game from Amari.
In general I think if we can take care of business against Arkansas, find a way to win 1/2 @UT or @Ole Miss, we'll still be on track to end up with a top 3 seed assuming we win the games we're supposed to from that point on and can steal another road game or two
In general I think if we can take care of business against Arkansas, find a way to win 1/2 @UT or @Ole Miss, we'll still be on track to end up with a top 3 seed assuming we win the games we're supposed to from that point on and can steal another road game or two
Well said. I understand people being upset and needing to vent after a loss but no reason to jump off the ship
I didn’t expect to win a title but I do question why the defense is so bad and if it’s gonna be a reoccurring theme in the future. We can have a great offense every year but if he can’t figure out defense we’re probably not ever gonna be real contenders
I do think this team is slightly better defensively than the numbers show, and HAS shown the ability to play B-B+ defense when they need to. The defense was fantastic to start the 2nd half yesterday, and to be honest if you told me we hold Vandy to 74 points before the game I probably would have taken that (I think the turnovers hurt us more than anything). I also think some of it is the pace with which we play makes it harder to lock in possession after possession defensively. I trust that Pope is prioritizing it and we have started to see flashes, but I agree it hasn't been good enough this year.
The biggest trend I've noticed that I mentioned in another thread is the implosions we've seen the last 7-8 minutes of the first half of games, which has been a common theme in all of our losses.
Clemson ended the half on a 14-2 run
OSU ended the half on a 19-9 run
UGA ended the half on a 15-4 run
Bama ended the half on a 15-7 run
Vandy ended the half on a 20-4 run
Even Gonzaga ended the half on a 21-8 run
We've shown the ability to fight back from deficits after the half with Pope seemingly able to do a great job making halftime adjustments, but we continue to dig these holes which makes it really difficult to come back from. Thought we looked exhausted to end the game yesterday after expending so much energy on the comeback. Not sure what the fix is here but it's stood out to me all year long
I can’t believe how far behind Chandler is. At the first of the year he looked like a legit rotation player and maybe starter. Now he’s unplayable.
Ummmmmm, it’s mostly based on his history as a basketball coach. Is that dumb? Or smart?
I also love how people point to the zero returning players. It means nothing in today’s basketball landscape. There were about 1000 players in the portal. When, in history, has that ever happened?
Btw, I think Pope and staff did a pretty good job assembling a roster.
Agree with first and second statements. With regard to the third, I’d qualify it at this point. He’s doing a good job given the circumstances. His probable returning players and recruits for next year, however, aren’t exactly bursting with talent. We will see what the portal brings, but it’s primarily filled with guys who won’t play professional ball in the States. And I feel like you need at least one of these guys on your team.
Correct. And the regression is what got Tubby and Cal. Pitino was flying high when he left. I just don’t know if Pope will have enough success on the front end to survive what I consider to be his basement.
I live in SE Asia. I see these Mormon missionaries walking in twos all over the place. They evangelize full time. Any ball he played for those two years was against very weak competition. I totally understand why he’s behind.
How many teams this year have zero returning players, and how are they doing?
