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Boysssss it’s gonna be a long season…

Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner for the sorriest quitter among millions of great Kentucky Wildcats and it only took the 2nd pre-season game.
No one really knows what we have but there is one person I know that believes we can cut the nets down and that's CMP. That's enough for me. I'm all in!

Go Big Blue!!!
 
Carr would get punished in the paint if he was our big man. (Think Big Z!) Guarding the 4 is different for several reasons. First, there aren’t many athletic offensive juggernauts in college ball. Most have moved to a stretch 4. Pope knew what he was doing by pairing Williams and Carr. Smaller 4’s will struggle guarding Carr.

Ball pressure covers a multitude of defensive issues. We have that in spades with Butler and Oweh. Butler’s man consistently wants to get rid of the ball as fast as possible. His strength and aggressive defense will change games.

This team doesn’t have many pure athletes that we’re used to having. But, they have some basketball players that can put the ball in the basket. Pope will pare down the rotation against Duke. I’m guessing we see 8
players get all the minutes unless there’s some garbage time.
Carr played inside quite a bit on Defense last year in the ACC for Wake. He held his own. Did not get pushed around too much. Rebounded decently and such. Stretched the game on offense but also played inside a bunch getting putbacks and so forth. I am not worried about Carr right now. Give them all time to come together. Rebounding is one of the last things that teams typically get unless they have had a front court and guards that have played together for a few years. These guys have not. So Pope will get thank looked at and resolved soon, hopefully they guys will get it quick. No reason to see guys like Williams, Garrison, Carr, Alamanor and even Oweh get beat out to ball on defensive rebounds and start getting more in place for offensive rebounds.
 
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Sheeweee this is an easy bunch to get fired up 🤯. Please everyone come back and tell me I wasn’t completely wrong when top tier teams score at will against us. And I’ll do the same if teams don’t. The difference between last years defense and now is last years team actually COULD play lock down D if they wanted but chose offense over defense most nights. I’m just saying I don’t see this team being able to be a lock down defense. I could see a Zone being our best option against a lot of teams in the sec
Incorrect. We couldn’t defend the high pick and roll at all. Defense overall was horrendous
 
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Someone who actually understands the post a little bit. Andrew carr is gonna be punished on defense. When krissa comes into

I like this team and think they will do well. Most likely late in March, they will run into a more talented team, but I'm very impressed with the roster this staff put together in a very short amount of time given the circumstances.
I think our style of play will be a bonus in tourney time. Very tough to prepare for in a short time.

After a season to improve we should be a tough out with our balanced lineup. Lots of upside with this UK team.
 
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BYU sure as hell didn’t out-athlete anyone last season and they finished with a better defense than we did.

Robinson was probably their best athlete on the team, and he’s at least behind Oweh, Chandler, Butler, and Williams on this team as far as pure athleticism. So I’m really not that concerned at all. We will struggle at times like any team does, but I like what I’ve seen defensively so far other than some rebounding issues.
 
Sheeweee this is an easy bunch to get fired up 🤯. Please everyone come back and tell me I wasn’t completely wrong when top tier teams score at will against us. And I’ll do the same if teams don’t. The difference between last years defense and now is last years team actually COULD play lock down D if they wanted but chose offense over defense most nights. I’m just saying I don’t see this team being able to be a lock down defense. I could see a Zone being our best option against a lot of teams in the sec
I can “kinda “ see your concerns about individual athleticism but there is a thing called team defense. Not saying we will but Villanova won 2 and Virginia won 1 championship with less athleticism than any team Cal had here . And last years team was a terrible defensive team . You saying they COULD play lock down D is pure fantasy. I believe we have at least THREE players that are better defenders than anyone on last years team .
 
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I can “kinda “ see your concerns about individual athleticism but there is a thing called team defense. Not saying we will but Villanova won 2 and Virginia won 1 championship with less athleticism than ant team Cal had here . And last years team was a terrible defensive team . You saying they COULD play lock down D is pure fantasy. I believe we have at least THREE players that are better defenders than anyone on last years team .
I think the whole team is better. Reed was the only one that could play d. Lol
 
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OP....props for being honest. I actually feel the same way after watching last night. Interior is going to be an issue. Opponents that are skilled in rebounds are going to have as many put backs as they want.

This is a fun team, very entertaining, but im expecting a lot of losses.
 
OP....props for being honest. I actually feel the same way after watching last night. Interior is going to be an issue. Opponents that are skilled in rebounds are going to have as many put backs as they want.

This is a fun team, very entertaining, but im expecting a lot of losses.
life suicide GIF by David
 
I can see Kentucky at times able to beat the #1 team by 20 or lose to anybody depending how hot/cold they are from three.
This want happen when we become a really good defensive team and pound the glass I really believe our team by conference time will be a hard team to beat man we have no super freak athlete but alot of gritty players who are good ball players
 
What we don’t know is how emotion fits in. They were “up” for first game just because it was the first game

Second game started flat because of game 1 and disrespecting opponent.

Let’s see how they play against Duke.

Most of us see the strengths and likely weaknesses. How hard they play night in and night out will be the key imo. Coach has enough players to get them to work hard.

Worst case scenario happens and I’ll still be thrilled Cal is gone. Season is a great success already
 
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Don't want to bring a bunch of negative energy but weren't there early reports that one player wasn't quite what we thought we were getting? I remember thinking it was Garrison but now I'm wondering if it might be Brea. I feel like with Garrison we knew we were getting potential, not a day 1 star.
 
But no complaining from me. Just stating the obvious. We don’t have SEC talent or athleticism. Slow footed. I don’t worry about the offense, although it could struggle against top tier competition as well, but the defense is where we are gonna struggle. And rebounding. But I’ll take a year or 2 of pope getting his players in place over another year of Cows 1 and done early round exits.
What are all you former coach followers gonna do when UK has a more successful season than your coach? I hope that all of you will leave and go root for him. I feel sorry for all of you who have never known another coach at UK
 
But no complaining from me. Just stating the obvious. We don’t have SEC talent or athleticism. Slow footed. I don’t worry about the offense, although it could struggle against top tier competition as well, but the defense is where we are gonna struggle. And rebounding. But I’ll take a year or 2 of pope getting his players in place over another year of Cows 1 and done early round exits.
No complaining from you huh, this thread felt like a way to complain. Some of you guys are insufferable and wish you would've followed Cal to arky lol. Making statements like this, this early is silly
 
What are all you former coach followers gonna do when UK has a more successful season than your coach? I hope that all of you will leave and go root for him. I feel sorry for all of you who have never known another coach at UK
I grew up in the later Pitino days but thanks anyway lol
 
No complaining from you huh, this thread felt like a way to complain. Some of you guys are insufferable and wish you would've followed Cal to arky lol. Making statements like this, this early is silly
Making statements like this this early is silly? I can remember coming on this board the night after We got beat by West Virginia in the elite 8 in 2010 and people were literally dead ass serious about wanting Cow fired after year 1 bc of a elite 8 loss lol
 
Making statements like this this early is silly? I can remember coming on this board the night after We got beat by West Virginia in the elite 8 in 2010 and people were literally dead ass serious about wanting Cow fired after year 1 bc of a elite 8 loss lol
How is a post season reaction a good argument for people criticizing you for being too early in your assessments? Those people in your example had about 36 games of Calipari film to base their conclusion on. (I disagree with their conclusion I must say).
 
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Making statements like this this early is silly? I can remember coming on this board the night after We got beat by West Virginia in the elite 8 in 2010 and people were literally dead ass serious about wanting Cow fired after year 1 bc of a elite 8 loss lol

And they got made fun of because they were on an island and very wrong.

You have something in common with those idiots now. Congrats. How does it feel to be on a similar island and overreacting and making premature observations with no where near enough data?
 
But no complaining from me. Just stating the obvious. We don’t have SEC talent or athleticism. Slow footed. I don’t worry about the offense, although it could struggle against top tier competition as well, but the defense is where we are gonna struggle. And rebounding. But I’ll take a year or 2 of pope getting his players in place over another year of Cows 1 and done early round exits.
I do worry about rebounding. I think defensively we have some solid individuals though
 
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What are all you former coach followers gonna do when UK has a more successful season than your coach? I hope that all of you will leave and go root for him. I feel sorry for all of you who have never known another coach at UK
You can be critical of the team, regardless of the coach. It doesn't mean that you miss the former guy.
 
Making statements like this this early is silly? I can remember coming on this board the night after We got beat by West Virginia in the elite 8 in 2010 and people were literally dead ass serious about wanting Cow fired after year 1 bc of a elite 8 loss lol
After watching him coach that game it was evident no amount of talent could carry him. We got lucky our 2012 team was that good defensively that it didn’t matter. Obviously you can’t fire a coach who did as well as he did the first 9 years but the criticisms were valid.
 
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OP should be banned from the internet for 1 year.

This team is talented, deep, skilled, and mature. Like many of the teams that have knocked us out recently.
 
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Making statements like this this early is silly? I can remember coming on this board the night after We got beat by West Virginia in the elite 8 in 2010 and people were literally dead ass serious about wanting Cow fired after year 1 bc of a elite 8 loss lol
"Other people said really dumb shit 14 years ago, so this isn't silly!!"
 
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He’s definitely struggled a little in the two exhtibitions.

But he didn’t play a ton in the first one because i think he got hurt. He may not have been 100% in this one.

Also his advanced defensive metrics were very solid at Wake last season. He was not a bad defender. We’ll see what happens. Something to watch.

All that said overall i’m not worried about defense. Butler, Oweh and Amari are all conference or better defensive players and are going to play a ton. Butler is going to be in the conversation for national DPoY.
I think people are thinking his lack of athleticism will hurt him, which it may. He is also very tall with long arms and he’s played D1 for years so I’m sure he knows how to guard by now. He seems to be a pretty smart player on the court as far as knowing where to be and how to run what we run.
 
I guarantee that we are better on D, this year than last year, with the offense that is just as good. With a coach who actually understands when to play who, and undoubtedly wouldnt sit our best shooters (Shep,Rob,Reeves) and play them less together than any other combination. That would be like Pope hardly ever putting Jax on the floor when Brea or any other shooters are in. The whole DJ Wagner and Justin Edwards crap is the equivalent of Travis Perry and Trent Noah having more minutes than Lamont and Jax at the end of the year. So glad that idiot is gone.
 
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But no complaining from me. Just stating the obvious. We don’t have SEC talent or athleticism. Slow footed. I don’t worry about the offense, although it could struggle against top tier competition as well, but the defense is where we are gonna struggle. And rebounding. But I’ll take a year or 2 of pope getting his players in place over another year of Cows 1 and done early round exits.
And how many times have we been beat by teams like this the last 5 years? Sometimes chemistry carries more water than having 5 stars. Not arguing your points just trying to look at the glass half full.
 
But no complaining from me. Just stating the obvious. We don’t have SEC talent or athleticism. Slow footed. I don’t worry about the offense, although it could struggle against top tier competition as well, but the defense is where we are gonna struggle. And rebounding. But I’ll take a year or 2 of pope getting his players in place over another year of Cows 1 and done early round exits.

You've watched the two exhibition games and still made this assessment? lol
 
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