With the injuries and known deficiencies with this group (defense, soft), what is the expectation for this group…second weekend of the tournament?
Ceiling for this group
- Thread starter wccat2969
- Start date
I would be thrilled with a sweet 16 appearance.
Given the early season success I hate to say it, but if we don’t get Carr and Kerr back we should be thankful to make the second weekend.
With today's effort, one and done. We lost a seed line today and it won't be the last time that happens.
Win two and it’s a huge success. This team as it is now, just not very good.
it seems we peaked at the beginning of the year and just haven't gotten better
I’ve said Sweet 16 all along but after today who knows. Feels like Oweh is the only dependable player on the roster.
Besides inquiries, lack of experience for Coach Pope in NCAA tournament It will be on match up and seeding. If Carr and Kriisa get healthy and we avoid certain physical teams we could make a run to elite 8 / final four, Most likely we flame out in the second game.
I’ve been pretty disappointed with the performances over the last month, so I don’t really want to answer right now. I feel like some of our issues could be corrected by tournament time, but I haven’t seen any effort to correct them so far.
Tough to say. Butler isn’t 100% and Carr hasn’t been either. Our SEC record will almost definitely be ugly and we will probably need to win 4 games to win the SEC tourney. Probably end up with a 4-6 seed in the big tourney. From there it’s a matter of how healthy are we and have we figured out how to play defense by then. If we aren’t healthy and haven’t figured out defense we may lose the first round. If we are healthy and we’ve figured out how to play defense we could make a run at a final four.
Last edited:
How high our ceiling is, is determined by the head coach. Pope desperately needs to address some things in hardline fashion. He's been letting some things go on for too long.
I’m not sure that’s fair. This team was cobbled together and needed every weapon it had. Right now we don’t have our energy guy who can right the ship when we need energy and we don’t have our only dependable big man. So no, we aren’t the team we once were.
Now, unfortunately, they may both be out for the rest of the season. In that case we will probably need to seriously alter our expectation. But it’s not really fair to judge the team we have now against the one we had earlier in the season.
If we don't get Carr back we may not reach 20 wins.
Important point. They pretty much are what they are and won’t measurably improve,
Yeah I don’t think folks are realizing this. We only have two games on the schedule that you can sort of circle and say they should be wins (SC and LSU). If Carr is out for the long haul, we’re in deep shit.
This was a Quad 1 game. A lot of the bracket matrix guys had us as a 2 seed. This probably drops us to a 3. But I don't think we're locked out of a 1 or 2 seed at this point in time.
The ceiling:
We beat Duke on a neutral site.
We beat Florida.
We played Bama close despite a banged up team.
I don't think these last 2 losses tell us anything about the ceiling. We're not 100%. We may never get Kriisa back this season. But we can still be really good without him. We can't be really good without Carr.
We beat Duke on a neutral site.
We beat Florida.
We played Bama close despite a banged up team.
I don't think these last 2 losses tell us anything about the ceiling. We're not 100%. We may never get Kriisa back this season. But we can still be really good without him. We can't be really good without Carr.
If Carr is healthy, I think the S16 is about all we can hope for. Team isn’t consistent enough to string good games together, and that’s what you have to do in the tourney, especially beyond the first round.
Yeah. I’ve basically written Kerr off for the remainder of the season. Would love to be wrong. We desperately need a healthy Carr. We are really banged up, I agree. Hard to get a grasp on a ceiling with our current injuries.
Which, at least to me, is great for Pope's 1st season.
We haven't seen the 2nd weekend going back to 2019.
I think seeding needs to go out of peoples mind, Kentucky isn’t getting a top 4 seed(most likely) so just making the tourney should be the concern now
Ceiling with this team is a tourney win. I see way to man ifs from people in this thread that aren’t gonna happen. Carr isn’t gonna be healthy for the rest of the year, he has back issues, let’s be real. Kerr Krisa isn’t some messiah, he gets 3 ppg. He does help UK but let’s be honest about what he is.
It's hard to say with injuries. We have had injury issues a lot over the years and it's hurt our ceiling. It may so the same this year.
Some have us as a 4 seed now.
I get it's a quad 1 loss, but it's still a loss and since we don't blow teams out and our defense is so bad, our metrics are falling behind teams that are winning.
Even though the Michigan State's of the world are playing weak competition, they are winning and passing us.
Pope needs to stop the bleeding and that's not going to happen by getting cute and rolling the dice. Pulling Butler and Oweh at the same time and putting Noah, Chandler and Perry in the game at the same time is a really bad gamble that I hope never happens again.
Yeah, if we're relying on Kerr to be a savior, we're in deep dog poo.
Yup. Seeing us on a lot of 4 seeds this morning.
Win @ UT, and we're back on track. A 2 seed is still realistic and a 1 seed is in play. Lose our 3rd straight, and we're probably realistically looking at a 4/5 seed.
Yeah, that's what I'm seeing.
The discouraging thing for me is, I was hoping to see a team that was healthier, noticably improved and desperate after a full week off. What we saw, was the exact opposite and that stung a little bit.
Surely the team has an off day today and tomorrow is a travel day, so the odds of anything changing/improving, are slim to none.
Let's just hope our guys get locked in and we get a few of them that are hitting bombs at a crazy rate.
This team, along with about 20 other teams are capable of making a run to the Final Four or losing the first weekend. It’s all about getting hot and finding a groove at the right time. If we go into the post season healthy, we could make a run.
Would you consider it a failure if they don’t make it to the second weekend? Because I would, it means they probably lost to an underdog which to me is unacceptable. 1st year or 20th year doesn’t matter
Making the second weekend of the tournament (Sweet sixteen) would be a success, plain and simple, for this team this season. Even a single win in the NCAAT would be FAR more than anything CCC would've been able to deliver us.
Perspective. It helps.
When you consider how the season has played out so far, and IF we were to pickup some more key wins, hold onto the #3 seed I thought we could obtain in the pre-season, and ESPECIALLY considering this is the greatest season BY FAR the SEC has EVER fielded in the history of basketball for our conference, then I'd say, should we win a single game (or more) we have had a VERY successful season and that the future is very bright.
But some people around here really need to lighten up and cut out the pessimism and constant moaning and criticism.
Either that or submit your name as next Coach for the Cats. As for me ...
Trust in Coach Pope
Try to enjoy the journey, don't be a Debbie Downer, you basketball bennies ! (lol!)
... and above all ...
Keep the Faith !
Go Big Blue !
Perspective. It helps.
When you consider how the season has played out so far, and IF we were to pickup some more key wins, hold onto the #3 seed I thought we could obtain in the pre-season, and ESPECIALLY considering this is the greatest season BY FAR the SEC has EVER fielded in the history of basketball for our conference, then I'd say, should we win a single game (or more) we have had a VERY successful season and that the future is very bright.
But some people around here really need to lighten up and cut out the pessimism and constant moaning and criticism.
Either that or submit your name as next Coach for the Cats. As for me ...
Trust in Coach Pope
Try to enjoy the journey, don't be a Debbie Downer, you basketball bennies ! (lol!)
... and above all ...
Keep the Faith !
Go Big Blue !
We’re good, not great. This team was never a legit contender. They’ve proven they aren’t capable of consistently performing against good competition.
Age isn't the issue here. Continuing to not do the basic things, and going away from the system put in place by Pope early in the season, are coaching issues. Other teams that seem to be getting better are in fact shoring up these types of things.
Nah ! Then where would the fun be at here (lol!) ? !!!
It's just the predictable bitching, moaning and groaning by those that feel the need to vent frustration and express what they fear instead of being optimistic and taking things with a grain of salt. And it does get old after awhile. I took a page from my old man and chilled the F out after a couple decades of following this team.
But even I from time to time, still feel the need to vent my frustrations and I say things that make me one of that crowd when I do so. Just that yesterday certainly was no cause to do so. I've seen so much NUTS in miserable gym (being a nashville native and seen tons of games there, not just when kentucky played there)
So I come on here after having digested such losses as yesterday, trying to get a little optimism and positive vibe going (when possible) to counter all the insane BS people put out there.
Or maybe you would rather people like me wouldn't at least even TRY to come out here trying to make just a little sense when the deluge of irrational craziness ensues ? See how far negative vibes and attitude gets you, FYI, you end up like....
INDIANA BASKETBALL (lol)
Life is better and much more bearable with a positive attitude rather than ... well ... anything to the contrary.
Just a small and humble word of advice from my own personal experience in living it.
FWIW
I think if Carr is healthy, even without Kriisa, we could make a final four. I'd be happy with a Sweet 16 but once you get to that point, anything can happen. Don't think this team can win a title unless craziness ensues in the tourney (which is possible). I do think it's gonna depend a lot on matchups for us.
Nothing between a 2nd round loss and a final four appearance would really surprise me. If I was setting the Vegas over/under for our tournament wins it would probably be 1.5, with slightly better odds on the over
Nothing between a 2nd round loss and a final four appearance would really surprise me. If I was setting the Vegas over/under for our tournament wins it would probably be 1.5, with slightly better odds on the over
Similar threads
