ADVERTISEMENT

Coach Pope Coaches show

Scouting: how much info do you give your players?

Pope played with Larry Bird for two years with the Pacers....

Pitino...in a timeout, when you were still on the court coach would start yelling instructions for the entire two minutes, incredibly emotional, still giving you instructions while you were walking back onto the court.

with Larry Bird, his first timeout, Coach Bird just sat down and we sat there for two minutes, kind of drank some water.........he didn't have a lot to say.

Ten seconds before the horn sounded he would say one thing. Example they will blitz our first ball screen and so we are playing short ball seam. And invariably he was right.

So Pope thinks the best coaches can distill the whole game down to the most ciritical focal point.


...Pitino was essentially communicating that too wit fierce emotion as a distilled background to all that emotion


(What a ******g genius. I'll calm down eventually. maybe)
 
Late game fouling?

They studied all the data hard. It comes out super neutral. Doesn't seem to matter.

But they do think about who's gonna be handling the ball, who guarding the ball, take all the situational varibales into account and pray and make a decision based on that.

Tom: How did you come to this level use of analytics.

Pope: I'm just now very smart.

(Hahah. Actually Pitino was insane with the data analytics all the way from Providence. I'm sure that's where he got it)

But anyway, ANY situation or problem they have Pope just said they will go to analytics for it. It's hard because when you take a very deep dive in college on something there's just not a lot of data available. So there's an art to deciding which numbers you will put faith in. Also more dynamic players, where in college a first-month player plays diffrerent than a third month player, but you lose sample size even more if you throw out younger player data......
 
How did Pitino influence you?

The most demanding person I've ever been around. In the message of him being relentlessly demanding, there was an unspoken subtext of "he must believe I can do it"

In that sense he grew us through this unwaning belief that we had something more inside of each of us and as a team, and in that sense he really changed me

He has this fearlessness around him. It doesn't matter if the whole world is fallying down around hijm, he will tell you it is sunny outside and you will believe it. Ignore the voices on the outside and the voices on the inside matter more. Takes every team he coaches on a journey.
 
Final segment.

Question: How are the conversations with players going, returning players and recruit.

Pope: it's so fun. The best part of recruiting is getting with the kids. Helping guys understand what they really want. We will be the best team we can possibly be if we don't trick kids, get kids who will live and die wearing a Kentucky uniform. The job is not to convince. The job is to build relationships.

Is your phone blowing up because suddently there are openings at Kentucky that weren't there before.

Yes!! phone is blowing up. So fun.

Question: When vetting potential players, are there analytics you look at?

Yes, we actually start with the numbers, very much like the NBA. And that includes dimensions. Numbers can bring things to the forefront you may not have considered.

Quesiton: How much joy and pride would Bill Keightly have had to see you in this chair?

Pope: I guarantee you he would love this and I guarantee tears would have been streaming down. He was a crier. Loved Kentucky basketball as much as many person who ever lived and I suspect he IS excited for what will happen.

Question: how about your teammates now: They are super excited with expectations, and also excited that they get to crush him if he doesn't win.
 
I think next years roster might be the least talented roster in a long time. Not sure how it’s gonna be cobbled together at this point. It’s one thing if they need 3-4 guys. Another thing when you need 10.
Well you always paint the worst possible picture when it comes to UK (both Football and Basketball) so this is not surprising from you. At least we'll never be Iowa. Ever.
 
Final segment.

Question: How are the conversations with players going, returning players and recruit.

Pope: it's so fun. The best part of recruiting is getting with the kids. Helping guys understand what they really want. We will be the best team we can possibly be if we don't trick kids, get kids who will live and die wearing a Kentucky uniform. The job is not to convince. The job is to build relationships.

Is your phone blowing up because suddently there are openings at Kentucky that weren't there before.

Yes!! phone is blowing up. So fun.

Question: When vetting potential players, are there analytics you look at?

Yes, we actually start with the numbers, very much like the NBA. And that includes dimensions. Numbers can bring things to the forefront you may not have considered.

Quesiton: How much joy and pride would Bill Keightly have had to see you in this chair?

Pope: I guarantee you he would love this and I guarantee tears would have been streaming down. He was a crier. Loved Kentucky basketball as much as many person who ever lived and I suspect he IS excited for what will happen.

Question: how about your teammates now: They are super excited with expectations, and also excited that they get to crush him if he doesn't win.
You are the best transcriptionist ever! Killed it
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT