But really, what does being a top 5 draft pick mean to winning CBB games? Maybe it means a player has really produced at a high level in college, or maybe (most likely?) in regard to a freshman it just means he has a lot of perceived "talent" and therefore upside. The NBA already has plenty of good players, which is what most of the best CBB players (i.e., upperclassmen) are, right? So, gambling that a freshman will become a super-star isn't such a risky move in that sense.
Did Pope stumble into the best route to win?
- Thread starter Louis_Skunt
- Start date
Pope knew most of our players before he was hired. He has already shown excellence in picking the right players for a solid roster.
I believe he will be ahead of most programs going forward with the transfer portal and returning players.
This team is much better than the squad that lost to Ohio St. Kentucky is one of the very few teams good enough to go into Tuscaloosa and hold a lead despite missing 2 starters.
Pope has done an A+ job.
I believe he will be ahead of most programs going forward with the transfer portal and returning players.
This team is much better than the squad that lost to Ohio St. Kentucky is one of the very few teams good enough to go into Tuscaloosa and hold a lead despite missing 2 starters.
Pope has done an A+ job.
I think we are forgetting we lost to Clemson...got hammered by Ohio St at full strength.
Early UGA and Vandy losses...Butler and Robinson were there for those games.
To be fair, some of the shine was coming off this team before Butler and Robinson got hurt....now it has just escalated without them.
UK still needs to upgrade the athleticism and defense/rebounding in particular...long before the bad injuries started to hit.
Seems like you might be the one who is a bit forgetful...Forgetting wins over Duke on a neutral court, Gonzaga in Seattle, over Louisville and Florida, and Texas A&M, and Mississippi State on the road, and home and away over Tennessee -- with some of those wins minus key players.
Considering Pope started assembling a team with ZERO players in late April, the wins are far more indicative that the formula works than the losses are indicative that it doesn't.
Pitino says he is not going to recruit freshmen any more, and if you look, several teams use the portal to fill needs instead of recruiting freshmen.
Pope has been open, transparent and informative of not only his thinking process, but in being open about the entire " team construction "process, which is in and of itself, another philosophical change in blueprints from former thinking. His analytical approach and I think "gut feeling" in putting this team together was sheer brilliance, imho.
So, to answer an open ended question like that " did he stumble into (anything) .... " is a resounding NO.
I cannot, for the life of me, get over how this season "started" in my mind ... how did it actually start ?
1) Cal gets big money offer for the HOGS and chickens out from Kentucky....
2) Barnhart makes the bold move to get Pope amongst fears from many corners of BBN...
3) Pope puts a patchwork team together in short order that is looked at under the microscope and starts the season
#23 in the country.
4) The team plays very well together and defeats dUKe, Gonzaga, Louisville in the pre-season schedule ...
5) Hangs tough through injuries and players out when SEC play starts and holds up in the face of big odds ....
wins big with all the issues against Texas A&M, Miss. St. twice against the Vols and beats Florida, good for any team this year no matter who you are when you add that to the earlier victories ...
6) And Kentucky teams have to learn what it's like to lose on the road in the SEC with brutal physical play, horridly officiated away sites while watching the opponents and fans enjoy another circus like atmosphere - the one they DON'T throw out for anyone else in the SEC ... a given in any year, but tough to learn if you have never been through it before. This team hadn't.
and we still got 4 more games and two more super-bowl atmosphere parties to play in, another one tonight in Norman - will the league give the officiating crews enough leeway to help us out on the road to make sure we don't have any more bad losses, or are they trying to get another SEC team invited ? ( we know the answer to that one)
that's pretty much my summation.
And Pope stumbled into NADA from the get-go. He had a vision, it works and when 100% healthy, imagine what this team might've been like had NOBODY been injured from the start ? Well, woulda coulda shoulda, but he didn't stumble into nothing.
He's doing a hellofa great job in my estimation of :
holding things together amid the possible pitfalls so far .. and got us and this team in good shape if we can get into March will a full lineup.
The only questions I am thinking about is : Has all this just "had to have happened" in just the way it has and the ending, the ultimate ending be something GREAT and ASTOUNDINGLY awesome ? Or a huge letdown from here on out ... or make the tourney and get at least the ONE win we all asked for from the beginning - even though most of us insisted to set that bar at making the sweet sixteen ?
Winning one tournament game and ONLY one will be seen as a letdown regardless, now that this team has done this much and come so far is my take.
Maybe necessity has been the mother of Pope's success on the fly this year, if anything. It's been a trial by fire and he has held up quite admirably so. Love my coach. Love my team. I'm with them till' the end.
Go Big Blue !
So, to answer an open ended question like that " did he stumble into (anything) .... " is a resounding NO.
I cannot, for the life of me, get over how this season "started" in my mind ... how did it actually start ?
1) Cal gets big money offer for the HOGS and chickens out from Kentucky....
2) Barnhart makes the bold move to get Pope amongst fears from many corners of BBN...
3) Pope puts a patchwork team together in short order that is looked at under the microscope and starts the season
#23 in the country.
4) The team plays very well together and defeats dUKe, Gonzaga, Louisville in the pre-season schedule ...
5) Hangs tough through injuries and players out when SEC play starts and holds up in the face of big odds ....
wins big with all the issues against Texas A&M, Miss. St. twice against the Vols and beats Florida, good for any team this year no matter who you are when you add that to the earlier victories ...
6) And Kentucky teams have to learn what it's like to lose on the road in the SEC with brutal physical play, horridly officiated away sites while watching the opponents and fans enjoy another circus like atmosphere - the one they DON'T throw out for anyone else in the SEC ... a given in any year, but tough to learn if you have never been through it before. This team hadn't.
and we still got 4 more games and two more super-bowl atmosphere parties to play in, another one tonight in Norman - will the league give the officiating crews enough leeway to help us out on the road to make sure we don't have any more bad losses, or are they trying to get another SEC team invited ? ( we know the answer to that one)
that's pretty much my summation.
And Pope stumbled into NADA from the get-go. He had a vision, it works and when 100% healthy, imagine what this team might've been like had NOBODY been injured from the start ? Well, woulda coulda shoulda, but he didn't stumble into nothing.
He's doing a hellofa great job in my estimation of :
holding things together amid the possible pitfalls so far .. and got us and this team in good shape if we can get into March will a full lineup.
The only questions I am thinking about is : Has all this just "had to have happened" in just the way it has and the ending, the ultimate ending be something GREAT and ASTOUNDINGLY awesome ? Or a huge letdown from here on out ... or make the tourney and get at least the ONE win we all asked for from the beginning - even though most of us insisted to set that bar at making the sweet sixteen ?
Winning one tournament game and ONLY one will be seen as a letdown regardless, now that this team has done this much and come so far is my take.
Maybe necessity has been the mother of Pope's success on the fly this year, if anything. It's been a trial by fire and he has held up quite admirably so. Love my coach. Love my team. I'm with them till' the end.
Go Big Blue !
The formula is getting a couple of guys who stay in the program multiple years, a stud freshman or 2, and using the portal to fill out other holes in the roster
