Did we mismanaged the PG injury situation?

[AJG-15]

I think there is a consensus that the injuries have derailed our season. My question is could we have manage the injury situation better?
Pope and staff moved different players at PG position which forced to move other players and change rotations to the point where we had 3 freshman at the same time on the floor …. around until he ran out of options and time….

Yes, it was really bad luck was that after Kriisa went down, Butler had to play more minutes and went down and then Jr did the PG role until he went down. I don’t care if injuries happened in game or practice. When you play more minutes than you are used to or on a diffident position you become vulnerable.

Should we have been patient, let Butler heal , play Jr his normal position and maybe he would not get injured? Why not give minutes to Perry from the begging went the Kriisa went down and use him at PG and if if you want to give him a break got to PG by committee instead of forcing Jr at Pg and destroy all rotations?

Eventually, we had to use Perry at PG/ PG by committee option but only when Kriisa, Butler and Jr were injured and the rotations were completely destroyed.

I personally always thought the strategy of using the next man up, when the starter goes down, far superior , even if you that means you might be weaker at that one position until the sub learns the role, compared to moving players around, which weakens multiple positions and shows that you don’t trust the nexr player up in your ability to develop a player.

 

[ncaaky]

What the F@@k??
Robinson got hurt in a freak collision in practice. The amount of minutes he had player nor the position he was playing part of the time had absolutely NOTHING to do with his wrist being more vulnerable to an injury. But, whatever!!

 

[CGblue]

9-9 is the best we were going to do with all of the injuries, I'll take it.

 

[Digger-Cat]

A lot of teams play their main 5 guys 32+ minutes, our main guys probably play the least amount of minutes in the SEC.
Jaxson averaged maybe 30mpg. Butler is usually 31 or less, Williams usually plays less than 30, Oweh is around 32 and before Jaxson got injured, Brea was in the low 20's.
Brea played 38 minutes yesterday, I think that's the most anyone has seen this season, it's definitely not normal.
As was already stated, Jaxson got hurt in practice. Butler got hurt in the aTm game, which had nothing to do with playing too many minutes.

 

[wildcat_nation28]

What the F@@k??
Robinson got hurt in a freak collision in practice. The amount of minutes he had player nor the position he was playing part of the time had absolutely NOTHING to do with his wrist being more vulnerable to an injury. But, whatever!!

cause some people on here thinks since Perry is a Kentucky home grown he should play right away but I'm not sure if he is any better than Askew was and we know how that turned out

 

[AJG-15]

What the F@@k??
Robinson got hurt in a freak collision in practice. The amount of minutes he had player nor the position he was playing part of the time had absolutely NOTHING to do with his wrist being more vulnerable to an injury. But, whatever!!

What position was he playing when he got injured in practice? When you are the PG and main ball handler you are the target voluntarily in a game or friendly fire in practice for more collisions and contact and when you collaborate that with the amount of energy it takes to play PG , plus the mental focus….

There were multiple interviews where JR complained about having to play PG. those are small things just like moving pieces around and destroying rotations that make difference in a season.

Did we rush players back in before they were ready? Carr, Butler ? Jr season was over and he probable should have been shut down from the first practice injury.

Regardless, this post was not an attack on Pope, just a discussion between fans that love their team.
Even, the real Pope does occasionally makes mistakes, I am sure our coach would be first to admit he is making mistakes too.

 

[ncaaky]

What position was he playing when he got injured in practice? When you are the PG and main ball handler you are the target voluntarily in a game or friendly fire in practice for more collisions and contact and when you collaborate that with the amount of energy it takes to play PG , plus the mental focus….

There were multiple interviews where JR complained about having to play PG. those are small things just like moving pieces around and destroying rotations that make difference in a season.

Hopefully, Pope learns from this .

He complained about it because he wasn’t very good at it and really wasn’t a good ball handler.

I guess Pope should not have the players practice by your theories. Who knows and who cares what position Robinson was playing or what the circumstances were when he had the collision in practice. It was a freak injury just as most are. It has nothing to do with how Pope managed the team nor the injuries.

 

[AJG-15]

My original question is if we mismanaged the injuries situation….are we happy with the rotation?

 

[AJG-15]

Chances are if you play out of position and more minutes that you don’t perform at your highest level and you also expose for injuries. If you played basketball and at Pg you will know what I am at talking about…

 

[westerncat]

My original question is if we mismanaged the injuries situation….are we happy with the rotation?

Pope and the staff are doing the best they can. No one knew that both of our PG's were going to get hurt. I think Pope and the staff managed the situation the best they knew how.

 

[BarefootBeach]

What position was he playing when he got injured in practice? When you are the PG and main ball handler you are the target voluntarily in a game or friendly fire in practice for more collisions and contact and when you collaborate that with the amount of energy it takes to play PG , plus the mental focus….

There were multiple interviews where JR complained about having to play PG. those are small things just like moving pieces around and destroying rotations that make difference in a season.

Did we rush players back in before they were ready? Carr, Butler ? Jr season was over and he probable should have been shut down from the first practice injury.

Regardless, this post was not an attack on Pope, just a discussion between fans that love their team.
Even, the real Pope does occasionally makes mistakes, I am sure our coach would be first to admit he is making mistakes too.

Yeah, I'm sure you would have handled things better 😉

 

[JohnnyGreen1975]

What the F@@k??
Robinson got hurt in a freak collision in practice. The amount of minutes he had player nor the position he was playing part of the time had absolutely NOTHING to do with his wrist being more vulnerable to an injury. But, whatever!!

Agree. Not sure what planet the OP is on where injuries fit into mismanagement.

 

[TeoJ]

Kerr went down trying to chase down fast break after a turn over,it happens.

 

[AJG-15]

Yeah, I'm sure you would have handled things bet

Yeah, I'm sure you would have handled things better 😉

I am not paid $5.5 millions a year to find the best solution.

 

[billoliver40]

My original question is if we mismanaged the injuries situation….are we happy with the rotation?

We had three players that had experience at point and all three were injured. That’s pretty freakish. The staff had to do with what they had. Not real sure that this was able to be managed in any way.

As for being happy with the rotation, I haven’t seen viable options. None our frosh are point guards, and the one physically able to be hasn’t played organized basketball for two years.

 

[fatguy87]

No

 

[GoAndRunIsGoneAndDone]

Injuries were all Trumps fault! Lol! Makes as much sense as some of the other posts. Gimme a break! Poor choice of words.

 

[SkyPrince1]

I am not paid $5.5 millions a year to find the best solution.

Just a huge overreaction to a loss.
Just accept the ass kicking and move on.
No need to dwell on wild theories of how things could have been different.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

My original question is if we mismanaged the injuries situation….are we happy with the rotation?

The rotation is the issue imo. The mass subs early kill us. I don't understand it.

 

[SemperFiCat]

The rotation is the issue imo. The mass subs early kill us. I don't understand it.

The only thing I can think of is that Pope knows he needs a bit of magic to win some of these games, and he's looking for a hot hand early. Could be a reach, but it's the only decent reason my mind can come up with.

 

[UKSanders]

Chances are if you play out of position and more minutes that you don’t perform at your highest level and you also expose for injuries. If you played basketball and at Pg you will know what I am at talking about…

I get what you are asking, but I think the question (I think Pope and staff approachd it this way)... which lineup/rotation gives the best chance to win (below doesn't even count the fact that Carr was out some during this time, too)?

PG: JR/Perry
SG: Oweh/Brea/Chandler
SF: Brea/Noah
PF: Carr/Almonor
C: Amari/BG

Bench: Perry,Noah, Almonor, Chandler

vs

PG: Perry/JR
SG: Oweh/Brea/Chandler
SF: JR/Brea/Noah
PF: Carr/Almonor
C: Amari, BG

I think the staff tried to balance those two groupings when they could. Ultimately, I think Pope had the experience of JR running PG, and he trusted that more than an inexperience high school SG Perry learning to play PG.

Plus, I think for defense/rebounding, JR/Oweh/Brea is better on the perimeter than Perry/Oweh/JR.

The injuries absolutely stink, and they have definitely lowered both the ceiling/floors for this team.

Would the staff probably question some of their decisions about lineups, etc? Absolutely.
Should they have foreseen how to do it differently on the front end? I don't know how they could've.

Sorry for the novel, but OP, if you really wanted legit discussion, I didn't want to leave a quick "sound bite" kind of post.

 

[bucsrule8872]

I feel that Pope did the best he could in an impossible situation. Down 3-4 players for most of conference play. We are lucky to have a chance at a .500 record in conference play.

 

[BarefootBeach]

I am not paid $5.5 millions a year to find the best solution.

Pope can sit at a table and talk basketball specifics and you'd cry uncle within three minutes. Is it okay if I take his judgement over yours?

 

[CRZ4UK]

I get what you are asking, but I think the question (I think Pope and staff approachd it this way)... which lineup/rotation gives the best chance to win (below doesn't even count the fact that Carr was out some during this time, too)?

PG: JR/Perry
SG: Oweh/Brea/Chandler
SF: Brea/Noah
PF: Carr/Almonor
C: Amari/BG

Bench: Perry,Noah, Almonor, Chandler

vs

PG: Perry/JR
SG: Oweh/Brea/Chandler
SF: JR/Brea/Noah
PF: Carr/Almonor
C: Amari, BG

I think the staff tried to balance those two groupings when they could. Ultimately, I think Pope had the experience of JR running PG, and he trusted that more than an inexperience high school SG Perry learning to play PG.

Plus, I think for defense/rebounding, JR/Oweh/Brea is better on the perimeter than Perry/Oweh/JR.

The injuries absolutely stink, and they have definitely lowered both the ceiling/floors for this team.

Would the staff probably question some of their decisions about lineups, etc? Absolutely.
Should they have foreseen how to do it differently on the front end? I don't know how they could've.

Sorry for the novel, but OP, if you really wanted legit discussion, I didn't want to leave a quick "sound bite" kind of post.

I just couldn’t imagine what teams would do if we had plugged Perry in at PG and had him running 30 minutes. Teams would have completely spread the floor on over 50% of the possessions and took Perry off the dribble.
Every team attacks Perry and Chandler as soon as they come in.

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

He has limited options due to all the injuries. Carr's back preludes playing extra minutes Garrison is inconsistent and will not rebound Almanor is serviceable but a defensive liability. Perry can't guard a fence post, and Noah shows promise but some nights doesn't score at all. I don't see alot of options to "manage" here

 

[TFCats11]

I’m not sure “mismanaged” is the word I’d use when your veteran backup PG goes out with a recoverable injury, but decides he’s finished playing CBB for UK once the NIL has been paid.

But, you do you 👍🏼

 

[runt#69]

You'd really be nitpicking if you come to a conclusion that Coach Pope and staff have mismanaged things with what they had to deal with. So no, short and easy answer. In fact, they've exceeded doing well, considering everything, in my book.

We could've lost more games with the players that were out, and not even had as many big wins that offset the losses. So from my perspective, Pope has done an admirable job, the toughest job in the country.

I'll keep my trust with him.

 

[chroix]

No. Perry wasn’t ready to shoulder that load and if we don’t play Jax at PG we lose the UT games and a few others and are a bubble team most likely.

 

[bnewt]

these are kids and should be able to play 30-35 minutes with all of the time outs.
if they can't, then they are out of condition
they play 2 games a week, plenty of time to rest between games

 

[FtWorthCat]

It seems we have 10 pretty healthy players now. Moving forward, I think the minutes breakdown should be something like this:

PG-Butler 30 Perry 10
SG-Oweh 32 Chandler 8
SF-Brea 30 Noah 10
PF-Carr 30 Almonor 10
C-Williams 26 Garrison 14