For the Basketball Bennies out there...
- Thread starter sambowieshin
- Start date
I consider myself pretty smart and I LOVE having a coach that is smarter than me; I don't have to question anything because Pope's IQ and coaching knowledge is as good as it gets. I absolutely cannot say the same things about our football coach who seems like one of the football players I tutored in school.
I think you’re wrong. Dook was gassed at the end. Having a longer bench will likely reduce in game fatigue as well as injury probability. Bench can always be shortened later.
I think you’re wrong. Dook was gassed at the end. Having a longer bench will likely reduce in game fatigue as well as injury probability. Bench can always be shortened later
geez, maybe they shouldn’t take shots because they might miss or play defense because they might foul. I can only wonder how the fan base might respond if those things happen.
Rebounding
They need to slow down at times..they got a little out of control there a few times.
Running williams at the top of the key is kinda weird, especially if rebounding is a focus, but ill go with it
They need to slow down at times..they got a little out of control there a few times.
Running williams at the top of the key is kinda weird, especially if rebounding is a focus, but ill go with it
Coach Cal has always trusted in the superior athleticism of his players instead of coaching acumen. If his players can make their shots and defend one on one, his teams did pretty well. If the team had struggles in certain areas, they usually kept those throughout the season. Just last season, it was our defensive struggles all season. In the end, defense killed us. If he needed to scheme something for the team to win, either offensively or defensively, we were usually in trouble. The year we won the title, you had 2 NBA types who returned (because of an NBA lockout) and a generational talent in Anthony Davis. His talent was head and shoulders better than anyone else in the country.
As for Mark Pope, what I've seen so far from him is that he's a very cerebral coach. He's had to teach players how to play smarter than others because his teams haven't had the same talent as many others. He's big on analytics and he will adjust things as needed mid-game. His players will rarely get caught unprepared because of the way he coaches them. He's the kind of coach who rarely loses games when talent is similar, almost always wins games when he has an edge in talent, and often finds ways to win even when his talent isn't as good. We just saw that against Duke.
As for Mark Pope, what I've seen so far from him is that he's a very cerebral coach. He's had to teach players how to play smarter than others because his teams haven't had the same talent as many others. He's big on analytics and he will adjust things as needed mid-game. His players will rarely get caught unprepared because of the way he coaches them. He's the kind of coach who rarely loses games when talent is similar, almost always wins games when he has an edge in talent, and often finds ways to win even when his talent isn't as good. We just saw that against Duke.
Any athletic director would love to go home one night thinking, "Gee, I have all the pieces in place to have the makings of a potential dynasty." In Pope, we have a key ingredient to success: uncommonly high intelligence being our first piece here. He is also a person of great character and integrity, a person whose mind allows him to know easily good from bad, right from wrong, and whose ego, what there is of it, will not directly hinder or even block pathways to winning, like someone else we know. He has played at the highest levels of basketball, won a championship, and can relate well to kids of this generation. The mission is winning, and he gets that. The staff is recruiting great kids and their first class is by all accounts an exceptional one. I could go on.
I do think he has quickly and amazingly with great clarity proven that he potentially can have a dynasty here. We might all agree, that if one can happen at all, the potential for one here is extremely high. A dynasty is difficult in any sport, but look at the ones that have been done in the history of sport and you will see the pattern there is the same blueprint that we are seeing here. We should all be highly encouraged about the bright future of this program.
PS -- I love Cameron Mills. He is my kind of guy. I loved seeing him excel at UK as a better than contributing walk-on player. I enjoy now his insights and his commentary. However, he recently mentioned that in the context of it being the third game of the year, the Duke game really meant very little in the course of this season and there was little riding on the outcome. I am paraphrasing what he said, and may in fact not be totally accurate in my interpretation of his comments, but the gist was that the outcome of the Duke game had little consequence to anything that really mattered, i.e., not a tournament game, not a conference game etc. I understand what he's saying, but in playing arch rival Duke, there will always be lots riding on the outcome of that game. First, winning any game means a lot is riding on that particular game -- it is of exceedinly high importance that we maintain our overall wins total more than Kansas or anyone else. It is always important to beat Duke or any other top program. It is super important for Coach Pope and his new team to send a "shot across the bow" of college basketball and the national media that changes were made at Kentucky but we are the same, number one college program as ever before. It is vitally important that the amazing decades-long success of this program we all cherish and love is kept at the highest standards possible, and winning does that better than anything else.
