Good lord we're an entitled bunch.

[B.B.H.]

People accuse those who are realists or hyper-negative of being trolls, but it’s the dudes that post junk like OP that I think are most likely trolls. When you’re ho-hum about losses like this, you either aren’t a real fan or you’re really dense.

No, being upset about a loss is one thing. I think BBN as a whole is beyond upset. But some people…like you as the greatest example….literally do not post anything at all, other than completely trashing the coach and the players. That kind of toxicity does seem to affect teams —- BBN is both a blessing and a curse. We support like no other, traveling across the country to cheer for our squad but as soon as any imperfection appears, we begin trashing every single player to the point that it is disgusting (idk how about every single Amari Williams post you make or Kerr Kriisa for example). Blame the coach without exception, not even allowing any attempt to understand the “why” for anything. Yeah, some of it is fan behavior, some of it, frankly, isn’t.

 

[stuway]

Horrible game. If you told me we would be 10-2 going into Jan before the season, I'd gladly take that record. Let's hope Pope figures out why we are trending downward. He is smart, smart people tend to figure things out. I have faith. Plus year one of a total rebuild, I'm giving him a pass this year regardless.

 

[acatnamedmyra]

Lol, takes like these are asinine. Just as bad as someone telling everyone to shut the program down. We got beat by 20 to a team that has lost by 40 and 28. If that doesn't piss you off, it's safe to say that nothing UK basketball related ever will.

Did you watch the frigging game. Ohio State simply could NOT miss. We close to six, more than once. Put up excellent defense and they make a falling away desperate 14 footer anyway. You sometimes just can’t beat that. Everyone relax!!!

 

[GermantownDawg]

My friends. Y’all need to calm down lol. Please maintain perspective. This is Pope’s FIRST YEAR. There are going to be head scratchers. Y’all have had some great wins already and will have more. Y’all will also lose more games. That’s part of it. Don’t extrapolate too much from one game. The only thing that matters is you’re CAPABLE of beating any team in the country. Takes a while for a new culture to settle in. Don’t be overly reactionary.

 

[Skyguyb27]

They got beat by 20 by a team that may be NIT bound. Shooting has been trending down. The “bigs” are soft and there are some dudes in the SEC that are going to do their best to push them around. Lack of effort in a MSG game is mind blowing.

I’m not saying the sky is falling but there are some definite issues that better get fixed quickly. The issue is, do we have the pieces to fix it?

Max effort can hide a lot of the deficiencies we are seeing. In fact I’d say max effort and killer instinct makes this a lethal team. The problem is I think a lot of these guys may be tooooo chill.

 

[cmallory4121]

It’s not simply a bad game. It’s a roster full of dudes that won’t even play in the G-League. And our coach was good enough to overcome his roster limitations against Gonzaga and Duke. This team will lose a lot of games in SEC play. Not because they have bad games - but because they’re outmatched.

What did expect for a coach hired in April with no players on his roster?

 

[RondoBaller21]

everyone needs to calm down about this year. He barely had a month to put the roster together yet he beat Gonzaga, Louisville and Duke in his first year. It was never expected to be a championship team his first year. The good thing is that he looks like he can recruit and is bringing in a good class next year. Anything he does this year is gravy.

 

[SmokinGun9]

Entitled? Hardly. What rock you been under the last 8 years? Troubling on many levels. We got asswhippin by a bunch of jobbers. Collective team egg laying, no life, no sense of urgency. I don’t expect this from a group of mature players. Just when we think we have a leader, we had no leadership. Yea they shot well but that was mainly due to no defense from us. So, entitled? Absolutely not. Now we are left to gargle with this shit sandwich through the holidays.

 

[L.O.D.]

It's called being a UK fan.. Unreal expectations , you're a king when you win a morherless goat when you lose. It's just how it is.

Love the virtue signaling tho

 

[LineSkiCat14]

It was a bad game. Every team has them. Get over it for f's sake.

I believe I tried to warn you about the UofL game and how we were playing , so in regards to thinking this is no big deal, let me throw that same gif back at yah..

I remember thinking how pretentious and cocky your take was, but I also figured we'd probably be fine against UofL IF Butler played (and he did).. yet we still didn't look that great, and yes, we lose to UofL if not for Butler.

Time to wise up and realize this team only goes as far as Pope's offense can take it, and hope that he can mask their lack of talent.

 

[jrpross]

This place is the sorriest Azz place on the internet.
Kentucky wins the board cries.
Kentucky losses the board says last place in the SEC.
Problem is you can't tell who is actually a fan and who is a troll.
Well some trolls are easy to spot. They know they are free to post here without fear of being banned.
I've never posted a single message on a non UK board. But I hear most UK fans that do are immediately banned.

It’s why I avoid the board for a couple days after a game. I’m as irritated as anyone but it’s not even worth wading through the crap looking for an intelligent discussion for at least 48 hours after a loss.

 

[Myth Buster51]

I thought the drama-queen segment of RR’s was summed up pretty well in a post shortly following the Clemson loss:

“Well sir if you’re gonna be a UK fan you have to realize that a large portion of our fanbase are absolute dumbasses with the emotional maturity of a 7 year old girl who just got embarrassed by their parents in front of a boy they like.

It’s been this way long before the advent of the internet. 😜

 

[Blue wood]

Entitled? Hardly. What rock you been under the last 8 years? Troubling on many levels. We got asswhippin by a bunch of jobbers. Collective team egg laying, no life, no sense of urgency. I don’t expect this from a group of mature players. Just when we think we have a leader, we had no leadership. Yea they shot well but that was mainly due to no defense from us. So, entitled? Absolutely not. Now we are left to gargle with this shit sandwich through the holidays.

You need a therapist, the dude put a team together in no time and your freaking out this year? Yep, that's entiltled

 

[Kybluedude]

It’s why I avoid the board for a couple days after a game. I’m as irritated as anyone but it’s not even worth wading through the crap looking for an intelligent discussion for at least 48 hours after a loss.

True.

Bunch on here are with UK win or win!
Didn’t play any higher level ball than pre wee but became experts watching from their couch.

There are ups and downs in seasons. I thought a 500 season was coming. Reestablish a defined system of play and make it as enjoyable as possible with all transfers. Recruit for the future and care about UK. Getting that in bunches.

 

[warrior-cat]

Started reading some of the post and then just quit. Now, I realize defense and other factors play a role in shooting percentages but us shooting 29.8% from the field and them shooting just above 56% is a big deal. It was an off-shooting night pure and simple to me. Most good teams hit a bump in the road from time to time and it is still too early to right this one off especially with victories over Duke and Gonzaga.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Started reading some of the post and then just quit. Now, I realize defense and other factors play a role in shooting percentages but us shooting 29.8% from the field and them shooting just above 56% is a big deal. It was an off-shooting night pure and simple to me. Most good teams hit a bump in the road from time to time and it is still too early to right this one off especially with victories over Duke and Gonzaga.

The problem is, our shooting has derailed, especially our 3pt shooting. So is that a slump? Or is it worse, our opponents have been able to figure out Pope and our players, after a nice start where no one really had tape on us.

I mean the whole team looks worse. This doesn't feel like just an isolated loss.

The good news is, this is where Pope can excel. Who knows what he's planning now, but im sure he's going to make changes, hard practices, etc. So that I'm not worried about. But the personnel? Yeah I think we have some issues. And that Duke win is also seemingly more and more of a fluke. If we played today they might win by 25.

 

[B.B.H.]

The problem is, our shooting has derailed, especially our 3pt shooting. So is that a slump? Or is it worse, our opponents have been able to figure out Pope and our players, after a nice start where no one really had tape on us.

I mean the whole team looks worse. This doesn't feel like just an isolated loss.

The good news is, this is where Pope can excel. Who knows what he's planning now, but im sure he's going to make changes, hard practices, etc. So that I'm not worried about. But the personnel? Yeah I think we have some issues. And that Duke win is also seemingly more and more of a fluke. If we played today they might win by 25.

You can only cover up a talent deficiency to an extent with coaching. I lean toward the quality of looks being much lower at this point because teams can gameplan us. There is more film. Every guy I can give you a few word scouting suggestion for hindering our offense.

Butler - Sag off
Oweh - Sag off, Wall up and help on drives
Robinson - Smother, get physical
Carr - Go under, sag, get physical, stay vertical, stay two feet on pump fake
Williams - Force weak hand, sag off, no help
Brea - Smother, go over, no space, force drive
Garrison - Sag off, no help
Almonor - Smother, force drive
Chandler- Sag off, no help

 

[The_Answer1313]

It looks like a team that doesn't really have an identity.

There's some things this team does well. And overall, it's a good team that can have a good season (I don't know about title contenders).

But we came into the season and was told this team was going to shoot a ton of threes and supposedly we had guys that were going to make them.

But we haven't really done that both in % and in volume. Brea is the only reliable option but he struggles to create his own shot. We don't take a ton of threes relevant to the normal avg D1 team.

I'm just not sure at this point exactly what this team is.

 

[The_Answer1313]

Sidenote if we had Brea on last year's team, I think he would have had a field day out there.

 

[B.B.H.]

Hopefully, as a fanbase, we learn you don’t always have to throw the baby out with the bath water. Did we get sick of Cal? Absolutely. Did Cal almost exclusively bring in elite talent that had skill deficiencies? Absolutely. We now have excellent coaching acumen and a modern system, but now have the talent deficiency until next year. A few months ago, if you said something like “Man, I’m excited about this team but worry we don’t have enough elite talent”, some of our fans would bury you hardcore. We need both, great system and great players —- soon, we will have both and I believe fear will be restored to the program’s opponents.

 

[The_Answer1313]

At the end of the day, that's what is really doing to define the Pope era here.

Most feel we have a good X and O guy. The question will be when he has the opportunity to, if we can bring in enough talent to go along with the good coaching.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

At the end of the day, that's what is really doing to define the Pope era here.

Most feel we have a good X and O guy. The question will be when he has the opportunity to, if we can bring in enough talent to go along with the good coaching.

Im not worried about the talent really, I think his system, plus the NIL and the Blue Blood factor will help with recruits. We already have a top 5ish class for next year, so I think we're good there.

But what does worry me is if he's too nice and maybe too much of a players coach to be at this level of program. What weve seen so far is a team that continues to be ill-prepared and not ready for games. And Pope seems almost a little too even-keeled.

What i want to see next is brutal practice reports, and I want to see some hard roster choices. No one's playing time should be safe. How this team responds will tell us a lot about Pope. But everything else he has done has been exceptional in my opinion.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

My friends. Y’all need to calm down lol. Please maintain perspective. This is Pope’s FIRST YEAR. There are going to be head scratchers. Y’all have had some great wins already and will have more. Y’all will also lose more games. That’s part of it. Don’t extrapolate too much from one game. The only thing that matters is you’re CAPABLE of beating any team in the country. Takes a while for a new culture to settle in. Don’t be overly reactionary.

Most of these guys aren't even UK fans and the one's that are crave attention and know they'll get it be acting like idiots after every loss. Fake outrage, etc.

 

[warrior-cat]

The problem is, our shooting has derailed, especially our 3pt shooting. So is that a slump? Or is it worse, our opponents have been able to figure out Pope and our players, after a nice start where no one really had tape on us.

I mean the whole team looks worse. This doesn't feel like just an isolated loss.

The good news is, this is where Pope can excel. Who knows what he's planning now, but im sure he's going to make changes, hard practices, etc. So that I'm not worried about. But the personnel? Yeah I think we have some issues. And that Duke win is also seemingly more and more of a fluke. If we played today they might win by 25.

Yes, we seem to have fallen off shooting wise a bit but that is to be expected as we play tougher teams with better defenses as we have but, Ohio St. was scrappy, and we were way off of our normal shooting %. Couple those together and you have a formula for what happened. I think we will struggle with some teams who are faster with more athleticism but will learn from it and improve.

 

[Digger-Cat]

I keep seeing comments about the lack of talent, like we don't already know about it. Trust me, we all get it.
But this team already told on itself. They played hard earlier in the season, still had a couple of guys playing lazy, but others made up for it.
But what we saw Saturday was a bunch of guys that mailed it in and guys that aren't giving 100% and that's why we lost.
I'm okay with losing, but, I'm not okay with dogshit effort and I think most will agree.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

I feel like fans get more upset with how we lost rather than just the loss itself. I’m confident Pope will have the guys working harder than ever before.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Despite having been a UK fan since the 70’s, it’s been more than a minute since I last let my happiness be dictated by the unpredictable peculiarities of college athletes that I’ve never personally met. It’s just a game, regardless of how much we all sometimes are tempted to convince ourselves to the contrary. It’s been nearly 50 years since a men’s college team went undefeated - the overwhelming odds say UK will lose games EVERY SEASON. I’m among those who were fortunate enough to have my college education paid for thanks to basketball, but my life doesn’t revolve around how hard a young man played in the last game a few days ago, or whether the Cats came out on the short end of the box score.

God Bless the Kentucky Derby, Cawood Ledford and these United States. Merry Christmas 🎄

I agree with all that, but we are all fans and competitors, if we weren't, we wouldn't be here. So as a fan, it is perfectly normal to feel disappointment and call out lack of effort when it happens.
There's a reason Rupp arena is as massive as it is and seats as many people as it does. People are so invested in this program that they are willing to pay millions for NIL to make the team better. It would be different if we were talking about the local bowling team that nobody cares about.
I mean, it's Christmas eve and you're here with me and many others, so it means a lot to you too.

 

[Digger-Cat]

Just a follow up note, we were all here celebratung this team and propping them up on our shoulders after their wins and talking about how great they played, so lets not act like we're horrible fans because we are discussing the failures of the past game. We lost by 20 to a bad team and OSU now completely owns us in that event. Are we supposed to be cool with that?

 

[B.B.H.]

Just a follow up note, we were all here celebratung this team and propping them up on our shoulders after their wins and talking about how great they played, so lets not act like we're horrible fans because we are discussing the failures of the past game. We lost by 20 to a bad team and OSU is now iwung us in that event. Are we supposed to be cool with that?

No. I agree with most of everything you said. I see no issues with fans being unhappy with how the “team” played, especially when it relates to effort.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

I believe I tried to warn you about the UofL game and how we were playing , so in regards to thinking this is no big deal, let me throw that same gif back at yah..

I remember thinking how pretentious and cocky your take was, but I also figured we'd probably be fine against UofL IF Butler played (and he did).. yet we still didn't look that great, and yes, we lose to UofL if not for Butler.

Time to wise up and realize this team only goes as far as Pope's offense can take it, and hope that he can mask their lack of talent.

Yes, I was dead wrong. I didn't mean to be pretentious or cocky, just a bad day of over confidence.

 

[jeffky]

It’s not simply a bad game. It’s a roster full of dudes that won’t even play in the G-League. And our coach was good enough to overcome his roster limitations against Gonzaga and Duke. This team will lose a lot of games in SEC play. Not because they have bad games - but because they’re outmatched.

 

[ukfan1622]

I'm not entitled! I deserve it...

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

Wins will be hard to come by in the SEC for this team. We need to defend Rupp at all costs. I honestly think we may go 9-9 or 10-8 in conference play. As Puddy from Seinfeld would say..."It's gonna be rough."

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

Wins will be hard to come by in the SEC for this team. We need to defend Rupp at all costs. I honestly think we may go 9-9 or 10-8 in conference play. As Puddy from Seinfeld would say..."It's gonna be rough."

Will be hard for everyone though

 

[Disappointed Cat]

It’s not simply a bad game. It’s a roster full of dudes that won’t even play in the G-League. And our coach was good enough to overcome his roster limitations against Gonzaga and Duke. This team will lose a lot of games in SEC play. Not because they have bad games - but because they’re outmatched.

We are going to see this movie over and over when SEC play starts.

 

[B.B.H.]

It’s not simply a bad game. It’s a roster full of dudes that won’t even play in the G-League. And our coach was good enough to overcome his roster limitations against Gonzaga and Duke. This team will lose a lot of games in SEC play. Not because they have bad games - but because they’re outmatched.

We are going to see this movie over and over when SEC play starts.

I’m so glad you found each other. Now you can parrot the same putrid takes back and forth. How romantic!

 

[UKAlum84]

For whatever reason, ohio state showed up to beat a good team.

You could say energy was not up to par, or the strategy was just not good enough.......

I think we needed this just to contemplate how the sec play will be. It's gonna be tough.