Hey hey my Cat friends

[GermantownDawg]

Another hoops season is upon us. Excited for some round ball.

I can imagine Kentucky fans are excited for a native son to take over the reigns, even if there is some healthy anxiety about how it’ll all turn out. Change can be good.

How are y’all feeling about this year? The roster? The staff? What kind of expectations do you have for this team and Pope’s tenure (you can speculate)?

 

[ukfan1622]

We're excited. We know we're going to have a good team; it's just a matter of how good. Tons of experience and LOTS of shooters and several really good defenders and 10+ deep and our new coach is really smart with infectious enthusiasm.

 

[NociHTTP]

 

[Louis_Skunt]

I think the overall feeling is theyre going to be great. I'm a little more pessimistic, i think we're in for a lot of losses. The quick offense and energy is entertaining, but the athletes are below par for UK standards. The inside defense and rebounding are going to cost us.

 

[chroix]

I’m excited. We might take some lumps this year but we’ve got a solid veteran squad that can shoot and pass the ball well and seem to defend adequately for the most part.

How about you @GermantownDawg ? What are y’all looking like?

 

[jrpross]

We’re pretty excited to have a fresh new start. I think the squad that Pope brought in on short notice is pretty incredible. Tons of experienced high IQ players.

I’m expecting the spacing, ball movement, and shooting to be among the best in the nation. The defense should be decent; we’ve got a couple who were all-conference on defense. As was mentioned though, rebounding and interior defense will be weak spots. And I’m not sure if we really have many guys who can really create for themselves or take their man off the dribble. It’ll very much be the TEAM creating offensive opportunities.

I think the initial ranking of #23 is pretty accurate to start. I have hopes that they can get hot and be a 2nd weekend team in the tourney.

 

[SemperFiCat]

I think the pure excitement of a new era is going to overshadow a lot of any losing. I like the team, probably more than some here. My biggest and only real fear is our rebounding.

 

[JPFisher]

We'll take hits early. Defense needs a lot of work on communication and in transition. Rebounding has been a concern so far, which sucks considering we have three 6'10"+ players at our disposal. But, this team can be electric and it has some studs and athletes.

Oweh, Butler, and Robinson are even better than advertised, and Garrison is a solid backup for Williams.

It's pretty clear this team isn't used to playing with each other and needs to gel. We're still discombobulated on offense at times and especially on defense just leaving guys open.

But, when things click, we'll be scary. Time will tell if/when that happens.

 

[Dncmaxwell]

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

Is that Cal?

 

[yoshukai]

Another hoops season is upon us. Excited for some round ball.

I can imagine Kentucky fans are excited for a native son to take over the reigns, even if there is some healthy anxiety about how it’ll all turn out. Change can be good.

How are y’all feeling about this year? The roster? The staff? What kind of expectations do you have for this team and Pope’s tenure (you can speculate)?

What I’m MOST excited about is not having the empty suit, used car salesman that was bastardizing our basketball program on the sideline anymore. Wouldn’t give a damn who the coach is. But I do love Pope .

 

[Fox2monk]

Another hoops season is upon us. Excited for some round ball.

I can imagine Kentucky fans are excited for a native son to take over the reigns, even if there is some healthy anxiety about how it’ll all turn out. Change can be good.

How are y’all feeling about this year? The roster? The staff? What kind of expectations do you have for this team and Pope’s tenure (you can speculate)?

I a, super pumped. I love the roster construction and I love our offense even more. We actually have an in game coach now and that is exciting.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

Another hoops season is upon us. Excited for some round ball.

I can imagine Kentucky fans are excited for a native son to take over the reigns, even if there is some healthy anxiety about how it’ll all turn out. Change can be good.

How are y’all feeling about this year? The roster? The staff? What kind of expectations do you have for this team and Pope’s tenure (you can speculate)?

For me, I'm just glad to be enjoying UK basketball again. I'm sure this year will be difficult but we have some very good players.

My expectations will be higher in a couple years.

 

[Creed Bratton]

I think the overall feeling is theyre going to be great. I'm a little more pessimistic, i think we're in for a lot of losses. The quick offense and energy is entertaining, but the athletes are below par for UK standards. The inside defense and rebounding are going to cost us.

No offense, because everyone is entitled to their opinions and yours could very well turn out to be right, but what exactly has having athletes done for us the previous 4-5 seasons? I feel like we have been accustomed to having young/freshman NBA draft picks and athletes on our team for so long we think that is the only way to win but that isn't necessarily the case anymore and that is why Cal was beginning to struggle in my opinion. We were beaten by quite a few older but less athletic teams who played together and to their strengths and I see no reason why this team can't do the same.

We have 4 guys who have scored 1,000-1,500 points in their careers and that doesn't even include Robinson, Oweh or Butler who are arguably our best players. Also, when you can go on the type of runs this team is capable of I'm not sure your ever out of a game. This team could very well be like the Pitino team that came back from the 31 point deficit in the 2nd half against LSU.

I do agree with you that we have flaws with rebounding and that some guys aren't very good defensively but we at least have a staff who I feel confident will adapt and try different defensive schemes. Maybe I am just being optimistic or just have a different opinion of what "a lot of losses" are but I just don't see this team losing more than 8-9 games before tournament season.

 

[westerncat]

We have a coach that coach in game and not just yell "go make a play". The real test will come when we play Puke and then we will see what kind of team we have.

 

[blue cincy]

We have a shot at being like Tubby's first team (98 team). If we can play team ball, do what needs to be done within the offense we will be fine. Wins and losses do not know, but we win way more than we lose.

 

[bowfreak]

This is the most enjoyment I have had since 2015. Its not even regular season but it is fun again. Regardless of how the season plays out. There is an offensive scheme. There is coaching and there are even out of bounds plays. In a few years, the SEC championship will again go through Rupp and we will be in the discussion for a top 4 NCAA seed every year and sprinkle in a few #1 seeds here and there.

 

[BBNinSC]

No offense, because everyone is entitled to their opinions and yours could very well turn out to be right, but what exactly has having athletes done for us the previous 4-5 seasons? I feel like we have been accustomed to having young/freshman NBA draft picks and athletes on our team for so long we think that is the only way to win but that isn't necessarily the case anymore and that is why Cal was beginning to struggle in my opinion. We were beaten by quite a few older but less athletic teams who played together and to their strengths and I see no reason why this team can't do the same.

We have 4 guys who have scored 1,000-1,500 points in their careers and that doesn't even include Robinson, Oweh or Butler who are arguably our best players. Also, when you can go on the type of runs this team is capable of I'm not sure your ever out of a game. This team could very well be like the Pitino team that came back from the 31 point deficit in the 2nd half against LSU.

I do agree with you that we have flaws with rebounding and that some guys aren't very good defensively but we at least have a staff who I feel confident will adapt and try different defensive schemes. Maybe I am just being optimistic or just have a different opinion of what "a lot of losses" are but I just don't see this team losing more than 8-9 games before tournament season.

Agree completely. You do know that Creed Bratton was in the band “The Grass Roots” in the late 1960’s?

 

[NociHTTP]

We have a shot at being like Tubby's first team (98 team). If we can play team ball, do what needs to be done within the offense we will be fine. Wins and losses do not know, but we win way more than we lose.

I don't see the similarities between th '98 team and this year's team. Tubby was constantly saying that he was going to play uptempo.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Agree completely. You do know that Creed Bratton was in the band “The Grass Roots” in the late 1960’s?

 

[CB3UK]

I saw Georgia blew out UCF the other night. Mike White looks to have a pretty solid squad in Athens this season.

 

[jeffky]

I think the pure excitement of a new era is going to overshadow a lot of any losing. I like the team, probably more than some here. My biggest and only real fear is our rebounding.

If we rebound at all be a hell of a upgrade from last year that may have been o e of the worst rebounding teams at Kentucky they were horrible rebound is like defense you have to have the desire to do it . With williams Carr Garrison and Robinson. We should be a decent rebounding team by conference Time