How many of our current guys did bama, Florida, or Auburn try to get? None that in aware of. Because they had better players.
I like pope but its absurd to act like there weren't some serious issues with this year.
I’ve heard Shulman mention Kentucky twice today
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How many of our current guys did bama, Florida, or Auburn try to get? None that in aware of. Because they had better players.
I like pope but its absurd to act like there weren't some serious issues with this year.
What are you on about? What does us losing by 30 have to do with Shulman bringing us up twice and crickets from Bilas both times?
You’ve already proclaimed the season over. Now you’re just trolling.
That is not a good argument. You are comparing apples to oranges. Those teams pretty much had their rosters. UK didn't. Do you really think that Auburn was going to go after Williams with Broome guaranteed being the starter? If you disagree with me, please just name some positions that any those teams needed to fill as much as we did.
I will even make it simpler: How many transfers did any of those 3 teams take for this season?
I would love to hear the "serious issues" if you include injuries in the discussion. We beat UT twice, Duke, Louisville and even Florida with a healthy roster. Injuries killed us.
About the only serious issue is that our defense hasn't been great all year. We beat Florida 106 to 100 is a good example. But, having said that, we are most likely a 3 seed after injuries to Carr, Butler, JR, Kerr, etc. Imagine where we would be with a healthy team?
Again you're focusing on single game coaching. Game prep and in game coaching is a strength.
Lets take defense since you admit that was an issue. When full strength, we have 3 elite defenders and 2 others that are really good. That means our defensive coaching is pretty poor. That needs addressed in the off-season.
It goes back to the flaw with his core philosophy of just outscoring people. In the sec, it doesn't work vs top teams because the top teams score just as much but defend way better.
Look at how much our defense improved over the last month. Pretty clear that it was addressed.
I don’t think his core philosophy is “just out scoring people.” Don’t believe that at all. 100% agree that we should work to be better defensively in December/January than we were this year.
I agree. That is promising. Very promising. However it should've never been that poor from the beginning. We have too many great individual defenders for it to be that bad.
And I can't imagine a world where I cared enough about what someone cared enough about what Jay Bilas thinks to comment on that thread.
We were the 6 seed in the SEC tourney. Why do you think they should be fawning over us, particularly when we just got beat by 30?
As for the idea that ESPN is deliberately " tarnishing" the UK brand what if they are. What difference would it make. It certainly wouldn't matter to the kids we are trying to recruit. They care about Money. Brands have become mostly irrelevant, the bag rules. I could care less about them
I think Bilas is likely the best color commentator in college basketball. However, that’s mostly because his competition is horrendous. As long as it’s not a Duke game, Bilas does a good job, IMO. He’s much more likely to give an interesting opinion than Dykes who has never seen a bad call in his life.
To be honest, give me the no name commentators that we occasionally get for the lesser SEC teams. They generally do a good job with neutral, straight forward takes.
To be honest, give me the no name commentators that we occasionally get for the lesser SEC teams. They generally do a good job with neutral, straight forward takes.
Context is a good thing. You might want to apply some here and rethink this rediculous observation.
It was a couple of spur of the moment interactions, not some huge anti UK conspiracy. How many tinfoil hats do you own?
Dude, you’re just trying to be difficult.
Shulman brought us up twice.
Shulman brought up our injuries.
Bilas wasn’t silent because we lost big. That doesn’t even make sense.
Maybe he had a mouthful of ice cream. I don’t know.
I feel pretty comfortable saying there has been a narrative decision to de-emphasize Kentucky coverage.
Was that why Bilas was silent? Again, I don’t know.
But there has been a clear pattern. It hasn’t even been a secret. We’ve had the whole public blow up with Seth Greenberg. We’ve had the GameDay conversation.
I’m just reading the tea leaves. You don’t care, that’s awesome. You think I’m wrong, cool.
But I think you’re just trolling because I called you out yesterday for your declaration that we won’t make it to the second weekend.
Probably my imagination again and completely unrelated.
I would recommended that you just try to be optimistic and cheer for the team for as long as they’re playing, but you don’t seem to want to hear that.
It’s just a conversation. You could argue that none of this matters because it’s just a game where people toss a leather ball through a hoop.
But it’s also a multi-billion dollar industry, enjoyed by millions, employing thousands.
How the biggest voice in the game chooses to cover the game is of interest to me. Wonderful that it’s of no interest to you (although you still felt the need to comment).
I just don't belive in a conspiracy that Bilas is out to get us, etc. We are not the same team after injuries, so I could see where a commentator would choose to be silent to the talking heads trying to prop us up, because the truth of the matter is that we aren't a good basketball team right now. If that makes me a lesser fan than you for saying it out loud, whatever. You asked a question, and I answered it. Moving on.
I have no doubt you’re a fan. I disagree that we aren’t a quality team. Just won a barnburner with Butler on the sidelines. Just won at a Missouri with him playing.
If he’s healthy then I think we are Sweet 16 quality. Maybe a little better depending on draw and luck.
Not going to let a bad performance against Alabama change my entire impression. Not with Butler out, and Oweh and Carr both hurt in game. Not when the Bama team that beat us basically pulled the same stunt next day when Nelson went out.
If we are as healthy this week as we were at Missouri, I’m excited about the possibility of making a Sweet 16 run at minimum.
Wonder how many games Bama would win without Spears and Nelson.
Just Butler alone, UK is 18-6 with him and 4-5 without.
Bama returned 55% of scoring
Florida returned 57% of scoring
Auburn returned 58% of scoring
Pope had nothing lol
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I have always enjoyed your posts. You seem to be consistent and offer a well thought out post, or response. This topic is something you feel strong about but, it is out of the norm for you. Bilas said nothing. You are attempting to take his silence and make into something. Maybe its just me but, you seem to be responding to criticism that didn't occur.
He could have trashed us for all I care. More interested in the fact that the play by play guy kept bringing us up and the color guy stayed silent.
BTW, did you know the 6 seed in the SEC Tournament tied a record for the most wins vs. top 15 teams in NCAA history?
Did you know that the number 6 seed in the SEC Tournament went 5-0 vs. the last 2 teams standing in both the ACC and SEC?
See, there’s lots to talk about with Kentucky, if you want something to talk about. Kind of interesting that you thought “6 seed in the SEC Tournament,” and “Lost by 30” were the most salient topics.
I’ve paid more attention to ESPN this year than I have in a while, because I’ve been more excited about the program than I have in a while. I’ve noticed a trend in the coverage of our team. This is part of that trend, imo.
Well it’s the coach. Seriously. There isn’t anything to say about UK bb because we just got tore up and our reg season was ok. Win some big ones lose some head scratchers. We are simply in no man’s land until pope proves himself. It may be a good thing. Maybe we can pull an under the radar run like UNC did a few years ago. The UNC talk is bc they are on the bubble bigtime. If uk were on the bubble they would be talking far more about us. If we can get the 3 seed with msu or Texas tech our 2 we can make a run. I don’t see us beating bama or st John’s. Our program has fallen so far the last 6 years we really need a s16 his year. There’s no guarantee we have a better team next year. Cut the rotation to 7 or 8 and we have a great shot.
No. You act like the announcers should be slobbering all over us. There are five teams in the SEC alone that deserve more slobber.
No no. When we were winning they heaped praise. We were average down the stretch and got blown out. We aren’t one of the sec team on the 1 or 2 line which are pretty much the top 4 in sec. UK isn’t the cream of the crop anymore in the SEC. We have to accept that and so what it takes to rapidly get back there. If we had played with bama we would have got more mentions but this is no longer out conference. Barney has torn the program down so far and his timing was awful. Because while cal was taking advantage the conference was expanding and bringing in elite coaches. Bama, florida, auburn, I see them as the face of the conference right now. If we get to a sweet 16 and keep Oweh and garrison they willl talk about us again maybe. But when you run Travis Perry against mark sears and that’s your game plan well that’s not too exciting to anyone outside of Kentucky. This is what happens when you slide then label the change in coaches a “throw away year” as I’ve heard here from some of our younger fans. At UK there are no throw away years. The Barney mentality has permeated the bb fanbase now. It’s gonna be a war or we will become irrelevant. Someone was talking about all the great coaches. There currently are zero great coaches at their alma mater. Let that sink in. Temible strategy by the guy at the top.
Okay, now I am confused. You talk about how our talent level is obviously lower than the best teams in the SEC and then you come back and blame the coach for not having a better defense considering "we have 3 elite defenders and 2 others that are really good."
I honestly don't know how anyone can be all that critical of Pope considering what he did this season putting together a roster and winning as many games as he did considering the injuries and the strength of the SEC. Yeah, he has room for improvement but I definitely think we are going in the right direction.
Still missing the issue. This team was constructed to a tee with the style pope wants. That style just wont win over the course of the season vs elite sec teams. Elite sec teams can score with us but defend way better.
With butler, oweh, and amari we should've been way better on defense. We got better eventually but still not where we should be.
He just has to quickly retool his philosophy. Hes creative so i think he can. He just first needs to recognize the issue.
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