I still love this team!

[Jireh]

This was a very, very, very tough first road game for a group of guys who had played a total of 7 games together. And to have an off night from the perimeter and still lose by only 4 is pretty amazing.

Some of you need to make a pact with yourselves and wait 24 hours before posting. You're angry and disappointed and someone must be called out and pay for it. But these guys played hard and nearly overcame the crowd, a few questionable calls, several unlucky bounces, and an extremely hungry Clemson team. Believe me - they're WAY more angry and disappointed than you are!

I'm playing the long game. I'm looking forward to seeing how good we are once conference play starts.

Go Cats!!

 

[Terrapin_Station]

I’m cheering them on, but certainly don’t love what I see. I don’t know if Mark Pope could’ve picked worse centers for his offense than Williams and Garrison.

 

[sambowieshin]

I’m cheering them on, but certainly don’t love what I see. I don’t know if Mark Pope could’ve picked worse centers for his offense than Williams and Garrison.

Pope will adjust.... I hope.

 

[know1]

Me too. They are awesome compared to many years of that fraud that "coached" our team for far too long.

 

[B.B.H.]

We have played three games against decent competition: Western Ky, Duke and Clemson. I’m ready to acknowledge that we struggled with physically in all three games and got pressured all the way out and didn’t really have the ability to turn the corner for drives one on one often enough to keep the defenses honest. I’m hoping we start to see a greener light for the shooters to take even deeper shots to make the offense even harder to guard or someone emerges with a more defendable slashing attack. Otherwise, I think our offense has a very hard cap to some degree which is expected given this is a complete portal rotation. Defensively, if we can get Andrew Carr covered up a little bit better, our starting five is actually elite.

TLDR: Rotation may have to tighten up going forward, and if it does, I think we might have to win with defense leading the way with our starters.

 

[BlueBomb]

I’m cheering them on, but certainly don’t love what I see. I don’t know if Mark Pope could’ve picked worse centers for his offense than Williams and Garrison.

Agree. But it's not like he had time to pull a team together. He took what he could get.

 

[anonymous_2011]

We were projected to Finish 8th in the SEC. I think/hope we can do a little better than that.

 

[B.B.H.]

I’m cheering them on, but certainly don’t love what I see. I don’t know if Mark Pope could’ve picked worse centers for his offense than Williams and Garrison.

Honestly dude, you go way too far on the Amari hate. If anything, he should have gotten more minutes the way we looked without him on the floor yesterday. I was all for the small ball lineup with Carr myself but did you see how Carr defended and rebounded yesterday? Amari is our five to anyone with eyes. Pick a new slogan

 

[AJG-15]

Good post. I am more concerned with a butler injury than the loss itself. Some act like we were expecting to win all road games and forget that is Pope first year and the team was put together in two weeks. Sure, it was a poor performance of everyone not named Butler and Oweh , some old bad habits showed up again on some of the players, and some questionable decisions from Pope but he is a smart guy and he will learn from this.

I will be curios how good is he and the staff to mentally and physically get ready the boys for Gonzaga.

 

[CELTICAT]

I still really like this team. We’ve had teams the past 15 years that laid down when things didn’t go their way, and this team at least fight’s its ass off and gives it all they got.

I’m willing to bet they will get better as the season goes on, and we have a coaching staff that will make adjustments to help get us there.

 

[NerlensCat]

This was a very, very, very tough first road game for a group of guys who had played a total of 7 games together. And to have an off night from the perimeter and still lose by only 4 is pretty amazing.

Some of you need to make a pact with yourselves and wait 24 hours before posting. You're angry and disappointed and someone must be called out and pay for it. But these guys played hard and nearly overcame the crowd, a few questionable calls, several unlucky bounces, and an extremely hungry Clemson team. Believe me - they're WAY more angry and disappointed than you are!

I'm playing the long game. I'm looking forward to seeing how good we are once conference play starts.

Go Cats!!

After the Duke win and subsequent wins/ranking, people got too bought into the idea we are a top 5 team. Because of that, some overreact win we lose.

In reality, we are 10-20th ranked type team who can beat anyone, but will need top level performances from most to do it.

This team does not have top level talent, especially offensively. We have some good talent with very specific skill sets. So, each person has to fulfill their roll. We can afford 2 to 3 ish people not having good nights. We cannot afford almost all of the team having a bad night.

We will learn and make the adjustment. We should not have overreacted to the high ranking and we should not overreact to a 4 point loss to a team that has most of their roster back from an elite 8 run last year on their home floor.

Let’s just keep learning and getting better!

 

[BIG BLUE GURU]

I don't expect much from this season with what Pope had to deal with from Cal taking all of our players. What he has done to this point is impressive. Anyone who set themselves up to believe this team was an Elite Eight or Final Four team didn't understand the situation. You set yourself up for failure. This team will have double digit losses when the season ends. I expected that under the circumstances. I just hope he can get us in the Tourney and win a game or two. That would be a success in a complete rebuild year and probably better than what Cal would have done if he stayed. Next year and year 3 is when I am expecting Pope to make hugs strides.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

There's a lot to love about this team. One terrible game doesn't change that. I thought we would roll them. We didn't. Bad game from almost everyone including the coaching staff.

I expect to win Saturday night. Rebounding is a weak link for this team. That has to get better. Giving up straight line drives last night looked like the last 4 Cal teams. I'm sure the zone fans wanted a zone. Maybe we should have?

It's over and on to next. I expect a stellar performance against Gonzaga.