Let me gripe a little

[Cleatortoises]

Worst 10 - 1 team ever?

 

[megablue]

No team has it all.
We have a lot of it.
We’re pretty damn good.
Yes, we have weaknesses.
Every team has them.

 

[jeffky]

Ok, I’m stoked to beat UL. Forever and always. I’m not trying to be a drag. But a pattern has emerged. We are nowhere near physical enough and we don’t sell out for lose balls and rebounds. This is a big issue. It’s with all our guys too. Garrison buddy that was shameful to let that UL kid slide under you to grab that ball. We tap rebounds around instead of grabbing them. We don’t shoot in to block out with force. We try to dribble loose balls and frankly we just stand and watch too much when there’s a ball to be had. I’ll say too that we hunt for fouls in the paint instead of finishing strong and trying to score.

The SEC slate will not allow this to continue.

 

[Jamal Mercer]

I don’t normally see eye to eye with Rockfly, but he’s absolutely correct.

Almost every single loose ball went to Louisville last night. Hell, Amari didn’t play the entire 2nd half because he wasn’t putting in the effort and it was obvious. So Pope saw it too.

It’s ok to point something out that needs work. If they fix it who knows what they can accomplish.

 

[ManitouDan]

1. We have three solid players in Butler , Oweh and Carr…
2. Jaxon and Berea are good to average..I probably should push Berea to first list but his defense is so so. Jaxon is so up and down for a super senior
3. The bigs are hit and miss. Amari Williams is limited on offense..which is fine. But he isn’t near the defensive force I was expecting. Garrison is like a baby horse out there…full of burst and energy..but has zero skill
4. Travis Perry is really bad. ..on both ends of floor..we’ll miss Kerissa. Have no idea where Chandler is at


All in all . Great job by Pope running this ship to this record. Now we’ll get to see what kind of coach pope at improving player from beginning to end of a season…Pitino was especially good at this and Cal wasn’t bad at improving a kid from start to end…I hope Pope can get rotation minutes from chandler or Perry…we have to get another guy to play

This .

 

[Kuhldaddy]

You didn’t say anything about Garrison’s hustle in saving the ball right in front of our bench.

That was an amazing effort play

 

[NoDef]

Doesn't change that I'm ecstatic about what Coach Pope has been able to do in year 1.....but. This is the 6th game in a row the opponent has played harder than us minus the 2nd half/OT against Gonzaga. UL played so much harder than we did. The combination of being at home, Butler going off and having more talent got us the W tonight but that isn't going to be the case many times in the league. Watching the SEC I see a bunch of the top teams that go really hard and probably have more talent than we do. That is not a recipe for success in the SEC this year. Besides Butler and Oweh nobody else is stepping up consistently in the out-effort your opponent department. Robinson kind of wilts in these high energy games. He floats as does Brea. You need quick twitch against top level athletes AND superior effort. Our guys need to ramp it up over this next 2 week period with only 2 games before league play. We can be a very good team but going against this gauntlet we're going to have to do it by effort and coaching. I'm hoping CMP can get that out of this group. Funsies are about over. It's about to get very tough to win games.

I thought Louisville played very good today. They were not efficient from three coming into the game and shot it pretty good. I don't think we are national championship good, but doing much better than expected. The SEC will be very tough this year. Getting a road win will be a miracle against a lot of teams. Pope is doing a great job, but will need to bring in a few dogs to be good enough to win a title .

 

[HerrosHeroes]

We are 9-1. Beat Duke. Beat Gonzaga.. Beat UL. Are you expecting perfection in college ball?

10-1 Im predicting 18-1 and in the top 2 headed to Knoxville.

 

[cathouse]

I love the 10-1 start but I kind of get OPs point. It feels like we give up a million offensive rebounds every game too and that needs to eventually get better.

Yeah. We only outrebounded UL by 10.
Gotta do better. C'mon Pope. Kick some butt.
We not satisfied. 😒

 

[Jamal Mercer]

Yeah. We only outrebounded UL by 10.
Gotta do better. C'mon Pope. Kick some butt.
We not satisfied. 😒

Yep, everything is perfect. No need to improve on anything. 🙄

 

[Rockfly78]

Tell me you don’t know ball without telling me you don’t know ball

 

[bigbluedon]

We have a lot of work ahead of us. The effort plays haven’t been there the last 2 games. Waterman was flying all over the court grabbing offensive boards (no wonder Pope recruited him) and our guys were just watching. Cardinals were getting wide open shots and our guys just didn’t seem interested in fighting on defense. We’ve got to get there mentally before we can get there physically.

Good points

 

[FirewithFire]

OP ain't wrong. I have yet to see this team play a full game. The seem to take plays off and they play down to their opponent, or what they perceive to be their opponent's prestige level. Yes, they pull it together in the second half, but that won't always cut it in the SEC where you are everyone's super bowl.

I'm sure many here remember the Comeback Cats. It is possible to play that way but that was the exception of my 40+ years of watching UK, and not the rule.

 

[bigbluedon]

Well I will say this, if Hepburn decides to go to the portal I hope Pope grabs him right away. Quick, fast can shoot and play defense. Would be exactly what we need next year. Fine player.