For 2024-25, Pope has constructed the Kentucky men’s basketball roster “to look like the teams that have been beating the Cats in March Madness.”
LHL: Pope’s experiment
- Thread starter chroix
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I agree to a point, I think a lot has to do with coaching and preparation for your opponent. Our last coaching staff lacked a few small details when it came to how to prepare for the other team.
Somebody on this board said the same thing months ago. I think sports writers read this board for story ideas.
A few small details??? You mean like knowing that Jack Golke only attempted EIGHT field goals inside the arc for the entire season? Or failing to watch any film of Wisconsin whatsoever?
Cal blew, and Cal blows. So does his coattail riding staff, minus Ulis, who won’t be enough to overcome the ineptitude and laziness of the others.
LOL. Drop the SM so it reads ALL DETAILS and I’m on board.
I was giving them the benefit of the doubt on saying All Details, but the last few years has been rough.
Brevity is the soul of wit, well done sir.
Since there's a paywall, any chance you could post the transcript?
2 of those 3 teams made the elite 8 so in year 1 I'd take that for the ncaa for UK.
▪ 2024: No. 14 seed Oakland bounced Kentucky, 80-76, from the round of 64. In doing so, the Grizzlies started a super-senior, two seniors, a junior and a sophomore. Jack Gohlke, who came off the Oakland bench to torment Cal’s Cats by draining 10 three-pointers and scoring 32 points, was also a super-senior.
Open it in incognito mode and you should be good to go. If not I’ll try to post the text later today.
I think they lacked a lot of details. They never scouted for defense and nobody was ever on the same page. They didn’t know how to guard a dribble hand off or ball screen either. They were never taught proper angles to cut ball handlers off and many other things that are basic college things to stop offenses at this level. I honestly believe most practice time was spent on how we wanted to play and we played the same way against everyone no matter how they adjusted. We were easy to prepare for because nothing ever changed.
This story feels like the kind of weak and false syllogism a beat writer comes up with to fill a quota when he really has nothing to say.
It takes an obvious fact, that Pope was forced to construct a roster of experienced transfers when taking over in April with zero players on the team. It puts that fact aside another fact, that Kentucky has a miserable recent record of losing to mid-majors and other ordinary teams with veteran players. And from that it creates a dubious thesis: That Pope intentionally went out to build a team like those that have recently frustrated Kentucky's former coach.
There's no real relationship between why and how Pope built this team and squads like St. Peters and Oakland, beside the incidental and not surprising fact that in the transfer era teams are going to have some 4 and even 5 year players. It's certainly not a "Great Experiment." It's not like he had the choice of recruiting a bunch of freshmen in April for the same year's team.
It takes an obvious fact, that Pope was forced to construct a roster of experienced transfers when taking over in April with zero players on the team. It puts that fact aside another fact, that Kentucky has a miserable recent record of losing to mid-majors and other ordinary teams with veteran players. And from that it creates a dubious thesis: That Pope intentionally went out to build a team like those that have recently frustrated Kentucky's former coach.
There's no real relationship between why and how Pope built this team and squads like St. Peters and Oakland, beside the incidental and not surprising fact that in the transfer era teams are going to have some 4 and even 5 year players. It's certainly not a "Great Experiment." It's not like he had the choice of recruiting a bunch of freshmen in April for the same year's team.
Cal got beat by a one dimensional player. There were so many strategies to shut that guy down and he relied on guys standing 4 feet behind him on defense one on one. Shows how bad of a game coach he is. We got beat by a future 9-5 insurance salesman or something.▪ 2024: No. 14 seed Oakland bounced Kentucky, 80-76, from the round of 64. In doing so, the Grizzlies started a super-senior, two seniors, a junior and a sophomore. Jack Gohlke, who came off the Oakland bench to torment Cal’s Cats by draining 10 three-pointers and scoring 32 points, was also a super-senior.
Cal is the only coach that allows teams to do what they do best, and then tries to get us to beat them. I’m surprised after the game he didn’t say “The game plan was to let Jack take 20 3’s in man coverage and see where the chips fell.”
I said back in the summer that this roster looks like the teams that routinely beat Cal, especially in the tourney.
We should destroy Arky then. LOL
In his estimable run as Kentucky football coach, Rich Brooks used to say the key to making the Wildcats competitive in the SEC was to build UK rosters “that look like the teams that we play on Saturdays.” New Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope is testing a derivative theory of “Brooks’ Law.” For 2024-25, Pope has constructed the Kentucky men’s basketball roster “to look like the teams that have been beating the Cats in March Madness.” New Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope has remade the Wildcats roster in a way that resembles the teams that, in the most recent prior years, have been beating UK in postseason tournament games.
If you are reading this, the likelihood seems high that you are aware that the final four seasons of the John Calipari coaching era at Kentucky did not exactly yield a bounty of postseason success for the Wildcats. In the final four SEC Tournaments in which Calipari coached the Cats, UK went 1-4. Over the last four years of Calipari’s Kentucky coaching reign, the Wildcats went 1-3 in NCAA Tournament contests. As you will see below, one need not boast the basketball IQ of Dan Hurley to spot a trend in the roster construction of the teams that have been sending UK packing in March.
Let’s review:
NCAA TOURNAMENT
▪ 2024: No. 14 seed Oakland bounced Kentucky, 80-76, from the round of 64. In doing so, the Grizzlies started a super-senior, two seniors, a junior and a sophomore. Jack Gohlke, who came off the Oakland bench to torment Cal’s Cats by draining 10 three-pointers and scoring 32 points, was also a super-senior.
▪ 2023: Kansas State eliminated UK, 75-69, in the round of 32. The purple Wildcats started three super-seniors, a junior and a sophomore.
▪ 2022: No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s stunned Kentucky, 85-79 in overtime, in the round of 64 with a starting lineup consisting of a senior, three juniors and a freshman. Doug Edert, who came off the Peacocks’ bench to rifle in 20 points, was also a junior.
SEC TOURNAMENT
▪ 2024: Texas A&M whipped Kentucky, 97-87, in the quarterfinals with a starting lineup made up of two super-seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.
▪ 2023: Vanderbilt conquered UK, 80-73, in the quarterfinals behind a starting five consisting of three seniors, a junior and a freshman.
▪ 2022: Tennessee tamed the Wildcats, 69-62, in the semifinals with three sophomores and two freshmen in its starting lineup.
▪ 2021: Mississippi State took out Kentucky, 74-73, in the second round with a lineup consisting of a senior, three sophomores and a freshman.
The prevailing tournament trend over Calipari’s final years was stark: With the exceptions of Mississippi State and Tennessee in the 2021 and 2022 SEC tourneys, respectively, the teams booting Kentucky from postseason play were stocked with grizzled college hoops veterans.
That is why it is intriguing that the roster that Pope put together on the fly after Calipari self-exiled himself to “Hogs-ville” — and left UK with no returning scholarship players — looks so much like the teams that have been bouncing Kentucky from March Madness. In Koby Brea, Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr, Kerr Kriisa, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams, UK will have six super-seniors — players using the NCAA-granted “free COVID year” for a fifth season of playing eligibility — on its 2024-25 roster. Drexel transfer Amari Williams will be one of six super-seniors on the 2024-25 Kentucky men’s basketball roster.
For the coming season, Kentucky will boast nine players who have made at least 21 career starts in college hoops. Let’s stipulate that, by itself, experience guarantees nothing. The most-experienced Kentucky team of the Calipari era was the 2021-22 team which entered that season with 367 total career starts on its roster — and lost to Saint Peter’s in the NCAA tourney. The goal in roster construction for a UK head man in the third decade of the 21st century is to figure out the sweet spot between high-end talent and college hoops experience. Calipari flew high early in his Kentucky tenure by going all in on one-and-done freshmen. However, once Duke and Mike Krzyzewski also went full bore into the elite freshmen talent pool, Calipari lost the competitive edge he had enjoyed in that market.
The subsequent adoption of unrestricted transfer rules and the “free COVID year” by the NCAA also seemed to lessen the effectiveness of hyper-youthful college hoops rosters. In building such a veteran-laden team for his first Kentucky season, Pope has done more than ensure the Cats roster will mirror the teams that have been knocking UK out of tournaments. Pope’s first roster will also look more like the teams that have been going to the Final Four in recent seasons.
Of the 20 players who started in the 2024 Final Four, 13 of them were seniors or super-seniors. Over the past two Final Fours, 31 of the 40 combined starters had been in college for at least three years. For the previous four Final Fours, that number is 60 players with at least three years in college out of 80 starters. Among the many things to look forward to in the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball season, we will see if “Pope’s Derivative” of “Brooks’ Law” can get the Wildcats back to winning in March Madness.
Lacked? He didn't CARE. It wasn't his priority. He was more concerned with his guy's poise and individual performances for the scouts than he was teamwork.
I'm really excited to start the season. Folks I dearly miss the days of our stifling full court pressure, the different zone defenses (1-3-1, box n 1 and even a basic 2-3) . Let's face it both of our offense n defensive play was so dull and EVERYONE knew what we were gonna throw at them.
Coach Pope plays like how we used to play and IMO that's such a breath of fresh air!!
G O B I G B L U E !! 🏀
Coach Pope plays like how we used to play and IMO that's such a breath of fresh air!!
G O B I G B L U E !! 🏀
and it was telling that both the Oakland coach and the Kansas St coach were very confident going into those games as underdogs. They can’t beat Kentucky, but they can beat Cal
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Not only that, even though those coaches said straight to the media that UK was easy to prepare for, Cal never once owned up to it. He just doubled down on looking for another job, and trying to strong-arm UK when things fell through for him.
For a coach that makes what Cal does that post should be ridiculous but every word is pretty much undeniable truth. The last two sentences that I highlighted are what drove me crazy for years. Every game we played against teams that prepared for UK and UK had not one time prepared for them. It was and is beyond stupid!
Exactly. Almost every coach would have told his players that Golke's defender doesn't help and stays with him outside the 3 point line. That's all it would have taken for UK to win that game.
I think folks started to realize over the last season or two how much Robic meant to CCC and the teams. He was the one who dug into the details for the game prep.
Looks like the kind of roster that will beat Calipari & his Arkansas team in March.
Cal wanted to lose in the tournament! He wanted out!
This didn’t occur to me at the time.:
But looking back on it all, I wonder if Cal wasn’t actively trying to get himself fired for financial reasons. Take the total sum of money Cal could expect to make at Arkansas, or Southern Methodist, or wherever. Now take that same sum, and add all or half or even a quarter of his Kentucky contract buyout. What he might have thought or hoped he could get if he managed to force the University or donors to pay him something to skedaddle, feeling their hands were tied by their fear of the fans if Cal kept on doing literally as bad as he could do without technically going far enough to free the university from their half of the contract.
To me, all signs point to Cal being a cool enough fish to want to play things just that way. At least by the end. To me at the time, that deal where a press conference between Cal and Mitch was announced in advance, but then nothing came of it besides they said Cal was going to stay——that looked like next-level wimpiness on Mitch’s part.
But with the way everything actually played out after that, that may actually be the moment Mitch finally beat Cal. Told him some way they had actually figured out how to push back if Cal kept on his current extortionist tack or something. A Sicilian promise? Maybe a video tape or something they’d managed to make of one of Cal’s conversations. Something the many, many enemies Cal has made along the way would have just loved to have.
All that is only speculation, of course. However, I’m a writer so I tend to be very sensitive to human motives. To me, those particular motives on both sides would explain what actually happened much better than anything else I’ve heard or considered.
Simple. Cal interviewed with Arky unbeknownst to UK which was in violation of his contract. Fireable offense. That was the arrow Mitch had in his quill.
Ha. Not sure how to decipher the code.
Other writer? What team?
I’m 110% Kentucky Wildcat
Re-read the post that you replied to, just above yours (the one I replied to).
Cal is at Arkansas because Mitch exercised the breach of contract clause.
Only if you believe that's the reason Cal had to leave, which is outright silly.
I am talking about a discussion Cal and Mitch had late in MARCH——resulting in both holding a "press conference" and announcing that Cal was staying on MARCH 26TH.
You all are talking about a meeting Cal had with Arkansas TEN DAYS LATER ON APRIL 7TH.
Of course Cal entered formal talks once he knew for sure he was leaving Kentucky. Duh. What else was he gonna do at that point?
Jack Pilgrim's "scoop" that you both are referencing is the idea that Cal got busted somehow by formally meeting with Arkansas and that's the reason he had to leave.
Shame on anyone who can't see that's sensationalistic, and sells clicks, but it's obviously not the actual reason Cal left.
People think after five years of being in that contract Cal just up and forgot he couldn't negotiate with other schools under it? 😂 Like, ten million dollars a year wasn't enough to make him remember that?
Back on Planet Earth, the reason Cal entered those talks and got "caught" doing it is he obviously didn't care anymore about getting caught at that point, because he obviously already knew he was leaving.
Maybe he only decided to leave because he didn't like the new restrictions Mitch had placed on him on March 26th.
Or maybe, as I suggested as a possibility and which would make a lot more sense in terms of human motivation, Mitch already had something else over him by March and was giving him the grace to either stick around with radical changes or leave swiftly on his own terms (which is what he actually did).
But the pat notion that John Calipari was unhappy with making TEN MILLION a year at Kentucky and so he jumped into talks with Arkansas for SEVEN MILLION a year is just childish. It sells clicks because it has the intrigue of "Cal getting caught in talks" but it doesn't add up at all for anyone who feels like thinking through things. Arkansas was after the fact, whatever else it was. At least the April 7th meeting with Arkansas was, which was all Cal got "caught" doing.
The horses were obviously already out of the barn by then.
What were the restrictions Mitch put on him?
What was the “something else” Mitch had on him?
Cmon man. Doubtful either of those took place.
Cal met with Arky at the Final 4 and then again on the way home. His ego got stroked. Came back and tried to pry some concessions - like a new practice facility- Mitch said no and you’re in violation of your contract. Maybe you should go ahead and go where you’ll be happy.
That simple.
