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
- Start date
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.
Since there's a paywall, any chance you could post the transcript?
▪ 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.
