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.
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.
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, the they can beat Cal
