Hello HOB. I'm back again tonight for a "How In The Heck Did It Get To Be February 10th" edition of the coach's weekly radio show. I'll be following along and sharing all the major talking points here in the thread for those of you who may not be able to listen in live. Show starts at 6 ET. Stay tuned...
* Saturday was a good night for us. SC is better than people realize. A lot of close losses for them against good teams, so good to win like that. Good to have Lamont back healthy. Bigs played great. Koby Brea played great.
* Caller wants to know if physical teams like Ole Miss and Tennessee are frustrating our offense with the high ball-screen action. Pope said that is somewhat the case when Lamont Butler has not been available. In those times, teams have tried to push them further and further out to start their offense. May need more screens in those situations. We have made progress there.
* Caller asks what he looks for to build a roster from a defensive standpoint. Everyone wants length and athleticism, Pope says. All of us want that, and the game is getting more and more physical, which is surprising. Notes that he was in the NBA when they took away hand-checks, and it was monumental. In the college game, they can still put their hands on you a lot. Even the two-hand contact is not being called.
* Listener wants to know what kind of adjustments you need to make in a rematch with Tennessee... Pope says you can't anticipate playing against the team you played last time. You have to anticipate a team that is looking to take away the things you did well last time. It's the game within the game. Tennessee is really potent on the defensive end of the floor. On offense, they're running some new actions since we played them. We're preparing a different personnel package for that because we have Lamont Butler now.
* Pope says looks like we won't have Jaxson Robinson tomorrow. He added that they'll look again and see before gametime. Leach asks Pope to elaborate on the situation... Says he's similar to Butler. Hopeful to have both. It's a treatment and wait-and-see situation.
* Pope says Koby Brea has really taken huge steps in his defensive focus. Had a great game against South Carolina. Has really kept that focus and intensity up in practice.
* Listener wants to know the biggest difference in UK from his time to now... Pope says the influence of social media. After you played back in the day, you could get away from things and have solitude. These days, when they go back to their room, sometimes it gets the noisiest when they pick up their phone and look at social media.
* Caller wants to know how to keep the players motivated to keep the defense we saw on Saturday going game after game... Pope says his guys have bought in and found some answers where maybe they were not expecting them. Koby Brea being so good in the last game was something he never would have seen coming. Says he took it on himself to get better. It can't just be the coach's voice harping at guys all the time.
* Listener wants to know who is allowed to shoot from certain points on the court... Pope says there are some guys with skillset and greenlight to shoot it up to 6 feet behind the NBA range. That forces teams to cover more territory defensively. A guy who can shoot it at 27 feet vs. a guy who can shoot it at 23 feet changes the entire dynamic of what the defense has to do. If all your 3s are coming with toes on the line, it gives the defense a big advantage.
* Caller wants to know if they want to use Amari and Brandon together at times... Pope says yes, you saw that a couple of times vs. SC. Having that dynamic could be crucial down the stretch this season.
* Asked about Kerr Kriisa, Pope says he heard social media buzzing about Kerr being active in practice today. Pope says he was not practicing today. "He's still a ways away."
* We are hungry for pace, Pope says. We got stymied a bit with our health situation, Kerr and Lamont missing some action. Those are our two best pace guys. Huge responsibility in our system. Teams are doing more backcourt things to try and slow us down as well.
* Saturday was a good night for us. SC is better than people realize. A lot of close losses for them against good teams, so good to win like that. Good to have Lamont back healthy. Bigs played great. Koby Brea played great.
* Caller wants to know if physical teams like Ole Miss and Tennessee are frustrating our offense with the high ball-screen action. Pope said that is somewhat the case when Lamont Butler has not been available. In those times, teams have tried to push them further and further out to start their offense. May need more screens in those situations. We have made progress there.
* Caller asks what he looks for to build a roster from a defensive standpoint. Everyone wants length and athleticism, Pope says. All of us want that, and the game is getting more and more physical, which is surprising. Notes that he was in the NBA when they took away hand-checks, and it was monumental. In the college game, they can still put their hands on you a lot. Even the two-hand contact is not being called.
* Listener wants to know what kind of adjustments you need to make in a rematch with Tennessee... Pope says you can't anticipate playing against the team you played last time. You have to anticipate a team that is looking to take away the things you did well last time. It's the game within the game. Tennessee is really potent on the defensive end of the floor. On offense, they're running some new actions since we played them. We're preparing a different personnel package for that because we have Lamont Butler now.
* Pope says looks like we won't have Jaxson Robinson tomorrow. He added that they'll look again and see before gametime. Leach asks Pope to elaborate on the situation... Says he's similar to Butler. Hopeful to have both. It's a treatment and wait-and-see situation.
* Pope says Koby Brea has really taken huge steps in his defensive focus. Had a great game against South Carolina. Has really kept that focus and intensity up in practice.
* Listener wants to know the biggest difference in UK from his time to now... Pope says the influence of social media. After you played back in the day, you could get away from things and have solitude. These days, when they go back to their room, sometimes it gets the noisiest when they pick up their phone and look at social media.
* Caller wants to know how to keep the players motivated to keep the defense we saw on Saturday going game after game... Pope says his guys have bought in and found some answers where maybe they were not expecting them. Koby Brea being so good in the last game was something he never would have seen coming. Says he took it on himself to get better. It can't just be the coach's voice harping at guys all the time.
* Listener wants to know who is allowed to shoot from certain points on the court... Pope says there are some guys with skillset and greenlight to shoot it up to 6 feet behind the NBA range. That forces teams to cover more territory defensively. A guy who can shoot it at 27 feet vs. a guy who can shoot it at 23 feet changes the entire dynamic of what the defense has to do. If all your 3s are coming with toes on the line, it gives the defense a big advantage.
* Caller wants to know if they want to use Amari and Brandon together at times... Pope says yes, you saw that a couple of times vs. SC. Having that dynamic could be crucial down the stretch this season.
* Asked about Kerr Kriisa, Pope says he heard social media buzzing about Kerr being active in practice today. Pope says he was not practicing today. "He's still a ways away."
* We are hungry for pace, Pope says. We got stymied a bit with our health situation, Kerr and Lamont missing some action. Those are our two best pace guys. Huge responsibility in our system. Teams are doing more backcourt things to try and slow us down as well.
