Remember NIL that many teams have as much as we do, will eliminate any one team bringing in platoons of studs. It will never be easy again to build a team of studs. Follow the money. Duke, Texas, aTm, FL, Bama, Auburn, UCLA, Louisville, TN, Kansas, and UNC all have deep deep pockets and will be after the same players that we want.
Next year's expectations
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Next year won't be the total remake that this season was. If Qweh returns along with Chandler we have a place to start. I think Pope will look for a bit more athletic/physical type of player. He had to take what he could get this year but I believe he can be more selective based on the season we had, not players first system but a
player friendly system. I think we will get a hard look from several top players in the portal.
As someone else said a 6th place finish in the SEC won't be seen in the same light as it was this year. We got
more mileage out of this group that we should have ,but some building off that success is going to be the expectation going forward. Can Pope back up what he did this season? I think it all comes down to (1) the
players he can get (2) What adjustments ,to his system, he can make based on the way basketball is
played in the SEC. I believe he is smart enough to(dare I say) tweak his style to fit the SEC environment
I think most rational fans realize that KY has fallen behind 3-4 SEC teams who have raised the bar nationally in terms of talent and coaching. Kentucky is behind them. It’s just a reality. And those programs are not gonna regress.
You can’t replace this team similar to last year. Pope must elevate the talent and the physicality, across the board. To compete with the new big boys. Get some pieces who fit and fill gaps, sure, but this can’t be plug and play. Gotta step it up in a big way.
You can’t replace this team similar to last year. Pope must elevate the talent and the physicality, across the board. To compete with the new big boys. Get some pieces who fit and fill gaps, sure, but this can’t be plug and play. Gotta step it up in a big way.
Looks that way, but the SEC teams in the elite 8 all had both experienced returning players plus transfers.
The thing about buying a whole new team and you'll be good is a pipe dream. It takes a team months or even a full year to mesh together.
Sorry, facts are it isn't as simple as go buy the best old player. That works just a little better than let's start 5 freshmen.
But Kentucky bought a whole brand new team before this season and turned out to be a top 10-15 team. Does that count as being good in your book? Add one or two more pieces to that and you might have a Final Four team. What Pope did was absolutely magical. He also proved that you can get really good really quickly.
But he needs to spend money and get better players for next season.
I see absolutely no team in the EE this year that flipped their roster in 2 months. Can't see why that would be the case. What I see in the EE this year are teams with roster continuity and coaches that have been there long enough to establish that. Next year I expect us to be really good again and have another season under our belt toward getting that continuity. We had to build the program back from an absolute gutting. Putting a competitive sweet 16 team together in a month should bode well for next year as CMP will have a few returnees and learn from not having the physicality and size we need to compete for the SEC title. Keep in mind all of the teams we finished behind are losing most of their key guys. I expect the SEC to not be anywhere near as good next year.
Would love a large upgrade in talent but not sure that will happen.
However something I would like to see regardless of the roster is a team ready to play. We had numerous games this year were we came out lackadaisical
However something I would like to see regardless of the roster is a team ready to play. We had numerous games this year were we came out lackadaisical
