Silly to judge a team thats missing 3 of its top 6 players. Even dumber to judge the coach.
No QB, no back up QB and no back up to the backup
- Thread starter Cold Stout Beer
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We had 2 starters out. It is what it is.
Idk n what universe Kerr was top 6 but that's beside the point.
Idk n what universe Kerr was top 6 but that's beside the point.
And yet had a 5 point lead with under 4 mins to go. Super Impressive. Super disappointing. Both can be true.
Disappointment is very fair. Saying we stink, the coach stinks, etc is laughable 3rd grade stuff..
Add Carr to that list. Assuming you thought Kerr would be better than Ansley and the 3 freshmen, that’s finishing that game without 4 of your expected 8 best players.
That 5 point lead, despite not having your 2 best players, and having a chance to win it speaks more about this team and it's coach than them not winning it in the end. Perry is the 4th option at PG and Oweh, the 5th option, is no f-ing PG whatsoever. Having to use your Center as a main ballhandler works until crunch time. Its not who you rely on if the other 3 are in the game.
Yep. Amazing that we were even in a position to win.
Well said . I’m proud of both coach and players
Too much infighting for me. It’s a divisive board and that stinks. Two sides that are suppose to be kindred brothers and just have to go at it after a win or after a loss just to puff their chest and say haha. That’s 3rd grade as well to me. But it won’t change.
Even crazier when you consider we were 3-21 from 3 if you get rid of the two(Perry and Oweh) we made when the game was over with like 30 secs left and the fluke Amari make.
3-21 from a 3 point shooting team and still had a chance in a quad 1A game. Granted Texas is flawed and was missing Kaluma(Mark stepped up a bit in his absence) but that’s probably more than I would’ve expected.
Someone saying how smart they are for incessant negativity seems way more 3rd grade to me than staying positive, but oh well.
Positive is one thing, doing it vindictively is different imo. And vice versa. But I get it and why it’s important for someone to defend “their turf”. I just hate the division and vitriol for folks that are mostly here for the love of their Cats.
It's hard to even know what Kerr could be with this team, because it's been so long since he played. But I'd say he's safely in the top8. That, coupled with his energy, and the fact that he becomes even that much more important because he'd be our backup PG which we desperately need.. its safe to say he's desperately needed.
100% agreed on top 8.
Jr and butler being out are the main issues but Kerr would have been a nice rotational piece for sure.
Who's saying that?
You create strawmen every game. I just think you like to argue.
It's weird.
Oh it's being said a lot. Digger and Bass in other threads are saying it. I don't think it's the main posters like you or I or others.. but theres a lot of irrational blaming going around.
Pope has done a good job this season. To take a brand new team and compete at the level we have has been solid. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the SEC be this good in basketball. Atleast calipari got to build his team with some guys that had actually played for him and had some chemistry together. Pope wasn’t that fortunate. I hate when we lose games, but the injuries have made it really difficult when we were in a bad situation to begin with considering the amount of time Pope had to construct this roster.
The only thing I question with Pope is why we don’t zone more often now that we’ve had such bad luck with injuries. Maybe he’s tried it in practice and we looked bad, idk….but I just think having two freshman and a few guys that are more skilled then athletic compared to most of our opponents in this conference, that it would be the best way for us to play. And I may be completely wrong in saying that. When we played Arkansas it really frustrated me that we didn’t run zone the majority of that game. I watched every game that Cal coached here and I believe it’s accurate to say that we were upset many times and zone defenses had a lot to do with it. I honestly don’t recall other teams being successful against us running man to man the majority of a game against us. Hell, they may have beat us either way, guess we will never know. I’m not a college basketball coach so I may be completely wrong.
The only thing I question with Pope is why we don’t zone more often now that we’ve had such bad luck with injuries. Maybe he’s tried it in practice and we looked bad, idk….but I just think having two freshman and a few guys that are more skilled then athletic compared to most of our opponents in this conference, that it would be the best way for us to play. And I may be completely wrong in saying that. When we played Arkansas it really frustrated me that we didn’t run zone the majority of that game. I watched every game that Cal coached here and I believe it’s accurate to say that we were upset many times and zone defenses had a lot to do with it. I honestly don’t recall other teams being successful against us running man to man the majority of a game against us. Hell, they may have beat us either way, guess we will never know. I’m not a college basketball coach so I may be completely wrong.
What??? The hell I did. I didn't say anything about pope. What I did say, is we gave the game away and we did.
Don't lie.
Your one of the fans making up dumb shit like Texas is some terrible team. Thank God we have metrics to go off of instead of a fan who simply looks at their w/l column playing in the best conference we've seen in like 40 years.
It's awful irrational takes like this. Some of you treat a loss, that we aren't even favored in, as some huge indictment in the players, coaching, etc.
I don't know how else to tell you, we weren't favored to win this game, mainly because Vegas say we were down 3 players.
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Our fringe fans are a real problem with their expectations and insistence on how "kentucky basketball should be". I swear they'd expect this team to beat the showtime Lakers if they faced off. If you lose a game, everyone sucks apparently.
With 2 payers out and Brea and Carr neither played very good and they needed to have a good game last night.
People constantly come here and say we are going to lose before the game has even started, we’re going to miss the tournament, the coach is terrible, we have no-chance (twice against Tennesse) etc. but I guess thats the good part of the fanbase? Must be since they do as they please with no blowback other than other fans who then have the whistle blown on them for getting sick of it? Yeah I’ll pick my spots here, few and far in between.
It sucks to be in this position but we can't say anything with the injuries. Amazing how hurt we are. I think we would be 9-3 fully healthy.
Where did I say Pope stinks? That was the question.
Also, yes, Texas sucks without Kaluma, that team plays street ball and we had them beat. We lost because we had guys standing around and not going after rebounds and we turned the ball over trying to force plays that weren't there.
These things are true, we gave the game away. But I never said Pope stinks, which is what you said.
No, the question was a general ask of why posters were saying, and I quote "why the team stinks, the coach stinks, etc".. its an entire tone for some of you.
And I'll ask this a 2nd time.. if Texas gets a pass to "suck" without ONE of their best players, do we get the same treatment when we're without THREE of our top players? How come you discredit Texas ability when they're injured but not us? It's hypocritical. Every team is going to take a big step back for every rotational player they lose.. and we lost 3.
You're not understanding. We lost the game in the last 3 minutes because guys got lazy and careless.
Texas sucks and we gave them the game. We are a shell of ourselves without Butler and Robinson and that's understandable, but it doesn't mean it's okay to play lazy and careless.
Is it laziness or is the team lost playing out of their roles? Or is it a little bit of both even?
The fact is, when you have 3 players out (and a 4th who fouled out).. everyone's responsibility shifts up. Backups become starters, 3rd stringers are now backups. A PF no longer has a capable Center for paint help, etc etc.. and you just can't feasibly expect every single player in this situation to just step into that role without any hiccups. Especially if that new role has added responsibilities such as a SG being the primary ball handler. I watched FAR more miscues, mistakes and overmatched players than I did just "laziness".
For sure, we didn't execute down the stretch. A lot of dumb mistakes. But.. that's what's going to happen when you ask maybe too much of a freshman player when they aren't ready. I just don't get how you can expect much more from a team that Vegas already expected to lose. The roster last night might not even be worth being at some mid-majors.. so yo expect to beat top35 Texas at their home (with or without their injury) was a tall order.
The fact is, when you have 3 players out (and a 4th who fouled out).. everyone's responsibility shifts up. Backups become starters, 3rd stringers are now backups. A PF no longer has a capable Center for paint help, etc etc.. and you just can't feasibly expect every single player in this situation to just step into that role without any hiccups. Especially if that new role has added responsibilities such as a SG being the primary ball handler. I watched FAR more miscues, mistakes and overmatched players than I did just "laziness".
For sure, we didn't execute down the stretch. A lot of dumb mistakes. But.. that's what's going to happen when you ask maybe too much of a freshman player when they aren't ready. I just don't get how you can expect much more from a team that Vegas already expected to lose. The roster last night might not even be worth being at some mid-majors.. so yo expect to beat top35 Texas at their home (with or without their injury) was a tall order.
Common theme to most of our losses: the other team needs the win worse than we do. We haven’t had our backs against the wall. We have been been projected to be comfortably in the tourney all season. Just about every game we have lost, the opponent has come in to the game with something to prove, or on a bad losing streak, or on the bubble. We haven’t had that kind of desperation very often (at UT and vs. SCAR were two of our best games and it was after two straight losses and we played with a sense of urgency).
So, the point is, this team has to be able to match the emotion and intensity with these lower rated teams before we can beat them. They are playing for their lives, while we are just playing to keep or maybe improve our seed line.
I just hope that by the time we get to March we aren’t so use to folding when teams play “life or death” basketball against us that we can’t match their intensity because we have rarely played in “must win” games. Need to treat every game from now on out like it’s a tourney game.
So, the point is, this team has to be able to match the emotion and intensity with these lower rated teams before we can beat them. They are playing for their lives, while we are just playing to keep or maybe improve our seed line.
I just hope that by the time we get to March we aren’t so use to folding when teams play “life or death” basketball against us that we can’t match their intensity because we have rarely played in “must win” games. Need to treat every game from now on out like it’s a tourney game.
I agree with earlier comments regarding the hand pope is dealing with. The only somewhat reliable players we had were otega and Williams to an extent. That is simply not enough. If brea or almonor did jack we probably win that game, that is how close we came. Carr is a shell of himself because of his back. What is that old audio of rupp reaching down into the bag looking for players, lol
Still should won the game. Controlled the game for 36 mins with who we had on the court without those guys and was up 5 and just complete collapse the final 4 mins with tons of mistakes over and over.
It been 1 thing to be down all game but clearly they had enough to win this game based on their play the first 36 mins
It been 1 thing to be down all game but clearly they had enough to win this game based on their play the first 36 mins
Thats what I'm saying. Texas is not a good team and our guys had control, but that last 3 minutes was a total sh*tshow. We snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Pope had a great gamrplan and it worked, bit it required the guys to play with intelligence and effort, that didn't happen the last 3 minutes.
Is it possible that Texas was the one who wasnt playing well for the first 36 and was able to dig deep in crunch time to win? Or, is it possible we were playing over our heads for those 36 minutes?
Sometimes a team plays well because the other team doesn't execute. You could say that happened to us in the final 3 minutes.. but you could say it happened to Texas for the first 30.
Texas and UK are separated by just 15 spots in Kenpom. And 14 spots in NET. As the rosters current stand, they likely have more talent than us abd a better team. You could argue it was only a matter of time before Texas, playing at home mind you, was going to force it's will upon Kentucky and come out on top.
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Based on the play of the first 36 minutes its easy to see why they lost. UK should have ran them out of their gym. Instead because they weren't playing all that well and missing our 2 best playmakers they only managed to build a 2 possession lead.
Or maybe we were playing well beyond our means and were very lucky to have that lead and not having a PG finally caught up with us?
We literally turned the ball over and refused to even try to get rebounds.
You're making up excuses like we are some low level program.
The effort Brea and Almonor put in at the end of the game, was really poor. They stood there and watched Texas rebound balls and stick them in the bucket.
We had guys doing things you don't do when you want to win games.
Williams, Noah, Oweh and Perry were giving what they had, but the rest mailed it in when they needed to play smart.
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