Pope: "I don't want to foul my own guys out."

[FutureCity]

Coach Pope talks to the fans as he does because he genuinely does view the whole program as a combination of Coaches, the players, and the fans. He's talking to his fellow Big Blue Family during the press conferences. If he thinks he made a bad decision during a game he'll say so and explain why he thought it was a good idea at the time. It's a situation that no other program has. It's very refreshing after listening to Cal talk circles around everything and never saying anything. Pope is real. He tells it to the fans just like he would tell it to his brother.

 

[runt#69]

I’m impressed by his humility and candor.

Self introspection isn't something that can be easily taught to oneself, either.

I finally feel like we can actually talk about basketball candidly around here.

How refreshing! 😁

Go figure

 

[megablue]

They should have changed it to 6 fouls a long time ago. College officiating is ass.

100000% this ^^^^

 

[gbl97]

Pretty simple, if a guy picks up his 3rd foul in the first half, he now has to play most of the second half with the mindset that he can't touch anyone, especially on the road. We got called for every touch foul and Pope knows Lamont is an aggressive defender.

In that situation, you sit Lamont, maybe play him a few possessions after some rest, but you absolutely cannot allow him to pick up a 3rd foul in the first half. You just screwed yourself if he does.

In my mind, your best players have to make it to at least the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half before getting a 3rd foul, especially in a game where the refs are calling every touch foul (unless you're Clemson's best rebounder).

But in my mind, it worked fine, we had the lead multiple times in the 2nd half, we blew it, because we didn't rebound, make free throws or make open shots.

This is a reasonable argument for sitting the guy with 2 fouls -- he will be tentative on defense, trying not to pick up another foul.

However, even if Lamont were tentative on defense:

a) wouldn't it be worth it to have him running the offense?
b) maybe his tentative defense is still better than Kerr?

 

[Digger-Cat]

This is a reasonable argument for sitting the guy with 2 fouls -- he will be tentative on defense, trying not to pick up another foul.

However, even if Lamont were tentative on defense:

a) wouldn't it be worth it to have him running the offense?
b) maybe his tentative defense is still better than Kerr?

In a physical game against a team full of seniors that know how to draw fouls, it's risky.
But also, yeah, it's definitely great to have Lamont running the offense, but he still has to defend. If I'm Clemson, I'm driving the ball at him on every possession.
Getting a 3rd foul on him in the 1st half, would be huge for them.
I just think you lean on your other guys to do their jobs.
I think so many people are being critical of the 2 foul rule, but the second Lamont picks up his 3rd foul in the first half, they're going to see why that was a bad idea.
Remember, Lamont picked up his 3rd foul right away in the 2nd half, could you imagine if that was his 4th, because Pope rolled the dice with him in the 1st half? It's game over at that point.
I'm a big fan of the 2 foul rule.

 

[AJG-15]

It seems at times Pope is overthinking instead of going with instinct. He has the ability to make in game adjustments which is very important like we saw against Duke and second half against Clemson.
At Clemson he mentioned something about balancing out call playing vs letting the guys making decision which slowed us down in the 10-0 and 10-2 runs that Clemson had.

To me the biggest surprise is Robinson. He is better defensively than I thought but less efficient offensively, which has to do with his handles and avoidance of contact , which I think makes him less confident. Also he seems more of quiet guy. I would like him to be more assertive on play calling as it seems that role is taking over by Butler and Carr.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

"One of the things that every coach struggles with is you never want to foul your own guy out. And I probably did that a little bit with Andrew tonight. Probably needed to play him with two fouls in the first half. I probably could have done a little bit more with Lamont. Late in the first half, I made what turned out to be a very poor miscalculation. We had gone on a little run and so I went small thinking that I could save (Carr) and save Ansley (Almonor) a second, and that went really bad. In hindsight, maybe I roll the dice and play those guys a little bit more in the first half. That'll be something we'll argue about and have no answer for. Philosophically, I don't want to foul my own guys out."

Credit to Coach Pope for recognizing sometimes you need to play your guys even when they're in foul trouble. I can't count how many times Cal "fouled his own guy out" in the first half and we never recovered.

Also, his humility to own his mistakes and learn from them is refreshing.

Post game press conference (247 Sports)

Tough call because that game refs seemed ready to blow the whistle on us for anything while letting them get away with murder. Especially with their big man flopping everywhere and creating loads of contact.

He left guys in vs duke but their big basically presented no offensive threat other than a roll guy.

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

Think Pope coached a bad game, but I still support him 110%. Let's learn and move on.

Probably the most hostile environment of Pope's coaching career, given the Duke game was on a neutral court with tons of UK fans supporting the team. If he admitted he got a tad bit rattled there, I wouldn't blame him. In-game decisions are hard enough without the chaos. He'll get better from it, too.

 

[Digger-Cat]

I think we have to remember, Coach Pope is not a grey beard when it comes to coaching, we knew there was going to be a learning curve, which is why a lot of fans didn't want him initially. He just doesn't have a lot of time in and he's going to learn some hard lessons too. I think he just did and I'm good with that.

 

[bradyjames]

"One of the things that every coach struggles with is you never want to foul your own guy out. And I probably did that a little bit with Andrew tonight. Probably needed to play him with two fouls in the first half. I probably could have done a little bit more with Lamont. Late in the first half, I made what turned out to be a very poor miscalculation. We had gone on a little run and so I went small thinking that I could save (Carr) and save Ansley (Almonor) a second, and that went really bad. In hindsight, maybe I roll the dice and play those guys a little bit more in the first half. That'll be something we'll argue about and have no answer for. Philosophically, I don't want to foul my own guys out."

Credit to Coach Pope for recognizing sometimes you need to play your guys even when they're in foul trouble. I can't count how many times Cal "fouled his own guy out" in the first half and we never recovered.

Also, his humility to own his mistakes and learn from them is refreshing.

Post game press conference (247 Sports)

I truly love the guy. He has reasons for what he does. He is going to make mistakes but I can live with that 100%.

Just a good human being with some sense.