I’m confused. Are you arguing with your alternate personality here?
Temper Your Expectations
- Thread starter BucN1Cat
- Start date
This isn’t a top 10 roster, idk where people are getting that from at all. This is a top 20-45 team that could turn into what byu/scar were last year. A team that will play extremely hard but is limited because they don’t have a true first option
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How about pope wins a tourney game first and then we can go from there. Go look at the college basketball landscape this year, this Kentucky roster is not a top ten roster and I don’t think they will be a top 10 team by years end. And no I’m not a cal guy, I never was, but let’s be honest with ourselves here. This roster isn’t close to the top teams at all, and that’s okay it’s year one under a new regime. Year one, be competitive, win a couple of big games, and see what happens in the tourney(win a game)
I honestly believe with how tough the SEC is it's a ludicrous and unfair expectation to hold that Kentucky should win every game in Rupp this year and sets Pope up for failure.
I do believe in accountability and feel Mark Pope should be held to a standard this year but that standard should not be to do something Kentucky hasn't done in over five years and that I don't believe any team did last year.
Expectations and accountability are good things but let's keep them in the realm of not just possibility but reasonableness.
I do believe in accountability and feel Mark Pope should be held to a standard this year but that standard should not be to do something Kentucky hasn't done in over five years and that I don't believe any team did last year.
Expectations and accountability are good things but let's keep them in the realm of not just possibility but reasonableness.
I’d rather have Lamont Butler as PG than the latest 18 year old, 5 star Freshman. I’d rather have Jaxson Robinson pulling up for a crucial 3 pointer than another 18 year old playing for NBA draft position. I’d rather have a hungry and focused Mark Pope managing the roster than another past their prime coach that any Division 2 manager can out game plan.
I believe this is a deep and experienced roster with several good to great shooters. I believe we have the best defensive back court and the deepest bench in America and I believe Mark Pope is going to do great things here- starting in year one.
I'm pretty sure that we will go approximately 25-7, be a 2 or 3 seed, and make at least the second weekend of the tournament.
Pope did a good job putting the roster together given the circumstances and time he had. I think they are one guy short, but pope deserves credit for the job he did in a short time. Given what a lot of the other teams in college basketball have, I just don’t see this roster being a major challenger for anything. Will still be a very fun and competitive team.
Tempering expectations would serve many quite well. Leading up to BBM, what did we hear from multiple sources? "These guys don't miss!" What did I watch with my own two eyes at BBM that night? A ton of misses from 3-pt range, wide open shots no less. Shit's different with 23,000 fans watching you. I doubt we've got a bunch of Josh Carrier and Jules Camara types out there, but I didn't really see anything that inspired me to believe this team is a Final Four contender .... yet.
I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don't think this is realistic. I'd be over the moon if this was reality.
Look at it mathematically. On average we win 78% of our games home away and neutral or about 4 out of every 5 games. At Rupp we have a 90% home winning percentage so we win 9 out of 10 games in Rupp. We should go 17-1 in our 18 home games and 10-3 in the other road and neutral games. That's roughly for a AVERAGE UK team to go 27-4. I said 25-6/26-5 and that's under what our average winning % is all-time and accounting for our rough schedule by adding 1 or 2 additional losses. No I will not turn against Pope unless it's totally clear he shouldn't be our coach but I don't think that will be the situation.
I don’t know why this isn’t the normal expectation around here. This is Kentucky. And regardless if it’s his first year or not shouldn’t matter, with the transfer portal the way it is lots of teams have to start over with new players every season. I’m not expecting a national championship or final 4 but I think he put together a decent roster and I’m excited to see what he can do with it. Think he’ll do a good job
I think not having a true PG will hurt us in the long run. Maybe not, but ball distribution will be paramount
Maybe but in pope’s system I don’t think ball distribution and movement will be a problem. Plus Kriisa could fill that role he’s averaged 5 assists every year but his freshman year
Ok we get it. You’ve said it and said it and said it, that being at least 3 times in this thread alone. You don’t have to keep saying it.
Where on any on my posts did it say “ ccukuk please respond” newsflash it didn’t. Take the gatekeeping crap away and move on.
Please tell me that my expectations are not too much. top 3 finish in the sec, and 20+ wins for the season.
I do not believe that a guy who won a championship as a player, ends up 6th or worse in the conference as a first year coach.
And really the supporting cast, is just as important as any one person in this program....
I do not believe that a guy who won a championship as a player, ends up 6th or worse in the conference as a first year coach.
And really the supporting cast, is just as important as any one person in this program....
Well the way of a message board being I can respond as I choose, as you did. And how bout you quit repeatedly spewing the same same crap from your mouth making the message board experience better for us.
I think most of this is fair, but winning EVERY game at home probably is not happening. But some of those tossup games should cover a few home losses. I thin the plus or minus here is 3. Could get 3 more wins or 3 more losses.
the important issue isn't that Pope knows the assignment
its that he has taught the players the assignment.
We haven't seen that in quite awhile.
The Kentucky players stepping on the court will be prepared and focused to win. I believe that 100%
UK fans can tolerate players making mistakes as long as they grow. What UK fans can't tolerate is a team that isn't prepared or is intentionally put in a position to not maximize winning.
Whatever the record is this year, we'll know the coach and the players did all they could to win.
If you believed that has happened with Kentucky in the past 5 years, you haven't been paying attention
its that he has taught the players the assignment.
We haven't seen that in quite awhile.
The Kentucky players stepping on the court will be prepared and focused to win. I believe that 100%
UK fans can tolerate players making mistakes as long as they grow. What UK fans can't tolerate is a team that isn't prepared or is intentionally put in a position to not maximize winning.
Whatever the record is this year, we'll know the coach and the players did all they could to win.
If you believed that has happened with Kentucky in the past 5 years, you haven't been paying attention
I haven't read the entire thread but here are my thoughts on expectations:
Pope put together a very balanced roster in a short span of time, he seems to have assembled a group of role players and few (if any) superstars. Most teams need a "bell cow" when the game is on the line, we will have to wait for that player to emerge.
I think there is sufficient talent that we can compete every time we take the court. we have an abundance of maturity(something we haven't had lately) I expect will be a better team on day one than we have been in recent years.
Finally as to expectations (in terms of wins and losses) I don't think we can plug in numbers at this point .I expect we will play an entertaining style of basketball ,which will look similar to what we saw for most of the season last year. I expect our best players to be on the court when the game begins instead of sitting on the bench. I expect more bench coaching instead of "go make a play" or "gooo" and runnn"
Pope put together a very balanced roster in a short span of time, he seems to have assembled a group of role players and few (if any) superstars. Most teams need a "bell cow" when the game is on the line, we will have to wait for that player to emerge.
I think there is sufficient talent that we can compete every time we take the court. we have an abundance of maturity(something we haven't had lately) I expect will be a better team on day one than we have been in recent years.
Finally as to expectations (in terms of wins and losses) I don't think we can plug in numbers at this point .I expect we will play an entertaining style of basketball ,which will look similar to what we saw for most of the season last year. I expect our best players to be on the court when the game begins instead of sitting on the bench. I expect more bench coaching instead of "go make a play" or "gooo" and runnn"
20+ wins is more than reasonable in the era of playing so many games. I think the old 20-win benchmark was surpassed long ago.
Ha, yep. I think Cal tried too hard to do random stuff with his teams to try and take the pressure off the big tournament games. He always talked about taking the team bowling and doing other random stuff in front of big games. It's always hard to know for sure but think he was too focused on other stuff and not enough focused on specific game prep with his teams.
There are ebbs and flows to every season. There will be times when we talk about how we look like a Top 5 team, there will be moments when a lot of people will say that Pope is a disaster and when will Barnhart be held responsible. Bottom line is that post-season is all that matters. Overachieve there and everything else gets forgiven.
2014 in hindsight, was a great season but at one point in late February everyone was writing the season off and that we were going to a 2nd straight NIT and Cal needed to go. Tubby's 2003 and 2004 teams were great but the failure to make the Final Four ruins it, last year ending the season with thrashing UT in Knoxville, a Top 5 team made everyone think we were on the verge of greatness but went out with a total disaster.
Older fans may remember our 1993 Final Four team was sputtering at the end of the regular season because Vandy won the SEC regular season , we lost again to Arkansas and had a loss to losing record UT team. A lot of people were saying it wasn't as good a team as the Unforgettables the year before. Then the SEC tournament started , we beat UT by 61 points and up until the Final Four loss to Michigan, we looked like the best team in the country and that's how everyone remembers it now
2014 in hindsight, was a great season but at one point in late February everyone was writing the season off and that we were going to a 2nd straight NIT and Cal needed to go. Tubby's 2003 and 2004 teams were great but the failure to make the Final Four ruins it, last year ending the season with thrashing UT in Knoxville, a Top 5 team made everyone think we were on the verge of greatness but went out with a total disaster.
Older fans may remember our 1993 Final Four team was sputtering at the end of the regular season because Vandy won the SEC regular season , we lost again to Arkansas and had a loss to losing record UT team. A lot of people were saying it wasn't as good a team as the Unforgettables the year before. Then the SEC tournament started , we beat UT by 61 points and up until the Final Four loss to Michigan, we looked like the best team in the country and that's how everyone remembers it now
Wut? I haven't seen great expectations... but he will still get bashed if we lose games we shouldn't; or he makes big coaching blunders.
and I think he will be the first to say he deserves the criticism, instead of deflecting it off
you see people have similar mindsets and repeat themselves multiple times on here everyday but you choose mine as the one that’s the line. Like you said I can respond to people like you can, nobody told your ass to respond to mine, you choose to do that and act like a prick because I said something you disagree with. I’m sure you repeat yourself multiple times on here to, but that would actually require some self-awareness on your end to notice.
This is where I get lost. There are a lot of dudes on this roster that were the second or third best player on avg-bad teams. Or dudes that were the best player on low major teams. And a couple of 3 star frosh and one that hasn't played in two years. I think the ceiling is this, but I don't think that's the paper version of the team. In fact, I think what you put there is as likely as a few games over .500 and in danger of missing the tournament (which I see as the floor). Honestly, on paper, it's about a 22ish win team and about a 4-6 seed in the tourney.
We must be looking at different papers then. Even the media, whom hasn’t always been kind to UK, unanimously have them top 15-25. 500 teams don’t rank top 25.
On paper I see things much differently also. No we don't have a roster like Duke who has a supposed superstar Cooper Flagg or Gonzaga who returned 4 starters, 4 reserve's and 2 great transfers. We play them both so we shall see if a "superstar" or bunch of returners matter against us. What I do see is we have 6 players who have played 4 years already, one player who played 3 years, one who played 2 years and one who played 1 year. That's 30 year's of college basketball played between our top 9 players. Means they are veteran battle tested players have a last go around and wanna go out with a bang. 7 of those 9 scored in double figures last year almost 8 of 9 Butler 9.3ppg. We have 9 guys who can score double figures every game if needed. Between the 9 guys they scored 106 points per game last year. Got several of the better 3 point shooters in portal from last year in Brea, Robinson, Carr and Kriisa. Got several really good defenders in the portal in Butler, Oweh and Williams. Got a coach who knows how to coach and has a ton of energy to rub off on players. I think everything as a whole were a top 15 team. If the chemistry is there and we get a couple x factor games from a fresh or even one of the 9 upperclassmen we could be a great team by March.
It was obviously a light hearted joke. Sheesh. But take your own advice here if that's how you feel.
I read some of these while on break from reading multiple complaints at my job from workers and tech staff( HR & cyber security is what I do) and sometimes I get them overlapped, so apologies for being a prick on my end
No worries. I appreciate that. Very few people apologize these days.
I think most of us are expecting a high-water mark of about 25 wins, with a reasonable floor of 21-23 wins.
Playing in the SEC doesn't help. The conference is absolutely loaded this season.
if they were 5 star good, they would go to the NBA, not be in the portal looking for an upgrade. Everyone is contending with that
There's a wide gap from "5 star good" and the second or third best player on bad or just okay teams. A player doesn't really have to be considered one or the other. Think about this, Chandler was a 5 start two years ago. Barely a 5 star, btw. He hasn't played for two years. He's probably going to get top 7 minutes. That worries me. It doesn't mean they can't be good. It doesn't mean they can't be top 25 or top 10. I'm just not blindly optimistic.
I think when there 3ball is falling, the can play with anybody. If it's not falling, they can lose to almost anybody. I think they will be solid defensively. But will struggle with really athletic teams!
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