Great start to the Pope era. We are going to get even better players and build on this. We will have more athletic guys to run Pope’s system. By year 3 of Pope we will have Alabama’s athleticism in our system. We couldn’t stay healthy but ran into UT playing out of their mind tonight.
The Future is Bright
- Thread starter bowfreak
- Start date
Cal made it to the Elite Eight his first year with his style. Make Pope made it to the Sweet Sixteen in his first year with his style. Tonight was unacceptable. No gameplan
I guess if you can pay the best portal guys a million or so you might get some decent players. It COULD happen…..
It's going to be weird to have a coach that tries to convince guys to stay. Been a long time.
If we cant pay them to come maybe we can make up some worthless degree where they dont have to even show up online or at school for class to graduate.
What a dumb post.
Cal had a returning Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins (plus Harris, Stevenson, etc. for depth), he had Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton were already committed here, etc. and had no transfer portal to go up against.
All Cal had to do was bring in 2 guys from his existing recruiting class (Wall & Cousins) and he was just about set.
And he got to face Cornell in the Sweet Sixteen.
Pope had ZERO returning players, was a month behind in the portal, etc., lost our "best player" and backup PG for the year, lost our starting PG and PF for long stretches of the year, etc.
Cal won 4 top-15 games in his first year.
Pope won 8 top-15 games in his first year.
Dumb, reactionary post.
I think he may be telling Perry to leave. He is recruiting every point guard available in the portal and Perry did not play tonight. Jmo
That was his style tho? You all wanted seniors and experience... This what ya get. 8 top 15 wins doesn't add up to that Elite Eight
What has Cal's style done for him the last 10 years?
If Pope had been given 3 first round draft picks that he didn't have to lift a finger for (Patterson, Bledsoe, & Orton), maybe it would have been different. Nothing to do with Cal's style.
You trying to compare the 2 situations is a joke.
kjuk we had robinson injured. why don't you go support coach cal at arkansas? Cal had 100x more talent on teams and still failed. Bunch of bandwagon fans who only like us when we win or love to comment when we lose. Go root for arkansas or louisville please.
If you are going to make a comparison, compare Pope Year 1 to BCG Year 1.
When Cal arrived, we were getting what many considered to be the best coach in the game at the time. He had already taken Memphis to the final game & UMass very deep in the tournament. Add to that, he was a master recruiter. I’d argue that Cal underachieved year 1 at UK. Demarcus cousins, John Wall, PPat, Eric Bledsoe, etc and couldn’t get it done?
BCG was considered an up & coming coach based on upsetting U of L in the tournament. Beyond that, it was kind of a shock hire. Much more similar to Pope.
He needs too, we aren’t winning at a high level playing him many minutes. Sorry but a backcourt like Dent, Lewis, Johnson, Oweh is what we need. We missed on Dent, now we need need to see who else enters and where we can pivot. We have a good foundation. We need some baller front court players too.
Hey nube, wrong board.
Acting like losing to Tennessee for the first time in the tournament by double digits is a success. Gtfo
How good are the players we have coming next year and what kind of talent will Pope reap from the portal?
We lost in the sweet 16 with two players injured and proably 3 banged up. GO ROOT FOR ARKANSAS. Dipshit. We beat them twice in the hardest sec ever this year. TN who returned players from the team before. Pope coached a team full of teams on small teams to the sweet 16. Your biggest accomplishment is flipping 5 burgers at mcdonalds.
Just a dumb@ass comment
Cal got beat by an average West Virginia team. He should have won a championship with that team.
Still made it 1 more game in the tourny. Don't get mad at me for stating facts. I just don't wanna revert to the Tubby days
Definitely some things to be excited about, but also some things that are concerning imo. The lack of focusing on a coherent defensive game plan and the lack of rebounding have followed him at every coaching stop. Not having a team give consistent effort was a new one. Hopefully that improves with more athletic players, but we’ll see.
Facts are subjective, Calipari got hired a lot earlier then Pope did, which allowed him more options. He had more talented players in his first year, and should have done more with that team. Pope had less time, and less options after getting hired later, he had a lot less talent, and had injuries all year long, and still made it to the Sweet 16. He was more successful this year, then Calipari was his first year, regardless of Calipari making it a whole game deeper in the tournament
I respect your opinion. Pope did not have the same success in their first years, respectively. I thought experience trumped talent.. That X and O gameplan was dog ish tonight. We shall see how Pope does. I'm obviously rooting for him
With the fluidity of the portal today, why can't we have that type of athleticism in Year 2? I mean this is Kentucky after all.
Cal inherited Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton, Darius Miller, Josh Harrelson, DeAndre Liggins, Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris to go along with Cousins and Dodson who were committed to play for Memphis. He added Wall and Bledsoe after he was hired.
Pope inherited Walker Horn, Grant Darbyshire and a commitment from Travis Perry.
These situations are totally the same!
Cal convinced them to stay and stay committed!! Times change but give me Talent > experience/seniors after tonight.
You really think that given Cal took all his recruits and Pope had a month or so to build this team, that he's a lousy coach? Even Rupp didn't start winning right off the bat if my memory serves. You're not being realistic. Pope took what he could get at the time and we were a top twenty team at full strength. I don't think we got a decent whistle tonight either. That block on Carr was a foul. On replay he had his hand and arm smacked, but no whistle. A few plays like that made it worse, far worse IMO. They were by far the better team today, but the margin was a bit inflated.
Today stage was too bright for our coach …
Hopefully , our NIl offers will buy also some sunglasses , different from the blue tinted ones, so we don’t get blinded by our bright future,.
Hopefully , our NIl offers will buy also some sunglasses , different from the blue tinted ones, so we don’t get blinded by our bright future,.
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Tough night for the cats. It just wasn't our night. I hate it, but it happens. This team and Pope have healed a lot of BBN. Sucks that some of our fans really are just asshats, but I'm thankful for the season and I know we have the right man leading us.
To begin with no roster year 1 and build a team in Spring then lose one of your best players, Jrob for the year with Kerr already out for the year. Then Carr and Butler struggle with injuries a good while and accomplish what this team did in the toughest league ever was nothing short of amazing. We finished the year with 1 PG with one arm.
Sucks now. But, the future is bright.
To begin with no roster year 1 and build a team in Spring then lose one of your best players, Jrob for the year with Kerr already out for the year. Then Carr and Butler struggle with injuries a good while and accomplish what this team did in the toughest league ever was nothing short of amazing. We finished the year with 1 PG with one arm.
Sucks now. But, the future is bright.
No. I never said he was a lousy coach! I like Pope, but I think he's in over his head! He and his staff had an abysmal game plan for the game today. I'm wrong on some things but I'm not wrong about that.
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