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The Journey - Champion's Classic

Well done. You see Pope reading the game, knowing the ISO was coming and the spin from Flagg. You see the ability to get the objective out there to a group of vets and those guys going out and doing it. Love this video package.
Yes and I absolutely loved Pope's halftime speech! Not yelling at the players or being negative. Just being positive and giving them clear instructions on how they can be better in the second half.
 
Are you kidding me with that halftime talk Pope gave? Absolutely unreal. Dude just walks in and breaks down the minutia of everything and his brain works so fast it’s hard just to keep pace with him.

Then he tells the team EXACTLY what they are going to do to fix it - BUT - the team is so damn well coached THEY ALREADY KNOW.

Just unreal. We ended up with the perfect coach for Kentucky basketball.
 
Garrison played so amazing second half, Kerr Kriisa brought some crazy energy and that 3 was huge. Otega, Butler, and all of them played some crazy defense. I love how we always break it down into 4 minute sections like we gonna bring it all game baby! Oh and Jaxson Robinson had maybe his worst offensive game he will have here and still found multiple ways to contribute and he was just as happy at the end as anyone. That’s a true team player.
 
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Yes and I absolutely loved Pope's halftime speech! Not yelling at the players or being negative. Just being positive and giving them clear instructions on how they can be better in the second half.
He is a leader and a teacher, I see nothing about this man that leads me to believe he will fail here. Ever time I see this dude he impresses me more. Get him the resources and the right players and I don’t see how we can’t do huge things. That coaching at the end of the game about Flagg was some of the best coaching work I’ve seen here in 20 years.
 
Pope continues to impress me, he KNEW that it was gonna be Flagg, he was gonna spin into the lane and had our guys ready to strip him
The amazing thing is that's a coach's read in advance that is eerily similar to one he described Larry Bird doing way back in April in his first radio show with Tom Leach. Man, the chills this season is giving me.
 
X Men Running GIF
 
I mean cmon coach. Are you kidding me?! Paraphrasing but When we get cooper on iso. He starts to work. We need a body right there when he starts to spin. Two hands take the ball.

Dead on. I mean dead freaking on.

The level that Pope talks and teaches at is so far above Calipari I can’t even believe it. I know Cal’s methods were way different but he pinpoints the problems and shows how to fix the. Quickly where Cal always had 4-5 things he wanted to do whether it cost us the game or not.

I loved one other key point he made... "when you go for the strip, go hard or don't go...go with 2 hands because they are less likely to call a foul" than when you swipe with one hand



Now I'm worried b/c the last coach use to always scream "2 hands", too!

Of course, it was lacking the incredible detail and scouting of when/where to go with 2 hands, so maybe there's a slight difference?? 😆
 
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I loved one other key point he made... "when you go for the strip, go hard or don't go...go with 2 hands because they are less likely to call a foul" than when you swipe with one hand



Now I'm worried b/c the last coach use to always scream "2 hands", too!

Of course, it was lacking the incredible detail and scouting of when/where to go with 2 hands, so maybe there's a slight difference?? 😆
The only time I remember Cal screaming about 2 hands was rebounding but we were the most gambling and swiping defense with him because he didn’t teach them how to properly guard ball screens. Plus he switches everything all game no matter what. Pope is so far above him on a technical level it’s crazy. That’s probably why Cal is always screaming because he doesn’t know how to properly teach kids to do what he wants.
 
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He and the staff are so smart, it’s definitely something I wouldn’t have expected from the last staff. Or atleast the latter part of the his time here, maybe the first part years yes.
 
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The only time I remember Cal screaming about 2 hands was rebounding but we were the most gambling and swiping defense with him because he didn’t teach them how to properly guard ball screens. Plus he switches everything all game no matter what. Pope is so far above him on a technical level it’s crazy. That’s probably why Cal is always screaming because he doesn’t know how to properly teach kids to do what he wants.

Yeah, I know Cal talked about 2 hands on rebounds... I was just having fun with the not-so-similar comparison.

I'm pretty sarcastic by nature, and the drastic difference b/t Cal & Pope has just unleashed it in a major way...just too much low hanging fruit. 😁
 
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Yeah, I know Cal talked about 2 hands on rebounds... I was just having fun with the not-so-similar comparison.

I'm pretty sarcastic by nature, and the drastic difference b/t Cal & Pope has just unleashed it in a major way...just too much low hanging fruit. 😁
Ah ok I didn’t know if he actually said that about steals or not.
 
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