This ones on Pope..

[JwUKFan11]

Putting Noah in the game down 2, with a minute left was one of the most laughable coaching decisions in UK history. Completely unforgivable.

Noah had nothing to do with Butler trying to pass the ball to our center twice at the 3 point line. That is on Pope for drawing the play up and all season forcing it to Amari at the top of the key and also on Butler. If you are going to be the PG you have to be able to pass the ball and make decisions.

 

[NociHTTP]

Noah had nothing to do with Butler trying to pass the ball to our center twice at the 3 point line. That is on Pope for drawing the play up and all season forcing it to Amari at the top of the key and also on Butler. If you are going to be the PG you have to be able to pass the ball and make decisions.

For someone who is supposedly an X's/O's genius, why does he run the same play all the time? Doesn't he have other tricks in his bag?

 

[Terrapin_Station]

Well no shit. Luckily those aren’t the only two coaches in the world.

This board, and I suppose the whole fanbase (and human beings across all issues), grabs hold of one coach and worships him. There were even a few people who weren’t ready to move on from BCG!

Im with you. Cal needed to go years ago. And I, as CincyUKFan, began a thread called Cal is Trending Down that was ultimately closed by the Cal-worshipping mods.

Now, if you have anything critical to say about Pope, you’re either labeled a Cal-lover or troll. I did not love the hire and was kicked out of here for saying so. I appreciate what he’s done and am more okay with the hire now. But the NIL climate has changed the game, and I’m not sure Pope is a guy that will navigate it well.

In terms of his coaching, I am perplexed by his continued reliance on Williams.

 

[Terrapin_Station]

Noah had nothing to do with Butler trying to pass the ball to our center twice at the 3 point line. That is on Pope for drawing the play up and all season forcing it to Amari at the top of the key and also on Butler. If you are going to be the PG you have to be able to pass the ball and make decisions.

People here love them some Butler, but he was ranked as the 182nd best portal player.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

It’s on Pope as much as it’s on everyone.

The coach can have a bad game too. But I’m not sure what he could have done differently.

He had to know Butler wasn’t himself. But who could he put in there instead?

I agree that was a bad play call late with Butler to Williams if that was the play call.

But if prior to that had Oweh kept driving instead of taking that 3 then we probably don’t need a late play call.

Digging such a big hole in the first half was a killer too. We had a 42 point second half. You just can’t precede that with 27 points.

We beat them 42-33 the second half.

And still had too many second half turnovers.

I wouldn’t play Williams as much as Pope does. But I also don’t see practice every day.

My biggest frustration is how dumb we are playing. Everyone knew this year’s team wasn’t going to out athlete anyone. We weren’t going to make SC’s top ten plays very often.

But we were going to be a team and out execute and outsmart everyone.

Not turn it over because we were heady and experienced.

And that’s how we beat Duke and Gonzaga, heady and experienced play down the stretch, which reinforced that notion

Now we have lost 2 consecutive winnable games because of dumb mistakes.

Playing like freshmen. Not 5th year guys.

Is that on the coach?

That seems like a hard argument to make.

 

[Terrapin_Station]

It’s on Pope as much as it’s on everyone.

The coach can have a bad game too. But I’m not sure what he could have done differently.

He had to know Butler wasn’t himself. But who could he put in there instead?

I agree that was a bad play call late with Butler to Williams if that was the play call.

But if prior to that had Oweh kept driving instead of taking that 3 then we probably don’t need a late play call.

Digging such a big hole in the first half was a killer too. We had a 42 point second half. You just can’t precede that with 27 points.

We beat them 42-33 the second half.

And still had too many second half turnovers.

I wouldn’t play Williams as much as Pope does. But I also don’t see practice every day.

My biggest frustration is how dumb we are playing. Everyone knew this year’s team wasn’t going to out athlete anyone. We weren’t going to make SC’s top ten plays very often.

But we were going to be a team and out execute and outsmart everyone.

Not turn it over because we were heady and experienced.

And that’s how we beat Duke and Gonzaga, heady and experienced play down the stretch, which reinforced that notion

Now we have lost 2 consecutive winnable games because of dumb mistakes.

Playing like freshmen. Not 5th year guys.

Is that on the coach?

That seems like a hard argument to make.

Crazy thing is if Duke had not choked down the stretch and if the Zags hadn’t given up the huge lead, we’d likely be missing the tourney.