He already lost a recruiting battle to Hubert Davis and North Carolina.........at a big position of need, the player is a 6'-9" 245 lb true power forward, rated I believe the best PF recruit in the country. It came down to UK and NC. The last visit to NC sealed the deal, rumor he made a great connection with NC coach
What's your biggest concern with Pope moving forward?
- Thread starter WildcatUKx
- Start date
Oh, i though this thread was about Mark Pope's biggest concerns? I did not realize the thread was about Cal.
Dude move past Cal! Let it rest. He is not going to be the UK coach again and you do not have to worry about him losing any more first round games at UK, or Cal taking UK to anymore final fours, or Cal winning anymore national championships at UK. We can talk about Pope now. He is our coach.
no one has mentioned how bad oweh was last night either. He took some bad shots. Had a few defensive breakdowns and the worst was when Williams was dominating Z and was calling for it in the post and oweh went for the lay up instead of feeding Williams and got blocked and turned the ball over. That would have got a mother foul on Z took the game to 4 at the 5 minute mark.
I’m only mentioning this because it’s uncharacteristic. He’s usually a closer in those games.
I’m only mentioning this because it’s uncharacteristic. He’s usually a closer in those games.
My only concerns are substitution times and patterns and being over reliant on analytics. Analytics are great but you have to have a feel for the game too. He did that against Duke before we really had any analytic data and it worked in our favor. I think he’s going to be a great coach here.
Eh this is a little bit on the pessimistic side.
For starters, no one will have 5th year seniors now. Every team across America will take a hit in the type of experience they can have.
I also can't see how the transfer portal will be WORSE next year. Pope has a full year under his belt, all of the off season, and he's proven that he can be a fantastic coach who players will love to play for (but thats also part of my concern if he's TOO easy on them).
Lastly, we have 3 incoming freshman who will be higher ranked than anyone on this roster. They won't be studs day 1, but they will be pieces to build with going forward. We won't have the lack-of-talent issues we're seeing right now.
The fallacy is believing that it’s “just 1 game.” Last night was just a continuation of what we’ve seen from December on. Listless to no effort play, inability to play any semblance of coherent defense, inability to be consistent from game to game.
And that ultimately is my biggest worry about Pope. The team fluctuates wildly from game to game and Pope has seemingly done nothing to address it. His BYU teams were the same way, so it’s not of a case of “he only had a few weeks to put this team together” and the other talking points that others use over and over again.
Agree, how many posters have been to practice? I don’t believe John Wooden was a screamer. Coach Pope has an entire roster that have played 20 games together! Of course, this team has weaknesses and remember are currently playing without point guards #1 and #2. Yes all teams have injuries at this point in the season but our guys play hard and together in the toughest conference.
The season, to me, has been a great success. I am thankful that Mark Pope is our coach!!!
Obviously, you have never seen Jasper Johnson play a basketball game. His athleticism is through the roof.
True. Larry Bird wasn’t either when he coached. He even said he wasn’t because he hated playing for screamers.
Denny Crum wasn’t at Louisville.
All of my coaches were Bobby Knight wannabes.
I would have loved to have played for a quiet coach. You don’t have to be demonstrably demanding to be demanding.
I figured Pope playing for Pitino he would have a better defensive team, I am very disappointed losing to a team like Ark especially at home no excuses for this, Pope has to take responsibility.
100% defense. I'm not sure it will ever be a focal point for Pope but it needs to be.
Actually they are proving to be very similar in terms of system oriented coaches who want to coach a system of play. Both devalue emphasis on positions--specifically guard play. You need elite guards to win in March period. To win in the SEC, you need athletic skill, not just skill or not just athletes (which we saw with Cal too often).
JT3 was a Princeton graduate who grew up in the Carrill system. Most of the modern NBA is built around Princeton principles of not valuing positions and de-emphasizing the importance of guard play--just get 5 players and play. That works greatly in the NBA, where in college, you limit your recruiting quite a bit. Pope's adjustments to this will dictate his future. Thompson went to the Sweet 16 and Final Four when he had Jeff Green--a player who fit the ideal lead position of point forward. He had some great records after with teams built on his system but he failed to ever duplicate the success and eventually faded away because he was stubborn to a system. Ivy League educated, intelligent and associated with a system that is the current fad for the sport.
I love Oweh, for sure, but he has blinders on when he moves with the ball … often misses wide-open shooters on the wings and in the corners. Butler does a little of that, too …
and that player won’t play one minute at UNC. Hubert Davis will not be the coach there next season.
Probably defense, I keep seeing people say give pope a couple years to implement his system, that’s fine but I hope his system includes actually playing some defense. And based on his previous experience it doesn’t seem like a big priority.
Recruiting, defense, crazy lineups, the portal. REBOUNDING. Just damn near everything. Next year is not looking any better. We are gonna lose a lot more games to end the year. But it's so easy to see a first round loss coming. Team is physical with us, bricking free throws left and right that will haunt us in the second half, lose every 50/50 ball, rock fight ect. I think I'm just to pessimistic after that loss.
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Man I don’t know what’s going on with that. Jaxson was scorching them then next thing I know I see Perry and Chandler. I was asking did Jaxson get hurt when I went to the bathroom? I really question the scouting report on this game. Like a red flag type question. Literally every SEC coach has Cal’s number and UK just made him look like the smartest man in the room.
Unrelated to your post, with all the National DOY players we have I do question his defense some. I’m still all in on coach but there does seem to be a trend of losses to some teams I don’t feel UK should have lost to.
I think we just need to be prepared that Pope is going to throw up a few clunkers every year. Stoops is great for his clunker or two and we need to be prepared for the 3-5 with Pope. Until he truly embraces defense and rebounding, we are probably not going to be able to overcome.
Can he make ALL of his players play in your face defense 100% of the time? Or is he too nice to do this? Can he recruit players that play all out every game 100% of the time, can play defense and shoot the ball all at once? Can he practice free throw shooting enough to always shoot a high percentage? Can he motivate good enough that we play harder than the other team every game?
pope and every other D1 coach has the same problem. This years team was not recruited, it was bought.
I don't really have any. He's already done way better than I expected or hoped for. I know it's been talked about ad nauseum, but it's true. He had almost no time to put together an entire staff and team, with no top HS talent, and none of the top guys in the portal except maybe Brea, who has proven to be not much more than a streaky shooter.
And on top of that, we lose out backup PG early in the season, our starting PG midway thru the season and a starting forward who is in and out of the lineup due to nagging injury. And despite all of that, we have a handful of very good wins, including one over one of the favorites to win it all. There is not a coach in the country that could be doing much better with those circumstances.
And on top of that, we lose out backup PG early in the season, our starting PG midway thru the season and a starting forward who is in and out of the lineup due to nagging injury. And despite all of that, we have a handful of very good wins, including one over one of the favorites to win it all. There is not a coach in the country that could be doing much better with those circumstances.
I agree that I'm not sure if our team defense is so terrible because we have so many bad defenders or if it's a schematic thing. I'm curious to see if we can recruit guys who can guard and if so how that correlates to the team defense. If not then he needs to find a guy whose only focus is defense to be an assistant.
You can't pick and choose your data points to make the argument. And this isn't BYU. So this game proves something about Pope? but he gets no credit for beating Tennessee or Florida? I still believe you and other are overreacting to his coaching, as this is his first year here, with a team he had to assemble very quickly. I call this year a total success so far based on my expectations when he was hired. Now, do I expect him to address some things during the off season? Of course I do. He is still just breaking ground as far as building his future here. One good thing about being a Wildcat fan, we both aren't going anywhere, and we will both see the outcome one way or the other.
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