[16BBall Fan]

Final another terrible loss after a big win. Just terrible execution down the stretch for the Cats!

[TheTruth!]

Koby Brea needs to go play at upike.

[sstack]

Terrible lazy rebounding. Nobody to control the ball on offense! Once again not very good at the foul line. had chances to put this game away. unbelievable turnovers. Will not win with Perry and Noah, trying to run the show

[Old School Hound]

[Image: https://di-uploads-pod38.dealerinspire.c...x360-1.png]

 



Might finish in the bottom tier of the SEC.  at Alabama,  at Oklahoma , Auburn, at Missouri still remaining.  10 league losses is a real possibility.

[Old School Hound]

Brea and Pope were not good tonight. Did Brea make a shot at all? Why did we go away from what was working for us? Why do we seem so confused when we are down late and need to foul? Why take 20 seconds to foul? When will Pope have to answer for his guys giving half ass effort against teams well sub .500 in the league? Just really, really lazy play , at times. How does that happen? I know it's only basketball and won't matter a hill of beans three months from now but why the half-hearted effort instead of assertively closing out games? Did Mark say in his post-game presser how bad his team feels for our awesome fans for his team letting this one slip away late?

[Old School Hound]

@terrysnelling5546:

Typical for a coach Pope team! Very few times in Pope coaching career has he won three games in a row during conference play! After every loss he says it’s unacceptable. Wish he would quit making it acceptable!

[Old School Hound]

^^^
Just so Jetpilot doesn't have a conniption, the views of @terrysnelling5546 do not necessarily represent those of Old School.

[Old School Hound]

@toppsgunner :

"What did we expect from a group of Mid-major transfers and a Mid-major coach?"


Disclaimer: The views of @toppsgunner do not necessarily represent those of Old School.

[16BBall Fan]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

[rookie57]

No way we shoud have lost that game

[Old School Hound]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

About as bad as a team can play down the stretch. In fact, a team would have a pretty hard time being that bad if they TRIED to be bad .   When does Mark start to hear some criticism from BGR basketball savants?  It's been absolute crickets so far, for the most part. Can you imagine the posts we would be hearing about Calipari after performances like we've seen against Arkansas, Ole Miss, Ohio State,  Georgia, Vandy, and Texas?  Mark gets a free pass here, and maybe he should. I don't know.  

We have eight losses. I think it's safe to say we'd be doing good to go 3-3 in our last six regular season games. Lose at Oklahoma and it likely is 2-4. Also, Vandy and LSU aren't gimmes. We will likely lose 1 in the SEC Tourney and 1 in the NCAAT.  That means we finish with 13 or 14 losses. and probably finish in the bottom tier of the conference. It is very Brigham Young-like.  Is there reason to think next year's class will be less likely to avoid double digit losses on the season? How many 13 to 15 loss seasons before the crickets here begin to chirp?

[Old School Hound]

No way we shoud have lost that game

You be the coach for a second. How do we avoid that same thing happening again, let's say at Oklahoma?

[Old School Hound]

To borrow from my buddy, Coach Tony P. , we just have to keep grinding.

[jetpilot]

Cal sucks ass. Glad he's gone

[Van Hagar]

Well if we are gonna kill Pooe for the last four minutes (and we should) we still have to say what a good job it was to even be up at that point without Lamont Butler, Jaxon Robinson and Kerr Kriisa. Listen, if South Carolina, 0-12 in the SEC, was in any other POWER conference in the nation they’d be a top 3-4 team in that league, and would be running away with any mid-major confernce. That’s how unbelievably strong the SEC is. With all our injuries, we are having to ask guys to do things they just can’t do. Brea is a shooter, that’s pretty much it, but he desperately needs Butler out there to get him in the right spot, he needs Robinson to give the d some one else to focus on, he isn’t capable of creating his own shot. Perry, while I like him, isn’t ready to be a ball handler against the type of athletes he is facing in the SEC. And Oweh, to quote Tubby Smith, looks like Tarzan but sometimes plays like Jane. If we ever get at full strength and still have results like this, then I say go ahead, rip Pope a new one. But I’m gonna hold off and see how that plays out.

[jetpilot]

Vast majority of people basing Pope in his first year are the same fools who wanted to keep Cal after years of sucking.
In this game: No Butler, no Robinson, Carr 17 minutes and fouled out in crunch time, Brea didn't have a field goal, all on the road against a ranked team. There's your ballgame.

[plantmanky]

Bad players, bad coach, bad team.

[Old School Hound]

Vast majority of people basing Pope in his first year are the same fools who wanted to keep Cal after years of sucking.
In this game: No Butler, no Robinson, Carr 17 minutes and fouled out in crunch time, Brea didn't have a field goal, all on the road against a ranked team. There's your ballgame.

Mark's team folded in the last four minutes. Utterly collapsed under the direction of their leader. Seemed confused and unsure what their jobs were down the stretch. Took 20 seconds to foul with time ticking off.  Outcoached in magnificent fashion down the stretch by someone named Rodney Terry. Looking like we'll land somewhere in the neighborhood of 21-14 on the season. That's assuming we win a game in the SECT and one in the NCAAT.  Are we okay with 14 losses a season? I'm okay with it as long as the team plays a fun style of ball but I not sure Big Blue Madmen will tolerate lounging around every season in the bottom ranks of the league. But it's what you asked for, just like the madness going on all over the country. Be interesting to see the reaction of the masses as the losses pile up over the next few years. Thirty years from now most of us will not give a damn, anyhow.

[Old School Hound]

Bad players, bad coach, bad team.

You might be more negative than Old School, and that's quite an achievement.   

Bad players--- if mid major talent is bad then you are correct

Bad Coach--- I think the jury is still out on this. Historically, never finished higher than what, fourth or fifth, in whatever conference BYU is in. Has yet to win a single NCAAT game. We'll see if he gets his first this year.

Bad Team--- if  20-21 wins vs 13-14 losses is  bad then you are on point with this, as well. It's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

[4 Quarters]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

About as bad as a team can play down the stretch. In fact, a team would have a pretty hard time being that bad if they TRIED to be bad .   When does Mark start to hear some criticism from BGR basketball savants?  It's been absolute crickets so far, for the most part. Can you imagine the posts we would be hearing about Calipari after performances like we've seen against Arkansas, Ole Miss, Ohio State,  Georgia, Vandy, and Texas?  Mark gets a free pass here, and maybe he should. I don't know.  

We have eight losses. I think it's safe to say we'd be doing good to go 3-3 in our last six regular season games. Lose at Oklahoma and it likely is 2-4. Also, Vandy and LSU aren't gimmes. We will likely lose 1 in the SEC Tourney and 1 in the NCAAT.  That means we finish with 13 or 14 losses. and probably finish in the bottom tier of the conference. It is very Brigham Young-like.  Is there reason to think next year's class will be less likely to avoid double digit losses on the season? How many 13 to 15 loss seasons before the crickets here begin to chirp?

Cal is doing no better with his Ky. South team.

---

To borrow from my buddy, Coach Tony P. , we just have to keep grinding.

That sounds like Pope.

---

Cal sucks ass. Glad he's gone

Thank you.

---

Vast majority of people basing Pope in his first year are the same fools who wanted to keep Cal after years of sucking.
In this game: No Butler, no Robinson, Carr 17 minutes and fouled out in crunch time, Brea didn't have a field goal, all on the road against a ranked team. There's your ballgame.

Amen.

---

This unit is a team made up of misfits,  Let Pope get some players and see what we have then.

[Old School Hound]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

About as bad as a team can play down the stretch. In fact, a team would have a pretty hard time being that bad if they TRIED to be bad .   When does Mark start to hear some criticism from BGR basketball savants?  It's been absolute crickets so far, for the most part. Can you imagine the posts we would be hearing about Calipari after performances like we've seen against Arkansas, Ole Miss, Ohio State,  Georgia, Vandy, and Texas?  Mark gets a free pass here, and maybe he should. I don't know.  

We have eight losses. I think it's safe to say we'd be doing good to go 3-3 in our last six regular season games. Lose at Oklahoma and it likely is 2-4. Also, Vandy and LSU aren't gimmes. We will likely lose 1 in the SEC Tourney and 1 in the NCAAT.  That means we finish with 13 or 14 losses. and probably finish in the bottom tier of the conference. It is very Brigham Young-like.  Is there reason to think next year's class will be less likely to avoid double digit losses on the season? How many 13 to 15 loss seasons before the crickets here begin to chirp?

Cal is doing no better with his Ky. South team.

---

To borrow from my buddy, Coach Tony P. , we just have to keep grinding.

That sounds like Pope.

---

Cal sucks ass. Glad he's gone

Thank you.

---

Vast majority of people basing Pope in his first year are the same fools who wanted to keep Cal after years of sucking.
In this game: No Butler, no Robinson, Carr 17 minutes and fouled out in crunch time, Brea didn't have a field goal, all on the road against a ranked team. There's your ballgame.

Amen.

---

This unit is a team made up of misfits,  Let Pope get some players and see what we have then.

What does it look like for next year? I don't pay much attention to recruits?  Do we have some of the top D-1 talent coming in or is it gonna be another rag tag group of misfits?  I know some people on a Big Blue message board didn't seem too hopeful about next season. . Although we'll end up with 12-15 losses, it's been a fun group to watch. The two Tennessee wins made the season for me. Anything else is gravy. I love seeing Rocky Flop lose.  I hope we get to beat them again before the season ends.

[King Kong]

Well if we are gonna kill Pooe for the last four minutes (and we should) we still have to say what a good job it was to even be up at that point without Lamont Butler, Jaxon Robinson and Kerr Kriisa. Listen, if South Carolina, 0-12 in the SEC, was in any other POWER conference in the nation they’d be a top 3-4 team in that league, and would be running away with any mid-major confernce. That’s how unbelievably strong the SEC is. With all our injuries, we are having to ask guys to do things they just can’t do. Brea is a shooter, that’s pretty much it, but he desperately needs Butler out there to get him in the right spot, he needs Robinson to give the d some one else to focus on, he isn’t capable of creating his own shot. Perry, while I like him, isn’t ready to be a ball handler against the type of athletes he is facing in the SEC.  And Oweh, to quote Tubby Smith, looks like Tarzan but sometimes plays like Jane. If we ever get at full strength and still have results like this, then I say go ahead, rip Pope a new one. But I’m gonna hold off and see how that plays out.

You nailed it.  I was listening to wsip for a little bit last night.  The Cat's pregame show come on the radio station.  One of the first things that was said and talked about,  was how we've not had many games this season where we've been at full strength,  due to injuries.  So with those three guys being out, us in the lead was around the four minute mark,  that was pretty sweet!

I know I'm about to repeat myself and once again sound like a broken record from previous threads! Lol

Pope had limited time to put this team together.  Look at how many highly ranked teams we've knocked off this season,  maybe a single season program record,  I can't remember,  if not close to it. 

Throw in this maybe the toughest conference this season,  in the history of college basketball.  If not it's up there around the top somewhere.  Yes we gotta find a way to win games like last night.  But overall,  I'm happy with what we've done thus far.  Hoping we can get healthy and full strength for the SEC tournament and then the NCAA tournament.

[4 Quarters]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

About as bad as a team can play down the stretch. In fact, a team would have a pretty hard time being that bad if they TRIED to be bad .   When does Mark start to hear some criticism from BGR basketball savants?  It's been absolute crickets so far, for the most part. Can you imagine the posts we would be hearing about Calipari after performances like we've seen against Arkansas, Ole Miss, Ohio State,  Georgia, Vandy, and Texas?  Mark gets a free pass here, and maybe he should. I don't know.  

We have eight losses. I think it's safe to say we'd be doing good to go 3-3 in our last six regular season games. Lose at Oklahoma and it likely is 2-4. Also, Vandy and LSU aren't gimmes. We will likely lose 1 in the SEC Tourney and 1 in the NCAAT.  That means we finish with 13 or 14 losses. and probably finish in the bottom tier of the conference. It is very Brigham Young-like.  Is there reason to think next year's class will be less likely to avoid double digit losses on the season? How many 13 to 15 loss seasons before the crickets here begin to chirp?

Cal is doing no better with his Ky. South team.

---

To borrow from my buddy, Coach Tony P. , we just have to keep grinding.

That sounds like Pope.

---

Cal sucks ass. Glad he's gone

Thank you.

---

Vast majority of people basing Pope in his first year are the same fools who wanted to keep Cal after years of sucking.
In this game: No Butler, no Robinson, Carr 17 minutes and fouled out in crunch time, Brea didn't have a field goal, all on the road against a ranked team. There's your ballgame.

Amen.

---

This unit is a team made up of misfits,  Let Pope get some players and see what we have then.

What does it look like for next year? I don't pay much attention to recruits?  Do we have some of the top D-1 talent coming in or is it gonna be another rag tag group of misfits?  I know some people on a Big Blue message board didn't seem too hopeful about next season. . Although we'll end up with 12-15 losses, it's been a fun group to watch. The two Tennessee wins made the season for me. Anything else is gravy. I love seeing Rocky Flop lose.  I hope we get to beat them again before the season ends.

I'm not a big fan of the media ranking recruits.  Put them on the court and lets see how they stack up.  Of course everyone knows Moreno is coming, but he might be a year away from his full potential.

[Cactus Jack]

The Cats were up by 5 at 69-64 with 3:36 to play and we gave up 18 points in the last 3:36. In that last 3:36 we gave up 5 offensive rebounds and had 4 turnovers.

The loss itself isn't as troubling as the way we lost.

And make no mistake, we have a trend of losing to teams with inferior overall talent that are desperate for a win.

Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and arguably Texas all had less overall talent than what we were able to roll out against them. I say arguably for Texas because we were so hamstrung by missing so many guards, and that's what really bit us.

Arkansas and Ole Miss had more talent than what we had avavailable, but we had more skill.

Alabama is the only team we've played whose roster (talent, skill, and continuity) I like more than ours.

The 2nd Tennessee game is the only game we've won where I'd say that the opponent needed the win more than us, though I guess you could also make a case for the first Tennessee and Florida games as well.


Kriisa isn't coming back tomorrow, but even if he were, he's been out awhile and getting back to form will take some time. We'll take him back at any point, but should temper expectations on what he can actually bring. I'll be surprised if he's back and really able to be effective at any point this season.


Seeding is going to matter a lot for a team that has stacked losses to less talented teams whose backs are against the wall. There's a pretty big disparity in talent on a #16, 15, 14, and 13 seed-- probably the largest gaps between seed lines in the entire field. I would feel much less confident in a 5/12 game. The 12 or 13 line is generally where you stop expecting to be able to roll in and squash teams with inferior talent. There are exceptions to the rule, but lots of your 13s to 16s will have (more experienced) players with Perry and Noah's size and athleticism getting major minutes. Those teams are generally going to be reluctant to try to press Kentucky to death or put a lot of pressure on our guards because it risks getting into a running game. Landing a #2 or #3 seed means getting a game that we should be able to win without Butler and Robinson.

At the same time, playing strictly for seeding and putting Butler, Robinson, or Carr back out too soon risks them (re-)injuring something that puts them out through the first weekend. That happening would essentially close the book on any chances we'd have in the tournament.

It isn't a very enviable situation, especially since Calipari deemphasized the SEC Tournament to the point that fans were sick of it.

[Van Hagar]

Speaking of desperate teams, with inferior talent, our upcoming game at Oklahoma may be another in that list, and as you pointed out we haven’t fared very well in those. I would submit that Tre Johnson of Texas was much more talented than anyone we have on the roster, that guy looks like a sure fire NBA stud.

[Cactus Jack]

Speaking of desperate teams, with inferior talent, our upcoming game at Oklahoma may be another in that list, and as you pointed out we haven’t fared very well in those. I would submit that Tre Johnson of Texas was much more talented than anyone we have on the roster, that guy looks like a sure fire NBA stud.

Agree on Tre Johnson, and having the best player on the floor means a lot to me too, especially when they have such an advantage over everyone else. Tramon Mark and Arthur Kaluma are the only other players that'd be before anyone in the Amari Williams, Oweh, Carr, Brea, and Garrison group though. Maybe there's a case for Pope or even Shedrick, but I think the difference is pretty negligible.


Also agree with you on Oklahoma, but I was also more worried about that game earlier in the season than I am now. They need the win over us badly, but the good thing for us is that game alone is still probably too little, too late. They've won three conference games-- Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and South Carolina; they just lost to LSU by 3 but were blown out by Auburn, Tennessee, and Missouri in the three prior. They've beaten Arizona, Michigan, and Louisville early on as well, so those will help, but I'd say the folks in Norman had better hope that at least two of those non-conference opponents fare really well late.

The Sooners have at Florida, Miss. St., UK, at Ole Miss, Missouri, and at Texas to finish the year. They're not a lock but probably in with wins in at least two of those, unless those two are over Texas and a depleted, struggling UK (or a struggling Mississippi State). If they get smoked at Florida and drop the Mississippi State game before us, they might be at the point that they throw in the towel on their season.


Speaking of, MSU doesn't have a great win over a team other than Ole Miss in some time. They've beaten South Carolina, Georgia, and Vanderbilt (on 1/7). They did sweep Ole Miss and have some good non-conference wins against Memphis, Pitt, and McNeese State, but I think they're getting a boost from being in the SEC from anyone ranking them #21. Their remaining schedule is manageable, but we're jockeying for position with them already and it's someone I'd keep an eye if I'm looking for a team desperate for a win in the SEC Tournament.

[-STAT-]

Simply put, Kentucky just blew this game.

They had every chance in the world to put it away, especially being up 5 with 3 minutes left. Rebounding has been one of the main struggles for this team, and they gave up a ton of second chance opportunities, and one of my basketball pet peeves, giving up offensive rebounds off of missed free throws, and they done that at least 3 times down the stretch and of course Texas capitalized on those opportunities.

I understand injuries to key guys hasn't helped any, but it's always a next man up mentality, but it's like this team can't get a semblance of momentum. Get a blowout win at home over South Carolina, then sweep Tennessee, that's coming off of back-to-back losses, have the chance to keep it going against a subpar Texas team and absolutely shit the bed. Hopefully they can get back on the right track tomorrow against Vanderbilt, but Saturday will be one of the toughest tests they'll have at Alabama.

[Bluecat]

Won the game but for the last 3:00 of the game. Fell apart as a team and felt this was the one time Pope didn't coach his best to close the game out. However, this team and staff will not carry it over. They will actually learn from it.