What happened ?

[TrueblueCATfan]

Pope just said Dioubate has a "torn" ligament and could be back maybe next week or weeks, hard to say.

In my opinion, I don't think we see Dioubate for a while, next man up!!!!

Well that doesn't sound good

We sure have been plagued with a lot injuries the last 2 seasons

[Pete Hogwallop]

I suspect that in any game where both Dioubate and Quaintance play significant minutes, this UK team will not be outrebounded by 20.

[Pobilly]

To me it looks like more than just a talent, coaching, player only thing. I believe this team does not like each other. Not every member but some guys causing issues. I believe Garrison is a nice guy,I believe he is a young father and I believe he is just young in his mind, too young and cannot put it all together. I believe something is wrong with Oweh (again mentally) he is not prepared to lead a team. I believe that for some reason UK and not just the coach, is holding back players with injuries. Takes UK about twice as long to get players back. Is that a university thing an AD thing, medical staff thing. Not sure but at this point we will be lucky to get Mo back for the Bama game, Lowe back this year and JQ to play at all. We get the same crap from Pope as we did from Cal. It is just from a positive spin, not I have not seen him, but he is doing extraordinary, exceptional, healing faster than any human on the face of the earth, but we will aire on side of caution, we will bring him along extremely slow type of stuff. Same end results just presented differently.

Now for the hard part: I think Pope is trying to put a square peg in a round hole through the first month of the season. I believe he better get an offensive coordinator for this team and let them figure out how to play them so they can win 50% of the SEC games. This team without some changes in coaching will be lucky to win a road SEC game and to win over half of the home games. There are not many NC Centrals and such in the SEC.

[blueheretic]

I believe I can fly.

I believe I can touch the sky.

I think about it every night and day.

Spread my wings and fly away.

I believe I can soar.

I see me running through that open door.

I believe I can fly.

[GOCAT15]

I really don't look forward to Cal giving us a 30 point thumping in Bud Walton arena in a couple of months.

[WeWant9]

I was in Seattle last year when the Cats came back from 18 to beat the Zags. Hoping we see something good tonight, BBN needs some positivity.

worried about the front court battle though, not sure who can handle Ike.

[CrimsonCats]

I’ll admit that I got sucked into the excitement of the Purdue exhibition too. With the benefit of hindsight, I think that might have been fool’s gold though. Purdue clearly wasn’t approaching that like a regular season game and missed some pretty open shots to boot. In other words, I’m not sure we played at quite as high of a level then as we initially thought.

As far as our problems, I think I would some it up in two broad categories.

1. While we aren’t completely devoid of talent and have several players who could contribute to a winning team in isolation, this roster doesn’t fit well together on offense. We don’t have much shooting this year, which isn’t the only way to win, but is immediately a concern with Pope’s preferred style. This is compounded by only having one player on the roster in Lowe who’s truly adept at creating shots for others, and he’s currently hurt and may be at least to some extent for the whole rest of the year. With no drive and kick threat and little outside shooting, that also means that our couple of guys capable of trying to create a shot for themselves in Oweh and Aberdeen are having a hard time finding any driving lanes. If Lowe is able to play consistently, it could help, but I’m unfortunately not sure if this is completely fixable.

2. We aren’t a good defensive team against legitimately threatening competition. I’m not entirely sure why because we seem to have the athletic talent, but our technique and communication has been very poor. I’m not totally giving up on Pope yet, but this is starting to become a real concern with his coaching after we also got lit up on this end for most of last year. Maybe JQ can cover a lot of flaws if he comes back fully healthy and plays like he did last year. That can’t happen soon enough, because even though the season definitely isn’t over yet, going through the non-conference without a single good win will absolutely kill our tournament seed if we even get one. We need to start winning some big games now and not in a few months.

[Davidmack]

I think the Gonzaga game is must win. Can’t go 0-4 against ranked teams. You have to beat somebody.

[KentuckyWild2020]

I think the Gonzaga game is must win. Can’t go 0-4 against ranked teams. You have to beat somebody.

Agreed, we need a win tonight no exceptions