Mom= KENTUCKY

[KentuckyWild2020]

Since there at about 10 threads I could post this in, i am going to post what I am about to say in this one.


I don't want to hear all that " I TOLD YOU IT WAS ALL GOING TO WORK OUT BS" because by a Act of God, MOM DAD BROTHER SISTER whatever we going to call him just happened to fall in our lap. in many regards, Pope pulled a rabbit out of his blank. I suspect big money and other influencers became involved behind the scenes.

Pope needs to prove he can win and manage upper tier players and he won't have this problem down the road...

[Helix]

Why he appeared to move away from that formula — pace, space and shooting — last year is the biggest mystery to me. After year one, I thought we could look forward to our pick of great shooters to play in his system. Glad he’s getting back to what he teaches best, and I’m hoping for a dynamic, high scoring offense once again.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Why he appeared to move away from that formula — pace, space and shooting — last year is the biggest mystery to me. After year one, I thought we could look forward to our pick of great shooters to play in his system. Glad he’s getting back to what he teaches best, and I’m hoping for a dynamic, high scoring offense once again.

I can agree with this. I assume he got a dose of physical SEC play his first year and changed it up. I hope he can get back to what he's good at.

As bad as last year was, maybe that needed to happen for Mark Pope. If he ends up being the coach here for a long time, hopefully he learned from all that...

[bucsrule8872]

Why he appeared to move away from that formula — pace, space and shooting — last year is the biggest mystery to me. After year one, I thought we could look forward to our pick of great shooters to play in his system. Glad he’s getting back to what he teaches best, and I’m hoping for a dynamic, high scoring offense once again.

I think he listened too closely to critics. The knock on him after year one was his teams weren’t great defensively and not very tough, so he tried to get some guys that didn’t really fit his style to show everybody his teams could be tough and play defense. I think the roster was put together with that in mind.

I think this past season, without Lowe, the knock was a lack of playmakers, so he went out and got two guards known for playmaking. He went after some other guys we missed on that were known for their passing as well. He also made shooting a priority, obviously with bringing Kam back and adding McBride, Morton, and N’Diaye fairly early on and finishing with Momcilovic.

On paper, this team looks like a high octane team on offense. It looks weak on the boards and mediocre defensively. It’s looking like a “you better outscore us, cause we’re hanging 100 on you” type team. Teams are going to have to put up points to hang with us most nights.

I’m hoping Pope has the formula right this time.

[EKYCat]

I think Pope overcorrected from year 1. Year 1 was exciting in that the team shot a lot of threes, spaced the floor, and ran actual offense. That was something we hadn't seen in a few years. But, that team lacked some physicality. So he went too hard the other way. Hopefully this year he's found a balance.

[Matt Dillon]

Since there at about 10 threads I could post this in, i am going to post what I am about to say in this one.


I don't want to hear all that " I TOLD YOU IT WAS ALL GOING TO WORK OUT BS" because by a Act of God, MOM DAD BROTHER SISTER whatever we going to call him just happened to fall in our lap. in many regards, Pope pulled a rabbit out of his blank. I suspect big money and other influencers became involved behind the scenes.

Pope needs to prove he can win and manage upper tier players and he won't have this problem down the road...

I think it was simply everything falling in place. Mom stayed in the draft until the last minute and by then just about everyone's roster was set or else they couldn't afford him. He even said a couple of weeks ago that he likes coach Pope and thought he would do well in coach's system.

[Pobilly]

The timing last night leads me to believe we could have had an announcement at any time Friday on but I think that Pope asked MilMo to wait till after the UK regional to not take away anything from Nick and the Bat Cats. If UK would have won we might not have heard till this morning. Instead we got the new right after the loss.

I am ready for football season now but have no expectations for them except for the different look of the team. We can be way better there and still have 8 or more losses.

[UKHoops01]

In many regards, Pope pulled a rabbit out of his blank. I suspect big money and other influencers became involved behind the scenes.

This is what I've been thinking ever since the Momcilovic announcement. We overpaid and it took gigantic $$$...not love of UK basketball, not Mark Pope's career accomplishments and proven results (I.e. developing and producing NBA players, winning championships, etc.) to get it done.

This "waiting till the last minute and having money left" approach needs to go by the wayside. If Pope had a solid recruiting class and had locked up a few stud portal transfers early on, Kentucky probably would have saved a ton of money. At some point I'd like to see the approach to a roster become more focused on acquiring studs and surrounding them with role players to finish off the roster rather than the other way around.

Pope needs to prove he can win and manage upper tier players and he won't have this problem down the road...

Totally agree.

[Cawood86]

We really don't know what happened. Honestly doesn't matter to me. He's on the team. Roll em out and let's go

[Matt Dillon]

This is what I've been thinking ever since the Momcilovic announcement. We overpaid and it took gigantic $$$...not love of UK basketball, not Mark Pope's career accomplishments and proven results (I.e. developing and producing NBA players, winning championships, etc.) to get it done.

Serious question, in this age of NIL how many players do you think sign for the reasons listed above and not for the NIL money?

[UKHoops01]

Serious question, in this age of NIL how many players do you think sign for the reasons listed above and not for the NIL money?

Unfortunately....not too many.

[KentuckyWild2020]

I think it was simply everything falling in place. Mom stayed in the draft until the last minute and by then just about everyone's roster was set or else they couldn't afford him. He even said a couple of weeks ago that he likes coach Pope and thought he would do well in coach's system.

Yes and no. All it would have taken is one Scout GM to tell him what he wanted to hear and it would have been a wrap. It's all good, feel better about the team today than i did a few days ago.

[Cawood86]

Serious question, in this age of NIL how many players do you think sign for the reasons listed above and not for the NIL money?

No idea....however...pro teams have players that stay with current team instead of leaving for more money. Money of course plays a part. But I'm giving Coach Pope credit here.

We don't know Mom as a person, but it’s possible he connected with the staff and other players.

Lots of speculation. Let's not forget, a holdout kept Lamb and Jones at UK another year. They were extremely helpful in getting a title. Things play out how they do. I'm glad he picked UK.