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With an entirely new team it is no surprise that it takes time for the players not only to trust each other but also trust a new coach’s system.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope understands the process but it made it clear after Saturday night’s 85-65 loss to Ohio State in New York that the trust timeline has about reached its limit.
“It can’t come with too much more time. We need to win,” Pope said on his postgame radio show.
He wasn’t giving up on his team. Instead he was just saying what BBN also feels.
“We have beautiful kids, but it takes an insane amount of discipline when you’re under all the duress that a game like this provides, it takes an enormous amount of discipline to force yourself to not fall into your default and kind of keep making decisions that we make as an offensive team,” the UK coach said.
“And we did not do that tonight. We didn’t do it, and I failed to help the guys do that and that’s an issue. It’s an issue we’ve got to solve.”
Pope hopes this can be a turning point for his team two weeks before SEC play starts.
“We have an unbelievable group. We have brilliant kids, and we’ll respond in a great way,” Pope said. “And if we do this right, then this will be one of the lynchpin moments in the season that changed us and made us get better.”
However, Pope didn’t downplay that the loss hurt on the UK Radio Network after the loss.
“We’re going to lose a lot of sleep over this, man. It’s really hard to go into a (holiday) break this way. We will lose a ton of sleep, but we just have to translate that into great, constructive work with us getting better,” Pope said.
“And we’ve got to be super specific, and we’ve got to find answers, and we’ve got to learn how to function at a better level when we’re under this particular type of duress.”
Pope said reverting to bad habits is natural until the trust process is complete.
“We had some defensive struggles tonight and we just fell to pieces offensively, and we just went to our default and our default is not right yet,”the coach said. “Our default is still bad habits and it’s not bad habits coming out of a bad place in guys’ hearts, it’s coming from a great place.
“It’s coming from a desperation to help their team but we don’t do that by ourselves, and we do it discipline, and we do it the way we do it, by making plays for each other and that’s still not our default, and that’s just a that’s just a trust-building process.”
17 Responses
We were deceived a couple weeks back thinking that Pope may actually have some halftime magic but not last 2 games. There was too much preseason and early season hype thrown our way by many people. How much longer will we have to wait for a bench to be productive. We kept hearing how good Chandler was and would be, but he looks lost out there. He goes up against quality in practice everyday. Pope has got to put a chip on his shoulder and the players need to do the same. We used to show a lot of swagger in the past but not lately.
This team is not playing smart, and it is not even close.
Robinson is consuming the 2nd most possessions (15%) on this team yet his efficiency is the poorest of all players getting significant playing time. Oweh is using the most possessions (16.5%) consumed and next poorest efficiency.
Among the players who have been more efficient, Carr #1 with only 9% of the possessions. Garrison is only getting 6.2% of the possessions, and Almonor 4.3%. Each of these players are head and shoulders more efficient than Oweh and Robinson.
Pope needs to structure the offense to maximize team efficiency by running the offense first through Carr, and reducing playing time for Robinson and Oweh while increasing playing time for Garrison, Almonor, and Brea.
I will let the debate about playing time for the 3 freshmen rage on. I believe each of the freshmen must earn playing time in practice, and when they do get on the floor, they must deliver. However, I have not seen on-floor delivery by any of the 3 freshmen to support a greater role at this time.
This Robinson fades to quickly.. He’s got all the makings of a guy who can be aggressive and be unstoppable going to the rim .. Unfortunately he doesn’t have that between his ears..
Well u can only go by what coachs and players say bout practice. Outta of 3 freshman, pope has said Trent Noah, been practicing great, last 3or4 weeks. If you remember, the Georgia st. Game noah came in played good gave us a spark. But he has not seen 1 second of playing time sense. Way we played vs Ohio st, brick after brick, air balls too. Trent woulda been in that game. So why not, pope will say the "vibe" . Sick that word. I woulda pulled starting 5 out played next 5. Perry has been biggest disappointment, and your right chadler looks lost.
Free Trent!
Pope and staff has worked to do get these players to buy in what they suppose to do. Please no more trips to NY not been kind to us.
It’s simple. The kids will either play for the name that’s on the front of the jersey or for the name that’s on the back of the jersey. This senior/super senior loaded team is thinking about what happens next year. It would serve them right if Pope started the underclassmen against Brown and let the seniors sit and think about where their allegiance lies.
Barry. When you offer money to players via the n.i.l. do you think they came for the name Kentucky?
The trip to NY wqs a loser and anyone with any values in their standard of living knows that it was just one more bad move by the AD who scheduled games!!!
The Professor has nailed it by exposing those consuming too many possessions and those with low ANE’s. Bench them now and don’t delay until they learn the lesson!
Your gonna blame the AD for this loss. Really? Ohio St. should have been a 20 point win not a 20 point loss. This loss is on Pope and the Seven Super Seniors! Looks like older isn’t necessarily better.
Guys were still early in the season, still lot of basketball left , maybe be the best thing that happen. Time will tell!!
Were not gonna win every game. No team and Cosch ever has.. I’d say tempering expectations after we beat cupcakes is a must. The n.i.l. and portal have ruined college sports.
It’s a shame none of you guys are coaching the Cats!
Amen Bill.
From reading these articles there are so many people on here that know so much more than Pope or Barnhart. Heck, they sound like they know more than all the coaches and AD’s around the country and they would do the job for 10% of what we are paying.
After reading all this "the sky is falling," I think it is time we fire Stoops, Barnhart, Pope, heck every program coach at UK and just start over with every program.
We are completely doomed!!!
This is a discussion. It’s what we think. I agree with a lot of discussion on here. There’s a lot of good points on here. We all now where not the coach’s, or A D., where just die hard fans. We live big blue!!!! We wants see them play good. Unfortunately we didn’t play very good. We just can’t understand, a game in msg, national tv , how we came out and played like that, with a week to prepare.
Gloom, despair, agony, I don’t think so. No need to call any names. I’m with Grant and if it takes some time to gel that is what it takes.
I hope this was just a clunker game where nothing goes right. All teams have them. As bad as we were playing and it was definitely bad with I believe 9 min and change we were just down 6 points. Thanks to free throws. Still had a chance. Just needed to get a couple stops in a row and make a couple baskets which didn’t happen. That’s when you really need to dig in and get the momentum shifted. Definitely need to improve on defense. Way to many blow boys for easy shots. Still early in season but it’s going to get a lot tougher. Hopefully they can learn from this loss and improve and have a good season . Go Cats!