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Kentucky coach Mark Pope hasn’t lost faith in his team’s potential and thinks the best is yet to come.
“It hasn’t translated (from practice to games) yet, but it will,” Pope said following the Wildcats’ 103-67 win over North Carolina Central on Tuesday night that ended a two-game losing streak. “Yet is the most powerful word; it is the best word in the English language. It’s three letters that are super powerful, and it hasn’t translated yet, but it will. It will. We will be so proud of this team. We’re not yet, but we will be.”
Kentucky (6-4) has yet to defeat a high-profile team this season, but will get an opportunity to end the 0-4 skid against Indiana Saturday.
Pope, who admitted that he’s done a “poor job” of getting “that competitive spirit” out of his team, is hopeful a breakthrough will come sooner rather than later.
“We will get it out, and we are gonna find it, or we are gonna die trying,” he said. “It’s there. We’ve just got to get it and find a way to do it. We’ve got to get guys outside of themselves, and we’ve got to get guys living and dying for this team and in this gym, with this fan base in these games and in competitive games, when things go bad, we have to be able to tap into that.
“So far, I’ve done a poor job of listening to that from our guys, and nobody is more surprised about that than I am. That’s not going to stand.”
Kentucky freshman guard Jasper Johnson added that there hasn’t been a noticeable difference in the team since an exhibition win over top-ranked Purdue.
“I feel like we are just trying to compete and we’re learning each other,” he said. “We had a long summer of preparation, so coming to the first game of the year, we were all excited and energized.
“Different things can impact the game of basketball, but I feel like we’re all working, and practicing really hard, just trying to get better.”
GAMETIME CHANGES
Kentucky has announced time changes for upcoming games. The team’s contest at Alabama on Jan. 3 will tip off at noon and be televised on ESPN. A home game is set for 9 p.m. against Oklahoma on Feb. 4 on ESPN2.
13 Responses
Damn, the more Pope talks, the more I get concerned about him. He was supposed to have this team ready to play by the end of October. All of this talk about "yet" tells me he was focused on something else. Talking to the media is not going to secure your job mister, you have to start winning games…all of them since you have jacked off the first third of the season.
There is a great article on another site that is enlightening. It talks about how Ky has the worst NIL set up. Agents talking about JMI contracts saying a player has to give up all other NIL opportunities. No other teams do that. Agents talk about Ky won't give a hard NIL number like other teams. Instead of having a general manager like Stein will, Pope does his own negotiating. Many sources confirm that Ky's NIL is $22 Million. Agents say Pope has over paid and under paid current players because he doesn't know their value. Wonder if that's causing a conflict? Agents say Pope has missed out on players because he told them "this is Kentucky we don't get in bidding wars". Agents have confirmed players don't care about the name on the front of the jersey. They want someone to help them get better, fulfill their dreams, and do what they said they would.
I read that Jimmy, doesn't looked good for own cats.
Popes biggest problem is he doesn't know how to recruit guards. Especially point guards. If we had 2 good point guards on this team that would get everyone involved we wouldn't have any problems on this team. Another problem is if your paying one guy 4 million who isn't even playing. You pay another guy 1 million who is running stairs and practicing and playing that's how you cause division amongst the players. I think you should give everyone 1 million and call it a day. Or maybe give role players a million and starters and sixth men 1.5 million. You have to split the pie equally. You can't have 2 guys making almost 10 million (Oweh and JQ) and the rest of the team splits 12 million which would be about a million a person. I do know that everyone on this team is a millionaire except Potter and Hawthorne who both got 500k to come here. To me that's incredible to get paid a half a million more than ive made working in a warehouse for 15 years. To sit on the end of the bench and clap your hands and practice that's it . I heard Oweh was offered 5 million to come back JQ made a little over 4 million. I heard Aberdeen and Mo-D both made 2 million a piece to leave Alabama and Florida. Just for those 4 guys is 13 million. Then Hawthorne and Potter made a million. That's 6 guys 14 million. So the other 8 million was divided by 8 so each player made about a million. So the team has 4 multi millionaires, and everyone else is a millionaire. Pope isn't good selling playing for Kentucky. Nobody cares about the front of the jersey unless you grew here. If you didn't grow up in Kentucky all you care about is $$ and playing time. Everyone knows we play in the SEC. Everyone knows we have won 8 championships. Most of those championships were won way before these players were even thought of. The last championship we won was when these recruits were little kids. So everything that is talked about as driving points these kids dont care. They want to know how many times a game will they get to shoot the basketball. Another bad thing that players don't like is how Pope spreads the minutes out. A superstar like Boozer isn't going to want to play just 20-24 mins a game. They want to play 30+ mins. If they arent getting even close to 30 minutes they will look elsewhere. They want to play. It's like Pope gets guys who are happy with just limited playong time. Maybe thats why everyone is always hurt. There is no way a 22 year old man should sit out over 3 weeos for a sprang ankle. That's a sissy.
Yea pope can't get in a bidding war at ky, once jmi gives their offer, thats it!. No other uk nil group exists anymore, so there is no stacking offers up for a recruit. The player would have to wait until he signed and try to rustle up more money himself, they won't do that, they will just sign with Duke or whoever else . Jmi is snuffing out our top ranked classes, Popes hands are tied , until barny and jmi put an end to their bullshit
Pope's hands aren't tied that much. He spent $22 Million on the current bunch. That's $12 Million more than teams like….Arkansas. The way I read it Pope doesn't know the going rate for players. So he just throws an estimate at them and stands firm because players should feel privileged to come to Ky. Agents that have talked to recruits this cycle say the players don't care about the name on their chest. It's about which team will do the most for them.
The stories that are being written about the JMI connection and the lack of transparency and rigidity of JMI structuring coupled with possibly the emotional disconnections of Pope and the recruits are very damning to say the least. This appears to be another direct hit on Barnhart's decision making that continue to penalize UK. We can all see that Pope's cheerleading will current team is not returning positive results, and if he is causing emotional disconnects with recruits it is easy to see how opposing coaches can and are using it to their benefit. It is difficult to visualize any short term reversals or benefits to UK….very alarming if anywhere near accurate reporting.
Barnhart has a history of selling out UK. The sale of the FB stadium name was poorly handled. Even UKroger somehow tied together as a logo would have kept UK in the name.
Barnie has decreased seating more than once at Commonwealth Stadium. He has also decreased seating at Rupp Arena. He has sold out NIL and other UK authority to the husband of the Assistant AD.
Has any administrator got the intestinal fortitude to investigate ALL of the secret contracts and selling UK interests? It’s time to do it. If all is well, let it be known. Otherwise clean up the house!
Let these guys go pro right out of high-school they are so damned good. Let them take their talents right to the "league"as they call it. Something has to change this sucks.. Id rather lose with a roster full of players that actually wanted to be at UK . I think by and large thats never coming back.. Yeah guys say some bullshit every once and a while alluding to tradition here or what not. They ruined this. This is a pro team that resides on a campus . Thats it. And not a very good pro team at that
The 22 million that pope supposedly spent, was before the jmi takeover of every other uk nil collective. Pope could go out to big donors and the other collectives and hustle up more money if uk has been outbid, now pope can't do that at all its jmi offer or nothing
Barnie sold out UKAA to JMI which has ties to the UK Assistant AD. It can’t get much worse. This is after several secret and crazy multi-year & life-time contracts which handcuffed UK from dealing with problems/ firing/ hiring in a timely manner.
The root of MOST UKAA problems starting with the secret TLT contract has been Barnie. He is either extremely incompetent, lacks common sense, does it understand basic math, knows nothing about contracts..:
OR
He has been getting a nice “fee” for the gifts given to incompetent coaches!
Until Barnie is sent packing – as far away from Kentucky as possible – UKAA will always encounter new problems.
Just to add to the wreck, IF/ WHEN Barnie is gone, the next in line is literally married to the President of JMI WHCIH IS IN CONTROL of UK NIL money!!!
An investigation by an outside independent organization MUST be done to uncover any & all secret/ hidden/ Slyly held back contracts and deals by Barnie, including past, present & future (if can be found). Suspend Barnie and the inappropriately linked JMI Assiatant UK Ad for a period of time, not allowing access to any UK records in person or via electronics, until a complete report is issued so the PUBLIC can see everything done by the AD & his assistant!
Then they will be cleared of wrongdoing-doing & only guilty of incompetence
OR
The book can be thrown at them for every unauthorized &/or costly action.
Let Justice Prevail. This is the new path for the USA. UK needs to get in step with clearing out any wrongdoing & incompetence!
WHAT A MESS!
Between the JMI fiasco and getting bitchslapped by ALL of the Quad 1 teams that we have played, high school hotshots are running away from Kentucky. I bet the transfer portal will have the same reaction.