Mark Pope understands his team has not performed up to expectations this year but a rival coach says he does not have a roster built to fit his style of play. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Mark Pope played at Kentucky on a national championship team and knew plenty about the spotlight on Kentucky basketball — or at least thought he did. However, his team’s struggles this year have created a lot of speculation from Big Blue fans about what has been wrong with the team despite the improbable comeback win over LSU Wednesday night.
“It’s just interesting to watch. Since we’ve been here — and I’ll just use personal things — (my wife) Lee Anne got pregnant. She came to a game and everyone was celebrating because it had been reported that she was pregnant,” Pope said on a recent weekly radio show.
During a recent radio show Pope got a call from a concerned friend who heard the UK coach checked into a hospital.
“It’s one of the great things. I don’t dislike it, but there’s just — you know, everybody cares so much that stories get out there, just because we’re trying to find something to talk about,” Pope said. “We haven’t performed up to the standard we want to on the floor, but these are great kids, man. They are pulling for each other, and they’re competing with each other.”
One college coach has seen Kentucky, which plays at Tennessee today, play enough to know that Pope did not “recruit his type of players” to play the way he likes this season.
“He has talented players that don’t fit together for his system and everyone in the program is like a fish out of water. He had a better team last year because he recruited players that fit him and his style a lot better,” the coach told me. “It’s sad but not all kids just automatically buy-in.
“That’s why portal recruiting is a crap shoot. You don’t recruit the kids long enough to get to know if they fit your culture or if they have good character.”
The coach also understands the pressure on Pope, a player on UK’s 1996 national championship team, after he promised Kentucky fans he knew what they wanted at his introductory press conference.
“The problem with saying all the right things at the opening press conference about knowing the assignment (winning a national championship) is BBN is going to hold you to that,” the coach said.
Many Kentucky fans have also wondered about the lack of consistent playing time for freshman guard Jasper Johnson, a top 20 recruit who did not even play in the Missouri loss. He did have five points on 2-for-4 shooting in 10 minutes in UK’s win over Mississippi State but then played only seven minutes at LSU.
“I think Jasper is a victim of the losses. He’s struggled defensively at times and it’s easy to say a freshman makes too many mistakes,” the coach said. “He needs to be at a place that will put the ball in his hands and let him play through mistakes and learn to be his best.
“Not sure Pope has the luxury to let him play through mistakes right now but he can probably still score the ball better than most of the guys on their team.”
7 Responses
The comments are spot on with Jasper. The upper classmen are not taking up the slack to let Jasper play through mistakes. Heck, they can't even play through their own mistakes.
I have said all along that UK has some great players. They just aren't great at playing together.
As for Pope's style, a good coach will recruit to his style and do well.
A great coach changes his style to fit the players he recruited to get the best out of each one. Those kind of coaches are few and far between.
Rupp could change his style. As another coach once said about him, He will take his and beat yours. He will take yours and beat his.
With you OLd Fan
Johnson is the only offense we have today. Maybe the rest of the team will drink a Red Bull and get their wings for the second half.
1000% but it’s not all of it! Pope himself is out of position a tad and this is a bit too much for him to handle. We are going to give him time to develop as a coach aswell; but that was not part of the “assignment”! This is on the board and AD.
We have given the program time to adjust to the new NCAA and we have been patient and gave Cal his due time to rite the ship. He failed the past 5 years and it was best we both moved on.
Pope was to win now! After a great first year, you can not regress. It’s not acceptable with the money that’s being spent in today’s game by ultimately fans and tax payers and “appropriations”.
Acceptable disappointment to me means that we finish the same with a sweet 16 finish and one does not need eye wear to see the hopes of this happening are getting out of reach.
It’s just painful to watch. We can not shot create! Guys can not get open and we have a bad fg average especially for our bigs and in high percentage situations. They run into each other and fall down often resulting in single digit points the first 10 minutes of the game!
I feel a staggering statistic to comprehend is that we have 6! Yes 6! Players shooting over 36% from 3…these are not just on a few attempts but rather 70-75% or more of our total team attempts!
So to me this is primarily on the coach…not solely but atleast 85.397% the coaches fault!
I am happy for each win and hope we get it together. I want Pope to succeed but it’s not helping that majority of fans not on board with the hire to begin with but bought into the hype once “all the right words” were spoken! Go cats!
Good post Jason
Facts! You hit the nail on the head. Everyone wants Pope to succeed but can he succeed? That is the question. With the portal you never know what your getting. I think Pope thought Mo-D will start at Alabama he's been a good role player for 2 years. What the Alabama coach knows and now what Mark Pope knows it isn't his game it's his character. He has terrible body language. Watch the game when he's in he is constantly yelling at everyone and rolling his eyes at teammates. He also kills our vibe and the way the team gels when he gets in the game. For awhile Pope was playing Mo-D and Aberdeen at the same time and I used to blame Aberdeen but I see now that Mo-D is playing less I was wrong. It's not Aberdeen. He plays out of control sometimes but when he calms down and passes first he's actually a good player. Watch when we make huddles before free throws when Mo is in the game. It rubs off on everyone. As soon as hes taken out we go on a run. He comes back in and the other team goes on a run. He goes back out and we go on another run. You can't tell me he's not hurting this team. He needs to sit at the end of the bench next to Lowe JQ and BG. Then our team will play to it's full potential.
I honestly think he's just in over his head. We took a average coach and bet on him to win because he's coaching at Kentucky and he played for Kentucky. Remember Joker Phillips. Joker Phillips actually got eased into the job. If you remember he was the coach in waiting. Pope has never done anything as a head coach. Nothing. He never took a team to the final 4 that wasn't supposed to be there. He never made a Elite 8 run with BYU or Utah state. The coach at BYU is doing way better than what Pope did at BYU is that telling you anything? Maybe the coach at BYU now would do better than what Popes doing at Kentucky. Think about it he's pulling in top recruits not transfers and his roster all came back which means they want to play for him. When Pope left the only player that followed him was Robinson and Chandler. The rest of BYU stuck around and Khalifa left and went to Louisville. The rival against Pope nobody thinks this is all weird ? Kevin Young BYU coach is better than Pope. In his first year he set the record for wins at BYU. In his second year he has BYU 16-1. Pope with a much more expensive roster is 11-6. Last year Kevin Young won 26 games. Mark Pope won 23 games. So Kevin Young has won 42 games up to this point. Pope has won 34 at Kentucky. Plus Kevin Young has gotten the best recruits at BYU. AJ Dynbasta might be the best college player I've seen in a long time. He is what we are missing a certified scorer and defender.
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