23 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Not worth banging my head against the wall. This team, we were hoping to be a .500 team because the coaching changed happened at just about the worst time and UK retained ZERO recruits. Hell, they retained ZERO players period other than a walk on. How anyone can be mad about this teams play is beyond me right now. Just unbelievably naive and arrogant. 

I'm still trying to figure out where you got the whole people were thinking this would be a .500 type of team? From their preseason ranking, and predictions for the season even from national experts. No one was predicting them to be just a .500 type of team. Mostly everyone predicted them to be a tournament seed and possibly around a 4-6 seed. The link below has a a lot of predictions on what people were thinking about this team at the start of the year. So far they have exceeded even those expectations too. However, no one was saying they would be as bad as you seem to suggest that people were saying. The only complain anyone can have is the defense, and if they can get that straightened out then they will be in truly great shape. 
 

C.J. Moore, also of The Athletic, predicted UK to be in the 4-6 seed range by the end of the season. He’s an AP Top 25 voter, placing the Cats at No. 23 on his preseason ballot.

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello also had UK at No. 23 on his first AP ballot and picked the 4-6 seed range in our poll.

“I think Kentucky is one of the biggest mystery teams entering the season,” Borzello said. “New coach, new system, completely new roster — with questions facing each of those areas. So I think there could be some early bumps in the road, and the SEC is so loaded in the top half that losses are inevitable. But there’s a lot of talent in Lexington — a lot of veteran talent — and with the way the Wildcats should be able to shoot the ballfrom the perimeter, it’s a team that I expect to be ranked for the vast majority of the season.”

https://amp.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article294886629.html

I was just watching the Miss. State at Tennessee game and during the halftime show on ESPN they were talking about Kentucky and some issues. Now I knew their defense and rebounding left some to be desired and they foul too much. However, I did not realize they were last in the SEC in the following areas:

Opponents Points per game: SEC Rank- Last

Defensive Efficiency: SEC Rank- Last

2nd Chance PPG allowed: SEC Rank- Last

Fouls Committed per game: SEC Rank- Last

(Sorry Pic is not the best) Title is "Running Wild on the Cats"

S

2nd chance points for the opponents is the one that hurts the most. How many FTs are the opponents getting off of offensive boards? I don't understand how a basic, not necessarily easy, thing as boxing out seems to be so difficult at this point in the year. We are missing that "get on the floor attitude" on loose balls.

Pope has done a good job considering the time he had to work with.  Next year will be more of the same with only a few returning players.  Let's see what he can do with a full off-season.  As for this year, I think the ceiling is a sweet 16 team, but I can also see a first weekend elimination depending on the opponent.  Teams this low in defensive efficiency just don't advance far.  These players are who they are and they are  not going to suddenly transform into better defensive players.  

On 1/22/2025 at 9:56 AM, REALSPORT said:

Pope has done a good job considering the time he had to work with.  Next year will be more of the same with only a few returning players.  Let's see what he can do with a full off-season.  As for this year, I think the ceiling is a sweet 16 team, but I can also see a first weekend elimination depending on the opponent.  Teams this low in defensive efficiency just don't advance far.  These players are who they are and they are  not going to suddenly transform into better defensive players.  

Your last sentence is the biggest mystery to me with this team. Pope brought in three players that were defensive players of the years in their previous conferences. So he brought in guys who are good at defense. So where are they going wrong on defense? While Pope has done an amazing job teaching offense with this group, is how he is teaching defense not good? This ain’t like with Cal when he had brand new teams with a bunch of freshman who were not use to playing defense. We have players that are older and been good defensive players elsewhere. So it is very curious how this team has been so bad defensively. 

On 1/25/2025 at 3:28 PM, futurecoach said:

Your last sentence is the biggest mystery to me with this team. Pope brought in three players that were defensive players of the years in their previous conferences. So he brought in guys who are good at defense. So where are they going wrong on defense? While Pope has done an amazing job teaching offense with this group, is how he is teaching defense not good? This ain’t like with Cal when he had brand new teams with a bunch of freshman who were not use to playing defense. We have players that are older and been good defensive players elsewhere. So it is very curious how this team has been so bad defensively. 

Could it be the offenses they played against when they won the "defensive" awards were not up to SEC level.  I don't know. Just taking a guess.