14 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Auburn is really good, UK's multiple unforced live ball turnovers doomed any chance they may have had. Without baskets off of the turnovers, UK actually holds Auburn under 50% shooting today. 

This has not been a good ball handling team all season, it really hit home today in this loss.

Turnovers definitely didn’t help and led to easy points. However the overall defense as usual was bad again. Auburn easily was able to get in the lane and also had a lot of easy looks from the three point line. 
 

As we know for this team to win, they have to shoot well from the outside and not have turnovers. As this defense is going to routinely give up over 80 or 90 points most games. 

Auburn is a great team, but we are not talking the Bad Boys Pistons on defense. I say that because it was not as if they were forcing a sizable amount of turnovers, a lot of them were unforced carelessness.

I considered turning off the game when the Auburn player knocked down consecutive banked three pointers. I’ve watched thousands of hours of basketball in my life, and I’ve never seen that. That’s when you know it’s (not) your day.

I really wish UK would have went all out to try to get Bruce Pearl like they did with Hurley, and made Pearl have to tell them no before moving on. He may not have came, but I wish UK would have went all out and made him say no. Pearl I do think would have been a great fit, and plus would have came in with the personality and the resume. Pitino had a final four and NBA head coach on his resume when he got the UK job. Calipari had taken two programs to final fours, and been an NBA head coach when he got the UK job. Pearl would have also had a final four on his resume if he would have came here. 
 

With that said that doesn’t mean I don’t think Pope can get it done. I think he has shown he is a good coach, but he literally has nothing on his resume except for being a former UK player to show if he capable of getting it done or not. When we got Pitino and Cal both had shown they were capable of leading programs far. Pope is still an unknown, so no way to know if he is capable of it or not. That’s why I wish they would have at least also went all out for Pearl too, and made him say no before possibly going on to Pope. 

7 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Hey @theguruthis was one positive: lol

The bad new is that the ABC truck has lost power, and the game isn’t on TV. The good news is that a ref just said that they can’t do official reviews because the monitors are out.

Generator fire is what knocked the coverage off air.

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/generator-fire-forces-abrupt-end-abc-coverage-auburn-kentucky

On 3/1/2025 at 10:11 PM, futurecoach said:

I really wish UK would have went all out to try to get Bruce Pearl like they did with Hurley, and made Pearl have to tell them no before moving on. He may not have came, but I wish UK would have went all out and made him say no. Pearl I do think would have been a great fit, and plus would have came in with the personality and the resume. Pitino had a final four and NBA head coach on his resume when he got the UK job. Calipari had taken two programs to final fours, and been an NBA head coach when he got the UK job. Pearl would have also had a final four on his resume if he would have came here. 
 

With that said that doesn’t mean I don’t think Pope can get it done. I think he has shown he is a good coach, but he literally has nothing on his resume except for being a former UK player to show if he capable of getting it done or not. When we got Pitino and Cal both had shown they were capable of leading programs far. Pope is still an unknown, so no way to know if he is capable of it or not. That’s why I wish they would have at least also went all out for Pearl too, and made him say no before possibly going on to Pope. 

Pearl would have answered the call by saying yes.  UK is his dream job.  With that said, the powers at be didn't want another bigger than life personality coach coming in IMO.

I love Pope and he will be fine...but Pearl is a top 3-5 Coach in the game today.

On 3/1/2025 at 10:11 PM, futurecoach said:

I really wish UK would have went all out to try to get Bruce Pearl like they did with Hurley, and made Pearl have to tell them no before moving on. He may not have came, but I wish UK would have went all out and made him say no. Pearl I do think would have been a great fit, and plus would have came in with the personality and the resume. Pitino had a final four and NBA head coach on his resume when he got the UK job. Calipari had taken two programs to final fours, and been an NBA head coach when he got the UK job. Pearl would have also had a final four on his resume if he would have came here. 
 

With that said that doesn’t mean I don’t think Pope can get it done. I think he has shown he is a good coach, but he literally has nothing on his resume except for being a former UK player to show if he capable of getting it done or not. When we got Pitino and Cal both had shown they were capable of leading programs far. Pope is still an unknown, so no way to know if he is capable of it or not. That’s why I wish they would have at least also went all out for Pearl too, and made him say no before possibly going on to Pope. 

Call me crazy, but after watching Hurley's personality all season long, I'm glad he said no. 

21 minutes ago, okie1 said:

Pearl would have answered the call by saying yes.  UK is his dream job.  With that said, the powers at be didn't want another bigger than life personality coach coming in IMO.

I love Pope and he will be fine...but Pearl is a top 3-5 Coach in the game today.

Agreed! Which those bigger than life personality type coaches are the ones who seem to win at the highest level here. Rupp, Pitino, and Cal were all like that. Unfortunately UK is following the same pattern in regards to their coaching hires. The big larger than life type coaches like Rupp, Pitino, Cal. Followed by a good coach, with a like able personality and some UK ties like Hall, Smith, and now Pope. Which should mean we get a title at some point with Pope, but may not be winning with the highest clip people like. Then we will get that alcoholic type coach Sutton, Billy G after Pope. Before then the university is willing to then go for that big personality again that has won at a high level already. 

19 minutes ago, ChickenWyngz said:

Call me crazy, but after watching Hurley's personality all season long, I'm glad he said no. 

I feel you, but fan bases adjust to a coach's personality based on winning results. You are not going to convince me BCG wouldn't have still been UK's coach had they made a deep run in the tournament in his second year. Obviously, over time a personality can wear on a fan base, but warts are only prevalent when the losses accumulate.

I think Hurley is destined for the NBA at some point, fwiw.

20 minutes ago, bugatti said:

I feel you, but fan bases adjust to a coach's personality based on winning results. You are not going to convince me BCG wouldn't have still been UK's coach had they made a deep run in the tournament in his second year. Obviously, over time a personality can wear on a fan base, but warts are only prevalent when the losses accumulate.

I think Hurley is destined for the NBA at some point, fwiw.

Hurley will get choked out in the locker room or worse by some Ron Artest type personality.

22 minutes ago, bugatti said:

I feel you, but fan bases adjust to a coach's personality based on winning results. You are not going to convince me BCG wouldn't have still been UK's coach had they made a deep run in the tournament in his second year. Obviously, over time a personality can wear on a fan base, but warts are only prevalent when the losses accumulate.

I think Hurley is destined for the NBA at some point, fwiw.

Hurley Coaching NBA prem donnas would be must see reality TV!

33 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

Agreed! Which those bigger than life personality type coaches are the ones who seem to win at the highest level here. Rupp, Pitino, and Cal were all like that. Unfortunately UK is following the same pattern in regards to their coaching hires. The big larger than life type coaches like Rupp, Pitino, Cal. Followed by a good coach, with a like able personality and some UK ties like Hall, Smith, and now Pope. Which should mean we get a title at some point with Pope, but may not be winning with the highest clip people like. Then we will get that alcoholic type coach Sutton, Billy G after Pope. Before then the university is willing to then go for that big personality again that has won at a high level already. 

I think Pope is doing as well as anyone could have constructing a roster in a short period of time as well as just injury issues this year.  Honestly he deserves a ton of credit but you are correct in that he is not that bigger than life guy.   But do you think Pitino was before he came to UK?  I kind of think he became that at UK.  Overall a really good look at the coaching hires.

Just now, cincyswords said:

I think Pope is doing as well as anyone could have constructing a roster in a short period of time as well as just injury issues this year.  Honestly he deserves a ton of credit but you are correct in that he is not that bigger than life guy.   But do you think Pitino was before he came to UK?  I kind of think he became that at UK.  Overall a really good look at the coaching hires.

Pitino definitely had the charisma and larger than life coming to UK.  He showed up with his New York swagger and Armani suits and bred life into a dying program through his own will.  

9 minutes ago, okie1 said:

Pitino definitely had the charisma and larger than life coming to UK.  He showed up with his New York swagger and Armani suits and bred life into a dying program through his own will.  

Still love his suit game. Unmatched, especially in today's game. 

The irony of Pitino coming to UK, is that it would have never happened in today's landscape.  CM Newton waited a long time before Pitino actually agreed to take the job.  With social media and NIL/Transfer portal, BBN would have imploded if Barnhart had taken as long as CM did to hire a coach!