2 hours ago, futurecoach said:

I have never liked that argument when people say in the amount of time he had to assemble a team. With how college is now with the transfer portal. Almost every single roster is getting flipped every year. It’s very hard to keep a roster together, but on the flip side it is also a lot easier to put a roster together even after a coaching change. 
 

As for the tournament it all depends on Butler IMO. If Butler plays, then I think this team is still the same team we saw all year. Meaning it wouldn’t be a surprise if they lose in the first weekend, but also not a surprise if they make a run. They have shown this year they can win or lose to anyone. Now if Butler doesn’t play then I would say anything past a sweet 16 would be a huge surprise. 

Oh, I understand the landscape of college basketball now.  However, Pope was named UK coach on April 12th.  The transfer portal opened on March 24th and closed on April 22nd.  Most teams would have had 29 days to fill their rosters from the portal.  Pope had 10 days to assemble his staff, and try to put an entire roster together from the portal.  Most teams had an almost 3 week head start on him.  

51 minutes ago, Carl Spackler said:

Oh, I understand the landscape of college basketball now.  However, Pope was named UK coach on April 12th.  The transfer portal opened on March 24th and closed on April 22nd.  Most teams would have had 29 days to fill their rosters from the portal.  Pope had 10 days to assemble his staff, and try to put an entire roster together from the portal.  Most teams had an almost 3 week head start on him.  

Which he was able to fill the roster with a bunch of guys with tons of college basketball experience that have been there done that. With how things are today, it simply isn’t as hard as it used to be to flip a roster and do very good in one off season. 
 

Now dealing with the injuries he has had to deal with this year has been impressive though. Some of the quality wins this year also very impressive. 

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

Which he was able to fill the roster with a bunch of guys with tons of college basketball experience that have been there done that. With how things are today, it simply isn’t as hard as it used to be to flip a roster and do very good in one off season. 
 

Now dealing with the injuries he has had to deal with this year has been impressive though. Some of the quality wins this year also very impressive. 

That's why I said that "give the amount of time he had to work with".  He had 10 days to assemble a staff and team.  Other teams had 29 days just to work the portal.  10 vs 29 is a big difference, especially given that he didn't have a coaching staff in place. 

1 hour ago, Carl Spackler said:

That's why I said that "give the amount of time he had to work with".  He had 10 days to assemble a staff and team.  Other teams had 29 days just to work the portal.  10 vs 29 is a big difference, especially given that he didn't have a coaching staff in place. 

Which I’m saying ten years ago that would have been very hard to put together a good roster with a hiring in April. It is not that hard or even that impressive anymore to be able to put together a good roster still even when he was hired. As that deadline was only for players having to enter the portal, they didn’t have to sign by that date. Over 1800 players were in the portal last year. It isn’t hard for a new coach to potentially put together a good roster. 

7 hours ago, futurecoach said:

 but on the flip side it is also a lot easier to put a roster together even after a coaching change.

But on the flip, flip side, if you enter the portal/bidding war Late, many of the best portal players have been taken, and you have to "make do" with whoever is left.

2 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Which I’m saying ten years ago that would have been very hard to put together a good roster with a hiring in April. It is not that hard or even that impressive anymore to be able to put together a good roster still even when he was hired. As that deadline was only for players having to enter the portal, they didn’t have to sign by that date. Over 1800 players were in the portal last year. It isn’t hard for a new coach to potentially put together a good roster. 

Correct. And they ended up landing, according to the portal rankings, one of the best classes. 

This isn’t like signing kids out of high school. The portal allows for players to be patient and selective to see how rosters are developing, which is a great thing.

11 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Which he was able to fill the roster with a bunch of guys with tons of college basketball experience that have been there done that. With how things are today, it simply isn’t as hard as it used to be to flip a roster and do very good in one off season. 
 

Now dealing with the injuries he has had to deal with this year has been impressive though. Some of the quality wins this year also very impressive. 

Agreed.  The only thing that UK fans should be frustrated with is the nearly complete absence of defense.  I’m not a UK fan, but I thought defending would be a strong suit.  Second half of this game was atrocious. 

1 hour ago, mcpapa said:

Agreed.  The only thing that UK fans should be frustrated with is the nearly complete absence of defense.  I’m not a UK fan, but I thought defending would be a strong suit.  Second half of this game was atrocious. 

Agree, but got to recall the defenders in this class were Butler, Karissa, Robinson and Williams.  3 of them are out or physically debilitated, while Williams seems to be anything but a 7’ rim protector.  Just so disappointed in his lack of physical dominance on the D end.

19 minutes ago, Oldercoach said:

Agree, but got to recall the defenders in this class were Butler, Karissa, Robinson and Williams.  3 of them are out or physically debilitated, while Williams seems to be anything but a 7’ rim protector.  Just so disappointed in his lack of physical dominance on the D end.

The injury Gods have done no favors for UK this season. I’m impressed they pulled it together and readjusted to the extent they have. Perry, Noah, and Chandler are not ready to defend at this level of basketball, but they’ve been thrust into meaningful minutes. On balance, UK was one of the worst defensive teams in the nation pre-injury bug. Now, maybe it would have gelled in the end had the team remained intact?

20 hours ago, Bluto said:

Also, I believe that these guys picture themselves as better dribbler/ball handlers than they really are.

Ball handling has been a struggle all season. Oweh is going to dribble a couple off of his knee or foot every game. Garrison seems to get stripped at least once a game just from having a bad dribble and others are prone to lose the ball if they get sped up. 

6 hours ago, Oldercoach said:

Agree, but got to recall the defenders in this class were Butler, Karissa, Robinson and Williams.  3 of them are out or physically debilitated, while Williams seems to be anything but a 7’ rim protector.  Just so disappointed in his lack of physical dominance on the D end.

I don’t think Robinson was ever considered a great defender, as he was more known for his offense. The guys that were known for their defense was Butler, Williams, and Oweh. 

16 hours ago, Bluto said:

But on the flip, flip side, if you enter the portal/bidding war Late, many of the best portal players have been taken, and you have to "make do" with whoever is left.

The majority of players that entered the transfer portal were still there when Pope was hired and was still there weeks after he was hired. Most portal players were not signing quickly, because of looking for the best NIL deal possible. Plus honestly with it being UK, players probably also wanted to see who UK hired and if UK would be a possibility then. There were many transfer players that never committed to a school until May and even June.