Final. The Cats fall to 5-3 and have yet to beat a ranked opponent this season. This team could be 6-6 heading into the SEC in January. They have Gonzaga, Indiana, and St. Johns all currently ranked and a cupcake in North Carolina Central.

 

 

Painful loss.

The most inept, embarrassing display of Kentucky basketball I have ever seen. Over 8 1/2 minutes without a basket while unc was 6 without one. Why not keep chucking 3s when we haven’t made them all year. Why we are at it let’s let UNC get all the offensive boards. Absolutely pathetic, and lazy display. This team would’ve been booed off the floor had Cal still been the coach. The defense is beyond reproach and with no outside or inside shooting game we’ll be lucking the Cats make the NIT. 

Ugh losing sucks. Offense was bad, defense did look much better tonight until the very end. 
 

Good news is they have plenty of games still to get some good wins. Bad news is, it doesn’t get any easier, they need to find a way to win these games. 

Honest question for you Cats fans, Is Mark Pope the guy?

9 hours ago, Breds82 said:

The most inept, embarrassing display of Kentucky basketball I have ever seen. Over 8 1/2 minutes without a basket while unc was 6 without one. Why not keep chucking 3s when we haven’t made them all year. Why we are at it let’s let UNC get all the offensive boards. Absolutely pathetic, and lazy display. This team would’ve been booed off the floor had Cal still been the coach. The defense is beyond reproach and with no outside or inside shooting game we’ll be lucking the Cats make the NIT. 

The team is without 3 starters. It sucks, and next man up and all of that but it is what it is. Until they have a healthy roster I expect more of the same.

With that said, they were very capable of winning last night. Someone needs to be the designated PG2 until Lowe is back. Aberdeen is streaky but they've gotta have someone else out there capable of running the offense efficiently when Aberdeen needs a breather or isn't playing well. 

20 minutes ago, DiamondGator23 said:

Honest question for you Cats fans, Is Mark Pope the guy?

Jury is still out. He's been hit early and often with injury problems which has had big impacts on the court and in season long development. 

1 minute ago, sportsfan41 said:

Jury is still out. He's been hit early and often with injury problems which has had big impacts on the court and in season long development. 

Understandable, I personally think a lot of him and I'm a Gator fan obviously. That game was winnable last night and felt like the lights got to bright for him, you don't lose to Hubert Davis inside Rupp Arena, just can't. 

We can make excuses for the 3 injured players but as a coach make adjustments. Don’t let Aberdeen take and miss 7 shots when the team goes over 10 minutes without a field goal. 

13 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Jury is still out. He's been hit early and often with injury problems which has had big impacts on the court and in season long development. 

Injuries definitely have been an issue. As unfortunately injuries have been an issue  for UK since like 2018. Which many people didn't really allow that excuse to fly for Cal. So with Pope he didn’t really get this job based on resume, but more so being a former Cat. He doesn’t have much to fall back on, in regards to when healthy his teams have success. So he needs to find a way to weather this injury storm. Then if and when they get healthy, he is going to need to show much more this year. 
 

Which there has been a lot to like with Pope, but the biggest thing is winning. Which I do think this team can be very good when and if fully healthy. So hopefully that happens and Pope and the team do great and make a run at it!

42 minutes ago, DiamondGator23 said:

Understandable, I personally think a lot of him and I'm a Gator fan obviously. That game was winnable last night and felt like the lights got to bright for him, you don't lose to Hubert Davis inside Rupp Arena, just can't. 

Yes, they absolutely should have won that game. Just gotta start running some legit offense to avoid these long offensive droughts. 

29 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

Injuries definitely have been an issue. As unfortunately injuries have been an issue  for UK since like 2018. Which many people didn't really allow that excuse to fly for Cal. So with Pope he didn’t really get this job based on resume, but more so being a former Cat. He doesn’t have much to fall back on, in regards to when healthy his teams have success. So he needs to find a way to weather this injury storm. Then if and when they get healthy, he is going to need to show much more this year. 
 

Which there has been a lot to like with Pope, but the biggest thing is winning. Which I do think this team can be very good when and if fully healthy. So hopefully that happens and Pope and the team do great and make a run at it!

Correct. We need that same energy. Good coaches should be able to overcome the injury bug, especially against a less-than-stellar UNC team.

This was Bad.  No excuse for allowing all the offensive rebounds.  Most of those seemed like UK was a step slow or that UNC wanted it more!

I don't think Pope is adjusting to having more slasher type players instead of spot up shooters...He has to get Oweh down hill...

He is also not adjusting well to a non passing Big guy.  Moreno has a lot of upside, but he is no Williams on the high post.  

 

14 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Yes, they absolutely should have won that game. Just gotta start running some legit offense to avoid these long offensive droughts. 

Thousand percent, but Mark had similar issues out in Utah at UVU and BYU. This isn't new for him. Multiple chances last night to close the Heels out and they didn't. How long was that scoring drought? 10 minutes or more maybe?

1 hour ago, Breds82 said:

We can make excuses for the 3 injured players but as a coach make adjustments. Don’t let Aberdeen take and miss 7 shots when the team goes over 10 minutes without a field goal. 

I felt like Aberdeen was trying to be the hero all night. He played good in spurts, but took way too many bad shots.