5 minutes ago, Breds82 said:

Listened to the last minute on the radio and Tom Leach sounded defeated. Didn’t even raise his voice one bit. All Jack could do was just mumble. Glad I had other obligations. 

Believe me you didn't miss much!

34 minutes ago, theguru said:

Matt Jones is right. Pope was horrible coaching down the stretch. Quaintance on the bench the last 4 minutes against a very physical team. He was an absolute must be on the floor player that last 4 minutes.  But it wasn't all on Pope. Missed open looks. Oweh missed a layup. Oweh fumbled a ball out of bounds. Lowe tried to win it himself instead being a playmaker. UK defense is still lacking and that is their chance to win. Pope can't get them playing hard enough. A lot of lazy plays. Moreno with two lazy plays in the last minute or so, especially that missed free throw where he let Missouri get the rebound.

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Voice of Reason

As they say, on to the next one.

Every blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

4 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

As they say, on to the next one.

Every blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

The squirrels are stampeding their way to Lexington.

The sad part is, in evaluating against how UK has looked much of this season, they didn’t play bad by that standard. Ugh.

UK had the Tigers on the ropes. Solid lead, in the bonus earlier in the second half, and Missouri had no timeouts at their disposal down the stretch. Didn’t matter. They weren’t rattled and much better prepared for the moment.

Was there any explanation of the last play? Was that the play? Lowe dribbling then taking a contested off balance 3?

7 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Was there any explanation of the last play? Was that the play? Lowe dribbling then taking a contested off balance 3?

Yeah, that was rough.

Didn’t think we would be in “must win” territory two games into the SEC slate, but here we are. 

Down late, not sure I ever want Garrison or Moreno handling the ball.

12 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Lowe and Quaintance might as well shut it down and work on getting healthy. This season is a waste. 

From the looks of Q's performance, I thought he did shut down last night.  

So, I have come down to one conclusion, this team just isn’t very good, no shooters, poor ball handling skills and passing ability, young inside players that need experience, players not performing up to their individual capabilities. And I fully understand this is Pope’s construction of a team and he is responsible, but all in all, there’s not much talent to depend on. Just one guys observation mid season.

36 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

So, I have come down to one conclusion, this team just isn’t very good, no shooters, poor ball handling skills and passing ability, young inside players that need experience, players not performing up to their individual capabilities. And I fully understand this is Pope’s construction of a team and he is responsible, but all in all, there’s not much talent to depend on. Just one guys observation mid season.

I totally agree with you, have said the same thing all year.  Let's face it, it is what it is.

This team has no connectivity. They are looking out for me and not we. That is a Pope problem that he needs to solve.

For starters, I would adjust the offense. Rule 1 - Half court offense no one shoots till every player touches the ball. If you shoot before everyone gets a touch, it better go in the basket. We have seen the results of dribble, dribble, dribble including Lowe and it is ugly. Force passing, find a teammate, and work for a good shot.

Next, Pope is an analytics guy. Maybe he does this already. After every game, in team meeting and film review, review every players numbers. The way to earn PT is with production. Tell them the 5 most productive players get the PT. It isn't subjective. It's numbers. You want PT, you control it. Put up the numbers, you play more.

1 hour ago, nikeman49 said:

So, I have come down to one conclusion, this team just isn’t very good, no shooters, poor ball handling skills and passing ability, young inside players that need experience, players not performing up to their individual capabilities. And I fully understand this is Pope’s construction of a team and he is responsible, but all in all, there’s not much talent to depend on. Just one guys observation mid season.

Which makes me wonder about Popes' ability to evaluate players.  All along this was going to be a great team who shoots the ball really well.  His studs aren't it and his glue guys can't hold it together.  Not sure where he goes from here.

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

So, I have come down to one conclusion, this team just isn’t very good, no shooters, poor ball handling skills and passing ability, young inside players that need experience, players not performing up to their individual capabilities. And I fully understand this is Pope’s construction of a team and he is responsible, but all in all, there’s not much talent to depend on. Just one guys observation mid season.

Definitely agree there, this isn't a very good team. Which as mentioned, doesn't look good on Pope since he put this team together and used a lot of money to do it. With that said, when Cal had a few teams with Freshman that he just couldn't seem to get to gel to work together that struggled, people talked about how he just can't coach. Is it fair now to start questioning how good of a coach Pope is? Pope has guys who have been in college, and not just now learning the college game like freshman. So this still falls on him for not coaching them up better, not getting this team to gel, not making adjustments to things that clearly aren't working. 

Which it would be one thing if Pope had something to fall back on, like hey hey won at high levels before, this is just the exception not the rule. However, Pope doesn't even have winning at a high level to fall back on. That is what makes this so worrisome. There is nothing to fall back on to make us think that Pope will get it fixed even next year to win at the level that is expected, because he has never won at that level as a coach.