Which I will say I really like how Texas A&M coach coaches. It’s his first year there but they play a fun style. I know a few years ago I mentioned Todd Golden as a coach that may be one of the best coaches soon. This guy is another one that I think is on his way to being one of the best. 

15 minutes ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

Don't help when you do it on a dead ball FT. lol

Oh, I thought they played the entire game with six. LOL

8 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Oh, I thought they played the entire game with six. LOL

I doubt it would have helped we couldn't even put 5 good ones out there tonight.

Pope has turned this team into a bunch of robots, substituting with 17 and 16 minutes left in the first halves of games is totally out coaching and out thinking the game, absolutely no need for this and very disappointing that he can’t figure this out, settle on seven or maybe eight and play the game, substituting just for the plain reason to substitute is ridiculous and killing this team. Noah is useless and hasn’t made a shot in probably ten games, Garrison is useless and gets nothing done, Jasper is lost on the floor, so why are these guys getting minutes? Someone please explain this to me because obviously I’m not smart enough to figure it out!

With the exception of double 00, this team is not fun to watch. Pope was able to overcome last year's lack of talent with shooting, but this can't shoot consistently enough to overcome their issues. Even if everyone was healthy, I'm still not sure how good this team would actually be and if they would be any more consistent. 

For me, all indications point to year three being the final year of the Pope Era. It was fun thinking a former captain of a national championship team would be able to do the same with his old team, but he just doesn't have the "it" factor to get the team to that point.

Whoever becomes the new AD hopefully will have a list of possible replacements when they are hired.

1 hour ago, nikeman49 said:

Pope has turned this team into a bunch of robots, substituting with 17 and 16 minutes left in the first halves of games is totally out coaching and out thinking the game, absolutely no need for this and very disappointing that he can’t figure this out, settle on seven or maybe eight and play the game, substituting just for the plain reason to substitute is ridiculous and killing this team. Noah is useless and hasn’t made a shot in probably ten games, Garrison is useless and gets nothing done, Jasper is lost on the floor, so why are these guys getting minutes? Someone please explain this to me because obviously I’m not smart enough to figure it out!

Just imagine how much he would be substituting if it weren’t for the injuries. The injuries actually forced his hand to not try to play 11 guys, and allowed things to at least get a little better. However, you are right he still substitutes way too much. It is like he wants to be deep and use many players like the 96 team he was on, without realizing that team was just that loaded and is why Pitino was able to use so many guys. 

52 minutes ago, LongTimeReader said:

With the exception of double 00, this team is not fun to watch. Pope was able to overcome last year's lack of talent with shooting, but this can't shoot consistently enough to overcome their issues. Even if everyone was healthy, I'm still not sure how good this team would actually be and if they would be any more consistent. 

For me, all indications point to year three being the final year of the Pope Era. It was fun thinking a former captain of a national championship team would be able to do the same with his old team, but he just doesn't have the "it" factor to get the team to that point.

Whoever becomes the new AD hopefully will have a list of possible replacements when they are hired.

I know a lot of fans don’t like it. However, UK has always been at its best when it has a coach who has that bigger than life personality. A personality that quite possibly thinks they are equal to or even bigger than the UK name. Rupp, Pitino, and Calipari were all that. You have to have that larger than life personality to be able to do this job at the high level that is expected. 
 

Which to me there are only a few of those coaches out there right now. Dan Hurley, Nate Oats, and Bruce Pearl. Todd Golden probably too, as he has shown he can win and seems to have that personality too, as I loved his comment on Bama getting that G league player and he said it doesn’t matter they will beat them anyways. 

3 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Just imagine how much he would be substituting if it weren’t for the injuries. The injuries actually forced his hand to not try to play 11 guys, and allowed things to at least get a little better. However, you are right he still substitutes way too much. It is like he wants to be deep and use many players like the 96 team he was on, without realizing that team was just that loaded and is why Pitino was able to use so many guys. 

Injuries or not one single injury, there’s no need at all to substitute 3 or 4 minutes into a basketball game!! Guys haven’t even broken a good sweat, no chance to get into the flow, these guys are 19-21 years old and are in top physical condition, just doesn’t make any good sense to me.

40 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

Injuries or not one single injury, there’s no need at all to substitute 3 or 4 minutes into a basketball game!! Guys haven’t even broken a good sweat, no chance to get into the flow, these guys are 19-21 years old and are in top physical condition, just doesn’t make any good sense to me.

I completely agree with you. I was just saying it would be even worse if everyone was healthy. As he is more worried about trying to keep players happy it seems, when things are much better when he goes with a shorter bench. Yet he just seems like he doesn't ever want to do that much, even with injuries.