It may have been mentioned, I'm not reading the rest of the thread. Jasper Johnson was I believe -9 in 30 seconds of play in the first half...that was a brutal stretch. I'm not putting this loss on him, but that stretch completely flipped the game.

Iowa State seemed to play the Pitino philosophy on defense, foul on every play the refs won't call them all. When Iowa St picked up their pressure they were very handsy slapping at every ball. They were either playing the cleanest defense in history or there were so many hacks they just quit calling them.

Kentucky has struggled most of the year with tight belly to belly defense and today had no answers to the double teams when they came. Credit to Iowa St targeting everyone except Oweh for a double as soon as they touched the ball. UK did a horrible job reversing the ball, but credit to Cyclones again on getting their hands in the passing lanes all day.

14 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

It may have been mentioned, I'm not reading the rest of the thread. Jasper Johnson was I believe -9 in 30 seconds of play in the first half...that was a brutal stretch. I'm not putting this loss on him, but that stretch completely flipped the game.

Iowa State seemed to play the Pitino philosophy on defense, foul on every play the refs won't call them all. When Iowa St picked up their pressure they were very handsy slapping at every ball. They were either playing the cleanest defense in history or there were so many hacks they just quit calling them.

Kentucky has struggled most of the year with tight belly to belly defense and today had no answers to the double teams when they came. Credit to Iowa St targeting everyone except Oweh for a double as soon as they touched the ball. UK did a horrible job reversing the ball, but credit to Cyclones again on getting their hands in the passing lanes all day.

Great points, so why was Jasper in the game? What purpose did Pope have for playing him? He absolutely didn’t belong in this basketball game! Don’t play guys without a purpose!!

9 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

Great points, so why was Jasper in the game? What purpose did Pope have for playing him? He absolutely didn’t belong in this basketball game! Don’t play guys without a purpose!!

I suppose Jasper somewhat has a handle, so it was a straw grasp. You knew 20 seconds in he didn’t belong on the court.

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

I haven’t watched many Iowa State games. But man, I am a fan of the Iowa State coach. He has his team playing a fun style of basketball on both sides of the ball. Plus he is known to be a good recruiter too. He is someone I definitely would take a hard look at, if we do have to move on from Pope in a year. 

He may be happy at Iowa State. He has better players than Kentucky and recruits well. Why leave and go to a place where if you play poorly in a scrimmage the fan base wants to fire you lol.

Just now, 9068 said:

He may be happy at Iowa State. He has better players than Kentucky and recruits well. Why leave and go to a place where if you play poorly in a scrimmage the fan base wants to fire you lol.

That same argument is used anytime a coach is very successful at a program that is not a blue blood, but yet majority of the time a coach still would leave for that job. At the end of the day coaches usually like a challenge, and coaches usually dream of getting to coach at one of the elite programs. No matter the pressure that comes with it, it’s just to hard to turn down. 
 

With that said if Iowa State wins it all this year, then that may change things. 

9 minutes ago, 9068 said:

He may be happy at Iowa State. He has better players than Kentucky and recruits well. Why leave and go to a place where if you play poorly in a scrimmage the fan base wants to fire you lol.

If UK, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas call you about their job, you listen and you take it if offered. It's as simple as that.

8 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

That same argument is used anytime a coach is very successful at a program that is not a blue blood, but yet majority of the time a coach still would leave for that job. At the end of the day coaches usually like a challenge, and coaches usually dream of getting to coach at one of the elite programs. No matter the pressure that comes with it, it’s just to hard to turn down. 
 

With that said if Iowa State wins it all this year, then that may change things. 

Why did we end up with Pope?

4 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

That same argument is used anytime a coach is very successful at a program that is not a blue blood, but yet majority of the time a coach still would leave for that job. At the end of the day coaches usually like a challenge, and coaches usually dream of getting to coach at one of the elite programs. No matter the pressure that comes with it, it’s just to hard to turn down. 
 

With that said if Iowa State wins it all this year, then that may change things. 

I see less movement of coaches coming unless they get fired lol. It is getting tougher to put together a PROGRAM than to just buy a TEAM. If you remember correctly people have not been exactly knocking the doors down to get the UK job. There are going to be a bunch of interesting firings/hirings this cycle. The SC and NC coaches are both on the hot seat down here.

10 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

If UK, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas call you about their job, you listen and you take it if offered. It's as simple as that.

I think two of those are about to be open. I think Self is about done and they are looking to find a easy landing for Hubert and UNC.

58 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

If UK, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas call you about their job, you listen and you take it if offered. It's as simple as that.

So did UK not call anybody except for Pope?

Next season will be Mark Pope’s last in Lexington. 

9 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

So did UK not call anybody except for Pope?

They called several and assisted those coaches in getting pay raises. ?

1 hour ago, 9068 said:

I see less movement of coaches coming unless they get fired lol. It is getting tougher to put together a PROGRAM than to just buy a TEAM. If you remember correctly people have not been exactly knocking the doors down to get the UK job. There are going to be a bunch of interesting firings/hirings this cycle. The SC and NC coaches are both on the hot seat down here.

The few top guys who already won titles at their current schools, yeah they turned us down. Which makes sense, as they already shown they can win it all where they are at. UK in this last search panicked after those first few said no. Instead went with an alum, who would have never even better considered if he wasn’t an alum. Shoot Pope has never even won a conference regular season anywhere he has been. So it’s not like a bunch of people said no, as plenty of other people with much better resumes probably would have came here. However, Mitch panicked and went with an alum with no resume of really winning anywhere. 

1 hour ago, 4 Quarters said:

Why did we end up with Pope?

Simply put Mitch panicked after the first few top guys said no. Those top guys already won titles at their current schools, which makes sense why they said no. After they said no, he panicked and went with an alum with no track record of really ever doing that well. 

7 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

Simply put Mitch panicked after the first few top guys said no. Those top guys already won titles at their current schools, which makes sense why they said no. After they said no, he panicked and went with an alum with no track record of really ever doing that well. 

You honestly believe that a guy with 20+ years experience as an SEC athletic director panicked? I'd say he could cast a pretty wide net if he chose to do so. Bottom line.....the guys on this roster were not great players.