The coach grew up in height and has shrunk in the ego, but other than that, tell me, which has changed Kentucky male basketball within 10 months since John Calipari Vamoosed?
Mark Pope’s Wildcats do not play more defense than The Calipari final team that could not keep a transfer from division II It played for Oakland last March.
Joy Ride is over, people, arrested by a 3 -point dam provided by Alabama, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi. The Wildcats have lost four of their last five games, abandoning at least 89 points in three of these defeats.
In these last two defeats against Arkansas and Ole Miss, the Wildcats (15-7) defended the hoop as Mul
Lulhemon protects its goods.
Do you want it? Take it!
Just last week, the New York Times published an article On the pope under the title: the honeymoon phase of Kentucky of Mark Pope refuses to fade.
Nice timing, gray lady.
Forget the honeymoon, some Kentucky fans need comfortation.
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Mark Pope is held to the reputation of a fun offense, the undeniable defense
Big Blue Nation convinced himself last spring after Calipari’s jailbreak for Arkansas that he would attract a coach at least a national championship on his curriculum vitae and, if Billy Donovan and Scott rejected them, well, call Bruce Pearl like infection.
This plan sounded very well on speech radio, but radio talk is not real life.
The Kentucky hired a trainer without march Madness victories. In the five seasons of Pope in Brigham Young, only once did his team only made his ranking in the top 50 for defensive efficiency, as measured by Ken Pomroy’s analytical guru.
Big Blue Nation Initially remote Having Pope’s hiring, but it’s a real cat who played for Rick Pitino. He delighted all the sensations during his introduction to Rupp Arena who turned into renewal, then conquered the persistent skeptics by defeating Duke in November, Louisville in December and Florida in January.
Since then, other teams have improved, Kentucky has blocked and its porous defense has been exposed several times.
If only these Wildcats defended half as well as the team of St John’s from Pitino.
The Pope is up to his reputation for a modern offense which is generally easy for the eyes, built around 3-knit. He also adheres to his reputation for inconsistent defenses.
A RUPP Arena crowd which hué Calipari on Saturday before the Tipoff of his return made for the outings before the buzzer. The Calipari razorbacks came to Lexington needing a compass to find the bottom of the net. A match against the Wildcats healed their shooting illness. They sank 13 3 points against helpless Kentucky defense to stop the assault. Three days later, Ole Miss also drained 13 triples, and the Wildcats forced exactly one more turnover than a lampshade for 40 minutes against the rebels.
“I am doing a bad job to find answers to (defensive problems) at the moment,” said Pope to journalists after the last loss.
Kentucky has had no answers for years. The Wildcats played for the last really solid defense throughout the 2018-19 season. Not by coincidence, the last appearance of the Elite Eight Wildcats came to this campaign. Since then, they have varied from average to poor defense.
The defense of disturbing Kentucky before March Madness
Analytics Nerds The operating teams have ranked in the top 20 offensive and defensive ratings of Pomeroy as smart bets to do March Madness races. Uconn and Purdue, the two teams that reached the final last season, ranked in the top 15 at the national level at the two ends of the court.
The latest ranking of Kentucky? N ° 2 in attack, following only Auburn and 109th in defense. The Calipari final team finished 109th in defensive efficiency.
Yes, we have already seen this film, and Kentucky did not like the end.
“My guys play hard,” said Pope after a defeat in which Ole Miss burned the Kentucky with 54 points at halftime. “I’m doing a bad job with our team on the defensive right now.”
The pope with his gaps is a refreshing pivot after Calipari dodged interviews or blamed young people for losses, even though he has repeatedly built lists built on first -year students on transfers.
Better than blame, however, would constitute solutions.
Now recognize some warnings. After recovering from an ankle injury, the leader Lamont Butler missed the last three games with a shoulder injury. Wildcats are not the same without him.
In addition, Calipari’s release cost Kentucky its list in Kentucky. Five precious recruits left the signature class, three of which followed the former Kentucky coach in Arkansas. Several Wildcats are stamped for the transfer portal during a mass transition. This is planned in the midst of a coach regime change.
The Pope did well to fight against losses with quality transfers, and he deserves a chance to install a recruitment class before making lasting judgments.
However, the pope knows better than most of which he signed up in Kentucky. In a nod to high expectations, he nicknamed the Kentucky pre-season training camp “Banner Week”.
“The suspended banners is what we were called to do,” said Pope on the podcast “College Hoops Today” before the season.
Unless these Wildcats are in defense, they will not lean banners this season, because the first NCAA outings end under a blur of buckets are afflicted, not celebrated, in Kentucky. The Pope’s predecessor can testify.
Blake Topmeyer is a columnist for the USA Today network. Send him an email to boppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on x @BtopPmeyer. Get down To read all his columns.
This article originally appeared on USA Today: Kentucky basketball with Mark Pope evokes John Calipari as losses increase
(Tagstotranslate) John Calipari (T) Mark Pope (T) Ole Miss (T) Kentucky (T) Final Team (T) Arkansas (T) Team (T) Billy Donovan (T) Lamont Butler (T) Florida (T) Oakland
