A (5:03)
What does that, what is the mindset of we can't start him, but we'll bring him in with one one minute later? I don't get that. So he should be starting. I think he, I actually think he's our best player. Ortega away was good most of the game. I thought in a key sequence he actually gave some really poor effort, which annoyed me a little bit. He had two turnovers on back to back plays and then he got fell down on defense. I think we had cut it to nine and at the end of that sequence we were down 14. I'm not, I mean, I didn't like that sequence from him in general though, without him, especially in the first half, we're not even in the game. So I mean low in a way, I'm good with the rest of guys. I don't know, man. Like they just, I, maybe they're just not good. So. But I can't get over. It's a different player for Colin Chandler in these games against good teams. He looks like a completely different guy. Denzel Aberdeen has just been, he's just been bad. He's just been disappointing and I think he was disappointing tonight. Diabate, I thought played hard, but you know, he can't. You can't rely on Diabate to be an offensive like facilitator. But the problem for me and then Cam Williams again about lineups, where is he? How do you go 12 minutes in the second half and don't put him in, you know, with, with eight minutes to go in the game, he had played six minutes. How. I mean, he made eight threes the other night. Did what happened in the last two and a half weeks, that or two weeks that we just decided he couldn't be in against the team that has made 14 threes in the game. So I, I don't understand Pope's lineups. I don't understand why we continue to play starters that are not our best players. But be that as it may, the biggest issue is it was defensively and for 30 minutes. Now they did adjust this in the last 10 minutes, I thought, but for 30 minutes I thought they were playing a team that like, it looked like they were playing a team where they, they didn't think they could shoot. I mean, they were not extending out on the three. They were clearly playing to try to stop penetration, I guess to prevent Phylon from getting to the, to the basket. But he only had two points at halftime. And so you just gave up a ton of threes. Pope in the post game said something like, well, now they shot the ball really well. Well, I don't, I don't think that was unpredictable. They're a good shooting team. Maybe not as good as a couple years in the past, but they're still really good at it. And after they made the first nine, maybe you adjust. They did adjust in the last eight or nine minutes. And then I thought Kentucky was more competitive now down the stretch, that one guy hit the one from like 27ft. And then there were a couple times where we, we did really poor pick and roll defense where I think they were supposed to come out on it and we just didn't. But I don't understand, for 30 minutes we were clearly coaching them to go under ball screens and to, to, to play the switch with the, the driver or excuse me, with the guy rolling the basket. And I, I, that's what you would do against Michigan State. That's not what you would do against Alabama. At least I wouldn't think so. So, you know, offensively we weren't great, but we also don't make threes. You know, we've assembled a team that can't really shoot. And I don't know how that happened. I don't know why Mark, after having all that success, at least offensively last year with that group, thought the, thought the way to go was to build a team of guys who can't shoot. It's odd to me that we did that and the guys we have that can shoot just seem terrified in these games. College handler seems to me to be terrified when we play these good teams. So that all is a problem. And I still think this team is okay, but I'm becoming less and less confident that if we play anybody good, we can win. I mean, St. John's lost at home to Providence today, so maybe they're not good. Indiana's okay, but I mean when we've played good teams, we're not even competitive. We were not competitive against Michigan State. We were not competitive against Gonzaga. We were not competitive today. We were semi competitive against Louisville, but again got down 20 in the first half. And then North Carolina is a team we should have beaten and we lost. So I'm, I'm disappointed. I really am. And I'm, I'm more disappointed because the things that I thought Mark Pope coach teams would be, it would be a given. They would play smart, they would play hard, and they would be well prepared. I thought that was a given. You Know, I. And I think last year, for instance, they were. This team does not play smart, does not always play hard, and doesn't always seem prepared. And I thought that was a given talent. I was worried, is he going to be able to recruit these top players? We still haven't. We'll see. But being smart, playing hard and being prepared, to me, with a Mark Pope, that is a given, and it's just not with this group. And I'm really surprised by it. I really am. I did not see it coming. The other thing I didn't see coming is, and I just. I think we have to talk about it, is the way Mark is after these games, the losses. I said on the morning show earlier this year, and when Mark came from byu, Jacob Polachek and some other people, they did. They basically did a deep dive kind of on what was mark like @ BYU? Like, how does he play and what was he like? And people have great things to say about Mark as a person, because he is a great. Seems like a great person, very smart. One of the smartest people. Almost everybody will say one of the smartest people they've. They've ever been around. But a consistent theme that people said to. To I think Jacob and then a couple people I talked to is when he loses, he's not. He takes it hard and he's not good to be around. And on paper, that's like, not a bad trade. Right. We kind of want a coach that cares. I mean, we had those times where people said things like, I want to get home to my dog. And we didn't like that. But there's a difference between, like, caring about losing and then kind of what we've seen from Mark this year. I mean, you heard Rick Patino, who knows him better than any of us do, say he called Mark after they lost to Michigan State and said, what the hell's wrong with you? And I'm glad he said it. He knows him. I really don't. But I thought the same thing. And then I thought the same thing after the Louisville game when he did the whole, like, something happened in the locker room. But I'm not going to tell you. It's going to be like a Taylor Swift song. That was strange. He was really weird and awful after the Gonzaga game on the radio, but we lost by 35. But today I'm going to play this little segment of his interview that just completed with Tom Leach. Now, let me be fair to Mark. There were two segments before this. He. I'm not gonna say he was Forthcoming, but he was okay in those segments. But Mark's job, or excuse me, Tom's job is Tom Leach is the nicest person on earth and Tom Leach's job is to just ask questions. And this is a UK show, this is a JMI show. This is not like the New York Times interviewing you. I just want you to listen to his final segment here with Tom. Go ahead. What did you tell them in the locker room after this? We talked about a lot of things. When you come back on Wednesday, what are the things that you need to see different? That's a long list. There's a lot of things. Lastly, when you look at a team that had made some significant progress, Jalen getting back gave you great minutes today. JQ is back. So what is the thing you try to build on from this point forward? Well, there's not a lot from this game. I mean there was no good. But we have made. What do you have to do best? Maybe what does this team need to do best? Like I said, I was disappointed with our physicality in this game. It's not who we can be, it's not who we should be. And we have to that our game's got to start there. Thank you, coach Mark. I mean, I just find that rude. Like Tom talks more than Mark and I don't, I don't get it. You have a fan base that after these games has like they're looking to you for answers. And when I think about the last three coaches and I think about the moments that we think about that sort of defined the negative parts of their era. I think about post game interviews where Billy Gillespie was like, this is not the University of Jody Meeks. Remember that Billy. And that was after a win. And then he would be really rude to talk back then. Then at the end, you know, I mentioned the I got to fly home to my dogs. And Cal would often just skip post game interviews after his losses. I don't understand this. Mark is a great communicator and a nice guy. What fans want to hear you say something. And when you're asked what did you say in the locker room? A lot of things. And what needs to get better. That's a long list. I don't know, I just, I don't get that. So when you combine a team that is not well prepared, seemingly at least at the beginning of games, does not play smart and doesn't always play hard and then you get sort of these reactions. I'm just, I'm really surprised because I thought we would might have when Park Pope was hired, I thought I have issues in acquiring talent and I thought we might have issues at like being a brand that Kentucky fans like of athleticism, etc. But I never thought the basics, I thought the basics were a given and the basics aren't a given and I didn't see that coming. 859-280-2287 we'll take your call, see what you think and be right back. Cats lose to Alabama. This is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. A couple people asking on here on the text machine. 772-774-525-5254 was pope like this after losses last year? Billy? I don't really remember him being like that, do you? I don't. You know, because we took some bad losses last year.
