Big Blue Nation hasn’t been afraid to let their voices be heard following Kentucky Basketball‘s narrow win against Northern Arizona on Friday night.
Obviously, barely beating a team you should’ve handled easily, and were over a 30-point favorite against, isn’t acceptable at Kentucky. It’s especially not acceptable when it comes on the heels of an extremely embarrassing loss in Chicago against Kansas only a few nights before.
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Well, along with Big Blue Nation, and frankly, it feels like every college basketball fan, a special media member chimed in on the state of the Kentucky Basketball program Tuesday night. Kentucky legend Jamal Mashburn made some comments on TNT later in the evening.
“I think most people in Big Blue Nation are very disappointed at this particular time. They take their basketball very seriously,” Mashburn said. “It just seems like this particular team, or I would say over the last couple of years with Pope’s teams, they’ll do something well and then the next game they won’t do it well. There seems to be a lot of inconsistency. They have trouble guarding the basketball. Northern Arizona shot over 50% from three and also from two.”
Mash is calling it like it is; this team hasn’t played even close to good enough defense. Teams have been lining it up and drilling threes like it’s a shootaround because of too much gambling, not enough effort, offensive rebounds, or a mix of all.
He did give one of very, very few positives from the night, saying, “They moved the basketball today. 21 assists and just four turnovers.”
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“This is going to be a long road, and I think a lot of people are going to start asking the bigger question: ‘What does Mark Pope’s future look like?’ I think that’s the elephant in the room,” Mashburn stated. “It’s sad. I’m a Kentucky fan and obviously played there. I want to see them do well; it just doesn’t seem like it’s clicking.”
Mashburn continued, “To win against Northern Arizona on a buzzer-beater almost…that’s not Kentucky Basketball, and that’s not championship basketball.”
“The only person that I’ve known that’s been able to take role players and kind of blend them together, and a lot of people don’t give him the respect he deserves, is Tubby Smith — but Mark Pope is not Tubby Smith.”
Well, we’ve now heard one of the Wildcat greats give his thoughts on it, and he said it best: this is not Kentucky Basketball. Mark Pope is now in year three, and the signs are clear that it’s been a regression rather than a progression in Lexington.
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Before the season started, I had in my head that Kentucky essentially played a 5-game non-conference schedule, with Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Louisville, and North Carolina being the only power conference teams that the Cats would face, but now, after the Northern Arizona scare, the other non-power-four games look like they will be far from easy as well.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
