FINAL SCORE:
CREEKSIDE: 2️⃣8️⃣
BARTRAM TRAIL: 1️⃣4️⃣
Make it two in-a-row for the Knights over the bears! The Kings of Longleaf will be Creekside for another year!!!!
Thank you Ansley Almonor.
Thank you Koby Brea.
Thank you Lamont Butler.
Thank you Andrew Carr.
Thank you Jaxson Robinson.
Thank you Amari Williams.
You all set the tone for the Coach Mark Pope era.
This was a GREAT start and it’ll only get better from here. I’m love this team.
This may ruffle some big blue feathers, but Ima say it anyway:
Coach Pope was not my first, second, or third choice for Kentucky's new head coach - but I'm gonna tell you why I'm all in on the choice.
Think back over the last few years. What was the biggest complaint we, as fans, had about John Calipari? It was that he simply didn't understand the tradition of Kentucky basketball, what it meant to our state. Remember when he said "Conference Championships don't matter?" There was a time when the best college basketball team in the country was all we could cling to about our state that the rest of the country admired. (Obviously that has changed now and I am now and forever will be proud of my Bluegrass roots.)
Cal was and remains the best recruiter in College basketball, but that is because he's an NBA conveyer belt. He's not a program builder. He's a horrible x's and o's coach, horrible clock management coach, his defensive system was inconsistent if non-existent, and his offense was an NBA gimmick at best.
We wanted and needed a coach with a system, who understood the power of junior and senior experienced team leaders and a strong Kentucky connection.
Coach Pope may not be the flashy, tv polished recruiter that Calipari was, but he bleeds Kentucky blue - just like we've always wanted - and he, of all poeple, fully understands what the word KENTUCKY means on the front of that jersey.
So as a true blue fan who wants the best for our program, I'm asking all the naysayers to sit down and shut up... just for a little bit, just until we have something to actually criticize. Because rooting against Pope is rooting against Kentucky.
He doesn't have to be your first choice, but right now he's our ONLY choice, and frankly, he's got most of what we've always criticized other coaches for not having. What better man to lead this team back to Championship prominence than a man who once helped this program cut down the nets?
I bleed blue. Let's all bleed blue together. Here's to Coach Pope! May his tenure be successful in every possible way, and may Kentucky basketball find itself back in the winner's circle...where it belongs. Go. Big. Blue.