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Posted by handycat (Member # 2323) on 03-08-2025, 04:25 PM:

When this season started, I would have bet half the family fortune that we couldn’t win 20 games. I would have bet the other half that we would finish in the bottom half of the SEC and wouldn’t have been surprised if we were not near the cellar. I would have mortgaged the house to make a bet against sweeping Tennessee. I would have bet the Family Jewels against us beating Duke, Louisville and Gonzaga.

I still believe the talent level of this team to be that of a good mid-major school. I think Mark Pope has done an amazing job with this level of talent and the injuries he has dealt with.

They can lose the first game of the SEC tournament, the first game of the NCAA tournament and I will still consider this season a success. I sure hope that statement is not a prophecy.

[ 03-08-2025, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: handycat ]

Posted by Trey Ball (Member # 332) on 03-08-2025, 08:12 PM:

Agree with the great job that Pope has done this year. I think the most impressive thing this team did all year was play extremely hard. They are not the most talented group, but they generally battled for all 40 minutes every night. They proved they could beat anyone on a given night. Did they have some shake your head losses? They did, but they generally battled every night and that is all you can ask for as a fan.

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 03-09-2025, 04:26 PM:

I am thrilled with the season. My expectations going in were to finish about 5 games over .500, hopefully, play well in the SEC tournament, and hopefully get in the tournament. With the wins we had it made me adjust my expectations and we are pretty much where I hoped we'd be. I'm still hoping to win a game or 2 in the SEC tourney and then win a first round game in the dance. Pope has done a great job. My only issue has been the defense. I feel like he could have done some zones that would have helped our defense out, just mixing it in at times. Yesterday the defense was much better, but I still feel if we play teams that have guards that can get to the rim (Auburn, Bama, etc) we will struggle to play man an entire game. That's where I feel we will need to mix in some zone.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 03-09-2025, 09:09 PM:

I remember one time they did play a zone for a few minutes.