Jared Shoemaker

@CBeasmoreSports D-

How would you grade Mark Pope’s first two seasons at Kentucky? 🤔 Year 1: 8 wins vs. top-15 teams, huge season sweep vs. Tennessee, but losses to Arkansas and a Sweet 16 loss to rival Tennessee. Year 2: Roster reportedly worth $22M, highs included a season sweep vs. Tennessee and a big win over Arkansas, but lows were major blowout losses and losing three games at home inside of Rupp Arena, and now a crushing Round of 32 loss to Iowa State. Two years in, it’s been a mix of record-breaking moments and underachievement. Where do you stand: A, B, C, D, or F? #BBN

@DarrellBird @KentuckyMBB @CoachMarkPope His sub patterns, lack of recruiting and only have one PG on this roster (after last year’s injury parade) indicates otherwise.

Some fans may be up in arms after NCAA Tourney loss, but @KentuckyMBB @CoachMarkPope deserves a full season without injury to show what he can do. 247sports.com/college/kentuc…

@TorresOnUK Mo Garrison Chandler Kam Moreno

Season is over, off-season has begun Hate to ask in this manner, but it's the NIL era: If you were running the team, outside of the guys leaving, which players would you want back for 2026-27?!

@MattNorlander @cameronsalerno1 Ridiculous sub patterns, collapses with big leads, overall lack of game prep/planning, blaming fatigue when other teams play 6-7 guys all the time, and failure to have two legit PGs on the team after last year’s injury plagued season is an F, plain and simple.

Here's an immediate post mortem on Kentucky and Mark Pope, via @cameronsalerno1 cbssports.com/college-basket…

Too much spent on a team that wasn't a Sweet 16 threat is an issue in that town, of course. But: made S16 as a 3 last year. Also got Friday's all-timer juxtaposed against today's loss vs. a much better team. Wasn't expected to win. I think I'd go B overall for Pope two years in.

@DrSt94 @KySportsRadio I love Cal, but his time here was done. He’d said many times himself, 10 years was about all a coach could stay at KY. The relationship had gone toxic. This is on Barnhart for hitting the panic button and hiring a coach not ready/suited for this job.

@jaredshoemaker @KySportsRadio Your boosters lit $22m on fire for your season to end before Cal’s 6 man rotation

This second half is a pretty embarrassing way to end this season

@KySportsRadio No but he made ZERO adjustments to anything they were doing. It appears they didn’t prep for it AT ALL. And coach put in Jasper when we were up 12 and in a groove. Everything went sideways from that point forward. If you think he’s the man for UK, you’re not watching same team.

@KySportsRadio Coaching. Coaching. Coaching. Coaching. Our coach is completely lost in all facets of the game.

Mark Pope is a lost ball in high weeds. He’s completely clueless on what to do to change this up.

@MattNorlander It’s really time for NCAA to go to four officials on the floor. One in each corner. They never have to run more than half the length of the floor. The game has gotten much too fast for most of these officials to keep up and calls are made on anticipation way too often.

Wow. Refs miss a goaltend against Duke, Dixon lets them get an earful, and gets a T. Equates to a four-point flip when you account for the official not doing his job correctly. The kind of thing that prevents you from working a Final Four. Can't miss those calls in these games.

@KySportsRadio Win or lose today, the Pope experiment needs to end.

Defense has collapsed in the last 4 minutes. Giving Santa Clara whatever shot they want 8 minutes to save the season

@AdamLuckettKSR @JDrumUK But Coach said we’re absolutely going to shoot better in the tourney.

Kentucky's 3-point shooting in the postseason. 6/22 (27.3%) 6/21 (28.6%) 5/21 (21.7%) 4/15 (26.7%) TOTAL: 21/79 (26.6%) This team shot 35.8% from three in SEC games this season. We're seeing a very big dropoff. on3.com/teams/kentucky…

@KySportsRadio They get it from the coach who makes equally dumb decisions throughout the games.

Kentucky makes some of the dumbest in-game decisions imaginable. Basketball IQ is very low sometimes

@TorresOnUK And Pope immediately took Mo out and it went to shit.

The 8-0 run that cut the lead to 2!

@JDrumUK Had to get that extra 23 seconds of rest for Oweh. He gets sleepy.

11:48 2H - Kentucky 64, LSU 62 Cats fight like hell to regain the lead, go up by four, Pope immediately goes to 4 subs on the floor together, and there's a major defensive breakdown.

@KentuckyMBB And of course, he’s the first starter Pope sits. Same ole shit.

Seven quick points from AJ 🔥 📺 - SEC Network

@KentuckyMBB He told Coach he’s not fatigued.

@BigE_Salyers @KySportsRadio Because Pope and the staff DID a very shitty job in every single phase starting with roster construction.

@KySportsRadio We get it Matt. BBN, the press, everyone knows we’re not very good this year. Now, since that has been established, it is what it is. Maybe we get JQ and/or Kam back for a March run, maybe not. But can we as a fanbase get behind our damn team and support them?

In 24 games against Power Conference team this year Kentucky has been leading 345 minutes Kentucky has been tied or losing 615 minutes The Cats led more minutes than they were behind in only 8 of 24 games

JUST IN: Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. invested $25 million in a drone company called Powerus. The Pentagon is now at war with Iran. The Pentagon needs drones. Powerus sells drones to the Pentagon. In January 2026, the President signed an executive order banning Chinese drones and components from the US military. Chinese manufacturers held 70% of the Pentagon’s drone supply chain. That supply chain vanished overnight. The Replicator initiative needs 30,000 one-way attack drones. Domestic producers cannot fill the gap at scale. Powerus, a startup with approximately 50 employees founded to build autonomous AI-swarm systems, is now competing for those contracts. The President created the demand by banning Chinese drones. The President created the urgency by starting a war. The President’s sons invested in the company positioned to fill both gaps. Viral claims of a $620 million Pentagon contract awarded to Powerus circulated on X in early March. These remain unverified by any Tier 1 credible source as of 9th March. Senate Democrats have flagged the conflict of interest. Ethics probes are reportedly underway. What is verified is the $25 million family investment, the 70% supply chain elimination, the active war creating acute demand, and the company bidding for Replicator contracts while the President’s family holds equity. Now look at the war this demand is feeding. Iran launched nearly 3,000 missiles and drones in the first week. Gulf states intercepted over 1,700 drones. The UAE shot down 1,110 out of 1,184 launched at its territory. A 94% intercept rate that cost an estimated $4.4 billion in munitions to defeat $23 million worth of Shahed drones. Each Shahed costs $20,000 to $50,000. Each Patriot interceptor costs $3 to $4 million. Each THAAD missile costs $12.7 million. The cost ratio is 190 to 1 in favour of Iran. THAAD production runs at 8 per month. Iran produces hundreds of Shaheds per month from dispersed facilities that US strikes have degraded 40 to 60% but cannot eliminate under the Mosaic doctrine’s 31 autonomous provincial commands. Iran can launch more drones in a single night than the US produces interceptors in a year. The longer the war continues, the more interceptors are consumed. The more interceptors consumed, the more urgent the Pentagon’s drone gap becomes. The more urgent the gap, the more valuable Powerus becomes. The more valuable Powerus becomes, the more the Trump family’s $25 million investment appreciates. The war feeds the depletion. The depletion feeds the demand. The demand feeds the company. The company feeds the family. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a supply chain. Every link is documented. The executive order is public. The investment is reported by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. The war is on live television. The intercept statistics are published by Gulf defence ministries. The Replicator programme is a Pentagon initiative with published procurement targets. The ethics probes are confirmed by Senate communications. The only question is whether a sitting President’s family should hold equity in a defence contractor while the President wages a war that creates the contractor’s entire addressable market. The market has priced the war. It has priced the oil. It has priced the drones. It has not priced the answer to that question. Full analysis here. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@keithtaylor21 Jasper and Trent would have gotten even more playing time.

I can't help but wonder what this regular season would have been for UK with a healthy Lowe and JQ? Saw a glimpse of would could have been in win over St. John's in Atlanta in December.