Other than just RUMORS are any reliable...

Visiting Kentucky next weekend. One of the...

I’ve come to accept that this is happening whether I like it or not, but Pope better be all gas no brakes before the portal closes. Don't want to see this guy taking a victory lap. We need to start seeing assistant coaches getting hired and players getting portaled by Monday.

It’s crazy that we can refresh a Twitter feed every few minutes and see a new high-level transfer in the portal. Not just guys worried about getting more time like years past, but major contributors on great teams. This is a totally unsustainable model in its current form.

My proposed (and possibly poor) solution:

Allow for one-time immediate eligibility transfers. You want more money, PT, just move for the sake of moving? That’s cool once. You want to do it twice? You sit a year like the ‘old’ days.

Exceptions to the above given for certain circumstances, like a coach leaving, extenuating family situation, etc. In those cases, immediate eligibility remains, even if the player has already transferred once before.

This gives guys the freedom to chase the almighty dollar once and move again on a case-by-case basis. I see guys entering the portal that have hopped schools every year of their eligibility and while I understand free markets and such, it just doesn’t seem like a suitable model for the sport long-term.

Way off base with any / all of the above?

This off season is wild due to the NIL and businesses throwing big bucks to college players.

NIL = Name, Image and Likeness.

This whole thing started because the schools make money off the players NIL? Right? It was to also negate the already cheating of paying players anyways.

There are a plethora of advantages and disadvantages from NIL. Right now, just like the big issue is in the video game industry, NIL is basically free agency, and the "Pay to Win" model.


The Potential Fix
If the universities are making money off players NIL, why not do revenue or profit sharing with the players? Come up with a potential percentage of revenue or profit sharing for the team that they have to pay. Give 25% of that paycheck every 2 months or something until the end of the school year.

Right now, most NIL is based off marketing dollars to advertise businesses and using the players to be that catalyst for that.

I don't know... I think eventually the NIL will simmer down in a year or two because these businesses are not getting a high ROI.

The new Beavis and Butt-Head sketch killed me.


Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media

On the other hand:

Login to view embedded media

Idk guys. I don't hate it.

He GETS it. Duke and UNC hired Davis and Scheyer with ZERO head coaching experience because they were former players who just got it...they just understood UNC and Duke respectively and what it means to be great there. Guys who both won national titles wearing those jerseys and understood what that means.

That is the same mold as Pope.

Mark Pope GETS Kentucky basketball. He knows what it means to play here and he respect what it means to this state. His offense is super fun, and he'll recruit at a high level and blend talent and experience.

He would not have been in my top-5, obviously, but I don't HATE the hire. I'm intrigued.

Login to view embedded media

Just got his first player. Nearly a month after he was hired. And we lost patience by Monday at 9 am

CMP has some work to do hopefully we can sign some real studs soon. I'm just use to seeing UK in the top 25 for college basketball.

Here are mine:

1. Jeremy Roach
2. Kobe Brea
3. Amari Williams
4. Cade Tyson
5. Jokobe Coles

Honorable mention --- I hope we get Jaxon Robinson to de-commit from BYU

Hopefully we can somehow land Liam McNeely.

What are your 5 players in the portal that UK must have for next year?

He is the only one left from last years team, dose he stay or go? I think he has a lot of potential wouldn’t mind having at least one player returning.

Down to 5 schools
Pittsburgh
North Carolina
Indiana
Arkansas
Kentucky

1 year contracts across the board for every team. There's no repurcussions now as you can seek higher pay at the end of each season, and I don't blame the kids for doing that at all.

You can't count on anything anymore, though, as a fan. If another team sees a player on your team that they like, they just offer them more the next year to come work for them.

We truly are in an era where many will tune out and many will just flip the TV on at gametime for 2 hours of entertainment and to see how they do.

Sad.

These rankings are subjective, but I took the top 100 per various sites, removed the ones already taken, grouped by position (I know some could be listed under multiple ones), and then ranked them.
Note you don't have to agree with my personal rankings. % shown is 3pt% unless stated "ft" after it. Also "r" is rebounds, "a" is assists, "s" is steals, "b" is blocks, "to" is turnovers, "m" is minutes, the first # is points. The PF and C spots look to be the thinnest.

AND I'm sure there are some missing from these lists.

[URL...

Womens team coming together fast!

Former UT, big man, according to Nashville radio has been in contact with both Kentucky and Baylor hey probably might fit Baylor system more than Pope interesting though just heard it on 1045 the zone Nashville

They’ve been doing that for years under the...

* Every year every player goes into a pool that includes incoming freshmen, foreign players, everyone eligible.

* Let schools put in a sealed bid of NIL money to buy draft slots -- no limit on slots you can buy with the 1st pick being worth the most, and so on.

* If a school can afford to buy the first five slots by outbidding other schools in sealed bids, then they get first pick of the five players they want. But you are bidding for each slot, so a good strategy would be not to bid on the first pick if you think you have no shot, but put everything into a bid one a second or third pick. I'd guess the rich, elite programs would dominate the draft, the way they do recruiting. But of course putting together a winning team would not be that simple.

* The only limitation is five draft picks per program.

* Draft the first 150 players.

* After that, anyone not taken becomes a free agent and any school can sign him. You'd have the top 30 programs able to draft between 5 and maybe two or three players, with the next 30 programs able to get one or maybe two draftees. Teams would fill their rosters from those outside the 150 taken in the draft.

* Unseal the order of the draft picks in a televised special the weekend after the NCAA tournament - maybe just revealing the top 25 picks live, then letting the others come out in turn. Imagine being a Kentucky fan and the excitement of finding out the team's draft slots!

* Hold the draft the third weekend in April, roughly two weeks after the NCAA tournament. Again, another great night of television on par with the NFL draft night.

* If a school "drafts" a player and he doesn't want to play there, then another school would have to 'buy' that player's rights with more money for the NIL fund -- or possibly a combination of money and the rights to a player that school has drafted.

* Finish the process by May 15, then have a summer practice schedule to let the new teams have a chance to get comfortable with each other and learn the rudiments of a new system.

College basketball is close to this now, why not just go all the way? It'd bring an element of excitement to the casual fans -- college basketball as a rotisserie sport! And imagine the interest in contributing to NIL pools at your favorite school if you KNOW that is directly contributing to getting the top picks. Everyone in Kentucky would dig deep!

Man this is a tough one..

[URL...

PPBL Pay for Play Basketball League. It's an absolute circus. Nobody cares about which school they go to. It's all about who can write the biggest check. It's gotten a ton worse this year.

You know, I’m excited about Pope and I do want to see the next chapter as it unfolds. But I also don’t know that I can be that much of a fan of one year mercenaries.

I do have a curiosity about the ongoing changes…since college sports are changing to be like pro sports, could a college lock a player to a time based contract. Could a college say, “Yea, we’ll get you that money, but you have to guarantee your going to be here for 2 or 3 years?”