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BB Recruiting Caleb Wilson

Nothing new to report here, just wanted to post that things are in a holding pattern. Kentucky’s to lose here in this recruitment. He’s had a great start to his high school season.

People have asked me on here for a comp - I used to say Brandon Miller because of the tools & up and down motor in HS, but the shooting hasn’t made it to where I was projecting it a couple of years ago. The closest UK comp I can come up with is Terrence Jones, like others have said (when his motor is running high). He’s got a frame to put on a lot of muscle, is capable of driving from the perimeter for thunderous dunks, and is capable of guarding a couple different positions defensively.

  • Poll
Best Christmas Movie - Final Four - Game 1

Best Christmas Movie

  • 4 - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

    Votes: 21 84.0%
  • 8 - Scrooged

    Votes: 4 16.0%

Welcome to the Final Four! Our movies have fought a long battle and are vying for the title of Best Christmas Movie.

Coming in at the eight seed is the Cinderella of the tournament, Scrooged. Their opponent is the number four seed Christmas Vacation. A true comedic battle.

UK collective was 11th out of 16th in SEC


Pony up? Lol, we make as much as UT and we go 4-8.






While collective funding is low, Kentucky has been a top 20 athletic program in total revenue, partly thanks to being a school that profits from its basketball program. Looking ahead to 2025, Kentucky is expected to stay in the top 20 nationally in athletic revenue, fifth in the SEC by bringing in an estimated 131,139,792. Ahead of programs like Georgia, LSU, Florida, and Tennessee.

What needs to change for next year?

Since we know Stoops and Bush H will be back, what changes do you think need to be made? I think a change in the Oline, and Special teams/RB need be made. also think a few on the D side need to get changed out. I feel Stoops has built a coaching staff like Joker had, a lot of his buddies, and not a lot of coaching. Seems like it is just the BIG DOG doing the heavy lifting on the recruiting trail. I would cut Mike Stoops, and Frank Buffalo loose, and maybe AS. Not a lot of push from the D line, and they seem to be taking plays off. With the above changes, that would be 3 of the Youngstown boys gone, and not a lot of recruiting. WVa has an O-Line coach that has put up some good numbers every stop he has had. and he is like a step-son to UK. He played under Hal at Valdosta and has worked under Brown a number of years and is an outstanding recruiter.

CBS article: SEC grades for 2024 season

Mark Stoops was this close to becoming Texas A&M's next head coach, but that didn't quite work out, so he returned to Lexington and had an utterly disappointing season that had some wondering whether he should retire. Yikes. Kentucky upset Ole Miss in late September but the Wildcats followed that up with four consecutive losses, including two to unranked teams. The offense was abysmal, ranking 119th in scoring (20.6) and the turnover margin didn't help either (109th). The 4-8 record is Stoops' worst since his first season, when he was 2-10 in 2013. Grade: F



FB Recruiting Portal Notes

** Kentucky extended an offer to UCONN WR Brock Montgomery but I am told he's a wait and see guy. Kentucky will apparently be bringing in a number of visitors this weekend and I get the sense perhaps some receivers. This offer is very big for him. He's got Duke and Michigan State showing interest as well.

** I get the sense that UK has a lot of work to do at WR. Not only starters but some backups. That is why they can probably be more aggressive with some of these offers early.

** One issue they are facing is the wide receivers they are recruiting want to know who the quarterback is going to be.

** On that point, he is not in the portal yet, but I am interested in Incarnate Word quarterback Zach Calzada. There's been talk he could be going back into the portal. Previously at Auburn and Texas A&M. He is someone I will be paying attention to. Has talent and schools will be interested.

Kentucky was almost equal to UT in NIL collective dollars! Time for the truth to have its day.

Just not the leadership in the athletics department or HC positions. That’s the truth.

"UK is Spending/Spent Big Because of Stoops" Absolute Fallacy.

This is only to do with the financials argument about Stoops "convincing" or "being the cause" for UK Football financial investment. And/or any concern that investment would fall if he is gone.

Facts:
In 2012 the SEC was ranked 4th in TV revenue among power conferences according to Forbes. And 5th in per-school TV revenue. Yes, the SEC was that bad in TV revenue then.
Per school, per year:
Pac-12: $20.8 million
Big Ten: $20.7 million
ACC: $17.1 million
Big 12: $15 million
SEC: $14.6 million

The SEC. was lagging that badly back then until the SEC boom. Then what happened? in 2013, Stoops first year, the SEC Network was created and the TV contracts were renegotiated. In 2013 it was announced the new contracts would result in a likely 50% revenue increase over the next few years alone.

And even before that, SEC revenue payout had almost DOUBLED Stoops first year from just 5 years prior.
Average SEC per-team payout:
2008: $11.1 Million
2013: $20.8 Million

By 2015, teams were receiving $31.5 Million. A 50% increase in revenue in Stoops first 2 seasons.

And the big jumps will continue:
Prior to 2020, CBS was paying $55,000,000 a year for SEC premium TV rights;
Now Disney/ESPN is paying $300,000,000 a year for the same rights after a deal made in 2020. An absolutely insane statistical increase. Over 500% more TV revenue each year.
When Texas and Oklahoma joined, the deal was altered to add another $42 million per year. Making it now around a 600% increase in revenue from just 2020.

In 2024 the SEC distributed $55 Million from 2023 to each school. A 250% increase from Stoops first year. Total SEC revenue jumped over $100,000,000 in 2023 from 22; with revenue likely to heavily spike for 2024 with the inclusion of Texas and Oklahoma.

This idea that Stoops is even close to the main reason the program started investing in football has always been hogwash. The plans for our stadium upgrades were announced after his 2-10 season and right after revenue started jumping heavily after the inclusion of A&M & Mizzou and a new TV contract deal. Everyone in the SEC has done $100+ million upgrades during Stoops tenure, and it was solely because of the new influx of money, as well as the expected continued growth of CFB itself. Just tired of seeing this fallacy spread. It was something we all convinced ourselves was true back then to help hype the program (and it worked), but it was never reality and it is just a bad argument to add in to keeping Stoops. Kentucky was going to start investing regardless; just like other SEC teams that have come out of the woodwork and started doing. It's because of the money that is now in college football. Did Stoops do some good things? Yeah, but he also had some absolutely beautiful timing for taking over a CFB program. Vanderbilt is finishing up a likely $100+ million upgrade that was started during their absolutely horrible seasons, Indiana (Big Ten also booming) recently finished a $100 million facility that was started when they absolutely stunk. These investments have been happening EVERYWHERE since Stoops took over, regardless of who the coach of the program is.

CBS tidbit on Calipari’s game tonight versus ranked Michigan

After the UT game concludes, a matchup that appears more competitive on paper will tip, at which point Calipari will need to guide the Razorbacks to an upset of Michigan or else they'll drop to 7-3 on the season, including 0-3 against top-85 opponents at BartTorvik.com.

Needless to say, that would not be ideal for Calipari considering Arkansas was ranked 16th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll — but also because the third loss would come to a fellow first-year coach at a new school whose team wasn't supposed to be as good as Calipari's, and also because the third loss would come just three days after Calipari's old school, Kentucky, upset Gonzaga and improved to 8-1 with its own first-year coach, Mark Pope, who now has UK ranked fifth in the AP Top 25 poll.
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