If there’s one weakness this roster has on paper, it’s shooting. We don’t have a Koby Brea on this team. Even Travis mentioned shooting as something they could’ve addressed better.

But I think when we look at things in context of the system, shooting will be fine because of one thing: the ability to win off the dribble. How many times last year did we have the conversation about “needing more guys who can get their own shot”? I feel like part of why we didn’t get the volume of 3s up that Pope wanted most games is because it was really easy for teams to just camp out on the perimeter to take the 3 ball away. And you never really forced guys to help off their man, because nobody was really a threat to beat you off the dribble.

This year, we’ll have Lowe/Aberdeen/Oweh/Diabate/Williams/Chandler who should all be more than capable drivers, and Jelavic/JQ/Garrison all have the athleticism to be much more active cutters than Carr. Add in what should be improved offensive rebounding (Kam and Diabate both excel in those out of area rebounds), and I think we’ll get some really good looks from deep this year. Way better than when everybody in the arena was watching Brea get assaulted running off screens up top. So while I think our 3 point percentage may be down, I could see us hitting as many, if not more, than we did last year based purely off of volume.

This guy no longer has an in with the program it seems.

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biggest duh of all duhs that ever duhed

Referencing Sisk’s last message in the pinned portal thread:

1. JQ is getting double what I expected.
2. Lowe at 3M seems high. Expected 1.5-2
3. Perry and Noah getting 250k each seems high, too. Honestly not sure they’re currently worth 100k
4. Jasper 1.5M is high, too.
5. Chandler at 500k is a deal for us compared to the current market
6. Oweh 100% is coming back. He wouldn’t get anywhere close to 3.5M in the NBA next year.
7. Aberdeen and MoD (both bench players last year) getting 2M each is ridiculous. How much did UL have to pay Mikel brown, Conwell, Wooley, and McKneely??
8. On3 NIL projections (yes I know they’re not 100%) have JQ at 1.9… Ian Jackson at 1.5. Did we pay Aberdeen more than Ian Jackson??
9. Didn’t Yaxel get less than 3.5?

I thought the numbers being thrown out were inflated, but apparently not. Goodman said 12 million on his show earlier.

Assuming the reports of the top teams only having 10 million.. that would be 2 guys around Oweh / JQ or 3 guys around Lowe / Aberdeen / MoD and then only 3 mil left to spend on the remaining 10 guys. UK spent 10 mil just on Oweh, Lowe, and JQ.

Southeast Missouri St defensive lineman Jaylon Stone has an offer from UK and there are now multiple reports he will take OVs to UK and Illinois.

More on him soon...

Our Bat Cats are on a roll after series win at Tennessee. Smoked UofL 17-5!

I assume he is going to stay in the draft. Just thought it was odd to declare for the portal on his way out. I feel no way about it at all just thought it was interesting. It feels like these NIL checks are getting fatter so you never know.

I said in another thread, I like what we could be potentially returning in two seasons.

Lowe/Perry
Johnson/Chandler
Williams/Noah
Dioubate/Jelavic
Moreno/Garrison

Get a guys like Anthony Thompson and Tayler Kinney, maybe another versatile forward that will be impact players and likely continue with solid retention guys and we’ll be rocking.

I feel like Pope is going to give us much better roster retention and depth than Calipari. I feel like the above team with possibly additions would be a top 5 team. I know it’s an early conversation, but it’s the offseason now.

I don't know why but I think Sanders slides down into low double digits. Still some questions about his skill set and the baggage doesn't help.

While the Titans need better QB play, I'm not sure Ward is much of an upgrade over Levis. He'll eventually make better decisions one would hope, but there will be growing pains. The Titans have improved the OL but still need more offensive weapons, imo. Put a few more players around Levis and I think he'd be OK. Plus, don't make him make multiple reads. Kid has a masters in Finance but still makes some incredibly dumb decisions. Reading between the lines, no one is thinking this year's QB class is anything special. No one is considered a franchise talent. Why pick one at #1 overall then? Trade back and get some more draft capital to plug the other holes in the roster is my thought.

There is still a path for him to come to Kentucky if he likes, but he just told me he isn't sure what he is going to do yet. He just visited UK and Virginia Tech (sorry, I initially said Duke. My mistake). He wants to step back and evaluate everything.

Just a reminder that Travis Perry did flash in SEC games this season. People on this board love to write this kid off but he's going to be a contributor.

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Oh man. How do you live this down?

Login to view embedded media Notice his hating ass didn’t say crap last year when Kansas was spending big money on a roster, but this year when Kentucky and byu do it’s a problem now

I am. More than money, I’m kind of surprised that Pope stuck with him. I don’t see them as having compatible personalities. I’m also not sure that Pope saw what you would think he would have been looking for as far as the skillset Garrison has vs the demands of the position in Pope’s system. Any player retention in the current NCAA model can be seen as a good thing and probably helps with future player retention, but this one seemed unlikely all things considered.

Loved this part. He did love the ACC!

For 36 years, he called football and men's and women's basketball, including the Women's Final Four and so many historic matchups between ACC rivals Duke and UNC.