Believe in Pope's evaluation ability

[chasingwildcat]

Last year, he recruits 12 players and no one is failure

All 12 guys fit in our system well. No one does not fit.

The contrary is Kansas, had a ton of highly ranked portal players and was disaster last season

Pope's evaluation ability is solid, hopefully recruiting can also be fine.

 

[BassProCat]

Proof is in the pudding

 

[jwphelps]

Last year, he recruits 12 players and no one is failure

All 12 guys fit in our system well. No one does not fit.

The contrary is Kansas, had a ton of highly ranked portal players and was disaster last season

Pope's evaluation ability is solid, hopefully recruiting can also be fine.

I trust Pope, hell one assistants job is to track possible portal players even before the enter the portal and they make a list to target.

 

[MrHotDice]

The glom and chicken littles get old on here.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

Teaming Oweh with Pierre alone makes us better than last year. Think of all the times that Oweh got in foul trouble or needed a breather. Get Pierre and we have another guy that can score from all three levels and get his own shot. If we get the players we are trending for could see our team being twice as good talent wise than last year.

 

[shakestheclown564]

The glom and chicken littles get old on here.

Anybody who posts doom and gloom I add to the ignore list. Too many miserable people and trolls around here. Things are much more peaceful with them blocked.

 

[catlogic15]

System System. System. Florida has a system. Auburn has a system. Duke and Houston have a system.
They also have superior basketball players.

 

[Spica Orbit]

The glom and chicken littles get old on here.

---
Those posters are the same damn people that declare the game is over 2 minutes in.

 

[Rockfly78]

Last year, he recruits 12 players and no one is failure

All 12 guys fit in our system well. No one does not fit.

The contrary is Kansas, had a ton of highly ranked portal players and was disaster last season

Pope's evaluation ability is solid, hopefully recruiting can also be fine.

I don't think anyone doubts his evaluation ability. I'm not even bent out of shape yet personally. But I do see something that is a bit concerning and it sort of ties in with what you're saying. I see Pope having a hard time closing on his top choices. He just isn't landing his top targets the way I was hoping he would, both in the portal and high school. I think popes best gift is being able to see value in players that no one else sees and that's why UK was so successful this season. That's why ultimately I think we will be ok. But make no mistake, he clearly wants the caleb wilsons, Aments, Dents, and the like. He runs at them first and he puts in a lot of effort to land them. But we aren't actually landing them. So that bothers me a little bit. He needs a win and he needs to haul in some big fish soon. Mareno, and JJ are real nice but they are also in state kids - low hanging fruit.

 

[Farsight]

View embedded media

Proof is in the pudding

How well did our team this year translate into the SEC?

From a realistic point of view, our team as a whole literally gave up 4x this year. @ Alabama, vs Auburn at Rupp and when we played Bama in the SECT. The players had to apologize. Then we gave up in the Sweet 16. The wild thing is, Pope allowed it.

Our team did NOT want to play physical. And when they couldn't execute the system they did 1v1 basketball which was not their play style or skills and we lost games for it.

I don't envy Pope at all in this NIL era.

 

[TFCats11]

System System. System. Florida has a system. Auburn has a system. Duke and Houston have a system.
They also have superior basketball players.

The only “system” UK needs, is a system where they have a $8-10 million yearly NIL budget to compete with! Every other system is going to result in a Sweet 16, and maybe the occasional E8, however I wouldn’t even count on that.

 

[JDHoss]

We should look at the portal the same as we’d look at going to Golden Corral. If you go there thinking you’re going to get a five star dining experience that you’ll talk about years later, you will be disappointed. If you look at it with the understanding that there is going to be a ton of food options that range from bad to mediocre to decent to MAYBE even good, you’ll find that if you’re patient and make good decisions, you’ll come away with a decent plate of food that will fill you up, and you might even find one or two items that will surprise you with how good they were. 🤔