Comparisons of first-year for Pope and Cal.

[megablue]

Both had very little returning, with Pope having far less than Cal, of course. Both had high fan expectations to do well in first year. Pope has the transfer portal and Nil$$$, but no available Freshmen to recruit. Cal had no way of getting immediate, first-year players, other than Freshmen. Transfers had to sit out a year.

Cal took 5-star, one-and-done Freshmen players. Pope has recruited out of the portal, using NIL$$$, including 5 one-and-done veteran players … and they all look very good.

It is amazing that both situations were very similar, yet very different to remedy.
Cal somewhat painted himself into a corner by his first year. Pope will have turnover after this first year and it will be interesting to see if non-Seniors are loyal to the program and remain … or Pope will be forced to be heavily portal going forward.

GO CATS !!!

 

[BlueSince92]

Cal had Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrelson gifted to him. How on Earth is that “very little returning”?

 

[MegaBlue05]

Cal inherited 4 guys who eventually would play in the NBA in Patterson, Miller, Liggins and Harrelson with serviceable SEC role players in Stevenson and Harris. Pope inherited a white board with a broken wheel and one incoming recruit.

I think the scenarios are much different, and think Cal’s super class of 2010 was a lighting in a bottle type thing.

I don’t expect us to have as good of a year as we did in 2010, but I do expect us to play hard/smart and be competitive in Pope’s first year.

 

[Padsfs07]

Cal inherited 4 guys who eventually would play in the NBA in Patterson, Miller, Liggins and Harrelson with serviceable SEC role players in Stevenson and Harris. Pope inherited a white board with a broken wheel and one incoming recruit.

I think the scenarios are much different, and think Cal’s super class of 2010 was a lighting in a bottle type thing.

I don’t expect us to have as good of a year as we did in 2010, but I do expect us to play hard/smart and be competitive in Pope’s first year.

Yeah I don't think it's close. Calipari also kept Orton and Hood from Gillespie's recruiting class and some of those guys may have stayed if there was room, like Matt Pilgrim, Michael Porter, Kevin Galloway, and AJ Stewart. But Calipari also lost just 3 games his first year and was a 1 seed.

I am happy that if this was the path, it happened this year with the covid seniors still on the board. Pope has gotten 5 of these 5th year guys. The portal will be much harder to navigate next year, especially with UK admissions holding up some guys.

 

[ChicagoCat1990]

Cal was blessed with 3 players that were key to two of his FF's and his lone national title.

 

[BigBlueGoo2]

Crazy to think because of how down we were, but Cal inherited a much better situation. He had Patterson, liggins, miller, jorts, Harris, and Perry Stevenson.

 

[Padsfs07]

Cal had Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrelson gifted to him. How on Earth is that “very little returning”?

Stevenson and Harris had started some too in 08/09. He really only added Wall, Cousins, Dodson, and Bledsoe. Impressive, but not like replacing a complete roster. Frank Martin did a really similar turnaround in that era at Kansas State, bringing Michael Beasley, Bill Walker, Jacob Pullen, and Dominique Sutton in his first year.

I think it's more impressive what he's done this go-around at Arkansas in terms of bringing players in (just like Pope here and Musselman at USC)

 

[BlueSince92]

He really only added Wall, Cousins, Dodson, and Bledsoe.

And Daniel Orton, who was still a value-add even though he kind of destroyed himself.

 

[UK90]

Both had very little returning, with Pope having far less than Cal, of course. Both had high fan expectations to do well in first year. Pope has the transfer portal and Nil$$$, but no available Freshmen to recruit. Cal had no way of getting immediate, first-year players, other than Freshmen. Transfers had to sit out a year.

Cal took 5-star, one-and-done Freshmen players. Pope has recruited out of the portal, using NIL$$$, including 5 one-and-done veteran players … and they all look very good.

It is amazing that both situations were very similar, yet very different to remedy.
Cal somewhat painted himself into a corner by his first year. Pope will have turnover after this first year and it will be interesting to see if non-Seniors are loyal to the program and remain … or Pope will be forced to be heavily portal going forward.

GO CATS !!!

Cal inherited five guys who would later play in the NBA in Patterson, Miller, Liggins, Orton and Harrellson. And also two other returning starters in Stevenson and Harris.

That situation was in no way comparable to Pope effectively starting from ZERO.

 

[BBUK]

Cal had Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrelson gifted to him. How on Earth is that “very little returning”?

And wasn't there a Meeks involved as well but hit the draft?

 

[BlueSince92]

And wasn't there a Meeks involved as well but hit the draft?

Yeah but I classify Meeks along with Rob and Reed under Pieces You Didn’t Really Inherit

 

[DuhVille1]

Both had very little returning, with Pope having far less than Cal, of course. Both had high fan expectations to do well in first year. Pope has the transfer portal and Nil$$$, but no available Freshmen to recruit. Cal had no way of getting immediate, first-year players, other than Freshmen. Transfers had to sit out a year.

Cal took 5-star, one-and-done Freshmen players. Pope has recruited out of the portal, using NIL$$$, including 5 one-and-done veteran players … and they all look very good.

It is amazing that both situations were very similar, yet very different to remedy.
Cal somewhat painted himself into a corner by his first year. Pope will have turnover after this first year and it will be interesting to see if non-Seniors are loyal to the program and remain … or Pope will be forced to be heavily portal going forward.

GO CATS !!!

Calipari had 4 really good returning players, and Calipari also brought with him a bunch of 5 star recruits that he had been recruiting for years prior to taking the UK job. Pope literally started with 2 players, one 4* freshman that was already committed, and one 4* freshman that he signed at BYU 2 years ago. There is no comparison here.

 

[jeffky]

 

[Elliott Tim]

Cal had Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrelson gifted to him. How on Earth is that “very little returning”?

You are so right.

 

[Snarks0]

The better comparison is Brooks with the women’s team. He started with nothing and has an amazing roster!

 

[billoliver40]

Really no comparison. Remember Cal actually got rid of a lot of Gillispie recruits. POPE only got to keep one.

 

[Pmalone6719]

Feel ya pain my guy! It’ll be over one day hopefully

 

[Seth_C]

Cal had Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrelson gifted to him. How on Earth is that “very little returning”?

Can you even imagine all four of those staying under Cal’s watch? I can’t.

 

[BStockfan01]

Yeah but I classify Meeks along with Rob and Reed under Pieces You Didn’t Really Inherit

Meeks had a shot to return with a 2nd rd pick projection. Rob and reed are top 10 projected picks which were always leaving. In reality cal shouldve let bledsoe walk and convinced meeks to return but hes always had a hard on for OAD, wouldve been a championship. Its actually interesting to see how much talent stuck with uk after billy g and not after cal, but the transfer portal plays a huge role in that. Thinking if PPat transferred makes me sick and is honestly one of cals best development jobs here and shows how he started caring about that part of his job.

 

[BlueSince92]

Meeks had a shot to return with a 2nd rd pick projection.

He had a shot to return but it leaked that he had told PPat (roommate) that he was done with college and was jumping to the league no matter what. And frankly that was a perfectly reasonable decision on his part to say the least. We all certainly had high hopes for him with Cal, and it's also true that winning a title has seemed to lift people's draft stock at times. But nothing is guaranteed, including that title. And besides that the chances of him coming anywhere close to personally repeating a season full of 40- and 50-point games had to look absolutely abysmal in terms of splitting time with the roster Cal was bringing in.

Probably would still have been a decent gamble him coming back, but still would have been a gamble. and he was consistent about his decision not to take it. And contrasted to that gamble, he wound up leaving with a second round pick guarantee after working out, not just a projection. Compared to Meek's situation, imo Reed was at least as likely to come back since he had been underutilized by the old coach, he had a well-off family, and he was surely looking at north of a cool million in NIL. None of which Jodie had going for him. In full context I absolutely consider those two both equally Pieces You Didn't Really Inherit, and Rob a little more of that than either one of them.