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Dent to ucla

Well there goes the "Dent to UK is a lock" talk. Getting this kid would have certainly lessened the blow of getting embarrassed by our rival to go to the Elite 8. It's a fact that Pope needs to step it up with recruiting in a big way. Striking out on almost every elite player in the portal last year certainly left a sour taste in my mouth. If we can't get these difference-makers from the portal and high school, we will never truly contend for titles.
And he won't have the talent that can overcome a lack of gameplan.
 
Braden Smith to Kentucky.

By multiple accounts, UCLA used a huge % of their NIL budget to get him.

Pope could have outbid them. He chose not to. With all the Smith smoke for 2 weeks, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
 
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Would have liked to have him but 3 mil is a large payday for one kid. Let’s see who Pope and staff reel in before everyone starts jumping off a bridge and saying Pope can’t land talent.
 
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Don't give me that excuse because we supposedly had record funds coming in. This is Kentucky, who has one of the most NIL funds at their disposal in all of college basketball.
I don’t think that’s necessarily an “excuse.” The fact of the matter is these days the main driver for decisions by the top available players is money, end of story.

Yes, UK has substantial NIL money. But other teams have lots of money too.

It would appear we are approaching things with the mindset that we will make VERY competitive offers to good players, but at some point a limit will be reached. If another team outbids us, players may go elsewhere.

So, if anything, we can debate whether we should or shouldn’t have paid whatever it took to land Dent instead of UCLA. That is the $3+ million dollar question.

This is the tricky part about constructing a roster these days with no salary caps in place. I know little to nothing about Dent. I have no idea if he was worth that kind of money, or if we come out ahead overall with other options available to us. We won’t know that until we see how things turn out on the floor next season.
 
I don’t think that’s necessarily an “excuse.” The fact of the matter is these days the main driver for decisions by the top available players is money, end of story.

Yes, UK has substantial NIL money. But other teams have lots of money too.

It would appear we are approaching things with the mindset that we will make VERY competitive offers to good players, but at some point a limit will be reached. If another team outbids us, players may go elsewhere.

So, if anything, we can debate whether we should or shouldn’t have paid whatever it took to land Dent instead of UCLA. That is the $3+ million dollar question.

This is the tricky part about constructing a roster these days with no salary caps in place. I know little to nothing about Dent. I have no idea if he was worth that kind of money, or if we come out ahead overall with other options available to us. We won’t know that until we see how things turn out on the floor next season.
You have to put a number on players and not overpay to get them.
 
I don’t think that’s necessarily an “excuse.” The fact of the matter is these days the main driver for decisions by the top available players is money, end of story.

Yes, UK has substantial NIL money. But other teams have lots of money too.

It would appear we are approaching things with the mindset that we will make VERY competitive offers to good players, but at some point a limit will be reached. If another team outbids us, players may go elsewhere.

So, if anything, we can debate whether we should or shouldn’t have paid whatever it took to land Dent instead of UCLA. That is the $3+ million dollar question.

This is the tricky part about constructing a roster these days with no salary caps in place. I know little to nothing about Dent. I have no idea if he was worth that kind of money, or if we come out ahead overall with other options available to us. We won’t know that until we see how things turn out on the floor next season.
The reporting yesterday that we still had left over money from last year upset me if I’m honest. Pope has this entire offseason but he HAS to win one of these bidding wars for a truly ELITE player.
 
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Well there goes the "Dent to UK is a lock" talk. Getting this kid would have certainly lessened the blow of getting embarrassed by our rival to go to the Elite 8. It's a fact that Pope needs to step it up with recruiting in a big way. Striking out on almost every elite player in the portal last year certainly left a sour taste in my mouth. If we can't get these difference-makers from the portal and high school, we will never truly contend for titles.
That probably was jizz that gave you the bad taste..
 
The reporting yesterday that we still had left over money from last year upset me if I’m honest. Pope has this entire offseason but he HAS to win one of these bidding wars for a truly ELITE player.
I agree. There will be times you have to go all in on a player you believe is an absolute must have type of talent. The trick is identifying those situations and picking your spots.

I have no idea if Dent is such a player. If he dominates college basketball and leads UCLA to a title next year, then we will be left wondering “what if?” next year. If we find another highly talented player in that position that leads us to great success, no one will remember losing Dent.
 
Well there goes the "Dent to UK is a lock" talk. Getting this kid would have certainly lessened the blow of getting embarrassed by our rival to go to the Elite 8. It's a fact that Pope needs to step it up with recruiting in a big way. Striking out on almost every elite player in the portal last year certainly left a sour taste in my mouth. If we can't get these difference-makers from the portal and high school, we will never truly contend for titles.
This is it in a nutshell.
 
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This dope said we had Dent.
Show me the Tweet where he said that.

He Tweeted saying a package was being put together.
Another where he said Duke couldn't spend with us.

The last one said if it didn't happen soon, it wouldn't happen at all. UK had made a good offer and basically said take it or leave it.

I've turned on notifications for the Tweets. There is no Tweet saying Dent is committed or "Kentucky has Dent."
 
Braden Smith to Kentucky.

By multiple accounts, UCLA used a huge % of their NIL budget to get him.

Pope could have outbid them. He chose not to. With all the Smith smoke for 2 weeks, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
If that is the case, I applaud him. Hate this free agency crap. Duke is the only team left with so called super stars. The rest have just a group of good players.
 
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