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Matt Jones thinks we have a really good shot at a “kid currently playing in the NCAA Sweet 16”……..

BS = Braden Smith
AF = Alvaro Folgueirs (Robert Morris)
ME = Maybe Elijah Moore, but first and last names backwards ?

The OA / YL / RB I have not a clue. Maybe KY Sweet 16 for the player still playing, lol ? Fears from Michigan State ?
BS = Braden Smith
AF = Alvaro Folgueirs (Robert Morris)
ME = Maybe Elijah Moore, but first and last names backwards ?

The OA / YL / RB I have not a clue. Maybe KY Sweet 16 for the player still playing, lol ? Fears from Michigan State ?
The YL is lendenborg but that isn’t happening he is getting first round draft buzz now
 
But there was a bunch of ignorant fans on here who told us that because UK is a poor state, we can't afford to sign premium portal players. Sure we can afford to offer Hurley $12 million a year, but when it comes to the portal, we just can't get it done.

This can't be true!

🤣😂
UK has a 36K enrollment and graduates ~8K/yr. I can’t find record of how many living alumni there are but suffice it to say it’s 350K+ based on yearly graduates. I have no doubt that big number of alumni + giving fans who aren’t alums +UK’s bball heritage there is plenty of NIL money to field good teams.
 
and that he was BIG TIME!! It has to be Braden Smith doesn’t it?????

He also mentioned another player that is playing in another tournament next week for teams that didn’t make the NCAA, who would that be???

He is really confident that the kid from Robert Morris is coming. Also said the staff is going hard for Wilkerson.

The biggest thing he said was that UK has ALL the money they need to reel in ANY OF the transfers!! He even said UK has money left over from this season!!

Sounded EXTREMELY encouraging!!!
I want Donovan Dent. He’s probably who I want most. The sweet 16 player is intriguing.
 
It's Braden Smith. It's always been Braden Smith.

The smoke is coming from too many different sources. Jack Pilgrim talked about it on sources say 3 or 4 weeks back. Matt keeps hinting about his mystery player. Twitter is on fire with Braden Smith rumors.
I don’t see how we could sign Smith, Dent, and keep Lewis and Johnson happy. I’d love to try but man that’s a loaded backcourt.
 
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But...but...but...some of our fans keep telling me how big city schools/markets like St. John's and UCLA are going to outspend us because they will magically suddenly have fans that care about their basketball program!?!?

This can't be true!

;)
In theory they should be able too but those pretentious people don’t care about those sports. They would rather buy a Lamborghini or get plastic surgery.
 
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This guy is not a stud.
Agree Khalifa is not a stud. No defense, can’t jump or rebound well, but he can shoot and is a tremendous passer in CMP’s offense. The outside shooting aspect is the 1 missing ingredient that we do not get from Amari or Brandon.
 
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Obviously Pope puts a very efficient, effective offense on the floor, better than many other coaches. I'm curious if the staff has some kind of formula for predicting how much a given player's efficiency jumps when they are in his offense, compared with whatever offense they played in previously. Obviously it wouldn't be anywhere close to exact. I'm not a statistics major but any viable metric would have to be more complex than just multiplying their numbers by the efficiency delta.

On a related note I wish I had just enough money to donate to UK NIL that I could demand in exchange a behind the scenes look at them navigating the portal. It would be really interesting to see their spreadsheets and methods for ranking and prioritizing the options.
If I was a billionaire, Kentucky would never lose another player ever and I would live at wildcat lodge lol.
 
I went to high school and played baseball and golf with his Dad and know the family really well. Although Travis is die hard UK fan through and through and grew up wearing nothing but Cats gear and rooting for the Cats, it doesn't mean he will stay. He's already been recruited over for next year, forced into the PG position when he's a natural undersized SG, and if UK pulls in stud guards he falls further down the depth chart. I could certainly see a case for him leaving. He had a great relationship with Ole Miss and Purdue both for years before Cal got involved late. He's not going to leave for a smaller school where he can be the star (ie Western) like some people think. If he leaves, he'll likely go to a P4 school where he isn't as buried on the depth chart and has a chance to fight for some minutes. UK is in his blood though, and it might be hard to walk away from it.
I can see why he would leave, it’s part of being at a school with great players. I’d love to see him stick it out but honestly if we compete for championships he’s most likely gonna have stiff competition every single year. I couldn’t hate if he decides to leave. I hope he would return one day if he is ready to be a contributor before his time is up in college though.
 
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someone from BYU ????

I don't think anyone leaves BYU.

They are a really interesting player in the whole Pope-to-UK decision. They honestly might be better off with their new coach, and he's a guy who seems to all the sudden have the GDP of Utah backing him. Of course, this BYU team is mostly Pope's team.. but Kevin Young is a true NBA level coaching mind.. I get the sense that BYU might have found something good big here and I doubt any players leave, unless they've been over recruited.
 
I don't think anyone leaves BYU.

They are a really interesting player in the whole Pope-to-UK decision. They honestly might be better off with their new coach, and he's a guy who seems to all the sudden have the GDP of Utah backing him. Of course, this BYU team is mostly Pope's team.. but Kevin Young is a true NBA level coaching mind.. I get the sense that BYU might have found something good big here and I doubt any players leave, unless they've been over recruited.
It’s unlikely it’s Saunders.

But we really don’t know the whole situation. Maybe Saunders had a a better relationship with Pope than with Young? Maybe all of Pope’s stories about UK has peaked his curiosity to the point that he wants to experience it for himself? Who knows the situation? We certainly don’t.

I am looking forward to seeing who this mystery man is. This is the most fun we’ve had this time of year in a long time, between getting back to the Sweet Sixteen and all the Portal talk. Fun times!
 
Maybe Saunders and wife are coming with Chandlers wife. Maybe they are pals. I'm also expecting LeBron to be deemed eligible. He should have 5 years. Of course he will be nearing 50. Probably a Dukie though. I have no idea what is going to happen but the scuttlebutt is fun while we wait for Friday night.
 
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UK does not have a money disadvantage against anyone.

Nor did we last year.

UK will not lose a player if the decision is solely about money.

Ave we have not lost a player if the deciding factor was money.
 
On Twitter, check out @SamuelKentucky

You'd have to dig through his timeline on your own to convince yourself, but he CLEARLY has info. He tweeted out Kentucky's seed, region, 1 seed each of the last 2 years. He called the Tony Bennett retirement before it happened. Some people have told me he called Calipari to Arkansas before it was being circulated on line, but I haven't dug that deeply. Without typing too much, I'm convinced he knows things/people. And a lot of other people are also convinced.

His last tweet: "Duke can't spend with us." The Tweet before that was about a package being put together for Dent.

I saw somewhere on Twitter people said that basically every school NOT named Duke or Kentucky was priced out from the start.

I don't even think we're good on money. We're great. We may the best.
As we should be. If Bama, UGA, Texas, Ohio State have all the money in the world to throw around as football powerhouses, we should have the same as a basketball powerhouse. (just wish some of that fortune would also translate to our football program as well)
 
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samuel
@samuelkentucky
·
8m


travis perry is likely to enter the portal and transfer from kentucky


🤔
That would make me sad if true, but wondering if there was something more to his not being available to play the last game. probably reading too much into that because some were saying prior he had some type of injury and i do remember seeing him in some pain after a tumble in an earlier game.
 
I went to high school and played baseball and golf with his Dad and know the family really well. Although Travis is die hard UK fan through and through and grew up wearing nothing but Cats gear and rooting for the Cats, it doesn't mean he will stay. He's already been recruited over for next year, forced into the PG position when he's a natural undersized SG, and if UK pulls in stud guards he falls further down the depth chart. I could certainly see a case for him leaving. He had a great relationship with Ole Miss and Purdue both for years before Cal got involved late. He's not going to leave for a smaller school where he can be the star (ie Western) like some people think. If he leaves, he'll likely go to a P4 school where he isn't as buried on the depth chart and has a chance to fight for some minutes. UK is in his blood though, and it might be hard to walk away from it.
I can see that. Obviously he was forced to play the point out of necessity and glad he stepped up when needed, even if out of place. I do also think Chandlers surge of late has eaten into his minutes as well. And Chandler is one of Popes guys, a kid he recruited from the start at BYU, so It's natural for Perry to think that there might be some favoritism there. I wish Perry nothing but the best no matter what he decides to do, but will be sad to see him go.
 
Hypothetically, if UK and Braden Smith were talking through back channels with big dollar figures being thrown around, it might make sense to walk away from it all before this weekend’s games. It could turn into a major scandal.
Outside chance we may be playing against him on Sunday.
 
UK does not have a money disadvantage against anyone.

Nor did we last year.

UK will not lose a player if the decision is solely about money.

Ave we have not lost a player if the deciding factor was money.
We didn't have a money problem last year, I concur, but they had to be more judicial with how they spent it considering they were trying to build an entire roster from scratch. We weren't going to play the game of getting into bidding wars for guys like Great Osobor. (Turns out Williams was probably the better of the two anyway)
 
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