According to Graf the Georgia point guard is at the top of Pope's list.
PG next year
- Thread starter JonathanW
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Pope didn't miss on high school players. He got top guys who likely develop into high level college players. That's how you build a base to win and be in the hunt consistently. With the very rare exception, starting a freshman means you missed in recruiting.
Chandler is such a unique and difficult projection. I do think his improvement late in the season allows him to be projected as a bench contributor next year.
BG is the one I struggle with and always have. There are very few top 50ish prospect C’s the last decade that ever took big jumps(eliminating the raw freak athlete guys). If he wants to stick around and compete with Malachi that’s fine. But Pope can’t go into next season with him as the projected starter. He essentially bought the “upside/development” with him last offseason. He was essentially just the exact same guy as he was at OSU his freshman season except he had more assist opportunities and was allowed to shoot open 3s.
Personally I think Pope tries to upgrade at C with someone who projects to be a defensive game changer with blocks or rebounds. Something Garrison just doesn’t.
That’s not exactly what he said. He said “according to someone in his inner circle “ he is at the top of CMP pg list. Of course someone in his inner circle is going to say that . They want people to think he’s number 1 on everyone’s list.
UNC fans would love it if we took him
This is a valid way to put it.
But, a valid corollary to this is that when Pope had that uber flexibility he used it to bring in six of the nonstarting pieces you listed. He still has all those pieces and they’re all better now, at least in terms of experience in his system.
Of course, that’s only relevant if those are all pieces Pope brought in to fill roles that are inherent to his system. As opposed to, say bringing in Garrison to balance Williams somehow.
From that perspective, I think it’s safe to say that Perry, Noah, Chandler, and Oweh were all brought in with regards to their own strengths (including the strengths of two being blue-bleeding Kentucky boys) and without regard to how they matched with or balanced any other players we were already bringing in. Kriisa and Garrison, you could definitely make strong arguments they were brought in to balance somebody or play off them.
So to me that seems like two full spots of net flexibility lost so far. The other four, we may want to think of them as each representing half-spots of flexibility lost. On one hand, they weren’t brought in to complement anybody else and they are all better now than when they came in. On the other hand, their original spot was something Pope -could- have used for a complementary piece last year—he just didn’t do it. And now he can’t do it.
As far as the three signed freshmen: We could call those lost spots of flexibility. Otoh, each of those is actually a spot of flexibility that Pope actually had this cycle; he’s just already used it this cycle. The same way as he lost a spot of flexibility last cycle every time he signed one of our current players. So none of those spots are actually lost flexibility over what we had last year. I think all those freshmen are in the range where it’s possible but unlikely they could blow up by the end of the year, and very likely they could blow up the year after that. No bad choices, no bad use of this cycle’s original inherent flexibility. I definitely do agree with you that we missed on all the superstars from high school and we’ll have to either make that up from the portal or go without in terms of ceiling.
So to recap in my own head, this year we’re starting out without two spots that were used flexibly last year—Garrison’s and Kriisa’s, assuming both return. Three spots that were used non-flexibly (if that makes sense, I think Pope would have used them the way he did no matter what), we carried over, which is net gain in terms of experience now, but a net loss in terms of flexibility. Those being Perry, Noah, and Chandler. Oweh’s spot——different ways we could look at that one but we’d probably all agree Pope would bring him back over pretty much anyone in the nation if he had to choose for some reason. So I don’t think that’s any lost flexibility.
So we’re down somewhere between two and five spots of flexibility that Pope would realistically use.
To balance that we have two extra scholly spots that no one had last year. Plus we still have the thirteenth scholly spot, a spot Pope only used for a walk-on last year.
I don’t think the loss of flexibility will ultimately wind up hurting us too much. But it is real and will definitely affect us some ways. Good insight to consider it.
If you tell me we have AD, MKG, Miller and Lamb, yeah, cool, let's roll with a freshman.
If you tell me That freshman is a bonafide top 15 pick in the draft, cool, but that's not the case.
Pope isn't going to have a team full of NBA guys, he's going to have good, solid college players. Give me the proven player over a guy that could end up struggling in a very physical league.
No way
If he can not compete in acc
No way he can be competitive in SEC
Too short
Can not shoot
Turnover prone
We're apparently pretty in on him. There's a few screen shots floating around Twitter.
He would be the perfect get. I think he's my top want at the moment. He can play Play PG or SG. He's a 37% 3 point shooter. He's 6'5. We know he's an SEC athlete and SEC level starter. He scored 21 vs Florida and 18 vs Auburn. You know what you're getting in him.
If he's ready to commit, you take him right away. Then you could still take Braden Smith or Dedan Thomas and slide Demary to the SG.
UNC literally doesn't want him back.
I trust Pope to do a great job filling out the roster and I’m sure he’ll snag one of the best PGs! Would love to lock up Demry as a CG. Just curious if the scuttlebutt on Perry is true and he transfers? Would hate to lose him, but he’s gonna be buried on that bench
Imho.. Branden Smith is just a pipedream.. He's not leaving Perdue. I think our next PG will be Dedan Thomas.
Have you heard any name or feel good about Kentucky getting anybody right now
We might as well start spreading rumors about Mark Sears and Clayton from Florida coming to UK next year. We have about the same chance to land them as we do Braden Smith.
If Braden Smith DOES enter the portal, then it's Braden or bust in my opinion.
He's King Rice of the current generation. A guy who nobody would've recruited if he wasn't from East Coast and hyped as some sort of Point "God". Guy is better known for the Marriott Ad then his play on the court--be it clean cut or his goatee version this year.
Nor should they-he is type who should be a backup on that tier of program.
He is projected POSSIBLY 2nd round I would take him in a heartbeat
I remember watching Rice In Freedom Hall against KY this is an excellent observation
We gotta do better at tampering during the season.
As of right now in the portal then who would you take he’s top 5 ranked and the top 2 are off the board
He was truly terrible. Ended up a decent Coach though.
I really did not want him, just wanted to see some fans thoughts on him.
Is Thomas still a top target for Coach Pope?? Haven't seen or heard much about him in the past couple of days.
The kid from Georgia would be a GREAT get at this point.
Then you have all of the SMOKE from Matt Jones alluding to Braden Smith being a definite possibility.
This whole situation for our next PG will most likely end up the way it was last season where Coach Pope keeps EVERYTHING close to the vest and we won't KNOW until the player announces it.
The kid from Georgia would be a GREAT get at this point.
Then you have all of the SMOKE from Matt Jones alluding to Braden Smith being a definite possibility.
This whole situation for our next PG will most likely end up the way it was last season where Coach Pope keeps EVERYTHING close to the vest and we won't KNOW until the player announces it.
Just that CMP is REALLY high on Silas Demary . But he’s from North Carolina and UNC, DUKE and NC state are in contact too . Would be a big win if we could beat those guys on this kid .
I want the Reed Bailey kid. I think he is a better, more athletic version of Carr.
Wilkerson is from Arkansas and chicken man is willing to open his coffers on this one .
I’d have to agree with that as well.
It’s pretty obvious Garrison would be a downgrade in about every aspect to Amari
I like Alvaro Folgueiras better than Reed Bailey.
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