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Pope recruiting
- Thread starter zoid1
- Start date
It certainly helped in recruiting Perry. Noah and Johnson that they could see how Reed Sheppard was treated by the fans of UK. That is not to say he wouldn't have still gotten all three of them.
I do wish Pope the very best. I think he is going to do well.
I do wish Pope the very best. I think he is going to do well.
We’re laughing at your ignorance.
Cal's been recruiting Johnson for over two years. He kept recruiting him when he went to Arkansas. Try reading an article instead of smoking your piggy pipe. https://247sports.com/article/jaspe...-in-top-5-john-calipari-recruiting-234124731/
Cal knew he was a very distant fourth place on this one. You Hog fans are delusional. Go back and play in the pig pen if you're not going to bring strong arguments here.
Time to go home, pig.
Even BCG got players. Got Patterson, Liggins, Miller, Harrelson, Orton. That’s 5 guys that played pretty big roles in our success in Cal’s first two seasons. Harrelson, Miller and Liggins were part of the core of a team that broke a 13 year final four drought.
Billy G also had Deandre Jordan committed at Texas A&M before he bolted. He probably could have convinced the kid to follow him but decided to play nice. He also helped us land John Wall by getting him on campus twice so When Cal took over Wall didn’t have to try and schedule a last minute visit.
Billy G was a good recruiter and a overall strong basketball mind. He just went insane.
A 2026 kid I hope we are able to land. 7 foot kid that is dangerously good from 3 point range.
Assuming we get back SR- Oweh JR- Garrison SO- Chandler/Perry/Noah FR- Moreno/Johnson that's 6 player's he can add. I think we get 2 of Yessoufou/Ament/Cenac/Mullins/Brown/Wilson then add 4 experienced portal guys. Perfect mix of players coming back, experience and young talented frosh imo.
Putting together a team that will be playing this year with mostly transfers in a short time is very impressive of course no body really know how good this team will be and getting a couple of the best recruits in the country, Moreno and Johnson not bad either and getting an endorsement from Pitino.
You think
That make sense to you guys? Cal is after Acuff Wilson Thomas and Peat . If he was serious about the other two he would have gotten a visit. He wasnt and he didnt. I had honestly rather spend the money in the portal no matter how good the freshmen are. They are still freshman. Take the best two or three and concentrate on older players.
Cal was recruiting them so hard to Arkansas but could not get a visit out of either after being so close with them all for over two years?And so the cope begins.
"Calipari has been recruiting me since he was at Kentucky," Johnson told Jenkins. "I have not been able to see the school. He tells me he wants me to be one-and-done, so that is good to hear."
Arkansas makes final cut for 2025 five-star Jasper Johnson
Another five-star player in the 2025 recruiting class has included John Calipari and the Razorbacks in his final five list.247sports.com
That make sense to you guys? Cal is after Acuff Wilson Thomas and Peat . If he was serious about the other two he would have gotten a visit. He wasnt and he didnt. I had honestly rather spend the money in the portal no matter how good the freshmen are. They are still freshman. Take the best two or three and concentrate on older players.
Why did they end with Calipari? Top recruiting classes did not begin with Calipari. Hall, Sutton, and Pitino had them. In fact, Pope played with members of two top classes (the Rhodes-Delk and Mercer-Turner classes) while he played at UK.
I just believe Calipari was a great recruiter and Pope won't be able to compete but recruiting obviously does not define success. In Calipari's first year he had John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Bledsoe and retained Patterson. How do you think that compares to Pope's first year? We can come back and do this every year if you want but if you think Pope will rival Calipari in recruiting I believe you are going to be sadly disappointed.
Until sometime during the Tubby Smith years, UK led in having recruited the most McDonalds All Americans so that would have included Hall's, Sutton's, and Pitino's recruits. Tubby seemed to have decided he was above stooping to recruiting, like he would rather go fishing; Bobby Knight and Denny Crum seem to have decided the same thing at some point. UK regained the lead again during the Calipari years. If Hall, Sutton, Pitino, and Calipari all could recruit at a high level, I don't know why Pope could not. Also, Pope played with two #1 recruiting classes during his time as a player, so I don't understand why he would be adverse to that. To answer how Pope's first class compares to Calipari's,, surely you must understand no recruits comparable to Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe, etc., were even available?
Understandable, we can come back next year and see if Pope has a recruiting class comparable to Calipari. I'm guessing he won't but you never know. And just to be clear while recruiting means having better players that can lead to more successful seasons I don't believe recruiting by itself means the program had a successful year or season. It's why I'm not bothered at all about not having as good of a recruiting class as long as we win in March.
I agree with you but comparing all Popes years to Cals first is a bit unfair imo. That’s arguably Cals best class and most of Cals other recruiting classes wouldn’t compare. Cal also had quite a few duds in there as well. Our last 6 years our starting PGs have been Aston Hagans, Devin Askew, Savhir Wheeler, and DJ Wagner so it’s not like we’ve been stock piling all stars recently.
and remember what happened with that best class.............Huggins gave CCC a coaching clinic by playing a zone. CCC had no clue that day and never had a clue against a zone. That class was tremendous, but the lack of coaching caught up with them as it did with every other CCC coached team except 2012. That should have been an fore warning to us UK fans, that he was clueless as a coach. Just as he allowed the NCAA title get away in Memphis, by not fouling with a 3 point lead. He just would not learn from his mistakes.
UK may not have the #1 recruiting class as much, but they will have basketball players. Guys that understand the game, fit his system, can shoot and understand the fundamentals. CCC went by the kids rating and wanted athletes and chose to play them over better, more team oriented guys because he had to keep his promises to the player and their posse's.
If you define the best recruiting as getting the most 5-star one-and-done players, and therefore #1 ranked recruiting classes, then let’s pray Pope is not as “good” as Calipari. That’s recruiting for show, not to win.
I’m not saying the ranking systems are wrong, it’s just that we have to remember two things about that: (1) those services state openly that they are ranking based on future pro potential (not necessarily current skill level, e.g., like shooting, or making winning plays, etc.); and (2) future potential has limited value in a one freshman year scenario. Now, if you could keep those 5-stars for multiple years, and also stack those high-ranked classes year to year like football mostly can (and you used to be able to do in basketball), then you’ve really got reason to be pumped about #1 ranked recruiting classes.
Let’s assume you bring in five projected NBA draft picks – even the #1 ranked recruit at all five positions – and those guys are your starting five. In that case I think you’re going to fail to be a contender almost without exception. That’s not how you build a title contender in this era (if it ever was a smart idea). So, I’m hoping that Pope (“hope with Pope”) and his staff are better at what I consider the best “recruiting” – which is identifying and projecting talent, particularly multi-year guys. You don’t win big in CBB today unless your returning players carry most the weight. Supplement that with a few of the best transfers from the portal and use freshmen mostly in supplemental/second string roles that first year and I think UK is in business again to be feared year-in-and-year-out.
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He's the one I want the most from that class. Pure scorer. Great perimeter game. Multi-positional. He's everything I had hoped Edwards would be for us last year.
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