Cal is known in Nba circles as a coach that has taught roles and responsibilities. Even though I believe Coach Pope will be better for UK as far as X's and O's. Cal will always attract the elite 5 star. Coach Pope does not have the history of putting guys into the NBA, that he will have to build. He is going to build from the Portal and the freshman will probably not be rated as high, It will be much harder as we have to build the entire roster. With 4 million NIL it is not enough as 1 million + is not exception but a standard for top players.
Starting to think Pope did a purge with his players meetings
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Yes . We will have 4,5 and 6 year old seniors . Not letting entitled prima Donna’s waste a spot for a year . Love it .
And you know this how fatguy87? What does it mean if none of them stay with Pope? You should know that as well.
Ugo's camp reached out to UConn and was told no thanks. Putnam Prep ties but their staff didn't care for the handlers approach to his recruitment. So off to the NBA he goes! Everyone loves Ugo as a person/talent as a player, but this surprised a lot of teams who were hoping to catch the leftovers (GTown/Providence/St. John's) if UConn passed.
Not sure what it will look like. Makes me a bit nervous, but then I think about our war chest, minutes, Kentucky and a fun freaking offense…I think we will be okay.
By following Kentucky basketball for the last 15 years.
I have no inside knowledge, no contact giving me scoops. I have paid attention to the flux in our roster year to year. It's a simple matter to extrapolate that pattern.
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BYU defense was 60th in KenPom this last season. While your last statement can certainly be applicable or to a lot of things, not sure it applies here. 60th isn’t awful…but it’s not great.
Did anybody really think the kind of kids that came for Cal would stay for Pope?
Come on....
Come on....
I’m not shouting Hallelujah as I think the way Mitch set this whole thing up with the “lifetime” contract guaranteed a messy exit and significant challenges for UK and any new coach who didn’t have a well-known name and championship coaching pedigree.
As Pitino showed, players who play for the front of the jersey are first, in State kids, then talented diamond in the rough kids who love a coach and his style and the way his teams win (Mashburn). After that, come more talented kids who push a team into championships.
Cal got UK to the championships stage fast based on his charisma and the brand that is UK plus a new approach: You come here and play at the “Showtime of College Basketball” and help me “build this thing” as UK wins, and I’ll work my connections to ensure you excel in the NBA. For very talented young men whose families had very little (like Cal experienced growing up), that resonated.
And after 2019, when Covid showed what people with very little faced more so than anyone else, and Mitch and Cal were no longer even trying to get along, Cal almost dropped the whole “play for UK and win” part of his sales pitch altogether. It was mostly come play for me and I’ll ensure you have the best shot of making it to the 2nd NBA contract. And he had the names and numbers of successful players to win many top recruits over to playing for that first.
So, what Coach Pope likely realizes is he’s not at BYU where the players are playing hard for their faith (the name on the front of the uniform); he’s not recruiting the ‘96 team which was full of players who came because of Pitino and the success he’d already had (Mercer and Walker); he’s recruiting players to his charisma and the chance to win a championship based on UK and tradition while pioneering a new ethos that can work well with this generation: Gratitude over Entitlement.
That’s not merely playing for the name on the front of the jersey. It’s playing for the core values that undergird, sustain, and magnify the name on the front that the person whose name is on the back of the jersey succeeds with honor and just earnings. It’s a both/and, win/win approach.
I think it will work. It’s gonna take commitment, perseverance, and heart plus a little time though.
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He is talented but I’m not sure he doesn’t need some ADHD medication. Something is going on there. Plenty entertaining to watch though.
Only guy I saw at the press conference was Perry. Did I miss anyone? I was a little surprised Reed wasn't there even if he's leaving.
We got beat in the NCAAT by a team that did not have any 5* player I believe.
I did not say anything about we had to have a team that needed all 5 * players. I was saying it will be harder for Coach Pope to get a whole team of Cal players which is good. I also said we are going to need more Nil to build a team of 10 players from the portal with 4 million dollars! Hope this clears it up.
They also need to accept that the days of watching the top 50 players in high school and top 5 recruiting classes are gone until pope proves he can win and develop talent. This is prolly a 4-5 year process.
Pope might be better off, team chemistry wise, with mostly "his guys" anyway.
I loved LY team and would welcome any of them back. But sometimes a new broom sweeps clean as they say. This just gives Pope a quicker path to put his own stamp on the program. I do, however, hope each player was asked to stay. Leaving on their own, for their own reasons, is perfectly legit. Its their careers and future.
I loved LY team and would welcome any of them back. But sometimes a new broom sweeps clean as they say. This just gives Pope a quicker path to put his own stamp on the program. I do, however, hope each player was asked to stay. Leaving on their own, for their own reasons, is perfectly legit. Its their careers and future.
Not the same thing but when Crean arrived he cleaned out IU of players who were not what IU wanted character wise. It took three years before IU reached the NCAA with 2 Sweet 16 appearances in 3 years to follow. After that it was downhill as he couldn't coach ☺️. Pope may be following a similar path. I don't think the kids leaving have similar character issues as IU kids did when Crean came, but they may not be what Pope wants to establish at UK. I don't expect it will take 3 years and I hope Pope is better than Crean, but patience will be required.
We were never going to keep majority of Cal's players. Cal and Pope have 2 completely different strategies. Cal is about recruiting a bunch of talented individuals with the main goal being getting them to the NBA and team success being the second goal. Pope is about finding players that are pieces of a puzzle that will fit together perfectly with team success being the main goal and NBA possibly happening too. Basically, Cal gets a bunch of random, gourmet ingredients, throws them into a pot, and sees if it tastes good. Pope will get the right ingredients thst go together and make a delicious meal.
The players attracted to Cal's way are never going to be attracted to Pope's way.
The players attracted to Cal's way are never going to be attracted to Pope's way.
Yeap. He would have pushed them out, to try and make them rich, but when his own ass is on the line? Try and make them all come back for another year. Something he REFUSED to do here
Yeap. He would have pushed them out, to try and make them rich, but when his own ass is on the line? Try and make them all come back for another year. Something he REFUSED to do here
“I did it my way...” LMAO
Pope has to learn quickly how to balance his roster with some future NBA level talent AND 4 year players.
You can't compete in the SEC by only selling recruits on the idea of playing for the love of the school. These kids also have NBA aspirations. He has to go after both types of players and find a way to blend them.
Cal was one extreme. Hope Pope isn't the other.
It's a really tough balancing act that Pope has ZERO experience doing.
He better be a fast learner or his inspiring speeches won't mean jack by this time next year if talented recruits are still saying no thanks.
You can't compete in the SEC by only selling recruits on the idea of playing for the love of the school. These kids also have NBA aspirations. He has to go after both types of players and find a way to blend them.
Cal was one extreme. Hope Pope isn't the other.
It's a really tough balancing act that Pope has ZERO experience doing.
He better be a fast learner or his inspiring speeches won't mean jack by this time next year if talented recruits are still saying no thanks.
Think about roster restrictions. And look at the games. There’s no substitute for actually looking for yourself.
I don't think that is the conversation. When having a conversation with elite recruits part of the conversation has to be about development for the league. If that individual development for the next level isn't part of conversation might has well not even try to recruit an elite player. I think Coach Pope will work with 3, 4, and 5 stars to develop a roster that will match his style of play. The conversation with each level varies.
With Pope, the center piece of the conversation isn't how quick he can get you to the NBA.
Any player that wants to hear that, isn't someone we want anymore.
We've been watching that movie for 15 years, and we don't want to watch it anymore!
If any players on last year's roster want to be here, then great, if not then great!
Any player that wants to hear that, isn't someone we want anymore.
We've been watching that movie for 15 years, and we don't want to watch it anymore!
If any players on last year's roster want to be here, then great, if not then great!
There was a reason Perry was the only UK players at Mark's press conference.
I suspect they let Mark know ahead of time its an uphill battle to get any of them back and your focus should be building your UK team beyond the scope of Calipari's influence.
We knew this would happen with Cal. We should be used to it by now given the past 14 years.
If I was advising Pope right now, however, I would advise him to cool it with the Front of the jersey stuff. The fans are all in, they know, don't oversell it to where it hinders your conversations, and just go with the reality that every UK fan is going to assume that every kid you recruit is a Front Jersey kid, whether its true or not.
I suspect they let Mark know ahead of time its an uphill battle to get any of them back and your focus should be building your UK team beyond the scope of Calipari's influence.
We knew this would happen with Cal. We should be used to it by now given the past 14 years.
If I was advising Pope right now, however, I would advise him to cool it with the Front of the jersey stuff. The fans are all in, they know, don't oversell it to where it hinders your conversations, and just go with the reality that every UK fan is going to assume that every kid you recruit is a Front Jersey kid, whether its true or not.
He didn’t want to be a massive distraction. Good call to stay away.
We already have way more than 4 million dollars. Pope will be fine. Get on board.
Exactly.....
1. Bradshaw and Ugo with Somto and Quantance comgin in.....that wasn't going to work
2. Edwards and Dilly were always going NBA no matter how crappy the stats turned out (Dilly for sure didn't put up bad stats)
3. Adou hit portal before Cal to Arkansas was announced
4. DJ was always iffy with the year he put up and did we want to play with Boogie Fland
etc....
So this isn't shocking....this is what the roster singed up for and one of the main reasons Cal had to get out of here.
But Pope needs to build a roster of kids and not get enamored with some Norman Dale mindset. The guys he'll get in portal will in most cases be single year mercenaries as well. It will take a bit to get multi year kid plans to UK....so we shouldn't poo poo kids like Ivisic, Quantance, Burks in particular, etc...coming here for 2025
Oh no, the players who lost to Oakland and set a record for home losses aren't coming back!
Oh no!
Oh no!
Not for a team that has a offense like BYU ran last year. If Alabama had that defense last year they could have been in the title game.
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