UK not on list of 7 for Dybantsa
- Thread starter March 22
- Start date
To not have us in the top7.. now maybe Pope said "thanks, but no thanks", but I think that notion is a little conceited for a 1st year coach here. If I was Pope and UK, I would be shelling out some NIL to land what could be one of the elite talents of the last 5 to 10 years. Idk, doesn't seem like something you turn down.
And if not this guy because of character issues, that's totally fine.. but then it needs to be someone else.
Because say this team falls short this year.. and say it's not an in-game coaching problem.. the most logical reason will be not having any real elite talent at the college level. If we lose in the 1st weekend, my guess will be that these players are good, but maybe not great.. and we run into a team that can match us very well in size and speed (something we got used to almost never happening under Cal).
So yeah, while I don't want to go back to 1AD teams, I do think we need to keep 1 or 2 top25ish guys on the team, if we can. Kentucky still needs to be a big NIL player.
And if not this guy because of character issues, that's totally fine.. but then it needs to be someone else.
Because say this team falls short this year.. and say it's not an in-game coaching problem.. the most logical reason will be not having any real elite talent at the college level. If we lose in the 1st weekend, my guess will be that these players are good, but maybe not great.. and we run into a team that can match us very well in size and speed (something we got used to almost never happening under Cal).
So yeah, while I don't want to go back to 1AD teams, I do think we need to keep 1 or 2 top25ish guys on the team, if we can. Kentucky still needs to be a big NIL player.
This is a great point. Things will be different.
I am surprised though that Pope hasn’t focused in on some 40-100 ranked kids that fit his style of offense, character, etc. Seems he’s going to try that 15-40 sweet spot this year. (2026 might be different)
Which is odd, considering reports he scheduled a visit to Duke this week. But Duke seems to be all in on the boozer twins.
I want great recruits. However, I think we are so use to the Cal stellar recruiting that we (or I) forget that is only a short-term and mainly unsuccessful approach. Yes, talent will make a difference but the top recruits now are one year and how often has that one great recruit led to a championship or even a league championship? I do think this upcoming season if successful will lead to longer term recruiting but Pope is only in his first year at Kentucky and has done amazing with transfers along with some recruits that have a future in college.
I don't see how any recruit out of HS is worth $2.5 million. There is no guarantee they add a single win to your record. I don't doubt AJ's talent and that he will be a great player someday, but he is only playing for someone for a year. He could be the most dominant player to ever play CBB and he could average 9 pts a game. Reality is probably somewhere in the middle but dropping big time money on kids that have never dribbled a ball in a college game is a big risk. I think in the current climate you get more juice from the portal.
Disagree, Zion and AD definitely would be worth that if not more. But those guys are extreme rarities. AJ is good but he doesn’t get the same attention as someone like Cooper Flagg, so can’t blame other programs for backing out if the asking price is close to 3M.
the money ceiling for some of these players is much higher than that
He has offered several 4 *s and guys in the 40-75 rankings. You HAVE TO at least offer the elite talent. If not, it would appear you are conceding to other schools and not confident you can land those guys. By at least offering (not all, but select top 25 guys), you can at least say he picked another school and wonder, rather than not offer and concede. I think that will be Pope's biggest obstacle early on (first couple of years), gaining trust in these elite kids while going up against Self, and other elite coaches / recruiters. Pope has done a fine job at BYU, but until he lands a few top 20 guys, he will have a tough road to pave. He will eventually get there, but the beginning of his blue blood coaching, he will take some lumps. It will be crucial that he hits on most of the next tier recruits and portal guys, if not, things will get really tough after this years team moves on and the pressure really sets in. The 25 class is really important in sending a message and needs to be near perfect even if he does land a top 20 kid. Can't always rely on landing a portal class like this year every year. He will have to build a roster for longevity and develop kids, land a good (doesn't have to be top 5 class) every year, and land a couple nice portal guys. A mixture of 1-2 high school elites, solid mid tier guys, a few developmental players, and a few solid portal players yearly, I think will be the key to Pope's long term success.
Hit on some of the under valued / ranked guys like the Tyler Herro's, SGA type guys who show up and perform better than expected. He needs to have a great eye for talent because the top 10/15 guys will take a while to earn their trust, and until then, he had better hit the bullseye a lot more than he misses it.
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I agree. Maybe paying an inordinate percentage of your NIL to a player like Dybantsa could make sense from a marketing standpoint if you’re a program that needs the advertising. But that’s not the kind program UK has. UK needs to compete for championship titles to motivate its fan base and maximize value. Relying on OAD freshmen won’t get the job done. They’re simply not good enough yet. The better upperclassmen – both a teams’ home-grown and top transfer portal options - have a bigger impact on winning in that one year. What OAD kids develop into in a few years is irrelevant to UK. Sure, you can cite exceptions to the general rule for freshmen from the past – but I don’t think relying on the “that one time at band camp” justification is sound reasoning.
I definitely think you get a player like Dybantsa if you reasonably can. But you don’t go into the next season having blown your NIL wad expecting him to be the star of your team his freshman year (unless, again, it’s about marketing rather than winning). According to the new recruiting expert for the Field of 68 show (I don’t remember his name, but his job has been following and writing about high school recruiting for 10 years), this is the mindset of the top CBB coaches, including Hurley and Self. He said those coaches make plans with the idea that the 5-star freshmen may not be great that first year, and then if they pan out that quickly to be a key contributor they consider it a bonus. When Goodman tried to qualify the recruiting guy’s point by saying after the extra COVID year situation expires 5-star freshmen will again be the top priority, the recruiting guy disagreed. He said as long as the portal situation continues, upperclassmen will be more important to the coaches competing for titles year-in-and-year-out.
It is hard to project. Imagine we had the same NIL environment last year and we gave 2 to 3 million dollars to Justin Edwards since he was the number one recruit. Then, as a result we did not have enough NIL for reeves or one or more players. The season would have been more of a cluster*. Navigating this new environment is tough,so to me you improve your chances by having more good players with multiple skills and then you coach them up and play your most effective combinations.
Right now I'm very gun-shy toward "great recruits". I need to see how Pope handles talent that WANTS to play, but isn't READY for primetime.
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