Will the portal be “that” loaded for what we are going to need??
- Thread starter TTTblue24
- Start date
LMAO
Maybe prettier girls....nicer weather....a better engineering program....closer to home...a job for dad...more NIL money...no JMI restrictions...guaranteed playing time or starting job...who knows
Problem is that’s been the recurring theme with Pope’s recruitment of any top level talent. Wilson, Wilkerson, Dent, Collins and Stokes were all either all but locked up or actually already told Pope they were coming only for UK to fumble at the goaline.
Im sure he’s fine with that as long as the outcome is income.
Chandler is one of the only guys who is talented enough to start on a contender next year. If he left he would have his pick of any school he wanted.
The portal may be loaded but Pope still has to recruit and show kids that he has a plan for them to develop. Can't just buy a great team because everyone has $$$$. Take a look at what Pope has been able to recruit from the portal. I would give him a grade of "C"
a "C" grade will NOT win championships.
You've lost your mind if thats what you think
I have zero confidence in Pope's ability to make it right. When given a whole season to build a roster, he couldn't or wouldn't close on the right guys and instead, selected inferior players.
Takes a leap of faith to assume otherwise.
Assuming we have 4-5 returnees, Pope and staff need to pinpoint 3 guards and a power forward and overpay for all four. Recruits don't want to hear Pope's spiel about how special Kentucky is, nor do they want to see him pull his #41 jersey out of his bag and tear up while describing what it means to play in it. They don't give a sh*t. They want money. They're not taking discounts to come here. And we don't need 13-14 guys on the payroll next season.
Tell Garrison and Mo to pack their bags. You could find a backup big that actually has basketball skills for a fraction of their cost. Hopefully get Jelavic back for a reasonable number. At least he possesses some fundamentals (i.e. knows how to dribble).
Bid farewell to Jasper. There's some potential there I suppose but it's not worth overpaying for. Not a fan of his game. Take Lowe back if its for a discount and him knowing the PG position isn't locked down. Hopefully we can keep Chandler. The money and allure to head back to BYU will be tempting, though. I don't think it's a given he's back.
Should be a ton of money coming off the books from Oweh/Aberdeen/JQ alone and way more if you trim some of the fat from the roster. Let's see if Pope splits it up the way he should. I have my doubts.
Tell Garrison and Mo to pack their bags. You could find a backup big that actually has basketball skills for a fraction of their cost. Hopefully get Jelavic back for a reasonable number. At least he possesses some fundamentals (i.e. knows how to dribble).
Bid farewell to Jasper. There's some potential there I suppose but it's not worth overpaying for. Not a fan of his game. Take Lowe back if its for a discount and him knowing the PG position isn't locked down. Hopefully we can keep Chandler. The money and allure to head back to BYU will be tempting, though. I don't think it's a given he's back.
Should be a ton of money coming off the books from Oweh/Aberdeen/JQ alone and way more if you trim some of the fat from the roster. Let's see if Pope splits it up the way he should. I have my doubts.
I think it’s very likely Pope gets a portal team more suited to his style next year and has a decent enough season that the admins can’t justify firing him. At that point you just have to hope he established enough of a foundation with the roster that he can put together a legitimate contender in year 4.
Pope won’t have as much money/leverage this year thanks to boosters probably seeing what their $20 mil got them and the JMI deal making it more difficult. Reality is he’ll probably have half, maybe even a 3rd of what he got this year.
As for kicking off players, that won’t happen. If our current players come back demanding raises, that’s what will happen. Whatever extra money we have will go to players like Mo and Garrison most likely. Pope is loyal to his players and staff to a fault. They come first. Not our satisfaction or the possibility of recruiting elite talent. Your best hope is most of these guys choose to move on. They don’t fit Pope’s coaching style and another year won’t change that.
We don't know that. And many of the NIL deals are yearly and expire. If he offers "raises" to guys like Garrison and Mo then he's digging his own grave.
I think the money will continue to be there. Whether Pope can close on elite players or continue to think he can get them for a discount will determine whether he's gone after next year or not.
Think you’re probably overstating it a bit but yes we’ll need at least 2 plug and play starting level transfers so that will obviously have to be ranked pretty high.
Using this years portal your essentially talking about Yaxel and Rob Wright.
A team of Wright, Chandler, Williams, Yaxel, Moreno is probably preseason top 5 lol
Yaxel was 3rd and Wright 8th on ESPN’s transfer ranking list and fit our needed positions so I just used their names to show we’d be targeting the 2026 version of those guys.
Pope will do better than people expect at the top of the portal this year imo.
I don't see anyone on Yaxel 's level in this portal class.
He would have been drafted in the 25-35 range last year.
Acaden Lewis could be this years Rob Wright.
The very best portal prospects will also enter the draft.
Juke Harris of Wake Forest would be my #1 replacement for Oweh but who knows if he will stay, enter, or go to the draft.
I really thought that Bruce Thornton would have entered last year but he stuck with Ohio St.
Always have to respect a player sticking with his school.
Next season, and before that, in the portal, Pope will be the most lame duck coach since Stoops was in football last season… Go figure.
No one will want to come play for a guy they know is in his final season. But yeah, a 3rd season totally makes sense, right?
UK doesn’t have the high end donor base to compete in the NIL era, and that $22 million fairytale was just that, a made up fairytale. It will become obvious soon.
No one will want to come play for a guy they know is in his final season. But yeah, a 3rd season totally makes sense, right?
UK doesn’t have the high end donor base to compete in the NIL era, and that $22 million fairytale was just that, a made up fairytale. It will become obvious soon.
We need some proven studs from the portal, not guys who didn't even start on their team. Pope has put us in the position that we can't take chances on hoping player will improve. We have to have players that are proven already.
He’s only best shooter in sec this year..6’5, athletic….how is he not a winner player with right cast around him?
Because he can't guard anyone. Your guards have to be playmakers. He can't do anything off the dribble and is one of the major reasons we stink on offense this season. Sure he makes 2 3's a game but he kills us in a lot more areas
Really? There's only 2 other schools in the sec he would start for this year. South Carolina and maybe ole miss.
Go back and look at our 2g from the past 16 years . He would be about 15th on that list. On a top level team he would need to be getting about 14 mins a game. A role player
Last edited:
He avg 1.9 points per game on 2 point fg. That stat alone should tell you he isn't good enough. You've gotta be able to get to the basket and he doesn't even attempt it because his ball handling isnt good enough. 2 3's per game sure does hold a high spot with you it seems
Next year he would be one of the three starting guards on any team in the league. Goodness
What? What are you seeing that makes you believe this? Denzel Aberdeen is the guard we better hope gets to come back.
Hell if Lowe hadn't got hurt Chandler would be a back up on this team and you are projecting him all sec smh. I mean I would like to have him back but he's definitely not who I want as my starting 2g
Definitely has to get the right guys. Seems to me lots of guys who are talented would love to be on the big stage at UK.
These 17 yr old one and done guys who have see no value in the school are just playing for money only.
Maybe that's ok for them. I'd like some cohesion year over year. There are guys out there. Pope showed that in year 1.
Chandler wiould be a solid 8th man on a contender. Just not enough creativity on offense. Don't get me wrong he's an incredible shooter though.
We have to recruit over them. Love Noah but he won't try to score the ball unless he's all alone in the corner.
I think my plan for UK would be to go all out with my resources to try to sign 3 players from the portal/overseas as quickly as possible (unless one of those players is a guy they think will ultimately withdraw from the draft and they've got a high chance of signing). That would be the best PG available and then the two best players at any other position. I would then start negotiating with the current players to try to fill out the roster. If there was too much overlap at a position due to the new portal guys or I couldn't get certain guys to return from this year's team then I'd pick up a couple more from the portal to complete the roster.
It’s bs …and it’s well known that Caleb Wilson was trolling uk and its fanbase
he even said as much
