Trending in the right direction with Stokes

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,707
80,488
113
They all doing it for a paycheck now.
Yes but some guys still care about winning and go where they want to go. He would be unhappy just here for the biggest deal. The worst kind of situation. Kansas State player like.
 

FatCatMan

All-Conference
Feb 19, 2026
1,355
3,222
113
In no world should we pay Moreno 3 million. He is good, but he’s not 3 million good.
I’ll be shocked if Pope doesn’t overpay every player who decides to return and whatever scraps we get from the portal because most of our money is gonna end up going towards guys like Garrison and Lowe along with some team’s 6th man and whatever mid-major’s 2nd or 3rd options.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,707
80,488
113
Tyran Stokes has a chance to change the program like Mashburn/John Wall.

I think he knows this and will be a Cat. If he goes to Kansas he’s just another player. They have players like Peterson. They won’t be drooling over Stokes like us Tucky fans. Yea we had plenty of talent for 15 years. Most of us are dying to see what Pope can do with it.
I don’t think he gives a hoot what the fans want honestly.
 
Jan 30, 2004
105,514
12,522
78
I won’t go back into details on this post as my post about this is still on the first page. We have a legit shot and we are offering substantially more than Kansas. It’s really up to Stokes at this point but I don’t see him taking a 2.5 million pay cut to play at Kansas. Time will tell but I still believe amazingly that he ends up here next year.
I dont know if any player is worth $2.5 mil more than another blueblood can offer, I would hope that doesn't hamper the rest of the roster if we get him.
 

BLOBUK11

Freshman
Nov 26, 2025
52
51
18
Is this kid going to be the best player in America next year? I don't know but if he is pay the man his money.
 

TheAssignment9

All-Conference
Apr 8, 2024
536
1,241
93
Wrong again. Before this season schools could just pay whatever they deemed necessary for players. There was no 22 million dollar cap that the rev share now has in effect, that’s shared between all sports. If they had the money, no matter how they got it, it could be spent on players. Now the school has a hard cap of 22 million they can put towards players. The rest must came from some type of endorsement deal. Yes they can still guarantee you’ll get a certain amount but the only actual money they have is the 22 million. The rest would either need to be already in place deals, or would need to be worked out. You can say it’s still the same when they can no longer write the checks and it’s other business that have to be willing to pay for it.

Dude you are totally lost, that is how it works now.

The school is not writing checks to anyone currently, they are NIL deals, they are coming from endorsements and agreements in terms of Name, Image and Likeness.

Schools currently do NOT pay players at all, they are 100% via NIL deals that are through endorsements, that is it. We had $22 million in NIL this year, which does NOT come from the school, it does NOT come from the school's budget, the school's AOP (Annual Operating Plan), NOTHING.

You are just completely incorrect here.

Screenshot 2026-02-25 at 5.33.43 PM.png
 

Loucatfan30

Senior
Apr 11, 2024
796
906
87
people are going to say Stokes isnt worth 6 million and you know what, no GD player is coming here for next year without being massively over paid because Pope is on the Hot Seat and with a bad reputation now.

But I want Pope out of here so dont pay any good players what they are asking so we can go head and throw away next season like all of you want us to do and move the hell on from this failed experiment.
Amen
 

LadyCaytIL

Heisman
Oct 28, 2012
32,630
33,916
113
Pope has to get the recruiting straightened out or he won’t be here long.
hows that going to happen when no good players for next year means another horrible season and that makes it that much more impossible to get good players to get on board? The downward spiral that can not be stopped is already here. The question is how much like Indiana and UCLA will we become before the AD makes a change
 
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The Nightman2

All-Conference
Nov 30, 2019
993
1,124
93
Wrong again. Before this season schools could just pay whatever they deemed necessary for players. There was no 22 million dollar cap that the rev share now has in effect, that’s shared between all sports. If they had the money, no matter how they got it, it could be spent on players. Now the school has a hard cap of 22 million they can put towards players. The rest must came from some type of endorsement deal. Yes they can still guarantee you’ll get a certain amount but the only actual money they have is the 22 million. The rest would either need to be already in place deals, or would need to be worked out. You can say it’s still the same when they can no longer write the checks and it’s other business that have to be willing to pay for it.
The only difference now is that rev share was started the 25/26 academic year, and any deals outside of that have to pass through NILGo. Collectives are still alive and well, and UK can pay as much money as they want to pay.
 

JwUKFan11

Heisman
Nov 11, 2011
7,301
14,748
113
Dude you are totally lost, that is how it works now.

The school is not writing checks to anyone currently, they are NIL deals, they are coming from endorsements and agreements in terms of Name, Image and Likeness.

Schools currently do NOT pay players at all, they are 100% via NIL deals that are through endorsements, that is it. We had $22 million in NIL this year, which does NOT come from the school, it does NOT come from the school's budget, the school's AOP (Annual Operating Plan), NOTHING.

You are just completely incorrect here.

View attachment 1199221
It’s amazing how wrong you are. You can’t even use the internet to find the answers. We had 22 million for the team this year because the players were signed before the Rev share ruling was made. Won’t be the case this upcoming season.
 

BBNinSCar

All-Conference
Apr 23, 2013
1,365
2,157
81
Maybe he prefers Kansas so he can load management himself to the NBA.
If that is the case, let him go there.
I’m not so sure I’d want to make a known petulant teenager a millionaire. Kansas has taken a beating with Peterson and his BS this season.
IMO, you don’t pay that much for a Freshman with questionable ethics, an entourage of handlers and an inflated sense of entitlement.
Pope made a couple of mistakes in the portal that can be learned from and corrected. Lowe and Dioubate are not Kentucky- caliber players and the coaching staff whiffed on those 2. It was a mistake to sign JQ and not find a way to develop Garrison to his potential. Without these missteps, our season would have gone a lot differently.
 

HeelVol

Sophomore
Oct 2, 2012
171
176
43
What if this season, the Final Four consists of at least 3 teams like Iowa State or Virginia or Nebraska or Vanderbilt to join Duke/Mich/AZ (teams with $10+ million NIL budgets)? That would put downward pressure on the "wage" for these top line players like Peterson and Dybantsa and presumably Stokes. Paying $4+ million for a future top 2 pick and not even getting to the Final Four could be deemed unwisely spent.

Duke had Boozer in the bag but next year, they signed 3 top 20 recruits but couldn't get the 4th in Jordan Smith (a consensus OAD top 3 pick). So that's a clue that even Duke with their dark money has a limit of what they think they should have to spend to field a FF contender.

But if Duke, UK, AR and other big spenders populate the Final Four year after year, the sport will have to incorporate the typical professional league approaches (salary caps, multi-year player contracts including buyouts) to ensure the viability of all in the sport.
 

JASUN74

All-Conference
May 22, 2008
3,135
4,476
73
i just saw the update, apparently he prefers kansas, but they are having a hard time getting a deal done

sounds like the collins situation
If he’d rather go there and prefers them I say let him go. He knows how much Kentucky wants him and willing to pay. I’d rather use the money on Veterans who are willing to be a team instead of one guy going through NBA tryouts all year.
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,232
93
I don’t think he gives a hoot what the fans want honestly.
You could be 100% right. But most 17 year old humans want to be a rockstar for a year. He has that kind of influence. BBN has always been here. We are still the biggest. We just haven’t had the star power to go crazy over in a long time.

even back to Cals days. We had the player of the year in Oscar. We loved him. He was a star but still didn’t have that influence like a Mashburn/John Wall.

like the poster above said. He would be our emotional support recruit. The way we went crazy for Pope at the Pep Rally would be a season long Pep Rally if Stokes came here and brought more talent with him.

I agree with 95% of stuff you say. But on this one I do feel like a kid like Tyran absolutely does care about being THE MAN. And he will absolutely be the man at UK. He will be bigger than the coach. That ain’t happening at Kansas. He won’t be getting left hanging at UK. Not by the coach or the fanbase.
 

JASUN74

All-Conference
May 22, 2008
3,135
4,476
73
I mean I read on there between $4 million and $6 million- if we have $22 million to spend again, I think you meet in the middle at $5 million and get it done! Don't we all wish now we had just done that for Dybansta or Caleb Wilson?

That leaves you with $17 freaking million dollars to fill out the roster with.

Stokes- $5 million
Collin- $2 million
Malachi- $3 million (because of the threat of the NBA draft)
Kam- $2 million

Portal PG stud- $2.5 million
Portal SG/SF stud - $2.5 million
Jelavic or backup 4 man- $1.5 million
3 & D bench guy- $1 million
Backup PG- $1.5 million
Backup 5 man- $1 million

That's your $22 million right there, not to mention we are also offering rev sharing which gives us another like $8 million I think? Can't remember. Money isn't an object at Kentucky, just get it done.
His ship has sailed I believe. On to the next.
 
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Anon1759768907

All-Conference
Oct 6, 2025
2,282
3,691
113
If he’d rather go there and prefers them I say let him go. He knows how much Kentucky wants him and willing to pay. I’d rather use the money on Veterans who are willing to be a team instead of one guy going through NBA tryouts all year.
yeah we spent the money on veterans the last two years and have almost 30 losses idk why u wanna keep doing it
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,232
93
I’m not a social media guy… but why doesn’t UK twitter ppl flood his page with love? Like make us be felt. Ik that’s an easy thing to do for BBN. Maybe he goes somewhere else. But it won’t be because we didn’t try.