BIG TIME STOKES NEWS !!!!

JASUN74

All-American
May 22, 2008
3,658
5,312
73
Issues with teammates, teachers, other students, faculty and coaching staff. I think it’s mostly an immaturity problem. From what I hear his ego is too big for his britches which isn’t always a bad thing but sometimes that creeps over and becomes something more chemistry wise. I’d still love to have him as a Cat. I’ve been hearing the rumblings almost 2 weeks now and that’s why I made the post I did about Stokes. If he does sign it will be a domino effect and we will sign more and hopefully feast in the portal.
Thanks but I only heard about the one incident at his previous school and never really saw anything to prove an ongoing issue with him or anything. Unless we’re around this situation it’s hard for me to give an opinion. I appreciate you getting back to me though. Everything besides that one deal show him as a great kid and as much as he’s on camera being filmed as the number one player in the country i think we’d see it. I hope we get him as well.
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
93
Who said anything about rumors? I’ve said before if I mention something about a recruit it’s because I have direct knowledge or have spoke to someone who does. I don’t get what I post off twitter or another message board. Hence why I mentioned that Kentucky was back in the mix with Stokes a week and a half before it’s becoming mainstream and being made known. You don’t need specifics on what happened to understand the kid has a clear cut attitude problem, I’m not going to go into detail just for your amusement.
It’s not for my amusement. You are on here trying to say the kid has bad character. None of this is about me. You have direct knowledge? Sure are giving some broad examples. He has bad character because you said so? Aw ok.

Guys the number one basketball player in the country. That’s all that needs to be known. Not some random poster trying to say he’s a thug with nothing to back it up Mr direct knowledge.

Our fans are dorkier than Dukes ever thought about. Hence the shift in power. Facts are facts opinions are opinions.
 

HalHR2500

All-Conference
Jan 28, 2002
2,838
4,297
113
Seemed like a done deal 3 weeks ago to Kansas,

Price hasn't been met yet obviously.

Who's playing who here?
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
93
Seemed like a done deal 3 weeks ago to Kansas,

Price hasn't been met yet obviously.

Who's playing who here?
I don’t believe anybody is playing. Probably the number one player in the country seeing who wants him more. Business.
 

JASUN74

All-American
May 22, 2008
3,658
5,312
73
Na we don’t want players with attitude. We don’t want more “call me” moments. We want players that get slung around like Noah and don’t do anything. We want more players that bend over. We don’t want the ones doing the punking.
Haven’t you seen the new UK way? Good thing Pope wants him and not a single soul on this board makes a damn difference.
lol. Come on man. Noah is doing his best but he’s going through a little slump right now. He works hard and is proud to be in the uniform. Got two more years hopefully with him and he can help us win some games. Saying that, you better believe I’d love to have two or three Cousins on each Kentucky team.
 

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
39,141
61,469
113
If there was ever a time to use this gif..

Pay Me GIF
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
93
lol. Come on man. Noah is doing his best but he’s going through a little slump right now. He works hard and is proud to be in the uniform. Got two more years hopefully with him and he can help us win some games. Saying that, you better believe I’d love to have two or three Cousins on each Kentucky team.
I’m not mad at Noah for being what he is. I’m not mad at anybody. Disappointed that that’s the talent level Pope rolls out.

id love to have senior Noah as a 10-11th man. Can love Noah all you want and be honest that he shouldn’t be at UK. But there’s some that say he belongs. Solely because he’s a Kentucky boy. If he was from North Dakota we would all be pissed.
 

Rainmaker

All-Conference
May 13, 2015
1,573
4,550
113
It’s not for my amusement. You are on here trying to say the kid has bad character. None of this is about me. You have direct knowledge? Sure are giving some broad examples. He has bad character because you said so? Aw ok.

Guys the number one basketball player in the country. That’s all that needs to be known. Not some random poster trying to say he’s a thug with nothing to back it up Mr direct knowledge.

Our fans are dorkier than Dukes ever thought about. Hence the shift in power. Facts are facts opinions are opinions.
Who said he was a thug? I simply said his character had been in question. By no means are those the same thing. I’ve made it known I’d gladly take him at Kentucky. Big egos have made some of the best players in history.
 

Cats192

Heisman
Apr 22, 2011
14,902
17,816
93
I have to add.

I don't think you can have it both ways as a fan. If you're mad at Pope for recruiting failures or lack of recruits--don't handcuff him by saying we shouldn't go after the #1 recruit because...reasons.

Pope needs this win and UK needs this win. Jack Pilgrim did an episode of sources say tonight talking about this. He made a great point. Pope hasn't had a 1st round draft pick. So for a guy like Stokes, there's probably going to be an extra "tax."

But if and when Stokes goes top 5 (or God willing, #1 overall), future recruits know you can do it.

Stokes gives you an absolute STAR to build around for next season. It proves Pope can land the big fish. It will help you land other high profile recruits/transfers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think when the people that give you money see you're landing the elite of the elite with that money--they're willing to be even more generous. Better return on investment, so to speak.

I think this is one where you can't lose it over money. If it takes 6 or 7 milliion, you've just gotta pull the trigger. Get with Nike and put together something Kansas truly can't compete with.
 

travisbickle

All-Conference
Jan 4, 2022
457
1,391
93
Would love to have him at UK next year. Pope can show whether he can handle 5* players or not. If he signs Stokes and it works out well could open up some much needed recruiting wins.

A lot of people don’t think Pope can reel in these top players. This is his chance to prove them wrong (or prove them right).

Signing Stokes and hiring a GM probably guarantees Pope a year 4 IMO but if he isn’t getting results by then most will have jumped ship. I’m not jumping ship on Pope yet.
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
93
Stokes is not coming to ky. When will the gullible part of our fanbase figure out that Pope cannot recruit and top talent will avoid him like the plague.
I agree pope can’t recruit. Even if he lands Stokes it will be the money. I agree he likely doesn’t come here. But we are allowed to have hope. Maybe he ends up here maybe he doesn’t. At the moment he’s uncommitted and is planning another visit to obviously talk negotiations. Let’s offer something he can’t refuse like the above poster said.

Ive stated this isn’t just Pope and Kentucky trying to land Stokes. Nike doesn’t want him going to Kansas either. They might be in his ear and helping Kentucky a whole lot with this one. They know he’s not going to Duke. Maybe they help us once.
 
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SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
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It’s a double edge sword though. If he gets Stokes and falters again next year he will have signed his fate.
If he signs top talent. Stokes plus some top portals and fails … yes he most definitely signed his fait. He already has. His last attempt is proving he can get talent and win. Get the talent and fail there will be nothing left to say.

unless he signs stokes then stokes has season ending injury lol. Of course it’s possible this is UK.
 

UKCowboys

All-American
Oct 14, 2019
4,126
7,360
113
I have to add.

I don't think you can have it both ways as a fan. If you're mad at Pope for recruiting failures or lack of recruits--don't handcuff him by saying we shouldn't go after the #1 recruit because...reasons.

Pope needs this win and UK needs this win. Jack Pilgrim did an episode of sources say tonight talking about this. He made a great point. Pope hasn't had a 1st round draft pick. So for a guy like Stokes, there's probably going to be an extra "tax."

But if and when Stokes goes top 5 (or God willing, #1 overall), future recruits know you can do it.

Stokes gives you an absolute STAR to build around for next season. It proves Pope can land the big fish. It will help you land other high profile recruits/transfers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think when the people that give you money see you're landing the elite of the elite with that money--they're willing to be even more generous. Better return on investment, so to speak.

I think this is one where you can't lose it over money. If it takes 6 or 7 milliion, you've just gotta pull the trigger. Get with Nike and put together something Kansas truly can't compete with.
Having it both way = Hypocrites
Its rampant around here. "Pope can't recruit"..."Don't sign the #1 prospect"...
 

Blue Jesus

Senior
Aug 24, 2013
497
733
93
Someone made the point in another thread that having his recruitment go into and past the transfer portal (like it seems it will) may cause problems getting guys that are worried he commits and they lose their starting spot. If we get him then it doesn’t matter, if we don't then we may have a big hole on the roster.
 

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
3,006
7,491
100
We will see. I don’t trust Pope being able to handle a personality like that. At all. If Bill Self can’t get Darryn Peterson to stay in a ballgame, im to expect Pope can handle Stokes!? Get out of here…any of you saying that will work are the real Pope pumpers. Not the ole Idiot, even I know better than this one.
I mean Calipari couldn’t manage Sharpe….Self struggled with Peterson….Mark with Stokes….

I get it. He needs to pull it off but I don’t know. Seems very high risk at the same time. Mark might not be built for players with a posse like that. JQ only has his dad and it might not have been managed well.

But you do it. If you’re Mark you have to.
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
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I think this is the most likely possibility.
Tyran doesn’t want to duck any smoke. Did someone say we are about to have the number 1 strength of schedule in America?

The narrative that UK isn’t number 1 has really gotten to all the fans. Including myself at times. It’s up to us to make sure we stay number one. I make fun of anybody that says “this is Kentucky” but In reality this actually is Kentucky. We have always been number one. Always will unless we allow the narrative to keep changing.

We went through our ten year drought. It’s about time the trend starts going back up. Like my credit score.
 

UKGrad24

All-American
Apr 2, 2024
3,006
7,491
100
What do you me worse than all of those? Peterson is literally the only one with any issues. The rest have been great. You’re stretching here. This has been a great freshman class with high character players.
Character? We don’t know the character of a single player in that class. Half of them could be absolutely awful in the character department and we wouldn’t know it lol.

It was a talented freshman class sure.
 
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JimboBBN

Heisman
Jan 26, 2016
15,022
29,884
113
I don’t care what anyone says. I’ll take him next year, no hesitation. He takes UK to another level if we get some key pieces back and portal studs. Not a single team would have a talent edge on UK.
 

SamePooter

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2026
946
1,233
93
If Stokes commits here there is a less than zero chance hes off the team before Christmas but what choice does Pope have? Zero recruits coming in and a very real chance next season is gonna be terrible and he may get canned.
After he commits I’m sure he will suplex students on campus and get suspended. That’s after allegations of stealing purses off of old ladies around Lexington.

I hope this cornroll haired thug actin self goes to Kansas.

That’s what I would say if I didn’t keep up with real life and went off of this forum. No way we want this kid. Way 2 many problems with him. No way he could take us to another level next next year.
 

Jtf2217

All-Conference
Apr 20, 2024
569
1,142
93
Listen I'm going to say this again. Kansas will not budge much more $ wise. This is nothing but a play to scare them into coming off a little more money they hope that Kansas will be all jealous girlfriend mode and offer the world.
If we are going to spend absurd money like this season (if the 22 million is true) fu*k it over pay it's not my money, but gotta do something to aquire talent.
 
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UKCowboys

All-American
Oct 14, 2019
4,126
7,360
113
Listen I'm going to say this again. Kansas will not budge much more $ wise. This is nothing but a play to scare them into coming off a little more money they hope that Kansas will be all jealous girlfriend mode and offer the world.
If we are going to spend absurd money like this season (if the 22 million is true) fu*k it over pay it's not my money, but gotta do something to aquire talent.
I have to think coming a year after Darryn Peterson and his load managed schedule, Kansas would be a little hesitant to get too crazy
 

TFCat11

Heisman
Mar 25, 2019
6,199
11,362
108
I’m not going to hold my breath on this one, because like others have said, this is probably a squeeze on KU/ Self to up the $$$ a little more, but if by divine intervention Pope were to secure this guy’s commitment, I only ask 2 things…

1. Take the injury card, load management card, and all the other excuses cards, and burn them!
2. Just play in all of the damn games!

That’s it!
 
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TFCat11

Heisman
Mar 25, 2019
6,199
11,362
108
Haven't you all heard? Pope can't recruit and next year we're going to have a roster full of walk ons from open tryouts among the student body
You know, this silly **** works both ways, right?

You are passive aggressively celebrating something that is very likely to blow back into your face!

Just enjoy the ride, and let the chips fall where they may.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
46,084
83,953
113
I honestly don't think that is the answer to winning championships! I would rather get top portal talent then go this route. I'm ok with 1, but you still gotta get a go to portal guy IMO. And neither one of those freshman will ever come and not be the featured pieces!
And I will assure you,these same fans that are clamouring for freshman will pitch a fit if any of them struggle.
Holt and him would be perfect for two freshman. Get the core guys back and two portal studs and we can start projecting a solid roster next year.
 
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JSquad0070

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2025
381
1,051
93
I’m tired of having soft players anyhow. Get someone in there that plays with fire and aggression. Also, we need other recruits to see that Pope can use top recruits correctly and get them drafted. If we have a budget of 22m Stokes is 100% worth 6m. He’s Popes guy to start building the recruiting tree. Although, if Pope doesn’t use him correctly or Stokes isn’t good in college, I’d say that hurts Pope with future recruiting. Although at this point, you have to take that risk because we aren’t getting anyone.
 
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Vek96

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
2,643
5,484
113
Starting to think Stokes would be a headache. He seems like a drama queen. If i‘m Kentucky, I tell him to just make a decision, so we can move on one way or the other.

I would not just over pay to get him. That‘s just a desperation move that will backfire on you.

If he signs with Kentucky, all we’ll hear about is how Kentucky had to over pay to land him.
 
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