SGA is now back to back NBA MVP

[Im The Village Idiot]

Yeah, I think we would have been better off with Cal right now. I do. But WE as a fanbase, as far as I’m aware, said anyone would be better than Cal. The program is so much bigger than him blah blah blah.

Yeah I’ll get killed for saying this but:

1.) Yes, the athletic department should have given Cal his practice facility when he asked for it. This is Kentucky.

2.) Yes, we are a basketball school — or at least we were until we got shamed into buying into these talking points about what we are supposed to prioritize.

3.) Yes, Calipari can coach. He’s over the hill now and can still coach. This was always an unfair characterization of the man.

4.) Yes, I still hope we return back to glory. And that I get to see it.

We shouldn’t have given up on Cal right before the greatest high school recruiting class of all time. We should have put more pressure on Cal to prioritize retention and development, while giving more financial support, not less. He was perfect for this job in many ways.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

AND WE CAN'T GET TOP PLAYERS?


You have the two-time MVP and you cannot recruit off of that?

‍


Fire THE HOPE

SGA doesn't care about Mark Pope. He's a Cal guy. That's why we should have let Cal finish out here. Jordan Smith Jr. is going to be electric.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Yeah, I think we would have been better off with Cal right now. I do. But WE as a fanbase, as far as I’m aware, said anyone would be better than Cal. The program is so much bigger than him blah blah blah.

Yeah I’ll get killed for saying this but:

1.) Yes, the athletic department should have given Cal his practice facility when he asked for it. This is Kentucky.

2.) Yes, we are a basketball school — or at least we were until we got shamed into buying into these talking points about what we are supposed to prioritize.

3.) Yes, Calipari can coach. He’s over the hill now and can still coach. This was always an unfair characterization of the man.

4.) Yes, I still hope we return back to glory. And that I get to see it.

We shouldn’t have given up on Cal right before the greatest high school recruiting class of all time. We should have put more pressure on Cal to prioritize retention and development, while giving more financial support, not less. He was perfect for this job in many ways.

This.

With the boosters backing Cal, we would have landed Thomas, Acuff, Johnson, Moreno, and Caleb Wilson to join returners like Knox, Wagner and Billy Richmond. Maybe even AJ. You bring back a motivated JQ for year two. Pope was the worst coaching option for JQ. You tell me this roster crumbles in the tourney, and I'm still liking it more than anything Pope has put out there.

G - Acuff - Wagner
G - Thomas - Johnson
F - Richmond - Knox
F - Wilson - Knox
C - JQ - Moreno

 

[Catzman]

Huge news for SGA, hope he can match a finals MVP and Back to Back Championship with it!!

BBNSZN914, normally I would agree with this, but looking into a Hard Rock bet I made (without remembering!) back in October of 2025, I have 2 bets that could pay off. I bet $10 that the Spurs would beat the Knicks for the NBA championship. $10 pays $2510. I bet $5 for Pistons to beat Spurs. $5 pays $5005. Thunder beat Pistons. $5 pays $190, Spurs beat pistons $10 pays $310. Naturally, I am pulling for the bigger payouts. Fingers crossed. I think the Spurs pretty much dominated the Thunder this year, but Thunder injuries played a big part. and no, I don't watch a lot of NBA games, so my knowledge is very low.

 

[Catzman]

Fouls are NOT called by SDA, they're called by the expert Refs. I recall MJ, Reg Miller, LeBron, etc. getting calls mainly in their favor, but once again the refs are calling what they believe they see.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Cal had arguably his best freshman guard of last decade as well as multiple highly rated upperclassmen from a previous sweet sixteen coming back. He played two teams ranked in the top 15 the last month of the season. He lost to those two teams by a combined 56 points. It was well past time for Cal to leave. Why we landed on Pope is a whole nother issue.

I think the two issues are actually connected. If you're Mitch, you absolutely do not piss off Calipari unless you know you've got a homerun replacement. If you don't, you publicly support Calipari and make sure he knows he's supported. Instead, Mitch's behavior and lack of public support helped alienate Cal from the boosters, fans, and power people.

Mitch knew he had no replacement. It was his responsibility to make sure we upgraded. Instead, we significantly downgraded.

With Cal, at least you're still part of the story. Acuff, Smith Jr., the incoming class, etc. He's going to continue to dominate recruiting now with the guard resurgence through Acuff's success as well as SGA's domination. With support, UK probably lands AJ as well. At the very least, UK would have landed Wilson.

 

[billCgmx_]

They've all followed Cal to Arkansas. I wouldn't be surprised if Arkansas is getting more NIL from UK players. Their connection is to the coach.

SGA's legacy and connection to UK are an interesting view - one and done, S16, so not a major run. No doubt, best UK player in the NBA of all time. It's not like a Castle, who won a title with UConn. I feel like anytime they feature him, UConn gets a free pump up because they cover Castle winning a national title.

Duke does seem to do the best job of marketing through their NBA alum with this whole "brotherhood" spin. As it comes to branding and marketing, no one really does it like Duke. If you look at their IG page, they have close to 2mm followers. The next best is around 600K and I think it's UK.

Right now, it feels like from a pure reputational standpoint, the two programs that are operating like "blue bloods" per Rothstein, are Duke and UConn. Duke is Duke, UConn has all the recent winning & Hurley, also has a stud like Castle out there who is super marketable, gets to play with Wemby. Right now as it comes to recruiting it feels like the 4 programs that call their shots:

Duke - Scheyer can clearly recruit and they have endless NIL it seems
UConn - very targeted, seems they have to be because NIL may not be as high as the others. Finds his kind of guys.
Arkansas - Cal could sell ice to an eskimo, and has NIL. Simply puts it all into OAD frosh.
Michigan - Dusty seems to be getting any big he wants.

Curious to see how Golden keeps it going once this crop of bigs take off. He kind of missed in the portal last year with Fland and Lee and lost out on that front court.

Sad to say but the UConn women's team has more followers on Instagram than the Kentucky men's basketball account.

And no one should be surprised that our OAD players have more loyalty to Cal over the university.

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

I can't like this post enough and I couldn't have said it any better. I have been tired of Barnhart for years. He does nothing to promote the program and as far as I can tell the only fund raising he has ever done, is to hit up the wealthy boosters. Not to mention, he tried to weezzle out of town with a million dollar no show consultant deal.

It is spelled weasel. How long will he have to be gone before we no longer have to read 50 people a day whining about him on here? Will it ever actually end?

 

[Ash Williams]

It is spelled weasel. How long will he have to be gone before we no longer have to read 50 people a day whining about him on here? Will it ever actually end?

God I hope not. Your whining about it is amusing.

 

[mhs1964]

Has or is SGA in anyway involved in UK in any capacity whatsoever? MJ basically was a walking UNC billboard, Jayson Tatum currently works FOR DUKE and wears their stuff in commercials, is our current best player in the NBA even tied to or have a relationship with any of the absolute buffoons at UK athletics? We have back to back MVP and we can’t even get kids from Santa Clara to visit? Is there any better sign of how catastrophically disorganized and incompetent this mess of a UK administration is then the fact we have dozens of NBA players that aren’t even remotely associated with our basketball team? How damn incompetent is this administration? You realize this is literally Barnharts job? What the hell has he been doing? The new AD coming in better be AMAZING as he needs to completely blow up this thing and start from scratch. What a fumbled mess. Imagine any other top program having 25 NBA players and no relationship with them.

Players today and for many years go to where a certain coach works, not the school. We lost many of those connections when we pushed Cal away. A few might later realize that they have a goodly number of supporters at the school but probably won’t realize it until their playing days are done.

 

[BookofMormon]

Sad to say but the UConn women's team has more followers on Instagram than the Kentucky men's basketball account.

And no one should be surprised that our OAD players have more loyalty to Cal over the university.

UConn women's basketball is a like a cult, and one of one. That is perhaps the most successful collegiate sports program across any sport all time. I wouldn't see that as sad.

No, I wouldn't be surprised. Connection is to coaches, that's the relationship.

 

[CameronCat22]

I think the two issues are actually connected. If you're Mitch, you absolutely do not piss off Calipari unless you know you've got a homerun replacement. If you don't, you publicly support Calipari and make sure he knows he's supported. Instead, Mitch's behavior and lack of public support helped alienate Cal from the boosters, fans, and power people.

Mitch knew he had no replacement. It was his responsibility to make sure we upgraded. Instead, we significantly downgraded.

With Cal, at least you're still part of the story. Acuff, Smith Jr., the incoming class, etc. He's going to continue to dominate recruiting now with the guard resurgence through Acuff's success as well as SGA's domination. With support, UK probably lands AJ as well. At the very least, UK would have landed Wilson.

Mitch had a public press with Cal announcing he was coming back.He left because of the visceral hatred from this fanbase.

 

[CameronCat22]

Sad to say but the UConn women's team has more followers on Instagram than the Kentucky men's basketball account.

And no one should be surprised that our OAD players have more loyalty to Cal over the university.

Imagine having more loyalty to a human being that you have a personal relationship with than an institution. That will always be the case but it doesn’t mean you can’t support both.

 

[L.O.D.]

Weird looking at Jokics numbers then seeing others winning mvp.

 

[CameronCat22]

Weird looking at Jokics numbers then seeing others winning mvp.

It’s because it’s NBA MVP and not fantasy basketball MVP. Jokic is the fantasy basketball MVP for sure but he’s a negative on defense, Shai an elite two way player and dominated the league with Chet Holmgren and an injured Jalen Williams being his next best players.

 

[TheApostleSaulSmith]

It’s because it’s NBA MVP and not fantasy basketball MVP. Jokic is the fantasy basketball MVP for sure but he’s a negative on defense, Shai an elite two way player and dominated the league with Chet Holmgren and an injured Jalen Williams being his next best players.

He'll never win DPOY but I wouldn't say he's a negative on defense. Are there any stats to back that up?

 

[UKBB4Ever]

He'll never win DPOY but I wouldn't say he's a negative on defense. Are there any stats to back that up?

His defensive stats say the opposite.

They show he’s a good defender.

He certainly holds his own on defense. And defensive rebounds are defense.

 

[Goingfor9]

Has or is SGA in anyway involved in UK in any capacity whatsoever? MJ basically was a walking UNC billboard, Jayson Tatum currently works FOR DUKE and wears their stuff in commercials, is our current best player in the NBA even tied to or have a relationship with any of the absolute buffoons at UK athletics? We have back to back MVP and we can’t even get kids from Santa Clara to visit? Is there any better sign of how catastrophically disorganized and incompetent this mess of a UK administration is then the fact we have dozens of NBA players that aren’t even remotely associated with our basketball team? How damn incompetent is this administration? You realize this is literally Barnharts job? What the hell has he been doing? The new AD coming in better be AMAZING as he needs to completely blow up this thing and start from scratch. What a fumbled mess. Imagine any other top program having 25 NBA players and no relationship with them.

I’ve been saying for two years that SGA is Mark Popes number one recruit. And there’s been no movement there. Stupidity at the highest level

 

[LineSkiCat14]

He'll never win DPOY but I wouldn't say he's a negative on defense. Are there any stats to back that up?

His defensive stats say the opposite.

They show he’s a good defender.

He certainly holds his own on defense. And defensive rebounds are defense.

They rely on Joker for the offense far too much for him to really be a huge factor on defense. He really can't do both at the highest level. And some might point to other two-way guards, but Joker is a big and he's basically their point guard. With his high usage, the big Serbian isn't gonna be able to anchor the paint on defense and alter shots every possession. If Denver really asked that of him, he wouldn't make it the whole season.

SGA has definitely closed the gap, but Joker is still the best player in the world for another year or two until he really starts to break down.

 

[Dr.LutherSan]

Should have kept Cal. He would have used this to Kentucky's benefit. Pope is clueless about utilizing his NBA connections.

He probably thinks the guys from the 90s still mean something to recruits.

 

[BBallin23]

Love SGA, but Wemby deserved it. Hes the best player in the league now.

 

[Im The Village Idiot]

Love SGA, but Wemby deserved it. Hes the best player in the league now.

Sure is beginning to feel like the only thing that could keep Wemby from ending up the GOAT is health. Not just special — 1 of 1

 

[billCgmx_]

Love SGA too but he needs to cool it with the flopping

 

[Dward13]

Thunder players were all asked to pick who would win the tournament this year. They all picked their schools for the most part except SGA and Cason who both picked Arkansas. That should tell you.

SGA said UK and Arkansas fwiw. Cason just said Arkansas.

 

[KOF98]

Love SGA too but he needs to cool it with the flopping

This has to be the most pathetic thing I've seen in sports.

 

[Hush4872]

Thunder players were all asked to pick who would win the tournament this year. They all picked their schools for the most part except SGA and Cason who both picked Arkansas. That should tell you.

Really wish Cal would've just retired and taken the ambassador role if for no other reason than to maintain the relationships with former players.

 

[sefus12]

Fouls are NOT called by SDA, they're called by the expert Refs. I recall MJ, Reg Miller, LeBron, etc. getting calls mainly in their favor, but once again the refs are calling what they believe they see.

Like it or not, flopping is part of the game. And let's not act like star players of the past didn't shoot a lot of FTs. MJ alone has six seasons where he took more FTs than SGA ever has in a season, including a three-year stretch where he took 972, 860, and 793 FTs. SGA's highest season total is 739 FTs.

Kinda shows you how much power social media has by convincing so many that SGA is some sort of anomaly when it comes to shooting FTs.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Really wish Cal would've just retired and taken the ambassador role if for no other reason than to maintain the relationships with former players.

That would have been great. So would the option where he would stay on to coach for 4 to 5 more years.

That's how horrible Mark Pope has been at recruiting, to make me long for the days of Calipari.

 

[Smeegs]

Like it or not, flopping is part of the game. And let's not act like star players of the past didn't shoot a lot of FTs.

Maybe so, but SGA is not a normal flopper, instead he’s picked up a reputation as arguably THE most prolific flopper in the entire sport. I understand why he does it, since he’s masterful at drawing calls in his favor. But it gets so tiresome to watch, often seems like all you have to do is barely graze him and he’ll go sprawling to the floor as if hit by a truck.

As a UK fan, I wish he’d tone it down. That routine makes it harder to cheer for our greatest ever NBAer.

 

[Dward13]

That would have been great. So would the option where he would stay on to coach for 4 to 5 more years.

That's how horrible Mark Pope has been at recruiting, to make me long for the days of Calipari.

Some times you gotta take a step back before you can take a step forward. We were going nowhere under Cal. Hanging onto him another 5 years would have just been 5 years longer before the basketball program could get back among the truly elite.

Cal is a better coach than mark pope, but that’s not saying much. And he’s not the same level or as motivated as Scheyer, Golden, Lloyd, Hurley, McCollum, Sampson, and a few others.

 

[billCgmx_]

Like it or not, flopping is part of the game. And let's not act like star players of the past didn't shoot a lot of FTs. MJ alone has six seasons where he took more FTs than SGA ever has in a season, including a three-year stretch where he took 972, 860, and 793 FTs. SGA's highest season total is 739 FTs.

Kinda shows you how much power social media has by convincing so many that SGA is some sort of anomaly when it comes to shooting FTs.

SGA currently has a career FT rate of .420 while Jordan's FT rate for his career was .358

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