Same. It was a colossal waste of time and resources
The Dust Has Settled: Stokes or Momcilovic?
- Thread starter JimboBBN
- Start date
The weird thing is that Pope’s seemingly obsession with Stokes may have been the key to leaving the door and room open for Milan. My impression is that some players did not want to play with Stokes, but that may be wrong. I always wondered why Bidunga and others ran from Kansas right out of the gate. Maybe it was something else. And, if Pope did not perseverate on Stokes, he may have filled positions earlier and left no room for the best shooter in college basketball. It did work out.
I think Wilkins is going to suprise folks. My daughter went to Furman so I was more in tune with them than a lot of people. That kid is a shot maker and he's really creative in getting his shots off.
It should be fun watching our offense this year. We have the potential to be a nightmare offensively for our opponents. Have to admit I didn't see the pieces fitting at first but it's come together nicely.
Probably true lol. And Perry over Steph Curry
I would have been happy with either one, but I feel like we got the much better COLLEGE plsyer.
At 6'8", he shoots damn near 50% from 3 and I never heard anything about Milan being a team cancer.
Stokes is electric, but so is his drama. Guy comes with a lot of red flags. He'll personally have some great performances this year, but will he make the team better? I don't think so. I think he's all about himself.
It’s hard to be great and a team player at the same time. Even harder when it's a freshman trying to do it.
Rob Wright is a great player, but what did his teams ever accomplish at Baylor and/or BYU? I'm okay not landing him too. That guy was surrounded by elite talent and won nothing. Stokes/KU wont win sh*t. We got the better player.
At 6'8", he shoots damn near 50% from 3 and I never heard anything about Milan being a team cancer.
Stokes is electric, but so is his drama. Guy comes with a lot of red flags. He'll personally have some great performances this year, but will he make the team better? I don't think so. I think he's all about himself.
It’s hard to be great and a team player at the same time. Even harder when it's a freshman trying to do it.
Rob Wright is a great player, but what did his teams ever accomplish at Baylor and/or BYU? I'm okay not landing him too. That guy was surrounded by elite talent and won nothing. Stokes/KU wont win sh*t. We got the better player.
When they are on, they will be able to hang with anyone, including Florida.
Zoom vs Boogie
Wilkins vs Klavzar
Momcilovic vs Haugh
McBride vs Condon
Moreno vs Chinyelu
Morton
Kam
Hawthorne
N'Diaye
Kepnang
And thats against the most talented team in the country
Yeah, I love the backcourt, Zoom and Wilkins are going to be one of the more dynamic guard tandems we have had on a while. Very.underrated.
Momo isn’t that great of a defender and his rebounding is really bad. I’m excited like everyone else though. Having said that I like him better for leadership.
I think we ended with the better player for our team. One glaring item is that Stokes has shown that he is notoriously difficult to coach. Not only from his attitude during recruitment, but the drama at Notre Dame. Being able to handle that is not one of Pope's strengths. I could see him causing division here. MM on the other hand is there to play basketball and do it well.
I think we got the better player for our team and may have even dodged a bullet with Stokes that could have had a trickle down problem for our team.
I think we got the better player for our team and may have even dodged a bullet with Stokes that could have had a trickle down problem for our team.
Duke got the No. 1 PG in high school, 2 other 5 stars, multiple returning former 5 stars and the No. 3 player in the portal in Blackwell.
I think Zoom coming from a bad team and Wilkins coming from Furman has a lot of people dismissing them. I am REALLY high on Wilkins, and I like Zoom more than Lowe at least.
No if Mom went to KU and we got the number 1 recruit, they board would say we came out ahead. No doubt about it. You can look at every other poll on here and look at the percentages. There's nothing extreme about it. Fans tend to like who sign with their team. Happens at every school. If that's extreme, then every team's fans are extreme. But comparing Noah to the number 1 NBA pick is ridiculous.
You can think MM is a better fit for Pope and also that the Stokes recruitment was an embarrassing disaster. Both can be true.
Yes but that wasn't the point. The only point I was making is that either one we got, that's the one we would want.
I wouldn't and can prove it. Go back to my comments about Momcilovic vs Stokes BEFORE Stokes went to Kansas. Know what tou are talking about before you throw stones
How? The kid chose Kansas over Kentucky. Did Cal never lose a player to Kansas? Did Rick? Joe B?
I see your point but I really don't agree in this case. Before Stokes announced, there were a ton of posters saying "I wish Pope would focus more on guys like MM and stop d*cking around with this Stokes guy"
I think we got the right guy for our (Pope's) system. Mom is not great defensively but neither is any Pope team, we just need to put up points in bunches and hope we can get enough stops to win.
And in today's type of basketball I will always take the shooter over the banger.
And in today's type of basketball I will always take the shooter over the banger.
It's about perception. It all played out very publicly. It took a ton of Pope's time and energy. and we rolled out the red carpet for him on his visits and treated him like a king (and possibly paid him to visit). Only for him to reject us on national TV.
It made the program look bad. I don't know how this is up for debate. Just imagine this happening to Louisville and how we'd react to that
Yes. I was one of them.
System fit is more important than just physical talent. Momcilovic is a perfect fit for this teams system and personal. If Stokes were here, he would have big numbers, but I dont believe he makes everyone better like Momcilovic will. With Stokes, we would still be light on 3 point shooting and floor spacing, which is critical with mid range guys like Zoom and Wilkins and a post like Moreno. Now everyone has proper spacing
I never understood why we were going after Stokes like that. At best, we pay big bucks for a head case that may or may not pan out in Pope's system. Much happier with Momcilovic. Dude is a perfect fit and will open up driving lanes for everyone else. Might be a sieve on defense, though. Time will tell.
They never said as much but I think there was a bit of a plan to just keep on Stokes and if he says no, to just buy the best NBA draft dropout you could. I would venture the framework of the deal they come up with for Stokes was pretty similar to Milan maybe minus some Nike cash.
Stokes had red flags from the get go. His time at Notre Dame and the reports coming out of there seems to me that Pope actually dodged a potential bullet(point) of controversy had he not panned out.
With Momcilovic, you have an established experienced shooter that knows his role and can improve in all other aspects of his game here at Kentucky.
There isn't a shred of doubt that Momcilovic will deliver on his shooting. Stokes is a better overall player, but his lack of experience means he will make some freshman mistakes, and although his upside might be higher, the fit and role Momcilovic will fill here is a much better fit.
It changes the narrative that many have had for Kentucky as well as Pope. At the very least, it's a start. It's a make or break year for Pope, and we have the best shot with Momcilovic. Let Self and Kansas deal with a freshman prima donna.
That said, watch Stokes play like his hair is on fire and scores 30 on us, but if he does that, then watch his performances from there onwards... I think it'll be his best game of the season, and the rest will be more about how his chemistry not working out for KU and watch the drama unfold.
UK and Pope are far better off with Momcilovic than Stokes. It's crazy how Pope backed into this situation....
With Momcilovic, you have an established experienced shooter that knows his role and can improve in all other aspects of his game here at Kentucky.
There isn't a shred of doubt that Momcilovic will deliver on his shooting. Stokes is a better overall player, but his lack of experience means he will make some freshman mistakes, and although his upside might be higher, the fit and role Momcilovic will fill here is a much better fit.
It changes the narrative that many have had for Kentucky as well as Pope. At the very least, it's a start. It's a make or break year for Pope, and we have the best shot with Momcilovic. Let Self and Kansas deal with a freshman prima donna.
That said, watch Stokes play like his hair is on fire and scores 30 on us, but if he does that, then watch his performances from there onwards... I think it'll be his best game of the season, and the rest will be more about how his chemistry not working out for KU and watch the drama unfold.
UK and Pope are far better off with Momcilovic than Stokes. It's crazy how Pope backed into this situation....
They are going to have a good big in the middle and the best outside shooter in college ball sitting out on the wing spreading the floor. Those 2 guards are going to have a lot of space to operate in.
It’s going to come down to how well they defend. Theoretically they should be good defenders at their size.
I'm sure they did lose some recruits. I know Cal lost Andrew Wiggins to Kansas in 2014. I'm sure there were others.
They didn't get Stokes and Milan. Which was the criteria laid out above.
Pope got a very good transfer class. Getting Milan should hold weight. But we just move the goal posts. "Next time get Milan AND Stokes. That's what we do at Kentucky." But it's not actually what anyone does--or did.
Let me start by saying im not a negative person and I am estatic we got another good player but I don’t really feel Pope won a recruiting war. He was 1-20 on good players this off season and was battling the short bus west of Lexington for Momo. Arizona didn’t have money to even enter him. To me he is flashing cards in a beach like he’s some player but actually he benefited from
Having most of his NIL left because no
Other studs wanted to come here to play for him.
Having most of his NIL left because no
Other studs wanted to come here to play for him.
It’s going to come down to coaching and development. These guys are going to have to get better on defense. Pope has yet to show he can turn a kid from a bad or average defensive player into one that knows how to play defense at a championship level.
He’s also yet to show we can show any semblance of consistency on either end for longer than 2 or 3 game stretches. It’s been 2 seasons of this. We have 2 or 3 games of good to great offense and then have a total meltdown.
I just don’t think he is the offensive guru that he was made out to be when he was hired.
No you're being literal. Duke did not recruit Stokes, at all. And Duke had already crammed so many players on their roster that they didn't go after Milan BUTTT to prove my point even more, Allen Graves said he was going to Duke if he withdrew form the draft, so Duke was going to be EVEN MORE loaded.
We were sold video game offense.
Idk what the hell last season's offense was...pretty sh*tty video game imo
I would argue that Brea got a lot, lot better on defense under Pope's tutelage.