Best KY. RECRUITING JOB this year? Brooks - Stein - Pope or other?

Tim0808

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Apr 4, 2013
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Is this serious? The Pope part...is he seriously an option compared to the football coach who is recruiting like he's at texas and the women's coach who has several studs and burger girls?

I'm glad we got Mom and turned out to not be EMBERRASING...but ...you know what nevermind..
It is comical how some think Pope has done something. I give him a C at best building this roster. It is his 3rd season there is no reason we had to start from scratch to build this roster. In year three, we should at worst be adding 3 to 4 pieces to our roster. Not a complete rebuild. I am glad we finally have an out of state caliber Kentucky player on the hook for next year. So, great job Coach Pope. Keep that up.
Now let's lose less than 10 games, make it to Saturday in the SEC tournament, and to the elite eight in the NCAA tournament. If not... NEXT!
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
46,413
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Hard for me to say . Considering the AD situation- all have done a great job of putting deep talented teams together. It’s going to be a fun year for BBN.
Tough call. I’d say Stein based on history and program place right now. Brooks is also crushing at an all time level though. Pope’s probably most important at this stage for us and him. Hope he can build on this.
 

BigBlueGuru

All-Conference
Feb 10, 2007
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I simply dont want to pick as all of them have been on decent roll. Now it is all about results. You can sign as many 5 stars as possible but if you cant develop them and compete with the best it doesnt matter. See Cal.
 
Jul 17, 2025
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Brooks
Stein
Pope

All putting forth at least a credible effort in but I think Brooks is coming closest to hitting the ceiling of what is possible and is on track to build a powerhouse but Stein sure isn't slacking but I believe when the on the field results come he will do even better than what we see now.

Players already don't want to miss the chance to be coached by Stein, when the wins come it could be exciting beyond what most have even dreamed since Bear Bryant was around.

Pope managed to land the plane in decent fashion despite the rough ride but I am hoping and beginning to believe he is setting up to be in far better shape going forward by landing 2 or 3 high school studs so the portal is less of an all out scramble to build a roster.

I'd like to see 5 from the portal being an unusually high number and.we can usually lock in on 3-4 high end vets to plug and play into freshmen and returnees.

Maybe even medium term be looking to get down to even just a couple if the rules are going to limit transfers because we will have less churn and there will be a fewer options if you only get one shot at it.

Be honing the tampering game, that may be the next frontier of this crazy recruiting game.
 
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UKSanders

Senior
Aug 27, 2007
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It is comical how some think Pope has done something. I give him a C at best building this roster. It is his 3rd season there is no reason we had to start from scratch to build this roster. In year three, we should at worst be adding 3 to 4 pieces to our roster. Not a complete rebuild. I am glad we finally have an out of state caliber Kentucky player on the hook for next year. So, great job Coach Pope. Keep that up.
Now let's lose less than 10 games, make it to Saturday in the SEC tournament, and to the elite eight in the NCAA tournament. If not... NEXT!

I agree with much of what you said except the part I bolded/underlined. In this new era of NIL/transfers every year, I feel like it's going to be rare to only add 3-4 players. I see this because even if you recruit some guys to develop (i.e. Hawthorne), it's hard to expect them to stay more than 1-2 years IF they are not getting the playing time they want.
 
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UKJenning

All-Conference
Mar 27, 2022
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It’s Stein easily.
No way it can be a normal thing to land the talent he currently is without ever coaching a game as a head coach.
Plus he’s doing it at a non football powerhouse.

Brook’s 2nd because he locked down key transfers and 3 McD’s AA’s.

Stokes played Pope like a high school crush. Then Pope whiffed on everyone else leaving him the biggest war chest to luck into landing Milan.
 

BigBluefoot

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
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What resource differences?
You don't think Kentucky puts a higher priority on men's basketball compared to football than other schools? We are slowly making more investments in football, but you know.very well mens basketball eats first. Bottom line, Pope is driving a "Ferrari" in Collegiate basketball while Stein has been running circles around him in a Hyundia so far.
 
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BlueVelvetFog

Heisman
Apr 12, 2016
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You don't think Kentucky puts a higher priority on men's basketball compared to football than other schools? We are slowly making more investments in football, but you know.very well mens basketball eats first. Bottom line, Pope is driving a "Ferrari" in Collegiate basketball while Stein has been running circles around him in a Hyundia so far.
We need the 75/15/5/5 rev share. As long as it doesn't hurt football, more power to the bball team.
 
Jul 6, 2025
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Hard for me to say . Considering the AD situation- all have done a great job of putting deep talented teams together. It’s going to be a fun year for BBN.

Stein. Not only does he not have the prestige to help, but I have no idea how any football program juggles the current portal and recruiting situation.

Brooks imo gets very little credit. He is getting more financial resources than most women's programs. So he should actually be producing a much better result than he has. Jmo but he will probably leave when Mitch leaves. I cant see the new ad allocating as much nil to hoops.
 
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