His rugged good looks and charm keep winning him recruiting battles smhCronins charisma probably the deciding factor
Apparently the 12 million is what Kusturica is paying Cronin to get the ucla privilegeHis rugged good looks and charm keep winning him recruiting battles smh
Who else is playing in that tournament???It is kind of Odd that Pope flew to Istanbul, which is were Kusturica is playing.
Comparison for a $6 million annual salary
Difference: 9.8 percentage points.
- California: Approximately 13.3% state tax (before credits and other adjustments).
- Kentucky: 3.5% state tax.
On $12 million over two years, that difference is roughly:
- California state tax: ≈ $1.6 million
- Kentucky state tax: ≈ $420,000
- Approximate savings by playing for a Kentucky team: ≈ $1.18 million in state income taxes alone (before accounting for jock taxes from away games and any tax credits).
Not sure this is correct but if so I could think of 1.2 million reasons not to chose UCLA
With the international talent pool opening up to NCAA basketball and the amount of money we can spend, is there not another guy who could have a bigger immediate impact? I know Kusturica is super talented, but he's extremely young. Seems we like we could use that money to find an older guy to fit our specific needs? Is that even an option at this point?
Yeah and he spent eight of those seasons at mid majors. And then one more was a transition from midmajor to major conference, so still had midmajor support.Pope will be 12 years in after next season and still not have a lottery pick.
Gotta have elite coaching or elite players, cant with without eitherYeah and he spent eight of those seasons at mid majors. And then one more was a transition from midmajor to major conference, so still had midmajor support.
He will definitely need first round talent — every championship team needs one.
Contrary to popular opinion though — doesn’t need to be a lottery pick. Multiple teams won titles without a top-14 pick.
Not exactly a lot of players to choose from in this last week, with Kusturica it just seems like another Freeman, Stokes, Wright type of situation where they used Ky to get a bigger offer. With that said you have to question any player that wants to play for Cronin.Im fine with the miss as $12mil is a lot, but still have to count this as another guy Pope couldn't reel in. If we lost because of California beaches and babes, I get that. But we really shouldnt be losing to Cronin and a UCLA team that seemingly most Californians dont seem to care much about. Kusturica, at least from purely basketball standpoint, is basically throwing his college era away by going to UCLA. Hardly much of a fanbase and they wont be any sort of contender.
Pope's off season started off pretty bleak, then we ramped it up nicely by getting Mom, Hampton and others. But kind of flamed out a bit this last week or so. Id give this off season a B- as of now.
PreachI'll lose zero sleep over this as a latecomer and 12 mllion could have lit a "team turmoil" fire instantly. We've got a very good team. Don't let agenda-hounds tell you otherwise.
It's why I love living in Texas. Adds up manIf it was just about saving taxes all the best players would choose to go play at a Florida. Texas or TN program.
I still feel like we don't really have a handle on how this money is being procured, allocated, etc.. or at least I don't. I'm not sure if we really had $12mil laying around to be handed out for this guy, or if we were going to have to pull it from somewhere. It seems unlikely we would have planned to spend say $20mil, and only used up say $13mil. I have a feeling to get this money for Kusturica, we were going to have to get some sort of "cash advance".I'm not mad at this miss. I am confused, like others, why we are still a player short if we have this kind of money to spend. We need another high level player to be contenders. Why are we sitting on this money still at the end of the cycle?
He has not committed anywhere per Travis Branham. Done Deal strikes againIs the news only coming from that one source?