But how? He can’t recruit…those guys must have stunk.
Yeah they definitely identified guys who were elite at something. I think Lamont was an elite defender and leader. Plus his offensive game was better than advertised.
He really is struggling recruiting. That doesn’t change that fact. He found some good diamonds in the rough though.
I don’t think he’s struggling that bad. He’s just a B+ level recruiter and he’s following the greatest recruiter of all-time. One of the top rated classes last year portal+high school and fans blame recruiting because Pope isn’t Cal.
those guys werent ranked high, hes an awful recruiter
freshman recruiting is still VASTLY important
We have had the 5th ranked transfer portal class both years under Pope so far.
highest payroll, and the hs recruiting has been bad
You are doing what the other anon JMI guy accused everyone of doing....you are taking a quote from a guy X with "unnamed sources" and no proof. That guy, nor any one else outside of UK know how much was spent on the basketball nil . Everyone just took it for true and ran with it because it was UK. I would almost guarantee there were several other schools that out spent spent UK and the 22 mil number isn't accurate. No one knows what any school payed for their teams. Why? Because those numbers are not reported or posted anywhere. All you have is someone speculating with no real knowledge. It is so tiring to keep see all of you post that number to trash popes recruiting and you have not one shred of proof that the 22 mil number is accurate. None.
bro we aren't even ranked and have gotten beat by 20-30 pts multiple times and have been down double digits in what seems like every game. this isn't 1993 anymore. you don't need 5 years to be good. having a bad hire doesn't do anything to you. with NIL all you need is 1 year. stop pearl clutching.
I agree. These are very good players. We do not have a player problem. We will have a player problem next year because of how these guys have been coached. Or not coached, I should say.
Me too, one of my favorite recent players for sure.
Nobody is Cal but seeing him whiff on so many stars plus having two actual stars lined up to commit and then run into all these issues sucks. I do think JMO is screwing him but I also think if he was that good it would be worked around.
How many titles came from those multiple 5 star classes?
You remember Tubby landing 5 star guys, class after class?! I sure don’t remember that. At all. Tubby was a terrible recruiter!
B+ recruiter, who had to take his 3rd options in the portal. And how’s the 2026 class looking? Loaded with signees so far…
B+ level recruiter — still had one of the top classes portal + high school last year. Throwing the laugh emoji may make you feel better but I’d bet anyone unassociated with Kentucky basketball would be far more likely to agree with my assessment than y’all who die on the hill that he’s the worst recruiter in major conference basketball. I don’t believe in grading on a curve but I also don’t believe in cherry picking to “win” these pointless online arguments either. You have to convince yourself that every coach gets their first targets — they don’t. Pope has bigger fish to fry than recruiting but if you want to say he’s F recruiter that’s ok — do you. You’ll get all the likes and amens, but anyone objective or fair is going to think you have no credibility.
This is largely because 20 years ago recruits still cared about the program and its tradition. That is all completely meaningless in 2026. They just don't care about tradition or titles won before they were born. There's a reason our only two highly ranked recruits are Kentucky kids. Because for recruits from anywhere else the word Kentucky means nothing more than the word Alabama.
And thats where his focus needed to be, starting late and with zero players. He had a lot of success last year doing that making the S16 from scratch, and, without a few key injuries, he probably thought he could have made the FF. So he focused on the portal and had another top 5 class. He is a finalist for two of the top 5 HS players in the country. It has been reported we led on both players before they got a load of our JMI terms. Some people discount it, but can't disprove it. I don't think the man can't recruit, I think he is a very good recruiter. I just don't think he is Cal, who is the best recruiter of all time.
It’s terrible. We are running out of time and won’t be able to field a team . Farrr Pope!
The fact you used "we lost over 10 games" as a mock, is pretty telling.
I think it really depends…
