If, God forbid, we lose Friday, would that bring on the longest ,nastiest off season in UK basketball history ?

Anon1759768907

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Probably depends on how we do in the portal and how quickly.
the portal is condensed this year and only opens for 2 weeks

so for those 14 days we will go from nothing to a full roster, so we will have the whole summer to sit on it
 

ComebackCats98

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Jul 2, 2025
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I think it depends. People are pretty much stuck to their sides. A loss to Santa Clara won’t take any Pope supporters away. A win won’t change people that are out on Pope.

As for your question about a nasty offseason I think it depends. Who returns? How does the portal go? Does Kentucky get Stokes somehow? All these things would be a huge factor in the offseason for most people and could swing the outlook one way or another.
 

CELTICAT

Heisman
May 21, 2002
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Probably. With that said, there are some things that would perhaps temporarily quell the discontent:

1. Stokes committing at the Nike Hoops Summit on April 11.
2. Signing Pate and having him cleared eligibility wise
3. Landing a few top notch, first choice portal transfers
4. Bringing back Moreno, Chandler, Williams, and then some combination of Jelavic, Lowe, and Mo

If we strike out on Stokes, lose some unexpected current core guys, and whiff on top flight transfers and end up with overpaid crumbs like last year, then it will be the all time most miserable off season by far.
 

philstat

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Jan 3, 2004
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Probably. With that said, there are some things that would perhaps temporarily quell the discontent:

1. Stokes committing at the Nike Hoops Summit on April 11.
2. Signing Pate and having him cleared eligibility wise
3. Landing a few top notch, first choice portal transfers
4. Bringing back Moreno, Chandler, Williams, and then some combination of Jelavic, Lowe, and Mo

If we strike out on Stokes, lose some unexpected current core guys, and whiff on top flight transfers and end up with overpaid crumbs like last year, then it will be the all time most miserable off season by far.
I’m going to lean towards your latter scenario.
 

WeWant9_rivals

Heisman
Dec 18, 2013
6,863
18,233
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Probably. With that said, there are some things that would perhaps temporarily quell the discontent:

1. Stokes committing at the Nike Hoops Summit on April 11.
2. Signing Pate and having him cleared eligibility wise
3. Landing a few top notch, first choice portal transfers
4. Bringing back Moreno, Chandler, Williams, and then some combination of Jelavic, Lowe, and Mo

If we strike out on Stokes, lose some unexpected current core guys, and whiff on top flight transfers and end up with overpaid crumbs like last year, then it will be the all time most miserable off season by far.
Pretty much this. A combo of 1,3, and 4 would build a little excitement in my head. 2 doesn’t really move the needle for me, but paired with the others could make some noise.
 

Drcatfan

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Well, we likely lose second round if not the first. Pope needs a Stokes commitment in a bad way to have something positive. If you have Stokes, a few returners, and likely Dink Pate, then you only need a couple good portal targets to have a good team.
 

Anon1759768907

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Well, we likely lose second round if not the first. Pope needs a Stokes commitment in a bad way to have something positive. If you have Stokes, a few returners, and likely Dink Pate, then you only need a couple good portal targets to have a good team.
people meed to realize it won't be stokes and pate


there a good chance it won't even be stokes or pate
 

TommyMansky

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Dec 5, 2025
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Online fans will be brutal either way because of the notion that this staff will only get three years. Will the next AD be announced before Mitch changes offices?
 

AllBall

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May 5, 2015
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If you truly can't land players with significantly higher bids then you are not the man for the job.

Imagine how things will go if offers get condensed by stricter guidelines. You think it's bad now?

Pope just isn't good at recruiting. He doesn't ingratiate himself to others and there's a disconnect with kids.
 

FitchandMurray29

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Great went somewhere else because Pope chose Brandon Garrison over him, IIRC. Been a few years.
Great didn’t actually have the season most expected at Washington.

It was widely reported he asked for a huge amount of NIL and they pivoted literally while Great was still in town.

Getting stuck with BG though was a brutal ending to that lol
 

Anon1679859502

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Jun 28, 2015
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After Calipari left I thought we were supposed to be over the average seasons with first round losses. Thanks to Barnhart for thinking it’s the 1960’s to make the coaching hire.
I’ve said this for awhile but kids choose schools for the coaches unless it’s a kid from the state who’s happy to maybe ride the pine
 
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FitchandMurray29

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It will be a brutal few weeks if they lose Friday. Then it all comes down to April and May. If Pope has a good recruiting/portal season people will begrudgingly be on board with jokes about how much we had to overpay to get the good players we end up with. If the players we get don’t look good on paper, folks will be completely against him until the season starts, where we’d have to play extremely well to change peoples minds.
 
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LadyCaytIL

Heisman
Oct 28, 2012
32,631
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Idk man I think the 9-16 season felt pretty disastrous. The off-season after losing to Saint Peters and Oakland felt awful too. It's almost like Pope needs to be super successful because Calipari was dogshhhh the last 5 seasons. The recency bias is crazy
We had players committed for the next year that gave people hope. Landing Oscar was huge. unless we land Stokes, there wont be that great hope in the off season like after 9-16.
 
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SenseMaker_Cats

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Great didn’t actually have the season most expected at Washington.

It was widely reported he asked for a huge amount of NIL and they pivoted literally while Great was still in town.

Getting stuck with BG though was a brutal ending to that lol
Osobor followed his coach to Washington like he had already done one other time.
 

CatBlueBlood

Sophomore
Feb 18, 2026
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Well, we likely lose second round if not the first. Pope needs a Stokes commitment in a bad way to have something positive. If you have Stokes, a few returners, and likely Dink Pate, then you only need a couple good portal targets to have a good team.
That would be super wonderful great, like having a Ferrari in the garage, just waiting to be unleashed on the basketball world. Keep in mind Pope's recent comments that teams are organic and artistic, so there's entertainment value, too.
 

MegaBlue05

Heisman
Mar 8, 2014
10,746
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Lol. No.

We were madder after the embarrassment of 9-16, the shock of St. Peter’s and the “not this ish again” after Oakland. This reminds me of the 2006 offseason headed into Tubby’s last year. Similar vibes - underachieved preseason ranking, noticeable talent gap between us and top of the league, recruiting well behind our peers. Not elite. Not terrible. Just solidly mediocre in the 25-40 range.

Personally, I’m not spending all spring and summer obsessing over a sport that starts in October. I’ll check in here occasionally to see how the portal and/or high school recruiting is going. Other than that, I check out and go on a mini hiatus until football season.
 

Macys Socks

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Losing to Robert Morris in the first round of the NIT was a far worse off season to me. If I had only known how bad things would get a few years later, I may have just jumped off a bridge and saved myself a lot of misery.
 

Runt#1969

All-American
Dec 13, 2010
21,134
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Lol. No.

We were madder after the embarrassment of 9-16, the shock of St. Peter’s and the “not this ish again” after Oakland. This reminds me of the 2006 offseason headed into Tubby’s last year. Similar vibes - underachieved preseason ranking, noticeable talent gap between us and top of the league, recruiting well behind our peers. Not elite. Not terrible. Just solidly mediocre in the 25-40 range.

Personally, I’m not spending all spring and summer obsessing over a sport that starts in October. I’ll check in here occasionally to see how the portal and/or high school recruiting is going. Other than that, I check out and go on a mini hiatus until football season.
this