I've seen someone post a tweet saying Pope wants to re-address the Yaxel situation. I can't find Pope saying it anywhere though. Anyone got a link?
SIAP- finally an answer to yaxel
- Thread starter mdluk1
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Maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with Pope per se. If he is trying to discredit an entity, what makes you think it is a Pope and not UK? In fact, unless I am mistaken, it was specifically directed at UK.
You're right to ask that. Why would Yaxel make that up? It makes Yaxel look like a mighty moron for turning down 3x what Michigan probably offered.
That said, I think Yaxel is lying
I keep searching and may try again tomorrow but so far I have found Pope's name in the article but no direct references to Pope in any of the actual quotes. The closest I could find was Yaxel saying, "they." That is an interesting choice of words, to say the least.
Yaxel Lendeborg tells AP Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose Michigan
Yaxel Lendeborg says Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose to play at Michigan for about one-third of the compensation.
apnews.com
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He talks so much total BS it’s nauseating. I swear the guy needs to wear a tin foil hat when he goes outdoors. Thanks for using two short sentences to clarify how out of touch with reality he is.
Was it maybe a multi-year deal? Thats the other weird thing with all this NIL stuff. We heard that while UK may have paid $22mil.. many reports stated it included several players with multi-year deals.
Do we have any earthly idea of what we paid for our roster? And legitimately, not from a radio host, not from cousin Roscoe.
Do we have any earthly idea of what we paid for our roster? And legitimately, not from a radio host, not from cousin Roscoe.
Show me a quote from Yaxel. Is that too much to ask for? BTW, if you can prove Yaxel said it, I will be more than happy to admit I am wrong. If you can't, please admit you are wrong. Simple. We can discuss this like adults, right?
I would like to discuss everything like adults but you defend Pope on everything and you can’t be so blind to think he has the ability to be successful here. He’s cancer and how people defend him is off the charts crazy. PLEASE open your eyes and take off the glasses. The man has us on the threshold of hell.
Show me the quote. That is all I ask. As I said, I can admit when I am wrong. It isn't all that complicated. I read the AP article and could not find where Yaxel singled out Mark Pope. If Yaxel never singled out Mark Pope then it is fairly clear that Pope wasn't his target. As I said, it appeared to me that his target was Kentucky.
Based on the results of said games, doesn't look like the focus helped much.
Edit -- you said the same thing
Nothing he has ever done inspires me to believe he’s a “strong leader”. That’s kind of Pope’s biggest weakness. He’s not very good at leading these guys. He’s an average to above average x’s and o’s (frankly the substitutes patterns kills my belief he’s “above average”) coach and a mediocre recruiter and motivator.
Their play is doing enough talking by itself, no need for something like this, really. As much as I hate Pope, it's pretty immature for Yaxel to bring up the topic in the first place. Then again, he's a (very rich) college kid, so immature isn't that surprising.
From what I've heard, we did spend around $22 million, but a lot of that was multi-year contracts.
Who GAF, Yaxel was obviously using that opportunity to shine a light on Pope’s utter incompetence as a recruiter, and Pope followed up by sounding like a jilted girl who got stood up the dance!
Dude! Nobody worth a GD wants to play for your sorry, pathetic excuse of an @$$! Offering $2 million more than Self for Stokes, who has a Nike NIl deal, and you STILL can’t land him!
Dude is a first class sociopath
Dude! Nobody worth a GD wants to play for your sorry, pathetic excuse of an @$$! Offering $2 million more than Self for Stokes, who has a Nike NIl deal, and you STILL can’t land him!
Dude is a first class sociopath
My reply wasn’t a rush to defend pope. I get it some people are so mad they think any single defense of the university is defending pope but what this guy says doesn’t just look bad on Pope it is an attempt o make the whole University look bad and for that I will absolutely defend.
The dude is lying about the money, why on earth would you feel he would be telling the truth about the (only talking about money). Maybe he feels scorned, maybe he threw 7 at pope and pope said good luck kid.
Look I know we are suppose to be upset at Pope for the job he’s done here but I’m not going all in and running with every single thing I hear. Especially from a kid playing for another school
not everybody has to feel your way
Why would Yaxel have brought it up at all when he did if he isn't at least a bit of a psychopath?
I was actually cheering for Florida to win it all until they beat us in the SEC tournament and then I decided I wanted to see them lose. Now I can cheer against Michigan and Yaxel and enjoy seeing them go down. As much as it pains me to say this, "Roll Tide!"
Said this in another thread… Yaxel’s statement wasn’t about a factual amount of money Pope actually offered, it was a passive aggressive attempt to put Pope’s abysmal recruiting in a body bag, and shine a light on the complete train wreck he is as a recruiter on the University of Kentucky level!
Trust me, Pope knows exactly what Yaxel was referring to
Trust me, Pope knows exactly what Yaxel was referring to
everyone is focusing on the money aspect of this? I find the player development thing the most damaging imo.
Pope is not stupid, but he’s not head coach material. Can’t approach handlers, players, boosters, he’s in over his head. Pope is a classic 3rd role assistant and he’s heading the greatest program in history. It’s a flub hire that is one of the worst hires I’ve ever seen in any sport. The guy can even get it right when he responds to media. He’s clueless as to how to run a major public program in a big2 sport.
You can be smart an have no idea what you’re doing in a role. This is it.
Yaxel’s point is being completely overlooked too. He’s trying to tell people the guy is an awful recruiter.
The problem is, he lied about the money, so why would he not lie about everything else. He has shown himself to be of low moral character. I don't believe anything yax said
No we don't, nor does anyone else.
What a loser Lendeborg must be. Just flat out lying. He’s an idiot for lying, and if he did turn down $7 million, he‘s an idiot for doing so. Either way, he’s an idiot.
It seems like the only team the media mention NIL money is Kentucky. I find this odd, because it came outlast week that there were other teams spending more money. Duke is also likely spending more money, but since they’re a private University, they don’t have to make the amount public.
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Sure. And those are valid criticisms.
I just think a lot of people have turned this into "Well he sucks at everything else, why wouldn't I believe the Yaxel story?"
And even though he hasn't met expectations, I'm going to defend one of our own when another school starts telling lies about him. I'm not defending his overall coaching job. He has plenty of issues that deserve criticism.
But, Mark Pope isn't a liar. I don't know Yaxel's motivation. But just because I don't understand Yaxel's motivation--I'm not inclined to believe Mark Pope is the dishonest one here.
I don’t think we offered him 7-9. But I won’t defend pope when he is making a mockery of our program, making excuses. Comparing his first 2 years to Cals last 4 years. Excuses of having a right handed pg. hanging banners for beating pitino and cal. Calipari got the last laugh. And I will eat crow and apologize to cal. We miss you and go hogs. Go win one!
I think at the end of the day,
A reporter was asking him about being recruited and asked about how money played into it. They probably brought up Kentucky because we're the Big name, Blue Blood school.
Yaxel didn't want to say "Yup, I like money, and Michigan was willing to give me the deal I wanted." He probably really did grow up poor, and likes that version of himself "That didn't have money growing up, overcame, and I don't need money now."
But think about what he wants us to believe. He went through the draft process to see where he would be drafted. He realized he wasn't going to be drafted as highly as he wanted. He came back to college. I think whether he ever admits it or not, that's a financial decision.
I believe we live in a world where a lot of these guys a smart enough to maximize today's dollars because you never know what tomorrow brings. And I don't believe we're offering the most money and getting told "Nah, I'd rather go get developed at another school for millions of dollars less."
#1. The NIL for him in June of 2025 was better than the NBA contract in June of 2025.
#2. He may NEVER make it big in the NBA. But he can get a big NIL check today.
So he chose to go back to college--almost certainly to make more money. But then he chose to give up money. Millions. He made a decision to come back to make more. But only a little more?
And his agent--a guy getting a percentage--he was not only OK going somewhere that didn't offer the most--he didn't get the other school to come way up for fear of losing the recruitment?
I just can't believe that version of events.
I believe the original KSR story was true. I think Pope confirmed it the other day in the press conference. Pope STILL believes "Kentucky" on the jersey sells itself. And he thought he wasn't going to have to get into bidding wars. Because "THIS IS KENTUCKY." He found out he was wrong. And he lost Yaxel, Dent, Caleb Wilson. Nate Ament was there for the taking. And so, I fully believe we found ourselves IN bidding wars for Aberdeen and Dioubate and we paid the premium that we SHOULD have paid on the others. And then we wasted NIL money on guys that couldn't play--that also should have gone to more premium players.
I'm praying Pope sees the error of his ways with this. We don't need Jasper getting dollars. We don't need a Center sitting on the bench with fake/mystery knee swelling getting 2+ million dollars. We need to go get a Donovan Dent and a Caleb Wilson and fill in the roster as best we can from there.
Don't ruin it for them........the haters have laid on the 22M like it was etched in stone..........don't ever let the chance to bash a coach you don't like for ANY reason.........even if it is false info.........it sounds just like a certain segment of our society politically......Google - Highest paid NIL NCAA Athletes.
only 6 of top 20 are Basketball players.
makes the $22 million Kentucky supposedly paid look sketchy
I don't get bothered by the negativity.....when it gets hateful or nasty is when I just put those people on ignore......
Good post. ANd that 2nd to last paragraph, let's hope to God that's the case.. because it would mean it was a mistake, and it's correctable. Pope/AD/GM/JMI.. all need to be aware that guys are not coming here cause it's Kentucky. So pay the best recruits what they owe, sell them also on our fans, facilities etc.. but pay them. If they turn us down, fine. But what we don't do is go over pay for guys like Lowe and Aberdeen. If it comes to that, lower the asking price, and if they balk, then look elsewhere.
The only dilemma is, we may need to offer more to get some of these top targets. We have to be willing to spend for our titles. Miami might offer more NIL opprotunity, a better campus, a better environment.. so we will need to be ready to sweeten the pot, and get creative on how to attract talent.
Maybe Kentucky administration needs to use it's new GM role to come up with our own "Brotherhood" that can give recruits for the major sports more reason to come here.
Anyone with a brain wouldn't go to the mat with anything that Goodman reports............and just because Pope hasn't said anything about it doesn't lend validity to Goodman's claim........maybe you are not old enough to have developed critical thinking.........maybe you are just a miserable person who likes to sling mud..........
100%.
SOMEONE is always willing to spend for ONE player. UCLA was willing to go all out to get Donovan Dent. Ok, we don't want to overpay.
UNC was willing to pay up big to get Caleb Wilson. OK, we don't want to overpay.
Michigan was willing to drop a bag for Yaxel. OK, we don't want to overpay.
UT was swilling to drop a bag for Ament. Ok, we don't want to overopay.
Indiana was willing create a job for Wilkerson's "mentor." Ok, we don't do that.
And now, UCLA only "overpaid" for one guy. But they won 1 guy.
UNC only "overpaid" for one guy. But they won 1 guy.
Michigan only "overpaid" for one guy. But they won 1 guy.
UT only...
And you just can't lose ALL of the elite guys and get stuck competing for lesser players in the portal. You've got to pick 2 of those guys and say "I'm not losing." Because whoever you're competing with--they're not competing for any of the other big names. They're all in. This is ALL they care about. And if you don't realize that, and compensate for it--they'll beat you for their ONE guy.
And in a sport that only puts 5 guys on the court at a time--you can't win by having a team full of "pretty good" players. You need or 1 2 stars.
Let me answer......NO! For the people on here who think with their arse........the actual amount of money spent on NIL by UK Basketball is considered proprietary information.....no way in hell they let their competitors know what they are willing to spend.....you'll find out the secret spices in Kentucky Fried Chicken much quicker.......
He was obviously exaggerating the number but the point is still true that we offered a bit more money and he turned Pope down to play for a proven coach that developed players and got to 2 final fours.
Why we didnt try to get May ? because our AD cant get good coaches to want to coach for his profits over winning dumb azz
Why we didnt try to get May ? because our AD cant get good coaches to want to coach for his profits over winning dumb azz
To me it is crazy how people on here look for reasons to disparage our coach.....UK losing on Sunday hasn't done one damn thing to change the trajectory of my life.....their season will start back up next October........I support Pope........until the administration says they are letting him go, I am behind him 100%......
This why "college" sports suck. All we talk about is money. We used to talk about the game. Now we talk about the money.
Keep putting everyone on ignore for posting negativity and eventually you're gonna have a board to yourself (with a few select trolls pretending to be UK fans)