Missing on Stokes was a blessing in disguise

NineIsOnTheWay said:

I wanted Stokes no doubt. But at the time I had no clue we would end up with two players like Mom and Mitchell. Maybe I'm way to high on Mitchell.

But also I'm looking at this from college ball only. Not if Stokes goes onto be a NBA all star for 15 years. I see people mentioning Terrence Jones similarities. He was the best college power forward we had Cals entire tenure. I get Randal and others had better pro careers.


I just feel the trade off for the college game this coming season benefits Kentucky more. But don't get me wrong I really really wanted Stokes. I've been sour about this up coming season until Pope pulled off this miracle. It's a miracle to me anyway because I thought we were dead in the tracks. Now I'm excited for the season again.

Build a statue lol

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Stokes is a special player and looks every bit like a future very good NBA player. But, for this season, MM and Mitchell should be more important for us.

BluWildcatz said:

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What are Amiri Jeans? Something I’m too poor to afford I guess? Also what’s a Skillibing? I need to start a “high end” fashion brand. I will source fake jeans from China, hype them up by influencing them on social media. Charge 10k for them for people with more money then sense.

Stokes’ biggest obstacle is maturity. If he figures it out he could be an NBA all star and if he doesn’t just have a decent pro career.

Either way he won’t be a finished product in March of 2027 so this worked out best for UK IMO.

Im The Village Idiot said:

Let’s see how good Stokes ends up being at Kansas.

If he shows generational talent, we may feel burned.

If he seems human and we are better than Kansas, we look back and laugh at how freaked out we were to “whiff” on him.

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Not just about how good Stokes is, it's a lot more than that. People see too much on the surface without anticipating under the hood challenges. Stokes is a diva who would have scared players from coming, potentially. Look at that roster Self has - UK's is much better. He could be a locker room menace - have heard feedback that his character could drop him as low as 10 in the draft.

Team building isn't always about names on a list. It's going to be about how do you get 5 kids that never played together a day in their life, with varying agendas, play as a team. Dusty broke the seal with it last year, to get that Michigan team to become the best team in the sport. That said, wicked talented roster. They had three lottery picks, guys like Hoiberg were saying closest thing he's seen to an NBA team at the college level. This UK team is not that.

As a UK fan, I'd still be very cautious about salivating around names on paper. Now Pope has to coach, get everyone on the same page and figure out roles. No team should be 5 scorers, never works and can cause conflict. He needs these guys getting really comfortable with a role in a team.

There will be a good group of teams this year trying to pull this off - Tennessee, Louisville are all portal newcomers. Texas has 4, so all playing together for first time. If to narrow in the F4 teams the last 3 years, Michigan has really been the only one to be heavy all new transfers Y1. Duke 25 had a team playing together for the first time, lot's of freshmen, and it came to bite them.

It'll be an interesting year to tests what works, as there are some teams at the top that have a lot of returners and continuity, maybe not as talented. Florida obviously, UConn will have 3 returners starting, MSU has 4 (always does).

Did not want stokes regardless who ended up on our roster. Glad pope ended up with a roster to prove whether or not he can live up to the billing. Still think he fails but would love to be proven wrong.

Really feel he wouldn't have been a good fit here and a headache for Pope. I think we would have been very disappointed and turned against both Pope and Stokes by season's end. I really like the team we have now.