Dink Pate leaving Providence
- Thread starter UKgrad22
- Start date
What a idiot never ever should’ve gone to the g league in the first place, never was good enough and then he went to providence with their weird *** coach and was supposed to be the next best thing.
never go to g league if you have choice
never go to g league if you have choice
Between Pate being ineligible and Donnie Freeman being out for the entire upcoming season that's two Pope "whiffs" that we seemingly dodged a bullet on.
Pope said they had a hard salary cap for some players and had to let them go when the players demanded more. I suspect Freeman was one of those players. I am not sure Dink was ever a serious candidate due to his eligibility issues. I guess we call those “whiffs.”
Add that Israeli Center Marco Santos (that went to LSU) who left the team and went back to the Euro leagues. Not a "high level" whiff, but another player we looked at and invested in. The question then does become, did we kick the tires hard, want the kids, then realize it was unlikely they are eligible or too much headache to continue pursuing and dip out and stop recruiting them (doubtful no Freeman, couldn't see that injury coming)? Offer go over our line in the sand NIL valuation for them and we walk away? Or did we truly want them and miss? The only one I know the media over hyped and said we were recruiting super hard but actually weren't was Kusturica. Multiple people close to the program said Pope spoke to him twice and UK wanted a guaranteed two years because of his situation and his camp said no. And then they never spoke again. Though for like the next 6 weeks every media outlet out there made it look like we were in a heated recruiting battle for him, and even leading for him. I definitely miss the old days of honest recruiting insiders who reported facts instead of clickbait and made up information to try and seem relevant.
Is Pope the best recruiter in the world? Far from it. But the whiff king narrative that has taken hold around him is a false premise perpetrated by online fanbases who don't want to see us win.
Alabama and UConn wanted Alex Wilkins
Arizona and Gonzaga wanted Zoom Diallo
Any school in the country would've taken Milan
Big name schools were actively trying to get Malachi into the portal
Alabama and UConn wanted Alex Wilkins
Arizona and Gonzaga wanted Zoom Diallo
Any school in the country would've taken Milan
Big name schools were actively trying to get Malachi into the portal
Now do HS 5 stars during the current/ past 3 recruiting cycles
Pope's High School recruiting of the Elite of the Elite top 10 players is where he struggles mightily. A combination of not having a track record of getting guys in that range into the league, his track record of not handing the keys to a Freshmen point guard, and his track record of not running and offense built around1-2 featured studs hurts him mightily in those regards. That has to improve or he isn't long for this level of coaching. Conversely, he'd be "killing it" by Ole Miss, Georgia, Miss St standards in the same league, but that's not UK's standards.
His strength is in the portal obviously. He built a roster and a full staff mid portal season year 1 with an empty cupboard that only contained Travis Perry and riddled with injuries still made the Sweet 16. That isn't "The Standard", but that team was miles better than it had any business being in a rebuild year 1. Roster construction was extremely solid but obviously athleticism and skill were lower than required. Then year 2 he overcompensated trying to get athletes and bruisers and succeeded in that regard, but lost out on skill and shot making and defense doing so. We saw how that turned out.
We'll see how this year turns out. He's backed into a corner. The uncertainty of him getting a year 4 will only make recruiting 5 stars harder and getting commits for even skilled 4 stars harder. His buyout will be $13.5 Million after this year (assuming they don't make the sweet 16 and trigger an extra year on the end of his contract, then it'd be $17 Million and change). If he is just okay, there are definitely going to be arguments made on the financial side to give him year 4, especially if other decently big jobs open up (Self, Pitino, and/or Izzo retiring, Hurley, Scheyer, or Golden going to the NBA sidelines, or the Mike Malone experiment not working out at UNC even - though unlikely to happen). I still say Pope is in over his head. He's not a bad coach, but he's not suited for this level. He needs to show he belongs at the table up here and that he is willing to change his methods and improve.
His strength is in the portal obviously. He built a roster and a full staff mid portal season year 1 with an empty cupboard that only contained Travis Perry and riddled with injuries still made the Sweet 16. That isn't "The Standard", but that team was miles better than it had any business being in a rebuild year 1. Roster construction was extremely solid but obviously athleticism and skill were lower than required. Then year 2 he overcompensated trying to get athletes and bruisers and succeeded in that regard, but lost out on skill and shot making and defense doing so. We saw how that turned out.
We'll see how this year turns out. He's backed into a corner. The uncertainty of him getting a year 4 will only make recruiting 5 stars harder and getting commits for even skilled 4 stars harder. His buyout will be $13.5 Million after this year (assuming they don't make the sweet 16 and trigger an extra year on the end of his contract, then it'd be $17 Million and change). If he is just okay, there are definitely going to be arguments made on the financial side to give him year 4, especially if other decently big jobs open up (Self, Pitino, and/or Izzo retiring, Hurley, Scheyer, or Golden going to the NBA sidelines, or the Mike Malone experiment not working out at UNC even - though unlikely to happen). I still say Pope is in over his head. He's not a bad coach, but he's not suited for this level. He needs to show he belongs at the table up here and that he is willing to change his methods and improve.
Absolutely on Freeman . Pope declined to match St John’s offer . That was never a whiff . Don’t know about Dink but you’re probably right.
“Couldn’t see that injury coming “…….Freeman has missed almost as many games as he’s played because of injuries.
I should have been more specific and it's my fault for not explaining further. Injury prone yes, but was there every any sign he had Achilles issues before? I literally meant, that specific injury, a ruptured Achilles. Much like no way the Thunder saw a ruptured Achilles coming for Oweh or the Lakers saw one coming for Kobe, or the Celtics saw it coming for Tatum.
For making a comment stating that in hindsight, landing these two particular players could have come back to bite us? For lightly poking fun at the constant "Poop whiffed!" posts?
Seems pretty innocuous compared to the usual doom posting about the Basketball program on this board. I mean, we have a vocal contingent of posters here/fans on other social media sites who seem to have thrown in the towel and started bashing players before the first game of the season has even tipped. Not to mention the one dude on here who's made like a dozen "Pope sucks!" accounts in the last week.
Personally, I find people like that to be a smidge more insufferable.
Ryan Hampton, Malachi Moreno, Jasper Johnson. Far from Calipari but that's more 5* ranked HS commits in same time frame as Florida, Tennessee, Louisville, St. John's, Michigan, Gonzaga, UNC, and many more.Now do HS 5 stars during the current/ past 3 recruiting cycles
Recruiting can be a lot better than it's been, but I'd argue player evaluation and understanding of potential fit was a bigger issue for Pope as of late.
I just thought it was ridiculous for Pope to even consider bringing in a player with such a history of injuries after last year’s debacle.
Yet another guy we spent tons of time on that we didn’t get who couldn’t play anyway. Pope really needs to snag some guys earlier.
The fact Pope is desperate and going after guys like these says enough. If we could get elite recruits we wouldn’t have to take the chance on questionable players
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