Portal Studs

[caliman]

A guy i would look at is Alex Wilkins, freshman PG from Furman. Guy is 6’5 and averages 17 and 5. Able to get to the basket with ease.

 

[bigblueinsanity (the real)]

Popes original 5 out system definitely affords them to showcase their nba skills which consist of nothing but the ability to shoot the long ball. We have anything but a 5 out system this year however and really didn’t have last year either with Williams being our key big.

It focuses on passing and cutting. No isolation. The pg especially gets nothing to show.

 

[Yardeth]

PJ Haggerty
Jeremy Fears
Somto Cyril

I really like those three.

Dedan Thomas is another one, but I get ptsd just thinking about the fact he’s injured. I would like just one freaking year, where we don't have injury issues.

Haggerty averaging 23 a game and shooting decent numbers for a crappy team. We need his help

It’s amazing how once every 8-10 games or so BG shows up and looks like the Mickey D label he was tagged with only to revert back to like he’s never played the game before.

This is why you cut his NIL pay in quarters. He showed up 5-6 games all year. Wish we could deduct payments when they play like crap.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Just throwing out some names here of players who could be game changers if they enter.
PG/ Combo
1 Tyler Tanner- Currently mocking late first early second.
2 Ebuka Okorie- 2nd round '26 - 1st '27.
3 Acaden Lewis
4 Killyian Toure- Iowa St Fr.
5 PJ Haggerty - Probably goes to his forth school in four years.
6 Tahaad Pettiford - Does he run it back with Steven?
7 Dedan Thomas Jr. LSU's leading scorer before injury
8 Josh Hubbard- Does he look for a bigger payday or cement himself as a MSU legend?
9. Jeremy Fears - Great college PG who obviously hasn't impressed the NBA
10. Naithan George - Syracuse. Not as productive as other on the list but NBA likes his size at PG.
Just some names to throw out for discussion.
Not all are realistic.
Confident all including George would unseat Lowe as the starter.
All will command a major financial commitment if they enter.
Working on a list of wings and bigs

Haggerty no thanks. Fears while good, is Grayson Allen 2.0 the tripper:groin tapper.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Wing players.
1 Juke Harris - Wake Forest. Mocking early second.
2 Alijah Arenas - I think he waits until '27 to enter
3 Pryce Sandfort - Nebraska
4 Matt Able- NCSU
5 Davis Fogle- Zags
6 Myles Byrd- SDSU
7 Karter Knox - Does he seek a fresh start with the emergence of Richmond?
8 Patton Pinkins Ole Miss Fr.
9 John Mobley Jr - Ohio St.
10 Brett Decker Jr.- Liberty - Mid Major sniper who's from E' town.

Sandfort is exactly the type of player Pope needs.

 

[FatCatMan]

It’s really hard to get my hopes up with the portal considering how it turned out last time. I simply cannot convince myself that things will change somehow.

 

[megablue]

We won’t need any new recruits. We have our starters and depth pieces:

Lowe,
Chandler,
CW,
MO,
Moreno

Depth: Garrison, Jelly, Noah etc

We probably won’t get any new players for next year or it will just cause jealousy.

I think this team, as is, can possible be top 5 in the SEC if they continue to develop.

I assume you are being sarcastic. We need more than a few elite players to be an elite team.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

A guy i would look at is Alex Wilkins, freshman PG from Furman. Guy is 6’5 and averages 17 and 5. Able to get to the basket with ease.

Awful on defense and turns the ball over same rate as assists

 

[megablue]

A guy i would look at is Alex Wilkins, freshman PG from Furman. Guy is 6’5 and averages 17 and 5. Able to get to the basket with ease.

Can he go both ways off the bounce with ease ??

 

[RedwoodHigh]

Just throwing out some names here of players who could be game changers if they enter.
PG/ Combo
1 Tyler Tanner- Currently mocking late first early second.
2 Ebuka Okorie- 2nd round '26 - 1st '27.
3 Acaden Lewis
4 Killyian Toure- Iowa St Fr.
5 PJ Haggerty - Probably goes to his forth school in four years.
6 Tahaad Pettiford - Does he run it back with Steven?
7 Dedan Thomas Jr. LSU's leading scorer before injury
8 Josh Hubbard- Does he look for a bigger payday or cement himself as a MSU legend?
9. Jeremy Fears - Great college PG who obviously hasn't impressed the NBA
10. Naithan George - Syracuse. Not as productive as other on the list but NBA likes his size at PG.
Just some names to throw out for discussion.
Not all are realistic.
Confident all including George would unseat Lowe as the starter.
All will command a major financial commitment if they enter.
Working on a list of wings and bigs

Okorie from Stanford is the best fit for POPE’s system.
Haggerty is a scoring machine to replace OO.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Sandfort is exactly the type of player Pope needs.

He just left Iowa NEW COACH hire for Nebraska don’t see him leaving Hoiberg.

Sandfort is exactly the type of player Pope needs.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Can he go both ways off the bounce with ease ??

Terrible defender and high turnover rate

 

[megablue]

Terrible defender and high turnover rate

Alex Wilkins College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Alex Wilkins - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Alex Wilkins College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Alex Wilkins - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

Turnover rate 3.8 a game and grades out 112.7 overall defender

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Wing players.
1 Juke Harris - Wake Forest. Mocking early second.
2 Alijah Arenas - I think he waits until '27 to enter
3 Pryce Sandfort - Nebraska
4 Matt Able- NCSU
5 Davis Fogle- Zags
6 Myles Byrd- SDSU
7 Karter Knox - Does he seek a fresh start with the emergence of Richmond?
8 Patton Pinkins Ole Miss Fr.
9 John Mobley Jr - Ohio St.
10 Brett Decker Jr.- Liberty - Mid Major sniper who's from E' town.

Mobley is point guard

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Just throwing out some names here of players who could be game changers if they enter.
PG/ Combo
1 Tyler Tanner- Currently mocking late first early second.
2 Ebuka Okorie- 2nd round '26 - 1st '27.
3 Acaden Lewis
4 Killyian Toure- Iowa St Fr.
5 PJ Haggerty - Probably goes to his forth school in four years.
6 Tahaad Pettiford - Does he run it back with Steven?
7 Dedan Thomas Jr. LSU's leading scorer before injury
8 Josh Hubbard- Does he look for a bigger payday or cement himself as a MSU legend?
9. Jeremy Fears - Great college PG who obviously hasn't impressed the NBA
10. Naithan George - Syracuse. Not as productive as other on the list but NBA likes his size at PG.
Just some names to throw out for discussion.
Not all are realistic.
Confident all including George would unseat Lowe as the starter.
All will command a major financial commitment if they enter.
Working on a list of wings and bigs

Good list I posted this about a week ago


Scoring PG
JR - Josh Hubbard - Miss St
FR - Ebuka Ekorie - Stanford
JR - Tariq Francis - Rutgers
SO - Tyler Tanner - Vandy
SO - Terrence Hill Jr - VCU
SO - Labaron Philon - Bama
JR - Barrington Hargress - Colorado
JR - Aden Holloway - Bama
SO - John Mobley Jr - Ohio St

Pure PG
SO - Christian Anderson - Texas Tech
JR - Colby Garland - San Jose St
FR - Acaden Lewis - Villanova
SO - Joshua Dent - St Mary's
FR - Nigel James Jr - Marquette

 

[bnewt5]

Just throwing out some names here of players who could be game changers if they enter.
PG/ Combo
1 Tyler Tanner- Currently mocking late first early second.
2 Ebuka Okorie- 2nd round '26 - 1st '27.
3 Acaden Lewis
4 Killyian Toure- Iowa St Fr.
5 PJ Haggerty - Probably goes to his forth school in four years.
6 Tahaad Pettiford - Does he run it back with Steven?
7 Dedan Thomas Jr. LSU's leading scorer before injury
8 Josh Hubbard- Does he look for a bigger payday or cement himself as a MSU legend?
9. Jeremy Fears - Great college PG who obviously hasn't impressed the NBA
10. Naithan George - Syracuse. Not as productive as other on the list but NBA likes his size at PG.
Just some names to throw out for discussion.
Not all are realistic.
Confident all including George would unseat Lowe as the starter.
All will command a major financial commitment if they enter.
Working on a list of wings and bigs

Definitely like the kid from vandy and Hubbard plus okorie
Never did understand what happened with Thomas last portal. Went from supposed leader to him going to lsu

 

[bnewt5]

Centers.
1 Mam. Diop - AZ St.
2 Somto Cyril - Georgia
3 Magoon Gwath - Does Pope try again
4 Mike Nwoko- LSU
Not a lot of depth or star power in the post.
Would the Ivisic brothers entertain a transfer?
Didn't include Steinbach despite what Pilgrim said.
He is currently #15 on an updated ESPN mock.

Diop from AZ state is best of the list. Watched him several times, pretty impressive for a freshman. Also like steinbach, but he is not as athletic. Gwath didn't show much this year, could be due to injury. Not much of shot blocker or rebounder

 

[bnewt5]

I’m thinking that Pope won’t sign another combo guard or stud wing for fear of running off Hawthorne or Chandler…it will be a shame if that is the case, after all, it is his job that’s on the line

Better sign someone because those 2 aren't game changers

 

[bnewt5]

That could more about how bad he is at allocating money. I bet we offered him less than what we paid Garrison to come back.

Exactly why someone with business knowledge is needed
Pay the value earned not over pay for left overs

 

[RedwoodHigh]

We won’t need any new recruits. We have our starters and depth pieces:

Lowe,
Chandler,
CW,
MO,
Moreno

Depth: Garrison, Jelly, Noah etc

We probably won’t get any new players for next year or it will just cause jealousy.

I think this team, as is, can possible be top 5 in the SEC if they continue to develop.

you forgot Hawthorne & Potter
add 2 Studs to fill OO & Aberdeen spots
Jasper obviously transfers to another SEC school

 

[bnewt5]

Agree on Dent. JQ was a known risk as a 250 lb man 7 months from a torn ACL. But Yaxel and Wilkerson were huge misses. Yaxel is averaging 14.5 ppg on 50% FG, 7.1 rbs (more than anyone on our team), and 3.3 assists on the top team in the country. Even if we had him instead of JQ this is a completely different team. Add Wilkerson to the roster with Yaxel and it’s a FF team.

Not sure about final four but for sure a single loss team

 

[StuBlue270_uk]

I'd like to ger Acaden Lewis. I just look at how well he played for Nova this year and wonder how much he could have helped us.
I like Josh Hubbard but not sold he's the PG we need. He's a volume scorer, I'd rather have a pure PG with some size.

 

[bnewt5]

Oh, Lendeborg is killing it alright. Do everything forward/PF. Big Ten Player-of-the-Year. He leads Michigan in scoring but his stats are amazing across the board - and he's putting up those stats on a team with other good players. More often than not he's the guy making winning plays when it counts most.

You put just Lendeborg on this UK team and UK very well could be Top 10 good. If Pope lands both Lendeborg and Wilkerson - and the indications at the time were that UK finished 2nd for both - this current UK team would be an obvious title contender and maybe the best team in the Country.

Still don't think they could compete with AZ or duke

 

[The_Catfather]

I think Auburn people expect Pettiford to bail, whether it's for the draft or the portal. Draft stock slipped this year for whatever reasons (Pearl Sr. gone, surrounding cast? I really don't know). Rumored NIL package at Auburn this year was $2M so he'd be expensive. Small, but explosive and a microwave scorer in the Rob Dillingham mold.

 

[bnewt5]

Power forwards/ Stretch 4
1 Milan Momcilovic- Iowa St. - Probably the most " Pope" system 4 that could become available.
2 David Punch - TCU - Maybe the most "Yaxel" like player that may be available.
3 Allen Graves - Santa Clara - Freshman that's getting late first buzz. 6'9 with a decent stroke
4 Jalen Harelson - Notre Dame - Former McDonald's AA. Tweener at 6'7
5 Baye Ndongo - Ga Tech - 4/5 combo.
6 Sadiq White- Syracuse. - Probably too similar to Williams and Hawthorne to bring in.

Like the kid from Iowa state. They play hard and tough, something desperately missing from UK the past few years. The guy from tcu is a bit small, but a player

 

[bnewt5]

It’s amazing how once every 8-10 games or so BG shows up and looks like the Mickey D label he was tagged with only to revert back to like he’s never played the game before.

Pack his bags and buy him a train ticket

 

[bnewt5]

Popes original 5 out system definitely affords them to showcase their nba skills which consist of nothing but the ability to shoot the long ball. We have anything but a 5 out system this year however and really didn’t have last year either with Williams being our key big.

Then pope should recruit for his system. This group was nothing like that system.
Must have a point guard that can create and score when shot is there

 

[Cats_2010]

It focuses on passing and cutting. No isolation. The pg especially gets nothing to show.

We have had a ton of isolation ball this year. Isolation is not a sytem but rather a roll the ball out there and let them do their thing. We had that with cal the last 5 years here for the most part.

 

[bnewt5]

Sandfort is exactly the type of player Pope needs.

Why would he leave Nebraska to come to this clown show?

 

[bnewt5]

Good list I posted this about a week ago


Scoring PG
JR - Josh Hubbard - Miss St
FR - Ebuka Ekorie - Stanford
JR - Tariq Francis - Rutgers
SO - Tyler Tanner - Vandy
SO - Terrence Hill Jr - VCU
SO - Labaron Philon - Bama
JR - Barrington Hargress - Colorado
JR - Aden Holloway - Bama
SO - John Mobley Jr - Ohio St

Pure PG
SO - Christian Anderson - Texas Tech
JR - Colby Garland - San Jose St
FR - Acaden Lewis - Villanova
SO - Joshua Dent - St Mary's
FR - Nigel James Jr - Marquette

Anderson from Texas tech is very good

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

Anderson from Texas tech is very good

He is I honestly don’t see guys like him entering would think most like where they are at and the school would ante up before they enter. BUT different age now it’s all money now

 

[SkyPrince]

Mobley is point guard

He's a combo like Aberdeen.
Thornton is the primary OG for OSU.

 

[SkyPrince]

Good list I posted this about a week ago


Scoring PG
JR - Josh Hubbard - Miss St
FR - Ebuka Ekorie - Stanford
JR - Tariq Francis - Rutgers
SO - Tyler Tanner - Vandy
SO - Terrence Hill Jr - VCU
SO - Labaron Philon - Bama
JR - Barrington Hargress - Colorado
JR - Aden Holloway - Bama
SO - John Mobley Jr - Ohio St

Pure PG
SO - Christian Anderson - Texas Tech
JR - Colby Garland - San Jose St
FR - Acaden Lewis - Villanova
SO - Joshua Dent - St Mary's
FR - Nigel James Jr - Marquette

I left off Anderson and Phillion because both are concensus first rounders.

 

[bnewt5]

He is I honestly don’t see guys like him entering would think most like where they are at and the school would ante up before they enter. BUT different age now it’s all money now

If he did, would this staff be smart enough to go after him

 

[HipTer]

Still don't think they could compete with AZ or duke

I understand differing opinions, but it seems to me that “couldn’t compete” is way too strong. I think even without a true PG, the combination of Aberdeen, Oweh, Wilkerson and Lendeborg would be tough to match offensively. Maybe Wilkerson would have some defensive issues in certain situations, but otherwise I’d be ok with Moreno and Garrison at the 5 against Arz. or Duke.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

If he did, would this staff be smart enough to go after him

lol well one would hope so.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

I left off Anderson and Phillion because both are concensus first rounders.

Anderson is late first so I think he stays another year IMO

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

He's a combo like Aberdeen.
Thornton is the primary OG for OSU.

He only plays CG because of Thornton he will be the PG wherever he goes

 

[SkyPrince]

Anderson is late first so I think he stays another year IMO

He was #16 on ESPN updated mock.