WTF is happening to our ******* program we are the laughing stock of college basketball. Mitch deserves to have his *** kicked so bad for this someone needs to run his *** out of town like right now!
Santos to LSU
- Thread starter TheResistance
- Start date
dude chill pope is gonna explain everything on twitter, we're good
Maybe the flight to Israel was just to scare Wade into upping the price and wasting money on this dude. Maybe Pope has been a Machiavellian recruiting mastermind all this time!
Nobody wanted this guy when pope flew to see him. he is Michael Jordan now . The insanity some of you need to get a life
No. He stinks.
But Pope couldn't even get a crappy player that he prioritized enough to fly to the Middle East to see? Instead he chose to go to a perennial conference cellar dweller
I don’t mind Pope going after him the way he did. He was probably trying to flip him. I appreciate the effort.
I agree. The fact that Pope can't land guys who are not that good still, is damning for him as a recruiter.
You’re making up a blatant strawman here. Absolutely nobody here is claiming that. Instead, everybody acknowledged that he’s a mediocre prospect.
In fact, that’s what makes the situation crazier. it would be a far more excusable miss if he was highly rated. For a blueblood coach to go to such extraordinary effort in pursuit of a guy who’s not even highly pursued …well, you’d logically think that one should be in the bag. But instead he loses him to a coach who made no such effort.
That's impossible. I've been told nearly a thousand times on this board that UK has never been, and will never be outbid on anyone...
Pope wanted him and spent time and resources, he whiffed again. Thats the point.
We complained that Pope overpaid for some players last year and some are mad he didn’t do the same this year. LSU has 2 players now and are desperate, does it make sense to match them over paying for a backup center?
Ooof.
But was Santos being recruited to LSU as a starter vs. to UK as a backup?
In any case, doesn’t look great.
But was Santos being recruited to LSU as a starter vs. to UK as a backup?
In any case, doesn’t look great.
If LSU promised him a starting role and paid him more, why would he come here to be a backup for less money? Sucks that Pope flew all the way to Israel to whiff on this guy, but if he got a better deal, good for him.
Pilgrim is full it. He ALWAYS does this. Why didn’t he say it before he committed to LSU. I literally can’t stand him and Roush. By far the least likeable people on KSR. Plus they are idiots and always, always wrong.
Terrible look for UK and Pope. Of course every player visited doesn’t need to be signed but you knew that and you also knew nobody has said that.
I personally don’t know if this man was a good fit or not. But Pope cannot be flying to Israel to just “watch” a guy. He has to know he wants him and can get him. It reeks of desperation given the current state of recruiting. It puts UK in a deeper hole perception wise.
Pope has become a laughing stock and consequently so is UK. Pope is like the dork that is doing the “cool kids” homework in hopes they will let him hang out.
In the words of the great philosopher Andre Agassi-“Image is everything” and Pope’s and UK’s image is severely tarnished.
Which is just another reason why Pope should have had a GM in place well before he did(if he really even has one now). All of his issues seem to be self inflicted.
You have a lot of inside info. Keep it coming Bondanon!!
There were so many posters here acting like this was a bad get and now it’s a travesty we won’t have him. Par for the day.
Agree on Pilgrim.
He’s a terrible journalist. He’s often wrong on predictions but is decent at Monday morning quarterbacking.
Dude is a fan boi with a press credential. Might as well credential some rando from this board. Same level of credibility.
Classic strawman argument by a member of Popes cult.
No one has said a thing about this guy actually being good, but everyone is shaking their heads at the fact that Pope used resources to go to the Middle East to see this scrub, and he still missed on him.
Pope should have been fired the second the clock hit zero after the Iowa St. game.
You love speculation. Come on and give it a try!!! I think you can come up with at least one possible explanation!! I did not even have to put forth any effort. Why do you think he did it?
Sucks that Pope is a fool and made himself look terrible but this guy makes BG look like Hakeem the Dream. Can’t guard his shadow.
I'm glad we didn't get him, had we did these same media outlets would be downplaying it or make fun of us for adding him. That being said, Pope looks like a clown yet again for wasting the time and money to go visit him.
.
He got the nickname Hack Pilgrim for a reason
Obviously Kenny Brooks knows how to recruit he just snagged a foreign player former #10 overall pick in 2025 WNBA draft. You have Stein killing it getting football guys wtf is wrong with our men’s basketball program.
It's really not about what we thought of Santos, it's that MP thought highly enough of him to fly across the world to try to get him. So MP must have thought pretty highly of him, and put on a full court press to sign him, and he said no to UK and MP. The fact that he might not be that good is really beside the point, in fact the worse he is, the worse this whole thing looks.
Yes, if a guy asks an unattractive girl to the prom, it can both be true that either way he looks bad, if she says yes, he's shows up at the prom with an ugly girl and gets ridiculed, if she says no, then he gets ridiculed that even an ugly girl doesn't want to go with him.
Could he even land some random dude hooping at Shillito Park in Lexington?
From the context of just this recruitment, I personally want a coach that travels wherever needed to try to flip a commit, even if it's a backup center. Pope probably thought the personal touch may be enough to get him to come to UK as a backup C, rather than a starter at lowly LSU.
Pope has much bigger problems. Missing on all the others as well, creating an embarrassing trend. Maybe being behind in the recruitment or unorganized from the beginning and not realizing you are being used by players' agents to drive up the cost, rather than real interest are issues.