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Stokes is next

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Jmmcgr35

Redshirt
Dec 6, 2021
11
5
3
The Stokes recruitment is odd. You would think he would be using Kansas to force Nike to up their $$ to keep him from going to an Adidas school.

They kid has been down to 3 schools for 6 months, and continues striging on those schools at a crucial time in recruiting. His top 2 are totally rebuilding, and if he wasn't only concerned with himself, he would commit now to help his future team know where they stand as they fill out their roster.
 
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Captain Coy

Captain Coy

All-Conference
Apr 16, 2024
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He's trying to delay his decision until UK has moved on and then he can go to Nike and say, well they don't have a spot for me, or they don't have the money for him anymore I guess I have to go to Kansas now. His recruitment is basically about him and Nike and nothing else. He's trying to save face with Nike. That's the whole situation in a nutshell.
 
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Bill_the_cat

Junior
Nov 17, 2025
284
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Tri-Countycat said:
This is what’s exactly happening with all these visits. These players are using UK and Pope to drive up the price on the offer of where they actually want to go. Pope is being played for the incompetence he has shown.
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What is the alternative? Pope needs to find the players he wants but has to get enough on campus to evaluate them.
 
B

bigblueinsanity (the real)

All-American
Jul 6, 2025
2,180
6,511
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Captain Coy said:
He's trying to delay his decision until UK has moved on and then he can go to Nike and say, well they don't have a spot for me, or they don't have the money for him anymore I guess I have to go to Kansas now. His recruitment is basically about him and Nike and nothing else. He's trying to save face with Nike. That's the whole situation in a nutshell.
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Just reading the tea leaves, its this. If he wanted to he at uk, he would say so. Plenty of opportunity and money to commit now.

He probably didn't think we'd be desperate enough to wait for his weeks later timeline that he put out with the reporter mouthpiece. He probably thought we'd move on and hed have a clear path to Kansas. He just didn't know how desperate Pope really is.
 
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H

Hughhefner

Redshirt
Feb 21, 2026
30
30
18
bigblueinsanity (the real) said:
Just reading the tea leaves, its this. If he wanted to he at uk, he would say so. Plenty of opportunity and money to commit now.

He probably didn't think we'd be desperate enough to wait for his weeks later timeline that he put out with the reporter mouthpiece. He probably thought we'd move on and hed have a clear path to Kansas. He just didn't know how desperate Pope really is.
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Or maybe he wants to be on a team that actually has players, neither team has players. He is going to be paid handsomely at either school. Why not go to school that actually can win some games too.
 
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Tri-Countycat

Tri-Countycat

All-Conference
Jul 1, 2025
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Bill_the_cat said:
What is the alternative? Pope needs to find the players he wants but has to get enough on campus to evaluate them.
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Well the alternative is to turn loose of some control, allow UK to hire a GM and let the GM (who hopefully can evaluate intention much better) and vet some of these visits to analyze the real intentions. Still not fool proof. It’s a tough business in college sports. I wouldn’t want to do it.
 
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AllBall

AllBall

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May 5, 2015
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No next will be Freeman, Rancik, and Alex Wilkins.

After that, I think staff will push to get Cruz Davis or Cox for guard depth to split mins across the backcourt. They'll also push to get Desean Goode or someone similar of that mold.

Then...all the chips will be pushed in to convince Stokes he's the final missing piece.
 
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U

UKBB4Ever

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Jul 3, 2025
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Bkocats said:
Please don’t misunderstand this question as I’m in agreement that Pope is done and should step down
My question is how much of a factor is JMI in all of this? I’m pretty much clueless about it to be brutally honest.
Any explanation would help
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JMI has never been a problem. Matt jones makes JMI a problem because they smacked him down.

Pope doesn’t have a JMI problem. JMI has a Pope problem.
 
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UKCowboys

All-American
Oct 14, 2019
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Pivot and sign two more guys for the money you are offering Stokes. Sign three. We already have a great shot at Freeman and Wilkins. Go find a big time shooter and an explosive wing to add to that mix and you'll have a better team for it
 
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Catphright23

Senior
Dec 6, 2023
434
861
93
Y'all talking **** about small school players where did walter Clayton come from or Dalton Knecht? Plus look at hurleys first championship squad. Y'all people are quite full of basketball knowledge.
Pope isn't a bad coach, sub patterns last year was bad and maybe too nice . Plus y'all say he is mediocre but we have had a coach win 9 games. He has never had a team that only won 9 games. During time outs and ,2nd halves you gotta coach to come back. Talent only wins some of the time Maybe not a good recruiter, he can get better.
 
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kfwa

kfwa

Senior
Oct 12, 2014
453
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UKBB4Ever said:
Same reason you do I would guess.

But I don’t know. Maybe the situation doesn’t bother you?
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that isn't the point , I'm just wondering why comment on something and the end result is "it doesn't matter, its a lost cause no matter what". So are you just going to spam that on every thread about everything related to Mark Pope? No matter what he does, its useless. that's the sentiment?
 
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MegaBlue05

MegaBlue05

Heisman
Mar 8, 2014
10,841
21,423
66
kfwa said:
that isn't the point , I'm just wondering why comment on something and the end result is "it doesn't matter, its a lost cause no matter what". So are you just going to spam that on every thread about everything related to Mark Pope? No matter what he does, its useless. that's the sentiment?
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Yes. This guy loved Cal. Defended him rigorously to the bitter end and has had an axe to grind with Pope since.

The doomsday defeatist mentality a lot of people have is sad. They’re already predicting gloom and absolute doom before the roster is even complete. Why wait and present an informed opinion when all pieces are in place when you can just piss and moan daily?
 
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ftp000

ftp000

All-American
Mar 26, 2009
6,048
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Tri-Countycat said:
Well the alternative is to turn loose of some control, allow UK to hire a GM and let the GM (who hopefully can evaluate intention much better) and vet some of these visits to analyze the real intentions. Still not fool proof. It’s a tough business in college sports. I wouldn’t want to do it.
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You just want to tell others how to do it?
 
UKGrad24

UKGrad24

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Apr 2, 2024
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Catphright23 said:
Y'all talking **** about small school players where did walter Clayton come from or Dalton Knecht? Plus look at hurleys first championship squad. Y'all people are quite full of basketball knowledge.
Pope isn't a bad coach, sub patterns last year was bad and maybe too nice . Plus y'all say he is mediocre but we have had a coach win 9 games. He has never had a team that only won 9 games. During time outs and ,2nd halves you gotta coach to come back. Talent only wins some of the time Maybe not a good recruiter, he can get better.
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That encompasses a lot of subject matter. Please use his 12 year record and defend the statement. Start with the best recruits he’s ever signed, where they rarete, wins, winning %, tournament history, best tournament wins, championships won. Current trajectory at UK, current accomplishments etc, relative to past UK coaches.

Don’t just say it, defend it. I can say you’re likely more attractive and more strapped than me but obviously that’s not true. So just defend it, I’d like to someone to please defend this claim instead of just saying it. But I don’t think you will, you’ll dismiss it and say nothing of substance related to the question. I’d like to see someone make the case he’s a good coach and not a bad one, make the argument he’s worthy of this job.
 
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Catphright23

Senior
Dec 6, 2023
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UKGrad24 said:
That encompasses a lot of subject matter. Please use his 12 year record and defend the statement. Start with the best recruits he’s ever signed, where they rarete, wins, winning %, tournament history, best tournament wins, championships won. Current trajectory at UK, current accomplishments etc, relative to past UK coaches.

Don’t just say it, defend it. I can say you’re likely more attractive and more strapped than me but obviously that’s not true. So just defend it, I’d like to someone to please defend this claim instead of just saying it. But I don’t think you will, you’ll dismiss it and say nothing of substance related to the question. I’d like to see someone make the case he’s a good coach and not a bad one, make the argument he’s worthy of this job.
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He's never had a 9 win season with a bunch of McDonald's all Americans. The year we had maxey he did pretty well too. If you don't coach how did we win games in 2nd half and how did we produce plays out of time outs. I never said **** about recruiting. Cal can recruit but is a bad coach since 2020.

He is our coach for this year. Oats, Hurley, and Donovan had turned us down. No chance in putting negative **** out there.
 
TigerMoving

TigerMoving

Heisman
Jul 13, 2014
7,923
21,915
113
I have zero confidence in Pope's recruiting prowess, and it defies all common sense....but for some strange reason I think we are gonna end up with Stokes. We might end up paying 10mil for him but I think we go full desperation mode to get him signed up. Getting Zoom has to to help too.
 
Captain Coy

Captain Coy

All-Conference
Apr 16, 2024
1,004
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UKBB4Ever said:
JMI has never been a problem. Matt jones makes JMI a problem because they smacked him down.

Pope doesn’t have a JMI problem. JMI has a Pope problem.
Click to expand...
A siege mentality is a collective, defensive mindset where a group or nation believes they are constantly under attack, threatened, or isolated by a hostile outside world. It fosters intense internal solidarity, distrust of outsiders, and a pessimistic, "us vs. them" worldview. It is used to justify extreme security measures or to maintain political power.
 
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MichaelGray

MichaelGray

All-Conference
Jan 13, 2026
822
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Catphright23 said:
He's never had a 9 win season with a bunch of McDonald's all Americans. The year we had maxey he did pretty well too. If you don't coach how did we win games in 2nd half and how did we produce plays out of time outs. I never said **** about recruiting. Cal can recruit but is a bad coach since 2020.

He is our coach for this year. Oats, Hurley, and Donovan had turned us down. No chance in putting negative **** out there.
Click to expand...
Now that we have Pope I've often wondered in the last 2 seasons how he would've done with all the talent Calipari had? I'd like to say Pope would've done better but idk if he would've used the dribble drive back then? That offense was effective in Cal's first 5-6 seasons even though he only won it once. Once the college game started going to more of a 5 out 3 point shooting style, Cal struggled, plus Duke started getting the top guys & Cal didn't recruit a lot of knockdown shooters. Pope is a better in game coach for sure.
 
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K

KyWideWes

Junior
Dec 11, 2025
135
243
43
Jmmcgr35 said:
The Stokes recruitment is odd. You would think he would be using Kansas to force Nike to up their $$ to keep him from going to an Adidas school.

They kid has been down to 3 schools for 6 months, and continues striging on those schools at a crucial time in recruiting. His top 2 are totally rebuilding, and if he wasn't only concerned with himself, he would commit now to help his future team know where they stand as they fill out their roster.
Click to expand...
Nothing around this makes sense, including why aren't we taking 75% of what we are offering him and throwing it at Juke Harris.
 
BigRedMachineBigBlueNation

BigRedMachineBigBlueNation

Heisman
May 4, 2015
10,538
13,600
86
Catphright23 said:
He's never had a 9 win season with a bunch of McDonald's all Americans. The year we had maxey he did pretty well too. If you don't coach how did we win games in 2nd half and how did we produce plays out of time outs. I never said **** about recruiting. Cal can recruit but is a bad coach since 2020.

He is our coach for this year. Oats, Hurley, and Donovan had turned us down. No chance in putting negative **** out there.
Click to expand...
Oats, Hurley, Donovan were never asked
 
U

UKCowboys

All-American
Oct 14, 2019
3,482
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113
I was reading earlier that Kansas athletic program is nearly $12M in the red. If they are going to put up a similar offer through NIL to the offer UK is making, it sounds like a major chunk of that will have to come from Adidas. Since Stokes can't stand their gear, are they going to pony that up when he hates their gear? I am sure they will, but it seems to me if Pope comes back and adds a little to his offer and hits him with a deadline of tomorrow or Sat, he might get it done
 
UKVACats0107

UKVACats0107

Redshirt
Jan 19, 2026
42
47
18
AllBall said:
No next will be Freeman, Rancik, and Alex Wilkins.

After that, I think staff will push to get Cruz Davis or Cox for guard depth to split mins across the backcourt. They'll also push to get Desean Goode or someone similar of that mold.

Then...all the chips will be pushed in to convince Stokes he's the final missing piece.
Click to expand...
Spot on post imo.. STOKES is the final piece! I will say, I like the players coming in on visits to compliment the #1 player in the country.
And why do I feel there is someone totally unexpected about to come into play.
 
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