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Bluegrasskingreboot

Sophomore
Jul 17, 2025
141
142
43
Im The Village Idiot said:
I caught a lot of flak for suggesting that Pope should be more aggressive in negotiations by dropping the big bag and say here it is. This disappears without a signature on 6 hours.

Only to find out that’s exactly what Pitino has been doing this cycle. Pope and staff suck at maintaining leverage.
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While generally true, I am unclear on what leverage there is to maintain in this situation.

This is very much a sellers market and precious little to effectively threaten a pivot to to change that.

No space for games or playing tough now.

We need him more than he needs us other than a high bid.
Putting our junk on the table at this point most likely gets it chopped off.
 
Im The Village Idiot

Im The Village Idiot

All-Conference
Sep 7, 2025
679
1,991
93
Bluegrasskingreboot said:
While generally true, I am unclear on what leverage there is to maintain in this situation.

This is very much a sellers market and precious little to effectively threaten a pivot to to change that.

No space for games or playing tough now.

We need him more than he needs us other than a high bid.
Putting our junk on the table at this point most likely gets it chopped off.
Click to expand...
Disagree. The highest bidder with a time sensitive offer absolutely has leverage. Your mentality is exactly how you surrender any value you have and end up in a losing effort with a major bidding war at the end.
 
A

Aike

Heisman
Mar 17, 2002
75,437
46,371
90
Bluegrasskingreboot said:
While generally true, I am unclear on what leverage there is to maintain in this situation.

This is very much a sellers market and precious little to effectively threaten a pivot to to change that.

No space for games or playing tough now.

We need him more than he needs us other than a high bid.
Putting our junk on the table at this point most likely gets it chopped off.
Click to expand...
You attract the same energy you put into the world. The best recruiters reel in the guys who are also brimming with self-confidence and cool under pressure.
 
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Bluegrasskingreboot

Sophomore
Jul 17, 2025
141
142
43
Im The Village Idiot said:
Disagree. The highest bidder with a time sensitive offer absolutely has leverage. Your mentality is exactly how you surrender any value you have and end up in a losing effort with a major bidding war at the end.
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What is the magic answer if the response is kick rocks if you are "time sensitive" and if I decide I want to come after your phony tough threats then it will be for the last offer or I go elsewhere.

There is no real fall back position
 
Im The Village Idiot

Im The Village Idiot

All-Conference
Sep 7, 2025
679
1,991
93
Bluegrasskingreboot said:
What is the magic answer if the response is kick rocks if you are "time sensitive" and if I decide I want to come after your phony tough threats then it will be for the last offer or I go elsewhere.

There is no real fall back position
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There is no magic answer. You move on. If you aren’t willing to lose, you don’t win.

Unfortunately, Pope keeps doing what you’re suggesting over and over and we keep getting burned.
 
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FitchandMurray29

All-American
Dec 11, 2021
2,730
5,760
61
Im The Village Idiot said:
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Respectfully to that guy, I’m not trying to listen to UL fans boast about money and having the most in college basketball this spring then cry wolf when they’re getting outbid on guys.

I refuse to believe he’s wasting time with zooms with Louisville if the offers are that substantially different.

Just my opinion. I know “insiders” are claiming our offer is the highest.
 
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LineSkiCat14

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
39,183
61,549
113
JimboBBN said:
This would be a crippling blow to Pope and BBN. Picks our rival for less cash and a lesser role.
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There'd be only one person to blame. If you lose out to lesser programs, offering less money, for a lesser role.. than that means Mom really didnt buy Pope's vision, plan or coaching.

If this is indeed how this goes, that we lose out to Mom with the above stipulations, than Pope has to go. A lot like how I say Scheyer starts on 3rd base. Well the same sort of applies here. Popes offer is standing on 3rd base and he cant get home.
 
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JASUN74

JASUN74

All-American
May 22, 2008
3,719
5,417
73
BellyBall said:
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It seem to me like, if everything else is close to equal, and we have the highest offer, He’s not thinking about IF he wants to play here, he’s thinking of how much he doesn’t want to play here. Especially if he takes less money to play somewhere else! How in the world can we always have the highest offer, but it’s always a bunch of drama and nothing is ever easy.

Hopefully they’re just finalizing all the details of the contract. I did see Yesterday , some of the bigger YouTube guys, (so called insiders), were acting like it would be Monday or Tuesday before we heard anything, so we’ll see. Even if it is, it just never seems easy for us. Come on Mark, bring this guy home.
 
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Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
42,198
64,259
113
LineSkiCat14 said:
There'd be only one person to blame. If you lose out to lesser programs, offering less money, for a lesser role.. than that means Mom really didnt buy Pope's vision, plan or coaching.

If this is indeed how this goes, that we lose out to Mom with the above stipulations, than Pope has to go. A lot like how I say Scheyer starts on 3rd base. Well the same sort of applies here. Popes offer is standing on 3rd base and he cant get home.
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Give it a rest. Geez. Pope is not going because he did not land Milan. That is just stupid. Just like you are not going to give him a fourth year if MilMom comes to UK.

Pope will go if his record is poor by UK standards again. Milan is going to make millions regardless of where he goes. He may actually like the plan presented by another school. Pope will live and die by his record and he knows it. So give this threshold off season crap a rest. It’s pathetic.
 
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LineSkiCat14

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
39,183
61,549
113
Beatle Bum said:
Give it a rest. Geez. Pope is not going because he did not land Milan. That is just stupid. Just like you are not going to give him a fourth year if MilMom comes to UK.

Pope will go if his record is poor by UK standards again. Milan is going to make millions regardless of where he goes. He may actually like the plan presented by another school. Pope will live and die by his record and he knows it. So give this threshold off season crap a rest. It’s pathetic.
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Or, what, exactly? Hit that ignore button, by all means.
 
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Anon687865

Sophomore
May 25, 2026
169
119
43
JASUN74 said:
It seem to me like, if everything else is close to equal, and we have the highest offer, He’s not thinking about IF he wants to play here, he’s thinking of how much he doesn’t want to play here. Especially if he takes less money to play somewhere else! How in the world can we always have the highest offer, but it’s always a bunch of drama and nothing is ever easy.

Hopefully they’re just finalizing all the details of the contract. I did see Yesterday , some of the bigger YouTube guys, (so called insiders), were acting like it would be Monday or Tuesday before we heard anything, so we’ll see. Even if it is, it just never seems easy for us. Come on Mark, bring this guy home.
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If everything is truly equal, y'all are forgetting we hold the trump card of all Trump cards; we have the Rainman in our corner. Cmon Rain use your connections and work your magic. Help get this done
 
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Anon1768287303

Freshman
Jan 13, 2026
71
97
18
Beatle Bum said:
Give it a rest. Geez. Pope is not going because he did not land Milan. That is just stupid. Just like you are not going to give him a fourth year if MilMom comes to UK.

Pope will go if his record is poor by UK standards again. Milan is going to make millions regardless of where he goes. He may actually like the plan presented by another school. Pope will live and die by his record and he knows it. So give this threshold off season crap a rest. It’s pathetic.
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Thank you! I was about to make a similar post. It is ridiculous how some who have no control or insight as to how this will play out can't at least wait until they know the outcome before placing blame.
 
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Goingfor9

All-Conference
Jan 27, 2003
16,295
3,172
113
I’m concerned, even if we get the guy it’s pretty evident he doesn’t wanna be at Kentucky. It just makes the best business sense if he goes to Kentucky.. if he was feeling it, he would be committed by now

And I don’t think it’s all money. I think he wants to be guaranteed to play the three..
 
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T

Threedognight

Sophomore
May 26, 2026
122
174
43
Goingfor9 said:
I’m concerned, even if we get the guy it’s pretty evident he doesn’t wanna be at Kentucky. It just makes the best business since if he goes to Kentucky.. if he was feeling it, he would be committed by now
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Yes and no maybe all rumors expect he was waiting till Sunday are wrong
 
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2

20MRoster

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2018
1,342
2,651
108
UKJenning said:
Pope is really, really bad at closing deals with players.

Even when he offers the most money.

I can’t imagine suffering through another year of him attempting to recruit!
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He has nothing to sell, other than "money". That works on guys like McBride, who are Sun Belt level players. Players with higher professional aspirations have a lot more at stake.

Yaxel's a great example. I don't believe the $7M vs $2M or whatever he was talking about during the tourney, but he did extremely well for himself going to Michigan for a year, in ways that are more valuable over the course of a lifetime than a mil or two more of NIL money.

Elite players command ungodly sums of money these days, sure. But it's not just all "money". It's a lot more going into it, and Pope is at a disadvantage against these other coaches when it comes to these other things.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
46,213
84,300
113
TheDude73 said:
Again, I'm talking IN GENERAL - OVERALL - ON AVERAGE. I'm not specifically pointing at one kid or one situation. It seems all of our recruits since the beginning of time are always so drawn out and dramatic. Granted, I'm not a fan of other programs so I have no idea if they sit around dealing with the same drama and drawn out recruitment.

IN GENERAL, I feel like we have a harder time closing the deal than other schools.
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Exactly, Yessofou signs like 20 minutes after announcing he’s back to college.
 
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