Mark Pope just signed Mark Pope.
Boom
The “All Things UK” Thread
- Thread starter Random UK Fan
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Strained one of my eyes by rolling them too hard. Ugh. 🙄.
It's not like we didn't know that already. I'm not going to worry too much about it, though, because I'm excited about what Pope is doing and I'm grateful for what Cal did.
I agree completely. It’s just weird seeing Cal from an outside perspective now.
I'll enjoy beating him at Ar, just like I enjoyed beating Pitino at L'ville. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate what they did though.
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So glad to have this cancer culture away from Kentucky basketball.
Good freaking riddance.
There's a rumor going around that Williams might be waffling on his commitment. I hope that is not true. But dang, My man Pope is doing some fine recruiting!
We finally got a foreigner who can talk trash to Vescovi (probably).
Vescovi, after a decade, is out of eligibility.
Time to update that roster again after we signed both Brea and Kriisa today.
Now we got enough guys to practice!
Now we got enough guys to practice!
Bio Blast: Harlan County's Trent Noah reopens recruitment
Travis Perry and Trent Noah are two of the best players to ever come through the state. Could they be teammates at Kentucky under Mark Pope?
If Norlander is right, UK might land Lanier, one of the bigger fish in the portal. Get Robinson and another PF and it comes down to style of play and coaching.
UK's by a mile. Fland and Knox are going to be the issue for Arkansas. That’s not John Wall and Malik Monk type talent, those guys are closer to Devin Askew and Kevin Knox level. Cal needs extreme talent to win, Davis is the only one I would put in that group, the rest are role players.
If I'm Cal, I get DJ Wagner and start him at the pg spot. That’s his best option.
UK might possibly still add 3 guys out of Lanier, Jaxson, Wooga and a PF to be named later. If Pope does that, UK will have a legit contender built out of proven upperclassmen.
UK's....simply because Pope will run a better offense and won't be afraid to play multiple defenses.
I'm not going to pretend to know how good Kentucky will be, and there might still be some good pieces on the way.
But let's be honest about a few things here....as much as you've preached continuity and experience together, how can you expect an entire roster of players w/ zero experience together to be a legit contender in year 1?
Also, if Calipari had built this roster, you'd be saying it was the weakest roster he's had at Kentucky, or at least high on the list. And you know it.
Did you think Alabama was going to be a FF team this year? Did you think Miami, SDSU and FAU were going to be FF teams in 2023?
Take a look at their rosters. All veteran rosters and Alabama was built out of transfers.
Here's the deal, if Cal had this roster, I would feel better about it than I would if he had another group over overrated freshmen, but Pope is the coach and he has done more with less. He runs a legit system with winning as his primary goal, Cal does none of those things.
Give me a team full of accomplished super seniors any day over a roster that has been cobbled together by a guy making crazy promises and who focuses on individual goals and draft positions.
Were any of those teams 100% transfers and freshmen? And the point isn't that it's impossible. Anything's possible. It's about what's likely.
Why does it matter if they’re all transfers??? Does that somehow mean they suck? 3 of these guys are elite defenders, 3 others are elite shooters and all of them have a ton of experience. The starting pg played in the title game 2 years ago as the lead guard. These aren't scrubs. These are accomplished seniors. Give me that over unproven freshmen all day.
If you're going to roll with freshmen, they better he elite, they can't be unpolished projects, but that's what Cal is getting. There are no John Wall's, or Julius Randle's in that recruiting class andwith the exception of Davis, the rest of the guys are role players. If Kelvin Sampson was the coach, fine, but Cal is the coach and his staff is garbage.
But also, Cal and Pope have no choice, they're doing what they have to do, but I really like the guys that Pope has landed, with the exception of Kerr Kriisa, I'm not sure what the thought is on geting him.
The biggest thing for me though is the goals of the coach. If Pope loses 10 games this year and doesn't win a game in the tournament, I won't be happy with those results, but I Would accept it, because I know he will have tried everything he could to win. Cal wasn’t doing that, winning games wasn't Cal's top priority, individual accomplishments came before winning and when you're losing at a historic level because you're priorizing draft position over the program, you don't deserve my support. Those players are going to the NBA, they don't need his help.
I have no idea! I do remember Aidoo and I was hoping that Big Z would stay, but apparently he is in love with Cal even though Cal did him no favors last year.
You're really telling me that continuity doesn't matter? It was probably the single biggest reason KU won it all in '22. They didn't have any future NBA superstars and most weren't rated highly out of HS. But they had played together and developed together for years.
I think the only way a team with 100% turnover can realistically compete for a title is with super-elite talent.
Not everything is about how KU did it in '22, pinhead.
