Not shocking, get a guard from the portal, or maybe convince tp to come back
Kentucky out on Rippey
- Thread starter Anon1759768907
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5-star PG Deron Rippey Jr. down to 5 schools
Deron Rippey Jr., a top-5 overall recruit in the 2026 class, is down to five schools: Duke, Miami, NC State, Tennessee, and Texas.
Jaland Lowe uncertainty looms over this season and next season.
That’s now a whiff on PGs in 2026 recruiting.
That’s now a whiff on PGs in 2026 recruiting.
Will have to be a portal PG now. Most other options are gone, even though 2026 is a weak PG class. Need Lowe back and healthy and go get a decent backup. Surely you don’t mean Travis Perry ?
Rippey has been off uk for a while now.
If Lowe pulls the cord on this season he’s not coming back to Kentucky. No way do they pay a guy who takes the elective surgery route. I don’t think our NIL donors would pay this guy again. It’s questionable whether he was going to be an effective pg for us. Fool me once, fool me twice here.
The Staff went 0-3! The whiffs continue!
We are not even a hat on the table
Mark Pope is bad at recruiting
Mark Pope is bad at recruiting
Seems like a Will Wade lock.
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Will wade get one high four star and very likely rippey in year one at a lesser program
I'll be happy with sophomore Jasper Johnson, a portal pg, and a lesser ranked guy to be the 3rd string pg. I'd like to see UK get a top 10 recruit but I'd prefer a forward or 2 guard.
This blows.
every player that Pope stops recruiting is a whiff now?
Death, taxes, and a segment of RRs panicking anytime something happens….. guarantees of life.
He didn’t stop recruiting a top 5 player and basically only good PG in the class when we desperately need one. I don’t care what anyone says. That kid is going to be really good. Duke of course stays on there. Ugh.
“Lesser ranked” is apparently the strategy now. Won’t work at UK.
For a 3rd string pg? What won't work anywhere is expecting five star recruits or top portal guys to accept being 3rd string.
Would really like to know what the heck is going on. Because now it really does seem we only got MM and JJ because of the in-state ties. We simply can not get any elite talent to come to UK at the moment.
The AD needs to figure out what is going on and fast.
The AD needs to figure out what is going on and fast.
Pope sucks at recruiting because the kid demands to be a starter and what? Pope should kick Lowe and Johnson off the team to get this kid?
Get a GD grip guys. If we miss on Collins and Stokes, and dont get a damn good transfer portal player , then worry.
Get a GD grip guys. If we miss on Collins and Stokes, and dont get a damn good transfer portal player , then worry.
Lowe and Johnson is whats going on here. Rippey wants to be a starter, he wont be that at UK. This isnt something to make us worry about recruiting. Pope was only ever recruiting him as a backup PG in year 1.
You know Pope doesnt do freshmen starting PG's right? just keep that in mind, its the one position that the starting spot will not be a freshman (unless there are injuries of course)
If Kelsey hadn’t started a freshman point guard, we may have won the game.
Lowe needs to move on. Damaged goods, unfortunately. A 3rd year with our PG crippled with a bad shoulder? Seriously? NO.
At one time wasn't we like at front and center for this kid? Man to go pretty high on this kids list to not even in the top 5 ...... If we don't get Stokes and Collins it's about time to question Pope's recruiting ability especially with the treasure chest that UK supposedly has....
Is that some sort of factoid I missed that Pope doesnt do starting freshman PGs? Thats kind of a silly stance to take that really should be much more fluid year over year. If the the #1 recruit in the nation is a PG and is dying to come to UK, Pope is gonna turn that down? Because he wants to play a guy like Jaland Lowe or Butler?
And we absolutely have to have some concerns with recruiting. The only two 5 stars we landed were in-state guys and we are whiffing massively as of late. Kentucky cant win with JUST a bunch of transfers.
Kids aren't going to come here and be expected to play just 20 minutes a game. Won't work!
Fan police will be by soon to tell us the UKAA approved, talking points. Recruiting is still a massive concern with Pope. And it was from day one.
There is no “treasure chest”… That’s the worst kept secret in CBB!
Surely Pope/ UK understands, that if they keep going after the elite of the elite, knowing they have no intention of paying any of these guy’s their market value, thus racking up miss after miss after miss, it’s going to have an even greater effect on recruiting than it already has?
Most of these player’s agents already knows what’s up, they just keep the UK name around to push up the price, and it seems to be working like a charm!
*any 5 star at this point
So we had Cal who was great at grabbing recruits and so so coaching ability and now we have Pope who many consider a very good coach but the jury still out on recruiting.
If we could somehow morph the two into one we'd be cooking here lol
You need a mix to win. You need true composite top 5-10 recruits, with veterans. If UK landed one of AJ, Peat, Ament, Peterson, Wilson. This team is 4-0 and rolling into michigan state.
We’re gonna have to settle for a medium tier coach coach and medium tier recruiter sounds like
Anyone on this forum saying they don’t care about HS kids is ridiculous. Yes, it’s valid to not care about the top 11-25. But 1-10 and especially 1-5. Are your actual NBA players. The John Walls, Anthony Davis’, Cooper Flagg, Zion. Duke has went to two final fours with a mix of veterans and two composite top 5 centers, Banchero and Flagg. Calipari started sucking, because he stopped getting those guys. And instead settled for the #16 freshman. For reasons discussed, already (duke, nike, platoon year etc), we have a team of mostly role players/supporting pieces. On the inverse you could point to Painter and Purdue. But the guy has been mostly mid in march. Never getting over the hump, until he got Edey. And even then he lost to a more talented Uconn team.
Pope might want to land one of these top tier recruits to ease concerns, So far hes lost nearly every recruiting battle.
Paklids…
We are great!!! One game passes.
We are not great.
Pope has built an amazing deep team. 2 months passes. Pope is a suck recruiter.
You literally can’t make this crap up.
Honestly when Cal gets tired of coaching, give him a GM position here. Im not joking. I always thought that would be a great fit for him.
But we 1000% need more than just Mitch and Pope to get all this NIL stuff right. Mitch has 80 other teams to worry about, Pope is coaching a team and recruiting. We need someone in between for the basketball operations that happen off the court.
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