Goodman has us at 2, and Dauster has us at 1. Basically Kentucky is #1 according to their combined scores for the Portal cycle. Which still makes me wonder why several rankings have us in the 10-15 range. But whatever, nice to see.
Kentucky the biggest portal "winner" according to combined rankings from Goodman and Dauster
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Interesting the discrepancy on St. John's.
Yeah, thought that as well. Also, Purdue (Dauster has them at #2 and Goodman has them unranked).
Intriguing who ISN'T getting it done, at least via the portal: No UNC-CHeats, and they lost almost everyone. No Kansas and they lost all starters but one I think. No Duke, and they lost key players.
Dauster is still today talking about Aberdeen “just getting a better offer.”
Field of 68 generally gives Kentucky decent coverage, and Dauster has been salty and dug in on the Aberdeen pick-up. Both are true.
Field of 68 generally gives Kentucky decent coverage, and Dauster has been salty and dug in on the Aberdeen pick-up. Both are true.
We got us a Kam Williams
SHHH !We got us a Kam Williams
Hush now. You know we can't start talk like that around here !
The narrative should be :
We're just the poor little old Kentucky wildcats ! (*sniff sniff*
) Everyone knows we really whiffed on the big time players, and this team will barely crack a preseason top 15 poll before the season starts, be lucky to make the NCAA tournament. Nobody pays much attention to poor little old Kentucky these days, right ? Just another face in the crowd. No big deal. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Bringing back Oweh, Garrison, Noah, and Chandler was also a huge deal for this staff. That's not factored in, but it probably should be since every off season is an open free-agent market for every player and team.
Oweh would have been a top 5 portal transfer if he had shopped around.
Oweh would have been a top 5 portal transfer if he had shopped around.
Plus two 5 star recruits and a top foreign prospect.
I listened to Duasters points concerning their portal class and they made sense of why he thinks that. Basically they got an elite haul but if Ian Jackson and Sanon are the only guards for them they have a negative assist to TO ratio which won’t win anything. Lots of talent but nobody to quite run the show yet.
Absolutely. St. John’s biggest pickup was keeping Zubey and ours will be returning Oweh and the rest of the crew.
If Duke spent $20 million-AMAZING!!
If Kentucky does it-Outrageous, something needs to be done about this
If Kentucky does it-Outrageous, something needs to be done about this
Anxious to hear about the weekend visitors who are four of the five portal transfers and see if I can get some feedback if they do a pickup game or two.Quaintence is the one not coming this weekend
Maybe because it’s going to be an almost entirely new team again and certainly that could be a significant hurdle. Pope seems so damn positive that it will likely be overcome again but I’m just trying to answer it from a detractor’s view. Oh, and maybe this is a new thought, but some think shooting might be a weakness.Goodman has us at 2, and Dauster has us at 1. Basically Kentucky is #1 according to their combined scores for the Portal cycle. Which still makes me wonder why several rankings have us in the 10-15 range. But whatever, nice to see.
Tell him to suck it up he still has 1 good leg. My parents walked to school barefoot uphill both ways in a snowstorm.
So what's UofLs reasoning for being higher, when they went just as heavy into the portal, have some freshman, yet we're a 9-seed last year and got worked in the opening round with a more unproven coach?
I can kind of ask the same thing about Duke. Mass exodus, including the supposed greatest prospect since LeBron, and relying on freshman again next year.
I'm not really aiming these at you. I'm just saying there's an awful lot of the same questions we can ask of the teams around us. But in the end we can make the argument that we have THE #1 portal class, a top 5 recruiting class, and a coach coming off of his 1st season here and getting a 3-seed. I don't know, for a guy who was getting mention for COY, id think pundits would look at this team with higher regard for last years team.. which wasn't even healthy as they made a run towards that 3-seed/s16.
But I do agree about the shooting concerns. We will probably take a step back there.
Back
Oweh 6-5 215 SR all sec returning leading scorer
Garrison 6-11 250 JR solid contributor
Chandler 6-5 202 SO really started coming on at the end
Noah 6-6 220 SO solid contributor
Frosh
Johnson 6-4 185 FR 5 star great shooter
Moreno 7-0 235 FR 5 star top center
Jelavic 6-11 220 FR one of the top international prospects
Portal
Kam 6-8 190 SO unlimited potential
Lowe 6-3 175 JR all acc Pitt leading scorer assists steals
Quaintance 6-9 230 SO possible lottery pick
Mo Diaboute 6-7 215 JR glue guy on a top 10 team
Aberdeen 6-5 189 SR 6th man on national title team
I wouldn’t trade this roster right now for any other team in college. 12 deep with lots of returning players. Top fresh ready to play now. Portal upgrade on athleticism, defense, rebounding, toughness, depth and experienced talent. We can literally thrown 2 teams at people with Moreno and Noah as 3rd string and their no chopped liver.
Oweh 6-5 215 SR all sec returning leading scorer
Garrison 6-11 250 JR solid contributor
Chandler 6-5 202 SO really started coming on at the end
Noah 6-6 220 SO solid contributor
Frosh
Johnson 6-4 185 FR 5 star great shooter
Moreno 7-0 235 FR 5 star top center
Jelavic 6-11 220 FR one of the top international prospects
Portal
Kam 6-8 190 SO unlimited potential
Lowe 6-3 175 JR all acc Pitt leading scorer assists steals
Quaintance 6-9 230 SO possible lottery pick
Mo Diaboute 6-7 215 JR glue guy on a top 10 team
Aberdeen 6-5 189 SR 6th man on national title team
I wouldn’t trade this roster right now for any other team in college. 12 deep with lots of returning players. Top fresh ready to play now. Portal upgrade on athleticism, defense, rebounding, toughness, depth and experienced talent. We can literally thrown 2 teams at people with Moreno and Noah as 3rd string and their no chopped liver.
Damn. Pope has crushed his first thirteen months on the job. Onward and upward.
Dauster doesn’t like the move for Aberdeen personally. He thinks it was a lateral move for the kid and won’t be celebrated with his teammates for the title they won in the future.
It’s actually a very reasonable take.
He has not once been against the pick up for Kentucky, everyone agrees it was a nice add for us.
Dauster just doesn’t like that Aberdeen sacrificed an opportunity to be a Florida great to come be a role player at Kentucky for a year for a few extra bucks.
I get it, it’s still a win for Kentucky.
He’s framed the whole conversation as Florida being reasonable and Aberdeen being a mercenary.
1. Says he would have started at Florida.
OK, pretty good chance he’ll start for us.
2. Claims Florida offered him 20% of their budget.
How does he know this? Why wouldn’t Florida have more to offer?
3. Talks about how he could have been a legend in Florida like the Noah back to back title group.
I mean, maybe? Back to point 2 - if Florida boosters value their legends so much, why not pony up more cash now?
Admittedly I’m biased toward Kentucky. But I can name you every player from every Kentucky championship team in my lifetime. Can name a lot of the players from before I was born.
I kid you not, I work around Florida alums every day and I’m not sure how many of them know Denzel Aberdeen’s name.
He’s even a local kid to my area. Haven’t had a single Florida alum mention that we stole one of their players. They either don’t even know, or don’t care.
TLDR, legendary status for Kentucky basketball and Florida basketball are far different things.
Who knows how next season will go, but I have no doubt that helping lead Kentucky to number 9 would give Aberdeen legend for life status for the program that cares the most about its legends.
I totally get the sentimentality from Dauster about players sticking with their teams. But that’s all it is - sentimentality.
He said something needs to be done to incentivize people to stay. How would that work? Can’t boosters already do that? Is he saying we should give championship teams a bigger cut of tv revenue to retain players? Seems fair, right?
Above all else, I reject the framing that Aberdeen is nothing but a mercenary. I don’t believe Pope is building a team of mercenaries, and I won’t unless I see it play out that way on the court.
My guess is that Aberdeen felt slighted by Florida, and chose the destination where he felt he had the best chance to win and get paid his market value. Have every expectation that he will bleed blue next season and I’m looking forward to it.
I basically agree with everything you’re saying.
Dauster is 100% speaking from a sentimental standpoint and I’ll I’m saying is I understand that angle of it.
To your point, get UK to even a Final 4 and Aberdeen will be much more beloved in Lexington than he would’ve been in Gainesville.
I’m only defending Dauster because absolutely nowhere has he downplayed the pick up for Kentucky. He’s ranking UK #1 for their portal class for a reason.
But let’s also be real, every single one of these kids is a mercenary for hire now, every one of them.
I think there’s more nuance to it than calling everyone a mercenary. I try to get paid as much as possible for the work I do. You probably do too.
I also want to feel like my work has value. Want to work with quality human beings.
There is some amount of money someone could pay me to do a terrible job for a short amount of time. To me, that’s mercenary.
I’d like to believe guys like Aberdeen care about more than only getting top dollar. I’m sure some players are only going to the highest bidder without regard to intangibles. I think that shows a lack of character, and hope we aren’t recruiting those type of players.
Edit to add: I realize I said it shows a lack of character but that I would do it myself in an extreme situation. To be fair, if a player’s market value is $1 million and someone offers them $10 million, I could see how that would be incredibly difficult to pass up.
I realize that’s an extreme example. Also realize everyone’s circumstances are unique. Not meaning to judge, especially in cases where there may be the opportunity to improve a legitimate hardship.
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I called out Dauster on the live chat about that. He seemed very salty about our Aberdeen acquisition.
We also don't see Arkansas. Something that makes teams like Arkansas, Duke & North Carolina really stand out by not being on this Top-10 list, is the fact that these 3 schools are in the 10 million dollar club when it comes to NIL spending. With what Duke is losing they're getting ready to take a major step back. And with North Carolina we could be talking about a losing season this coming year.
Combined scores base it more off of quantity over quality when ranking. So obviously the more recruits you get, the higher your score. Also, there are rankings that average out their scores instead, making it more of a fair assessment ranking.Goodman has us at 2, and Dauster has us at 1. Basically Kentucky is #1 according to their combined scores for the Portal cycle. Which still makes me wonder why several rankings have us in the 10-15 range. But whatever, nice to see.
Shows, Surmans, Ayers and Olgelsby pay plenty of attention to little ole Kentucky.SHHH !
Hush now. You know we can't start talk like that around here !
The narrative should be :
We're just the poor little old Kentucky wildcats ! (*sniff sniff*
Aberdeen stays at UF, he likely starts, UF won’t be as good and they fail to win a title and Aberdeen is just the guy that wasn’t as good as Clayton. Unless he won a title, he was always going to be in Clayton’s shadow at UF.
At UK, he gets us to a Final Four and he will be a rockstar. The guy that helped us get back to the Final Four after an 11 year drought. A leader on Pope’s first Final Four team.
You see how much love we have for Lamont Butler and he just led us to the Sweet Sixteen. Aberdeen could be become a legend if he gets us to a Final Four.
At UK, he gets us to a Final Four and he will be a rockstar. The guy that helped us get back to the Final Four after an 11 year drought. A leader on Pope’s first Final Four team.
You see how much love we have for Lamont Butler and he just led us to the Sweet Sixteen. Aberdeen could be become a legend if he gets us to a Final Four.
Evan Miyakawa said we got the #1 and #4 best defensive players in JQ and MD. Surprisingly he said Big Z is #3.