The 2025 Freshmen Class is unreal.

Nov 19, 2025
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Another thought. In the day players stayed much longer in a program. But now, even some degree of talent leads to an early declaration for the draft, or go to the G -league, or transfer to another program with a team of an unfamiliar roster. So the talent and experience level of any particular good team is no longer the same. Thus talented Freshman can shine now whereas in the past the experienced rosters would have outshined them.
 
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Padsfs07

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Such a great time for us to have told every last one of them “we’re not going to get into a bidding war.”

Calipari recruited a lot of these guys when he was here, but Pope didn't spend much time on them like he is with the 26 class.

He definitely wanted Wilson and Ament. The one out of this class I liked the most was Yessoufou (19.3 PG at Baylor).
 
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mhs1964

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Another thought. In the day players stayed much longer in a program. But now, even some degree of talent leads to an early declaration for the draft, or go to the G -league, or transfer to another program with a team of an unfamiliar roster. So the talent and experience level of any particular good team is no longer the same. Thus talented Freshman can shine now whereas in the past the experienced rosters would have outshined them.
I think you are on to something. Many on this board were advocatin mature teams rather than Freshman oriented one and done. The current problem is the result of the portal in that you might gets experienced players but they have never played together. This might represent an annual gamble as depending on very talented freshmen
 
Jul 30, 2024
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That was the point of the thread, lol. To get people to say that.
I have a rule: I never commit the Bulverism logical fallacy where I assume the intent of the point being made. Even if it makes me look foolish, I’ll agree to what is true even if someone makes false inferences from it. OP is correct —- this is one of the greatest freshman classes of all time — which is precisely why falling in love with freshman this year is self-sabotage. You don’t hitch your wagon to an outlier.
 
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Interesting looking at that list it “seems” like Duke had a down year in recruiting. They only got one top 15 guy . It seems like they always have two or three top 10 guys.
Good thing they didn’t get another top 10 guy THIS year.
Yep and I see two committed Kentucky HS players in the top 25 and, predictably, it’s not enough lol

We need to be more like Rutgers last year and miss the tournament while babysitting.
 
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Anon1759768907

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Yep and I see two committed Kentucky HS players in the top 25 and, predictably, it’s not enough lol

We need to be more like Rutgers last year and miss the tournament while babysitting.
either we "picked the wrong ones" or popes development is butt

obviously the higher rated ones are gonna be better, and youd think we would prioritize the higher ones but i guess not
 
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either we "picked the wrong ones" or popes development is butt

obviously the higher rated ones are gonna be better, and youd think we would prioritize the higher ones but i guess not
Or….our freshman are playing like freshman. The top level of this high school class in an outlier, not something you can build on year by year.
 
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yes thats my point, since those top guys are so elite why didnt we try harder
Do you want to win National championships? If you do, you don’t want your best player to be a OAD freshman. I know it might feel like that’s a solution, but it isn’t. In the last decade, ZERO teams have won a title with a OAD freshman leading in scoring. ZERO….why we want that is beyond me. Even this year, with the greatest freshman class of all time (possibly), Michigan is by far the best team and starting ZERO freshman. We are wired to think backwards on this topic because of Calipari and the run we had over a decade ago. It’s an entirely new landscape.
 
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Anon1759768907

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Do you want to win National championships? If you do, you don’t want your best player to be a OAD freshman. I know it might feel like that’s a solution, but it isn’t. In the last decade, ZERO teams have won a title with a OAD freshman leading in scoring. ZERO….why we want that is beyond me. Even this year, with the greatest freshman class of all time (possibly), Michigan is by far the best team and starting ZERO freshman. We are wired to think backwards on this topic because of Calipari and the run we had over a decade ago. It’s an entirely new landscape.
ok thats a cool statistic, what about the PRESENT where all the top teams that are "thriving" have good young talent
duke ark louisville arizona unc
 

preston-lemasterpiece

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ok thats a cool statistic, what about the PRESENT where all the top teams that are "thriving" have good young talent
duke ark louisville arizona unc
there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Just win. We start winning games in conference and all this recruiting talk goes away.
Nothing you’re saying is wrong but we’re just p*ssing ourselves off on the topic of recruiting

Other teams have elite HS talent. We don’t. But we can still beat them. Go f*cking find a way to win games, and the elite talent will start wanting to play for Pope. And him being nerdy won’t matter, him being awkward or Mormon or whatever won’t matter, JMI won’t matter.

go win games. Give them a reason to want to come here other than just “we’re Kentucky”
 
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Anon1759768907

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there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Just win. We start winning games in conference and all this recruiting talk goes away.
Nothing you’re saying is wrong but we’re just p*ssing ourselves off on the topic of recruiting

Other teams have elite HS talent. We don’t. But we can still beat them. Go f*cking find a way to win games, and the elite talent will start wanting to play for Pope. And him being nerdy won’t matter, him being awkward or Mormon or whatever won’t matter, JMI won’t matter.

go win games. Give them a reason to want to come here other than just “we’re Kentucky”
"We start winning games in conference and all this recruiting talk goes away."

goes away? until when? when we have another underwhelming class and we get jealous about these other schools 5 stars again
 
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ok thats a cool statistic, what about the PRESENT where all the top teams that are "thriving" have good young talent
duke ark louisville arizona unc
You mean the teams like BYU that’s just good but not elite?

Kansas where an injury has Peterson in question to return because he has to consider his draft stock?

Or Louisville where Mikel Brown hasn’t returned and again has questions because of draft stock?

Or North Carolina who is destined to lose in the first weekend because their best player can’t go better than 5-19 against Kam Williams and freaking Andrija Jelavic?

Who we talking about? Duke, who does this every year and still doesn’t win?
 

Anon1759768907

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You mean the teams like BYU that’s just good but not elite?

Kansas where an injury has Peterson in question to return because he has to consider his draft stock?

Or Louisville where Mikel Brown hasn’t returned and again has questions because of draft stock?

Or North Carolina who is destined to lose in the first weekend because their best player can’t go better than 5-19 against Kam Williams and freaking Andrija Jelavic?

Who we talking about? Duke, who does this every year and still doesn’t win?
duke got to a final 4 last year i dont wanna hear that crap

byu built solely to be the "aj and friends show" they arent trying to win a natty, mikel is just hurt, dp however may be sitting out

unc is wilson and friends


im not saying if we get a stud to not build around him
 
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duke got to a final 4 last year i dont wanna hear that crap

byu built solely to be the "aj and friends show" they arent trying to win a natty, mikel is just hurt, dp however may be sitting out

unc is wilson and friends


im not saying if we get a stud to not build around him
You don’t want to hear that crap because it doesn’t support something you determined was true before you even analyzed it. You know who else went to Final Fours in recent seasons? Florida Atlantic and San Diego State —- very far from OAD factories. You’re picking the one team that made it there that one time, as though it’s a formula. Brother, go check the final four rosters for the last decade and come back. If you’re honest, you’ll admit you just debunked yourself.
 
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