TJ walker tweet on Pope and recruiting
- Thread starter RunninRichie
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I think it’s an issue that has multiple layers. I think agents don’t like JMI and don’t trust it. I think Mitch went with JMI knowing it could hurt recruiting but he doesn’t like the idea of paying players anyway and wants to maintain archaic rules. I think most of that is due to simply being a hatchet man and he’s trying to suck the money away from recruits and into wherever he wants it to go. So he took more money for his land lording operations at the expense of recruiting and wants us to settle at average in basketball and football.
I also think Recruits aren’t trusting Mark Pope and can get paid free and clear everywhere else.
Mitch Barnhart has destroyed UK basketball and football. It’s a dead duck walking and he did it to quickly gain control over the NIL where he could get the max money and through the contract maintain full control over how money is distributed to players. It was a win win for him. This would’ve the best way to maintain control in this climate. This is the same guy that put a stop on grandmothers not being allowed to knit UK on a Sweeter for students.
He is the worst athletic director I’ve ever heard of. I have 2 athletic directors in my family (high school and college) and one of them told me he has no idea how he’s managed to keep his job at a major professional league like the SEC. Says only one explanation, and that’s likely what it is. He’s simply doing what someone wants him to do and winning isn’t it.
We need a new president and a new AD. These two are finished and should have already been removed. We also have a major scandal, and likely family relationships between our administration and JMI. I don’t know how deep or true that is but it’s been said. This is not good and I don’t believe anything good will come from this in anyway. All IMO or course, it’s what I believe.
I also think Recruits aren’t trusting Mark Pope and can get paid free and clear everywhere else.
Mitch Barnhart has destroyed UK basketball and football. It’s a dead duck walking and he did it to quickly gain control over the NIL where he could get the max money and through the contract maintain full control over how money is distributed to players. It was a win win for him. This would’ve the best way to maintain control in this climate. This is the same guy that put a stop on grandmothers not being allowed to knit UK on a Sweeter for students.
He is the worst athletic director I’ve ever heard of. I have 2 athletic directors in my family (high school and college) and one of them told me he has no idea how he’s managed to keep his job at a major professional league like the SEC. Says only one explanation, and that’s likely what it is. He’s simply doing what someone wants him to do and winning isn’t it.
We need a new president and a new AD. These two are finished and should have already been removed. We also have a major scandal, and likely family relationships between our administration and JMI. I don’t know how deep or true that is but it’s been said. This is not good and I don’t believe anything good will come from this in anyway. All IMO or course, it’s what I believe.
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So we go from being locks for them with Pope coaching, to suddenly not wanting to play for Pope? Sounds fishy. Sounds more like contract issues,
This staff has never led for any of their first choices in recruiting in any real sense. Any non “hat on a table” sense.
But more importantly:
“Barnhart says NIL isn’t an issue, UK puts together a $22 million roster, but now suddenly JMI is an issue for elite recruits? Something isn’t adding up.”
It’s things like this that have everybody believing the $22 million NIL budget is gospel.
Barnhart really did say NIL isn’t an issue because Barnhart would say NIL wasn’t an issue if our budget was ten dollars. He’s always been kind of a belligerent ******* and people should have that figured out by now.
But by putting the $22 million figure immediately following that in the same sentence, Walker makes it seem like Barnhart has verified that figure when Barnhart has done nothing close to that. (Or at best he makes it sound like we know we spent 22 million dollars with the same confidence we know Barnhart said NIL isn’t an issue.) That figure came from Trilly Donovan, a man or a group of men without even a name, claiming he either heard it or ballparked it from an unnamed source or group of unnamed sources. Then people like Jeff Goodman started repeating it when they read it, with qualifiers like “reportedly,” which people either ignored entirely or interpreted as “reported by the university” or “by ESPN” or something, neither of which could be further from the truth.
Either Mark Pope is an idiot for spending $22 million on this roster,
Or our boosters are doubly idiots for tying Pope’s hands as far as making offers but then pumping $22 million into the scrubs Pope was able to bring in without solid offers, so now we’ve got comically overpaid scrubs instead of just scrubs,
Or nobody paid $22 million or close to it for anything.
One of those is true.
But even if it’s the first one, even if Mark Pope really paid 22 million dollars of money he had completely at his discretion for this roster, and is therefore obviously a booger-eating moron in terms of recruiting savvy, that has still never been announced or confirmed anywhere by anyone with the authority to do that.
TJ Walker is abusing journalism by making it seem otherwise. And as a result his efforts to defend JMI are worthless too. He could have strengthened his own case a lot by being more responsible with the facts.
But more importantly:
“Barnhart says NIL isn’t an issue, UK puts together a $22 million roster, but now suddenly JMI is an issue for elite recruits? Something isn’t adding up.”
It’s things like this that have everybody believing the $22 million NIL budget is gospel.
Barnhart really did say NIL isn’t an issue because Barnhart would say NIL wasn’t an issue if our budget was ten dollars. He’s always been kind of a belligerent ******* and people should have that figured out by now.
But by putting the $22 million figure immediately following that in the same sentence, Walker makes it seem like Barnhart has verified that figure when Barnhart has done nothing close to that. (Or at best he makes it sound like we know we spent 22 million dollars with the same confidence we know Barnhart said NIL isn’t an issue.) That figure came from Trilly Donovan, a man or a group of men without even a name, claiming he either heard it or ballparked it from an unnamed source or group of unnamed sources. Then people like Jeff Goodman started repeating it when they read it, with qualifiers like “reportedly,” which people either ignored entirely or interpreted as “reported by the university” or “by ESPN” or something, neither of which could be further from the truth.
Either Mark Pope is an idiot for spending $22 million on this roster,
Or our boosters are doubly idiots for tying Pope’s hands as far as making offers but then pumping $22 million into the scrubs Pope was able to bring in without solid offers, so now we’ve got comically overpaid scrubs instead of just scrubs,
Or nobody paid $22 million or close to it for anything.
One of those is true.
But even if it’s the first one, even if Mark Pope really paid 22 million dollars of money he had completely at his discretion for this roster, and is therefore obviously a booger-eating moron in terms of recruiting savvy, that has still never been announced or confirmed anywhere by anyone with the authority to do that.
TJ Walker is abusing journalism by making it seem otherwise. And as a result his efforts to defend JMI are worthless too. He could have strengthened his own case a lot by being more responsible with the facts.
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I dont believe we paid anywhere close to $22M. I doubt that we were over $10M
JMI has been around for almost 20 years. Playfly and Learfield are both in their infancy, around 5 years established. JMI not being trusted by agents is comical. Are we just making stuff up now? JMI isn’t the issue here, and we need to stop beating a dead horse trying to make up reasons why it is. Do I agree with the deal Mitch inked? Not really but it isn’t what’s hurting us.
Well there seems to be a lot of people, even media, making a lot of stuff up.
JMI is not as big of an entity as those. It’s smaller in scope and cannot get any major flagship programs to sign on. Learfield is the go to and one agents trust and like their methods. They don’t have the restrictions that JMI has.
You are obviously an excuse maker for these guys there’s no way you’re going to make any headway here. Barnhart sucks and so does our athletic administration. If JMI was as good as those they’re more. Even playfly appears to not have the restrictions. Quit taking up for Barnhart it’s not going to work here. Almost all want him out and for good reason.
Kentucky Basketball is set up to be virtually indestructible. Yet somehow, Mitch Barnhart has seemingly done the impossible, i.e., destroy Kentucky Basketball TWICE in 15 years.
Why would top recruits NOT want to play for him? Is he farting during in-home visits?
Just know Capiluto belongs to a group of people that only care about their own pockets without a good substantial product. You see this in banks, media, and entertainment.
Yep. It’s been going on for a long time and it’s been obvious. The guy is an Alabama academic he doesn’t give a rats *** about Kentucky basketball. Get these foreigners out of this university.
Then provide substance and proof otherwise?
Also if you ever watch Capiluto and listen to what he says, he’s shocked we care about basketball like this. He’s always got a “why” expression when it comes up. The guy doesn’t even understand what we do here. During the last press conference he had that same lost look and said “I didn’t realize we had millions of athletic directors”.
You didn’t realize it? The guy is a fraud and asleep at the wheel. Get him out.
I’m open to hear it. I’d like to know where the truth really lies myself.
5 bucks says we won't hear it. It seems like we are catching wind of people who work there or have family or spouses who do.
Why would top recruits NOT want to play for him? Is he farting during in-home visits?
because certain demos on tiktok say he's corny
I disagree with the first premise there.
The few actually in the know national insiders were very confident this fall that we were signing Stokes and then the same process happened with Collins. When those predictions/thoughts arise it’s usually just a matter of days before the commitment becomes official.
There’s some problem at the finish line of the process for these recruitments. I won’t pretend to know what that actually is.
The 22 mil actually started with a Herald Leader story. I have my doubts on it, but don’t believe that stems from Trilly.
I don’t think TJ Walker is defending JMI at all. I think he’s just pointing out like you, that there’s some problem occurring given the facts or info we have been presented. When everything is hidden from fans with this process, we don’t know what exactly the problem is.
Pope has never had or really even recruited top level players until coming to UK. He has 0 track record of 1st rd or lottery picks. 0 track record of winning anything of substance. And he has little to no NBA background to help that.
The UK brand will keep us as a hat on the table for a while. However, we aren't actually winning the recruitment.
The UK brand will keep us as a hat on the table for a while. However, we aren't actually winning the recruitment.
I don't think we were at $22m either. But I highly doubt we weren't over $10m. Truth is, no one knows.
Yep. Watching people argue about the NIL number and JMI contracts is our version of watching two comic book nerds argue over who wins a fight between Superman and Batman lol
PK has worked with several NBA dudes as an asst. He likely built some very solid connections. He also has a better resume.
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Agreed....Why would top recruits NOT want to play for him? Is he farting during in-home visits?
1. Pope is offensive friendly for bigs and guards
2. And guys are signing with UL/Pat Kelsey in Mikel Brown, BYU coach in Dybantsa, etc....
3. Houston, Arizona, Arkansas, Duke all have multiple top kids...and UK can't afford any of them?
Something simply doesn't add up. My gut tells me 80% of this is who will write the biggest check and I wonder if Pope was iffy on spending his wad on HS kids and then we got crapola in portal....or maybe teh 22M is a fake number.
This makes no sense. When we have landed literally zero of our first-choice recruits, there can be no such thing as those insiders "usually" being right about anything relevant. In fact, if any of those insiders ever suggested we were going to get any of our first-choice recruits, they are definitively 100% wrong in everything they've ever said about that. So. Perhaps these insiders had better sources of information for people we were recruiting under Calipari. Good for them back then but that's obviously apples to oranges. You can disagree all you want. We still have never landed our very first "first-choice" recruit for any position under this staff, so those insiders have not been "usually" right or even "ever" right about anything relevant.
Maybe it's no more complicated than kids want to go play for a program that's building towards a championship. People don't want to board a sinking ship, esp with a Captain they know little about. And that appears where we are right now.
Start winning and the shine gets back on your name.
Start winning and the shine gets back on your name.
Cal wouldn't be having any issues signing guys. Not saying he should still be here, but recruiting is about the coach. Everyone has money.
No inside information:
I believe the most likely reason is a very simple one —- Pope will not promise minutes and will not promise a role.
And I’m good with it. We have good reasons to believe this is true, if people recall many of the recruiting battles we’ve lost in where there were rumblings of player wanting to be promised minutes.
Genuinely believe it as simple as that. That also would explain why Pope refers to that as people weeding themselves out. Fans are like “we went in on a guy and didn’t get them”…well, yeah but the player wanted to be promised these things and Pope wants every player to earn those on the court.
I believe the most likely reason is a very simple one —- Pope will not promise minutes and will not promise a role.
And I’m good with it. We have good reasons to believe this is true, if people recall many of the recruiting battles we’ve lost in where there were rumblings of player wanting to be promised minutes.
Genuinely believe it as simple as that. That also would explain why Pope refers to that as people weeding themselves out. Fans are like “we went in on a guy and didn’t get them”…well, yeah but the player wanted to be promised these things and Pope wants every player to earn those on the court.
The ship wasn’t sinking when Stokes was supposed to sign. How was BYU building toward a championship when they signed dybansta? Or was it the $$$ that got him?
Again, Pope was the coach when Stokes and Collins were supposed to be locks. Gotta be something other than Pope.
Why wouldn’t the program immediately come out and dispel that rumor.
I bet he promised minutes and a role to Chandler.
Provide substance that they are the problem…… see how that works. 3 million is 3 million regardless of what sponsors or brands it comes from. Recruits don’t care where the money comes from, they just want the money. We have it to spend, and we actually offered more to several of the “missed” recruits and portal transfers this past off season. The NIL and money isn’t the issue, it runs deeper than that.
I sincerely doubt it actually. Pope himself said in multiple interviews that this is something he does not do. I think he always wanted it to work with CC because this was his highest ranked HS player ever until recently. Also, CC had been committed for years and Pope knew the high floor of his game and was willing to push through many bad performances to see him scratch the surface there. Again, no inside info —- just reading tea leaves.
What are you talking about? Who cares about "supposed to be", that's meaningless. As you said, Pope is the coach, it's his job to get them to sign. We have the money.
Ran into the Pres. when moving our son into UK. They were recording video of him asking parents and students questions He asked a bunch of the students around us why they came here and a they said UK basketball and you could see he did not like that answer. He must think everyone coming to UK is because of their academic greatnesss…HAH! What a tool!
So you’re telling me that stokes just turned down the UK money and big stage because Pope is boring? All the recruiting gurus were wrong?
I wish we could get some clarification on if our NIL deal is causing us to lose out on recruits. It’s hard not to worry about the future when we don’t have any players committed for next season.