Then continue. The bold sentence is conjecture. Tells us how it runs deeper than that.
TJ walker tweet on Pope and recruiting
- Thread starter RunninRichie
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I’m not speaking of UK insiders. I’m calling the Trilly, Tipton, Branham, etc group. They are usually money on their predictions regardless of school as they get info from other unrelated sources such as agents.
Their predictions are almost always right and they’re almost always made right before the kid ends up announcing.
This is not specific to UK.
I agree we’ve been a hat on a table a lot this recruiting season. But the Stokes/Collins recruitments have been very different than that.
Being in a player’s final 3 or final 5 is very different than the best national experts predicting the kid is going to X school. That happened both of the times people are focused on.
If you just don’t want to give any credence to anything Trilly/Branham say, that’s fine, I just highly disagree due to their track record in the industry.
Superman and it's not close. I'm old school Superfriends.
Because if they commented on every bit of nonsense shouted by BBN reactionary types they would have to use the entire student body to cover it
exactly my point, yup. You can tell he’s been trying to make this university more academically focused and wants to get away from athletics. The problem with that is whether we are better or not we’ll never be Vandy, we will never be seen that way. UK basketball has been a gift to this entire state and this Alabama academic comes in and just pulverized what’s been built here over a century.
If the men who used to be in control could see this now. It’s unbelievable they’ve been able to do this. Time the governor gets involved, at LSU he did. And it turned around it seems. Get it fixed or you’re out too.
Only reason I went to grad at UK is because it fit well but the only reason I even looked was UK basketball growing up. Had it not been for that I probably wouldn’t have even inquired.
So their track record in the industry is good then. Fair enough. Still Kentucky has never landed a high-profile recruit under this coaching staff so no one has ever been right in claiming we’ve led for one of those, at least as far as cases we can evaluate now. It doesn’t instill me with a lot of faith in terms of the cases we can’t evaluate yet.
While it’s probably true that Mitch Barnhart screwed up the NIL stuff, it doesn’t explain why Pope and staff have whiffed on every single major transfer and recruit. We’re basically missing on everyone. At some point we just have to accept that Pope is simply not capable of landing elite prospects. Kentucky fans are desperately trying every excuse to absolve Pope and it’s just not likely that all our problems stem from the NIL situation.
Huge Smallville fan (was a tv show in the early 2000s). I’d pick Superman for sure.
It's probably the case that Pope is a bad recruiter, but we still need to know if JMI is making that worse. It's a long contract, so we need to know for any future coach.
Agreed. I’m fully on board there’s a problem! I’m just agreeing with Walker in the strangeness of the optics of these 2 recruitments in general. There have probably been 10 kids Pope “whiffed” on this cycle where we made a final cut but no one expected us to get them. Those are your hat on a table situations. But when experts are right probably 95+% of the time and then weird things seem to happen(nothing happening being the weird thing this go around) then it definitely raises questions.
Tipton last night and MJ continually get folks up in arms about JMI. I have no idea if they’re the problem.
At the end of the day I blame Pope. He’s the one responsible. He should be smart enough to know whether these top kids would be willing to play ball with our NIL situation. If the very top kids wouldn’t, then he should’ve scoured the top 30-100 players for some system fits and targeted them instead.
Yes. Again, everyone has money. UK has other advantages that should sway some recruits, but ultimately the coach has to sell the kid. There is no evidence Pope can do this.
I don’t pretend to know any of the details but something is deeply, deeply wrong with our ability to recruit. Like, worse than Gillispie or late stage Tubby. I sure hope we see a change with that soon.
I don’t either. We’re missing out on to many big time players out of high school and the portal right now. Can’t strike out on both or we’re in trouble. Doesn’t matter how good your coach is if you can’t get the right players
We really shouldn’t be worried though. We’ve got the greatest AD in UK history involved. He’s got this, have no fear Mitch Barnhart is here.
The important thing is they just built a drama center and have more land lord operations in the mix. Getting these students government loans to owe 120K for a 60K per year job is the better avenue for Kentucky. Look how much joy those apartment complexes on campus bring all UK fans from around the world and state.
We’re just not thinking of this right. We look like Vanderbilt academically, and that’s what we’re known for. Don’t forget the rifle team and how well VolleyBall is rolling. I think our priorities are in the wrong place.
Thanks for setting us straight Mitch.
Forget the jmi crap. We outspent every other school so money isn’t the issue. It’s 100% players not wanting to play for pope.
Exhibit b. He was. Loved at byu but as soon as he leaves byu wins games they never have and pick up the top 2025 recruit. They do this after pope leaves.
the bottom line is pope is the absolute wrong person for the job. We have an imbecile as an AD and he has zero people skills needed to hire a top level coach. I’m already sick of the newest excuse. Pope said he would be able to recruit at UK vs byu bc of their strict policies. His successor is proving that to be bs.
Exhibit b. He was. Loved at byu but as soon as he leaves byu wins games they never have and pick up the top 2025 recruit. They do this after pope leaves.
the bottom line is pope is the absolute wrong person for the job. We have an imbecile as an AD and he has zero people skills needed to hire a top level coach. I’m already sick of the newest excuse. Pope said he would be able to recruit at UK vs byu bc of their strict policies. His successor is proving that to be bs.
Nah, Batman would find some kryptanite and make a special suit or some tank. He'd win.
What UK spent on the current team is irrelevant to the current state of recruiting. Those current roster deals were agreed to PRIOR to the anti-trust agreement, creation of the college sports commission and their related attempt to modify rules, creation of NILGo and their signing of the revised JMI contract.
Pope may or may not be the right guy but there 100% concerns about what is going on.
True. But also James T. Kirk would karate chop Batman so hard he'd fly through Superman and knock out Hulk.
I’m about to start drinking again if this keeps up
Gotta start bringing the studs in if we’re ever going to play at a high level again and we’re apparently not capable of doing that, catch 22 I reckon.
the product on display shows that anything over that amount is a crime
this is not a talented group..........plain for all to see
maybe that is true.......but no way you can tell me that he couldn't have told Wilson, Wilkerson, Mullins and others that there was plenty of playing time for them, when no one was as talented on the roster.
we the average fan, do not know what is true..........no one knows how much NIL $ is available
no one knows if UK was a higher bidder, yet still lost the recruit
all we know is what is speculated
if it is the problem, then the coaches of the sport affected, need to say so
put the pressure on those responsible & get it changed
What you’re saying sounds correct on the surface, but you gotta thing long term. When you choose individual players AFTER you see how they perform, it’s easy to look back and say “Duh! Of course you promise minutes.” Here’s the issue: for every Wilson, there’s a Wagner, an Edwards, or Emoni Bates. So, no, even if it seems super obvious, I can understand choosing not to promise. There’s a myth out there that there are some sure-fire players —- it’s simply not true. Do you remember when Ben Simmons was the next LeBron James? Do you remember when Skal Labissierre was the next Anthony Davis? Do you remember when there was debate about Xavier Henry or John Wall being the best player in their high school class lol?
All this takes is decent vision out of one eye, and a basic working understanding of common sense…
If you have neither, you somehow, although I’m still not sure how, believe that Pope/ UK spent $22 million dollars on a roster, the most by a wide margin from every other high major school, that contains NOT A SINGLE elite 5* HS or 1st option Portal player, anywhere on said roster!
He only got JQ because no other coach in their right mind would spend JQ’s asking knowing he’d be lucky to play half a season!
That’s literally impossible on every single level, bar none!
My conspiracy theory? UK floated the “$22 million team” story to distract us from the truth of UK’s real NIL/ recruiting concerns, when it became self evident that Pope was striking out on every big target he was recruiting, and it backfired and blew up in the administration’s faces when Pope’s 4th and 5th options began playing at the exact level we should have expected from the beginning!
That’s why no one from the university came out and refuted the “story” when it was released, because had they corrected it, they would have been back to square one, having to explain why Pope wasn’t landing any of his UK level targets.
This is rocket chemistry folks!
If you have neither, you somehow, although I’m still not sure how, believe that Pope/ UK spent $22 million dollars on a roster, the most by a wide margin from every other high major school, that contains NOT A SINGLE elite 5* HS or 1st option Portal player, anywhere on said roster!
He only got JQ because no other coach in their right mind would spend JQ’s asking knowing he’d be lucky to play half a season!
That’s literally impossible on every single level, bar none!
My conspiracy theory? UK floated the “$22 million team” story to distract us from the truth of UK’s real NIL/ recruiting concerns, when it became self evident that Pope was striking out on every big target he was recruiting, and it backfired and blew up in the administration’s faces when Pope’s 4th and 5th options began playing at the exact level we should have expected from the beginning!
That’s why no one from the university came out and refuted the “story” when it was released, because had they corrected it, they would have been back to square one, having to explain why Pope wasn’t landing any of his UK level targets.
This is rocket chemistry folks!
I don’t think the rocket chemistry works. A decent chunk of our NIL is funded from fans and if you give the impression NIL is going significantly better than reality, you decrease the demand for more NIL from fans. Be shocked if there was any truth at all to this.
It’s simple how he got Brown… It’s the same way BYU got AJ D., UNC got Wilson, Tennessee got Ament, and so on and so on, and Pope hasn’t gotten anyone like that…
UK is simply, with an emphasis on simply, not paying what their rivals are willing to pay, and it’s showing up exactly where it should be… In the Wins and Loses column!
I think the main reason kids don’t want to play for Pope. He can’t recruit.
You can’t have pope not be able to land big recruits, then the situation gets more difficult but it doesn’t change the fact that his recruiting is sketchy at best. He didn’t get the types of guys they are now pulling at byu. I understand concerns about Barney trust me no one wants him dealt with more than me. Concern away but don’t get things conflated and over look the fact he has already proven to be substandard for UK by a lot.
You mean this guy? I'm sure Mitch is sitting home with a tall black hat on twirling his handle bar mustache and counting how much NIL to deposit in the bank so he can buy that land rover he always wanted. And what "archaic rules" are you talking about? The ones in place before everything turned into a *#*! show? The ones that tried to keep the sport at least somewhat about COLLEGE athletics?
nobody followed those rules and isn’t going to moving forward. Would I prefer that? Yes. Is it possible? No. This ain’t hard. The game has changed and you have to operate in the space you’re given. You don’t sit back and follow rules that the NCAA doesn’t even enforce. You following those rules isn’t going to make those rules be reflected across the country. The day we loved is over. Move on and operate in reality.
Mitch’s goal has never been to win to elite levels here. It’s always been to status quo us,
Maintain his job, and make sure funds are allocated to the places the men who keep him employed want it to go. This isn’t hard it’s been happening for over 2 decades here. It’s just now out of control.
people get this wrong all around.
Pope runs a true system, it one of the reasons why we are struggling this year. In his system, there are no stars, no focal points, and the only time you see someone take over is if you had to have a shot. Elite kids don't want to play in a system like that, so I guess in a way you can blame Pope, but not for the reasons people are using here and this isn't a pope problem as far as that particular area. You can see what selfish mentality gets you..... it gets you 6-4.
We just spent 22 mil on a bball team and people are still crying about NIL money, which to me is crazy. Now, I think that 22 mil is inflated, and I think we can manage it better sure but the point is - money is not the issue. People cry about Mitch- but to accuse an AD of sabotaging a program is funny at best, mental at worst. Many people need to accept times have changed, we aren't as attractive as we used to be in this new world, history doesn't matter to this new breed nor does the name on the chest and players can accomplish any goal they want from any school in America when winning a title is not your goal. Mix that with even equal money and young kids will go where things are "cooler" every time over Lexington, KY.... every time.
All of you complaining about top 50 talent - which is wild to me, but fail to realize the last time we brought in consistent top 10 talent was over a decade ago and we never did before that. Cal's first 5 years were the only years this program has ever consistently brought in top 5 talent based off fake rankings against other high school kids mind you, but I digress. You don't need top 5 talent to win, that is a myth.
Most of you also need to realize, being an AD is more than Basketball and football when you find it ok to care about it.
Pope runs a true system, it one of the reasons why we are struggling this year. In his system, there are no stars, no focal points, and the only time you see someone take over is if you had to have a shot. Elite kids don't want to play in a system like that, so I guess in a way you can blame Pope, but not for the reasons people are using here and this isn't a pope problem as far as that particular area. You can see what selfish mentality gets you..... it gets you 6-4.
We just spent 22 mil on a bball team and people are still crying about NIL money, which to me is crazy. Now, I think that 22 mil is inflated, and I think we can manage it better sure but the point is - money is not the issue. People cry about Mitch- but to accuse an AD of sabotaging a program is funny at best, mental at worst. Many people need to accept times have changed, we aren't as attractive as we used to be in this new world, history doesn't matter to this new breed nor does the name on the chest and players can accomplish any goal they want from any school in America when winning a title is not your goal. Mix that with even equal money and young kids will go where things are "cooler" every time over Lexington, KY.... every time.
All of you complaining about top 50 talent - which is wild to me, but fail to realize the last time we brought in consistent top 10 talent was over a decade ago and we never did before that. Cal's first 5 years were the only years this program has ever consistently brought in top 5 talent based off fake rankings against other high school kids mind you, but I digress. You don't need top 5 talent to win, that is a myth.
Most of you also need to realize, being an AD is more than Basketball and football when you find it ok to care about it.
I know Michael Rosenbaum very well.
I think this is the case if Pope really is leading with the play for the front of the jersey pitch .
I would like to believe that was just said to the fans because it “sounds good “.