5-star Caleb Holt talks UK, timeline for a commitment, and more

I'm just gonna skip over that UK quote.

Sheesh

Bama

Nothing to see here keep it moving

"Sometimes we just talk and talk about the game, his opponents, the Kentucky game, or other games like that." talking about his convo with Oats. Theres the negative recruiting against Pope

I would of rather him plead the 5th when asked about us…

Lol geez. Welp , the status of elite high school players wanted to go play at UK is gone. Hopefully UK can finish the season strong and regain the momentum that the basketball program has lost at the start of this season.

Yep, that is pretty bad.

That's fine. They can have little heart-to-hearts on the stomping Oats is about to get from Mark Pope. If he wants to play for that obvious huckster, he can, and we will still beat him.

This now KSR- instead of KSR+ because all we get is negative news😪

The Kentucky write up is the smallest. Basically Pope still talks to me. I guess I never fully appreciated how the NIL era would make players mostly indifferent about the name on the front of the jersey or tradition and history. Great coach and high pay. Nothing else matters.

waste of time to read recruiting updates, unless it's about 3 star recruits or lower

I know we are all riding high after the St. John’s win, but this could be a long term problem and I’m not sure how it gets fixed (Pope specifically, obviously need a new AD and our JMI issue fixed as well). Damn I’m sad now.

😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 Mitch not calling Nate Oats as option 1 during the search might be one of the biggest what ifs in a long time

cats.by.5 said:

I know we are all riding high after the St. John’s win, but this could be a long term problem and I’m not sure how it gets fixed (Pope specifically, obviously need a new AD and our JMI issue fixed as well). Damn I’m sad now.

I really don't know how it gets fixed though. Opposing coaches are all just saying Pope sucks and players are like, okay. No GM is going to fix a situation where the national narrative is he is a bad coach and our record isn't great. Add in the JMI BS and it's almost like the hole is so deep and negative I don't know how you climb out. Sounds like the perception is so incredibly bad for Kentucky that no great player would ever want to come here and only large sums of money will sway them. Incredible how these other coaches have almost come together to lock Pope out.

HoochieMan said:

😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 Mitch not calling Nate Oats as option 1 during the search might be one of the biggest what ifs in a long time

All the scuttlebutt made it sounds like he wasn't really an option due to drama at home he had to settle first.

UKFan284 said:

All the scuttlebutt made it sounds like he wasn't really an option due to drama at home he had to settle first.

I believe the drama was that Oats was wanting to hear the discussion, but Mitch put his foot down and wouldn't consider him, Alabama's AD getting in the mix and not letting any talks happen, and Oats had just signed a new contract I believe. So hiring him was against all the odds, but money can make anything happen and Oats should've been the first or second phone call after Hurley. Not even considering him was criminal.

cats.by.5 said:

I know we are all riding high after the St. John’s win, but this could be a long term problem and I’m not sure how it gets fixed (Pope specifically, obviously need a new AD and our JMI issue fixed as well). Damn I’m sad now.

Gets fixed relatively easily. Pay the market rate (or a little higher) and win games. The combination of us unwilling to pay and meet the market, and being a pathetic dumpster fire to start the season was a perfect storm. J. Lowe staying healthy not only impacts this season, but the perception of UK. Winning cures damn near everything, and what winning doesn't fix, money will. If Pope really isn't capable of figuring that out, he just won't be here. That said, I think he can.

We would have to beat the piss out of Bama for him to even consider UK at this point.

I'm still trying to figure out why we had 5-star one and done fatigue and still want 5-star one and done players.

Wow I mean is today just the **** on UK day? Can we not enjoy a nice win for the day after? Seriously this has been a day full of this crap

FoxMonkBAM! said:

Wow I mean is today just the **** on UK day? Can we not enjoy a nice win for the day after? Seriously this has been a day full of this crap

My exact thoughts lol, can we just not enjoy the fact we finally have a healthy roster and looked the best we have all year instead of fretting over the worst recruiting class in recent memory. But hey, BBN drives clicks.

JohnGalt4UK said:

I'm still trying to figure out why we had 5-star one and done fatigue and still want 5-star one and done players.

So believe it or not, you need nuance to understand this. Having too many or too little is bad. Optimally we need maybe 1 or 2 one-and-done caliber freshman to be stars, maybe 2 or 3 last year seniors, and the rest a mix of role players/solid guys with multiple years of eligibility, and a couple development pieces. Same thing that Houston or Uconn or Alabama does, that by far seems to be the winning formula in this portal/NIL era. Very hard to win tournament games with no one-and-dones or with 4 or 5 of them.