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He also said he is not in a rush to commit. No reason not to commit unless you are leading one team on and trying to sabotage their efforts to field a good team. If a player is down to 2 schools (which most agree) and one team has been in the lead for 5 months (Kansas) and Stokes states, hey I want to go visit UK to see the new staff and what hey have to offer, and you go there, spend a day or 36 hours, leave and state you are not ready to make a commitment yet and it could be 2 weeks then they are playing one side if both continue to wait on said player. Pope did this before and it bit him in the butt. I would have moved on and told the young man we are no longer in play for you. Let him know that I am making that public as his time frame does not realistically fit with what is happening in college basketball. Then no matter what he has to say you are on record and stating we have moved on due to not wanting to wait 2 weeks. Then go get option B or something like that. You will never get option 1 at all positions (typically). So you have to give these (high school kids a shot of reality). This is just money grubbing schemes at this point. Plain and simple. You either hit it off with the new staff or you do not.
Then you have these reports that UK is offering way more than other teams for portal players. Heck Freeman is supposed to be leaning towards 2 other options that cannot match what UK is offering. Again, if I am offering top dollar and a guy cannot make up his mind, call him and remove said offer. Move on. Pope might not be able to get the cream of the crop, so he better start gleaning the fields for the best of the rest.Leave a comment:
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I did see Matt Jones say the Stokes visit went well and he left Lexington this morningLeave a comment:
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The part I highlighted in bold is what I want to focus on. Because I'm not disagreeing with anything you said. But in the SEC (and college basketball in general) there are going to be games where we're matched up against teams that have absolute beasts on the low block. And while Kam is "bigger and stronger than Hawthorne"....he still won't be an ideal matchup for the bigger, stronger and more physical Power Forwards across the college basketball landscape. It's always nice to have some big bodies to throw up against some of the more physical teams.... that's exactly what led to Pope wanting more of an emphasis on toughness and defense in year 2. And that's why I said "natural PF", and not another stretch 4 type that can play the position. We'll be good in that regard....it's just that we could use more size for physical, inside play.
Of course, this is all hypothetical and purely speculative, because we don't even know who the core group of players are going to be! LOLLeave a comment:
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That would probably be about all that is necessary, in all honesty. Maybe a natural backup 4/PG to backup Freeman, since neither Quaintence or Hawthorne fits that bill, even though they could play there in a pinch.Leave a comment:
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If rumor is correct, Pope is wanting two good PG/CG types to start together. He wants more playmakers.
Word is that he wanted to pair Wright and Diallo together, Diallo wasn’t interested.
If he could get Wright and somebody like Terrence Brown from Utah, that could be a good combo. Brown can score (20ppg) and is a decent shooter (33% from 3). Wright is a good scorer as well (18ppg) and a great shooter (41% from 3). Wright averaged nearly 5 assists a game, while Brown averaged about 4 a game, so both are excellent playmakers. Stokes is being touted as a Point Forward, and is said to be a good passer and playmaker.
Wright and Brown in the backcourt plus Stokes, Freeman, and Moreno along the frontline could be a formidable starting five. Kam Hawthorne, Quaintance, and maybe a guy like BJ Davis (PG from SDSU) coming off the bench. Then Mason Williams, Potter, and Noah as practice/emergency guys. Maybe add one more shooter on the wing. That would be a pretty good roster.Leave a comment:
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