2026-2027 Roster discussion thread

[Tomcats1990]

Pope signs Hawthorne’s little brother a high school PG. Maybe Pope is going 4 guards and a C this season.

[Helix]

I remember during my hockey days the whole team going to all you can eat buffets and putting in work. One guy even brought his own bag and pulled out some orange chicken on the bus ride after haha

Minnesotan here. Never play, but you had me a hockey :-)

[Rondo#9]

Diallo / Wilkins / M Williams
Wilkins / Morton
Kam Williams/ Hawthorne / Noah
McBride / Kam Williams / Noah
Moreno / Dynes / Potter

Let's roll, baby. Big things on the horizon for Kentucky basketball.

[Rondo#9]

UKHoops01 How you love that roster projection my boy?

[bucsrule8872]

Diallo / Wilkins / M Williams
Wilkins / Morton
Kam Williams/ Hawthorne / Noah
McBride / Kam Williams / Noah
Moreno / Dynes / Potter

Let's roll, baby. Big things on the horizon for Kentucky basketball.

Hope we add a couple more guys. I really don’t see McBride being our starting 4. If he is, it will be a long, long season.

[Pobilly]

Hope we add a couple more guys. I really don’t see McBride being our starting 4. If he is, it will be a long, long season.

Agreed. Maybe Fla Coach leaves, that lets their guys enter the portal for a 30 day window after their coach leaves. Maybe we can get one of their bigs. Maybe it will snow in July in Kentucky. Who knows.

[UKHoops01]

UKHoops01 How you love that roster projection my boy?

You really don't want to know.

Really.

[UKHoops01]

Hope we add a couple more guys. I really don’t see McBride being our starting 4. If he is, it will be a long, long season.

Same for Kam at the 3. I'm nowhere near as high on him as some in our fan base are. Good bench piece/backup forward, but if he's a starter a bit of the wind will be sucked out from under my sails.

[UKHoops01]

A Kansas fan said this tonight and a crazy amount of people propped his post:

"I'd rather have Yessoufou and another really good player than Stokes"

I'd like to have Yessoufou AND Stokes! Wilkins can be primary combo guard off the bench spelling both Diallo and Yessoufou and maybe we can somehow land a Power Forward, if Mark Pope ever figures out how to recruit one.

[EKYCat]

I'm still baffled they lost out on not only Freeman, but Rancik to Florida State of all places. Rancik would've been the perfect fit, with added value because; Pope needed to show Stokes the roster is coming together, and show him he wouldn't be called on to play PF....

Couldn't even do that right, he's essentially giving Stokes the green light to go to Kansas. Unbelievable.

I bet Stokes goes to Oregon.

[TrueblueCATfan]

When is Stokes going to announce

[EKYCat]

When is Stokes going to announce

Anybody's guess is as good as mine.

[UKHoops01]

I'm still baffled they lost out on not only Freeman, but Rancik to Florida State of all places. Rancik would've been the perfect fit, with added value because; Pope needed to show Stokes the roster is coming together, and show him he wouldn't be called on to play PF....

Couldn't even do that right, he's essentially giving Stokes the green light to go to Kansas. Unbelievable.

I disagree a little bit. I think part of the obsession with Freeman over Rancik WAS to appease Stokes! I think Pope thought if he could land Diallo AND Freeman...that Stokes would be more likely to think that the kind of talent he would be surrounded by would be good enough for him to be able to win and keep him happy. I'm not sure that Stokes viewed Rancik in the same way that he viewed Freeman.... and THAT may have been a big part of the problem.

[Rondo#9]

I disagree a little bit. I think part of the obsession with Freeman over Rancik WAS to appease Stokes! I think Pope thought if he could land Diallo AND Freeman...that Stokes would be more likely to think that the kind of talent he would be surrounded by would be good enough for him to be able to win and keep him happy. I'm not sure that Stokes viewed Rancik in the same way that he viewed Freeman.... and THAT may have been a big part of the problem.

We don't know how Stokes views anybody except Diallo and Tay Kinney to some degree. I only put emphasis on Rancik because he should've been easier to attain. I'm not sure why there was ever a Freeman obsession by anyone, Pope included. Once Rancik went off the board I obviously wanted him. But like I said, I'm not sure how Pope f***** this up so badly. Just take Rancik man, he should've saw the red flags all over Freeman, especially once he started looking for other suitors around the time UConn & Alabama passed on him and it was time for Rancik to make a decision. At that point you just take Rancik & forget about Freeman, Pope had a full night to think it over after UConn & Alabama fell through and Freeman still didn't want to commit. Our innocent Mormon probably thought "he's an indecisive kid. There's no chance I'm getting played here"

[UKHoops01]

We don't know how Stokes views anybody except Diallo and Tay Kinney to some degree. I only put emphasis on Rancik because he should've been easier to attain. I'm not sure why there was ever a Freeman obsession by anyone, Pope included. Once Rancik went off the board I obviously wanted him. But like I said, I'm not sure how Pope f***** this up so badly. Just take Rancik man, he should've saw the red flags all over Freeman, especially once he started looking for other suitors around the time UConn & Alabama passed on him and it was time for Rancik to make a decision. At that point you just take Rancik & forget about Freeman, Pope had a full night to think it over after UConn & Alabama fell through and Freeman still didn't want to commit. Our innocent Mormon probably thought "he's an indecisive kid. There's no chance I'm getting played here"

That's true that we don't know how Stokes viewed anyone but Diallo, but we do know that there was some reason Pope prioritized Freeman over Rancik to the point that he missed out on Rancik. Bottom line, Pope mishandled that situation just like he's pretty much mishandled this entire recruiting/portal cycle.