Portal

[TrueblueCATfan]

Freeman is a Johnnie. KSR Reporting.

On to the next big guy. Oh and Mo D is playing in Baton Rouge for Will Wade next year.

That blows my mind...why would he want to play for Will Wade

[UKHoops01]

Why haven't they gone after Alvaro Folgueiras? At this point, having a Power Forward tandem of Folgueiras and Justin McBride would be decent, and make this horrible off-season somewhat salvageable. Bring those in and add Stokes and maybe.... MAYBE....you have a roster good enough to have a good season and make a fairly deep tournament run. Keep doing what they're doing, though, and this is a lost season for sure.

[bucsrule8872]

Freeman committed to St. John’s.

So what is Pope’s next move?

Wait and hope Momcilovic comes back and throw a bunch of cash at him?

Wait and try to get Christian Anderson if he enters the portal and go small ball with essentially 3 PGs?

Maybe go after McNeil as the third guard in a 3 guard lineup?

Throw our remaining money at Muurinen?

Split the money we would have used on Freeman to try to get several quality role players?

Personally, I’m thinking Muurinen is our best bet. Get him and Stokes plus a backup forward and center.

Something like this:

G Diallo/M. Williams
G Wilkins/K. Williams/Morton*
F Stokes/Hawthorne/Noah
F Muurinen/McBride
C Moreno/Dynes/Potter

*(KY native from Washington St.)

That would be a lot riding on a couple of Freshmen, but they are both highly touted.

Might be our best bet.

[Pobilly]

Man some of the vloggers out there are just plain fear mongering. They are reporting their opinion on who Pope will miss on next with no facts behind it and are reporting things like the portal closes tonight at midnight (womens portal does)(mens tomorrow at midnight), saying things like we will get no one else to commit worth playing. Just plain pathetic. Even UK reporters doing that kind of crap. Man the meltdown has moved from RR to the internet.

People might as well take a sip of a cool drink, cool off a bit, wait for the portal to close, wait to see which PF guys in the draft leave the draft, wait to see what overseas guys are an option and once our roster is set, then start figuring out if we are going to be a middle of the road SEC team, a top tier team, a cellar dweller or what ever. Come to grips with it. Then this fall when they start practicing see what we actually have as we have guys that should be better year 2 at UK, looking at you Kam and possible Braden. Then once the games start either follow the team or if you cannot watch live like me, check in each night to see if we win or lose and move on with life.

[UKHoops01]

Freeman committed to St. John’s.

So what is Pope’s next move?

Throw our remaining money at Muurinen?

Personally, I’m thinking Muurinen is our best bet. Get him and Stokes plus a backup forward and center.

Might be our best bet.

Gotta be honest....I wasn't familiar with Muurinen, so I looked him up.

After watching one video, I'm not impressed.

Now granted, it's only one video...I'm gonna research some more.....but here, I'm going to post the video I saw. What I see is a malnourished kid (6'10"", 185 lbs.!) with a long wing span who can dunk. Sorry, not impressed. In this video, he bricks a lotta bunnies....gimmie shots that he shouldn't considering his size and proximity to the rim. He also bricks a couple of jumpers (although he does have nice form)

I'm gonna try to find stats, but the level of competition he's going up against isn't what he'll be facing in the states/SEC. Also, I'm going to try to find more video because I'm really hoping this isn't a good indication of what he's capable of.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, but he's another guy that, judging from this video, doesn't do a lot for me:

https://youtu.be/kkxZTt7Zq6o?si=_m-P8dVozIe8-Gxe

[Matt Dillon]

Pope is such a freaking joke.

What do you do, copy and paste?

[Matt Dillon]

Man some of the vloggers out there are just plain fear mongering. They are reporting their opinion on who Pope will miss on next with no facts behind it and are reporting things like the portal closes tonight at midnight (womens portal does)(mens tomorrow at midnight), saying things like we will get no one else to commit worth playing. Just plain pathetic. Even UK reporters doing that kind of crap. Man the meltdown has moved from RR to the internet.

People might as well take a sip of a cool drink, cool off a bit, wait for the portal to close, wait to see which PF guys in the draft leave the draft, wait to see what overseas guys are an option and once our roster is set, then start figuring out if we are going to be a middle of the road SEC team, a top tier team, a cellar dweller or what ever. Come to grips with it. Then this fall when they start practicing see what we actually have as we have guys that should be better year 2 at UK, looking at you Kam and possible Braden. Then once the games start either follow the team or if you cannot watch live like me, check in each night to see if we win or lose and move on with life.

Great advice, Pobilly.

[Pete Hogwallop]

Man some of the vloggers out there are just plain fear mongering. They are reporting their opinion on who Pope will miss on next with no facts behind it and are reporting things like the portal closes tonight at midnight (womens portal does)(mens tomorrow at midnight), saying things like we will get no one else to commit worth playing. Just plain pathetic. Even UK reporters doing that kind of crap. Man the meltdown has moved from RR to the internet.

People might as well take a sip of a cool drink, cool off a bit, wait for the portal to close, wait to see which PF guys in the draft leave the draft, wait to see what overseas guys are an option and once our roster is set, then start figuring out if we are going to be a middle of the road SEC team, a top tier team, a cellar dweller or what ever. Come to grips with it. Then this fall when they start practicing see what we actually have as we have guys that should be better year 2 at UK, looking at you Kam and possible Braden. Then once the games start either follow the team or if you cannot watch live like me, check in each night to see if we win or lose and move on with life.

Solid advice. And I agree - most of the "news" is just made up fear and criticism. And people fall for it.

[Uncle Dave]

What do you do, copy and paste?

LMAO!!!

[EKYCat]

Man some of the vloggers out there are just plain fear mongering. They are reporting their opinion on who Pope will miss on next with no facts behind it and are reporting things like the portal closes tonight at midnight (womens portal does)(mens tomorrow at midnight), saying things like we will get no one else to commit worth playing. Just plain pathetic. Even UK reporters doing that kind of crap. Man the meltdown has moved from RR to the internet.

People might as well take a sip of a cool drink, cool off a bit, wait for the portal to close, wait to see which PF guys in the draft leave the draft, wait to see what overseas guys are an option and once our roster is set, then start figuring out if we are going to be a middle of the road SEC team, a top tier team, a cellar dweller or what ever. Come to grips with it. Then this fall when they start practicing see what we actually have as we have guys that should be better year 2 at UK, looking at you Kam and possible Braden. Then once the games start either follow the team or if you cannot watch live like me, check in each night to see if we win or lose and move on with life.

It is what it is. But what it is, ain't good. People have a right to be upset with last season and this offseason. Honestly, it's awful. If my kid is bringing home Cs and Ds on his tests I'm not going to wait for his report card at the end of the term to tell me what I already know is happening. The Pope experiment is failing. It's becoming apparent that the top tier talent doesn't want to play for him. I guess all our eggs are in Stokes basket. If he blows us off we're absolutely cooked.

[Cawood86]

What do you do, copy and paste?

Guarantee he does

[TrueblueCATfan]

What do you do, copy and paste?

LMAO..I almost spit my coffee out

[South jones]

Gotta stay positive
Pope still has a lot of options that people don't even know about. I think he will get things on the right track.
POSITIVE, NEGATIVITY WILL ONLY MAKE YOU MISRABLE.

[Pobilly]

It is what it is. But what it is, ain't good. People have a right to be upset with last season and this offseason. Honestly, it's awful. If my kid is bringing home Cs and Ds on his tests I'm not going to wait for his report card at the end of the term to tell me what I already know is happening. The Pope experiment is failing. It's becoming apparent that the top tier talent doesn't want to play for him. I guess all our eggs are in Stokes basket. If he blows us off we're absolutely cooked.

No you have to remember, I was not a Cal supporter ever. Do not like the guy, did not want that hire. I wanted portal guys over Stokes. I am old school. teams used to have ebbs and flows, ever 2 to 3 years they would be good and possible team to go far in the tourney as they had more SR and JR than FR and SO. I am not happy with how Pope has done things either. But I am not going to panic over this at all. I will wait. If we are bad, you will hear it from me. You will not hear it from me till the product is on the floor trying to play against competition.

[bthaunert]

That blows my mind...why would he want to play for Will Wade

Will Wade is a pretty good coach (and these kids don't care about his past) and more importantly, I'm sure they money was right.