I've been looking around online ever since Stokes made his announcement, and it doesn't really appear that many UK fans are all that upset about it. Now whether that's because that's what everyone was expecting, or if it's because Stokes really isn't all that likeable, or if people don't want to return to the days where freshmen ruled Kentucky basketball or just what the reason is.....but apparently people aren't really all that upset about it. Somebody commented earlier about maybe it was a "blessing in disguise" that Stokes signed elsewhere. Some people speculate that this could be what ultimately leads to Pope's dismissal after this year, and there's a large number of fans here and at RR who would love to see that.....maybe that's the reason people aren't upset. Who knows....but it is kind of fascinating seeing people almost numb and not being all that disappointed.
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He was definitely milking it for all that it was worth... taking free trips/visits where he was basically "wined and dined" (given the Five Star treatment) and being treated like he's special. I'm sure he ate all that up, because the attention was all about him and the longer he drew it out the more attention he got.
Like I was saying, there's a lot of UK fans like TrueblueCATFan that didn't like the guy because he doesn't really hide the fact that he's pretty arrogant and self-centered. Really talented basketball player and one with a great skill set that we definitely could have used, but also someone that would bring the type baggage and headaches that many in the fan base, and probably even Coach Pope himself, would like to avoid.Comment
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I get everything you have said on it and do agree with the points, but the frustrating part is that Pope continued to be all in on Stokes. Who knows if that caused us to lose on potential portal players or froze up some funds that could've gone to another elite HS player. That is what makes me shake my head. We allowed Stokes to drag this out and now when we look around we are going have hope the staff can pull a rabbit out of the hat at the very end.Comment
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I don't care in the slightest. A player like that can make or break a program. Since he's not coming here, we can only speculate about which it might have been.Philippians 4:11-4:13Comment
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Pope’s desperation is embarassing and pathetic. Man he sucks at recruiting.Comment
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I agree. I have my own little theory, but that's all it is and unfortunately we'll likely never know if it's true or not. But I believe Pope was "trying to land the big fish" this year, because his first two years he landed "nice pieces", but no true superstar that was a lottery pick type talent. I think he wanted to show that he could pull a Pitino and land a Jamal Mashburn. I think he wanted to have some guys who would be NBA lottery or first round picks that he could use as a selling point to future recruits and to the fan base. It really seemed like Stokes was the center piece and that he was trying to assemble a team pleasing to him in hopes that Stokes would want to come to UK. Stokes was buddies with his former teammate Zoom Diallo, and low and behold Pope lands Zoom Diallo. Donnie Freeman was the highest rated player and Power Forward that Pope realistically had a chance at, and so he went hard after him....to his own detriment when he missed out on Sebastian Rancik (who, by all accounts, wanted to go to UK).
So I definitely agree. Seems that Mark Pope isn't very good at reading the room. He seems to be a bit naive and lacks some self-awareness. I think he's using a recruiting approach that worked on him and people in his generation better than it does on kids today... and that is he's trying to sell the university and Kentucky's tradition rather than role, playing time, and development for future NBA earning potential with these kids.Comment
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Yeah, I think Pope really wants to land a top dog type talent. I saw a stat floating around, think it was from KSR, but it was something like 14 of the top 20 HS recruits visited UK at one point and UK landed none of them. That's pretty wild. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the recruiting pitch meetings. Just me spit balling, but I wonder if he gets way in the weeds with his analytic talk with recruits. It loses me as a fan, I can only imagine an 17-21 year old hearing it. You alluded to it, but I think there are three main things recruits want to know/hear: 1. How will you use me next season 2. How will you improve/showcase me for the NBA 3. How much NILComment
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I thought you were joking.... and it WAS funny because that seems like such a Mark Pope thing ...but then I saw that he really is going after 6'8" Maccabi Tel Aviv Forward Márcio Santos.
....who averaged an impressive 8.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in a Euro league last year. On a positive note he did shoot 40% from 3-point range.
EDIT: He doesn't look bad. Here's a YouTube video of him:
Last edited by UKHoops01; 11 hours ago.Comment
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Pope has to have a monster season next year and land some top talent in both the portal and the high school ranks to get a 4th season. Will any of those happen? What has the best chance to happen?Comment
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