I'm glad Mark Pope did what John Calipari refused to do. 

If Kentucky would have let Trent Noah go to South Carolina, it could have been a replay of the Chris Lofton years. 

Now Travis Perry and Trent Noah go from playing at Rupp for the state championship to being teammates for the Cats. 

Let's go!

9 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

I'm glad Mark Pope did what John Calipari refused to do. 

If Kentucky would have let Trent Noah go to South Carolina, it could have been a replay of the Chris Lofton years. 

Now Travis Perry and Trent Noah go from playing at Rupp for the state championship to being teammates for the Cats. 

Let's go!

While I think Trent will be very good, that is a pretty high comparison comparing him to Lofton. Lofton was a third team all American as a freshman and a consensus all American his sophomore and junior years. I don’t see that for Trent, at least not right away his freshman year like Lofton did. 

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

While I think Trent will be very good, that is a pretty high comparison comparing him to Lofton. Lofton was a third team all American as a freshman and a consensus all American his sophomore and junior years. I don’t see that for Trent, at least not right away his freshman year like Lofton did. 

That is why I used the word could instead of would to start. Also the kid is plenty good enough to have been offered by Cal everyone has their own opinion's but I thought he was the best player in the state this season. Like everything else time will tell.

I know the recruiting game is different with transfers, but it’s a struggle to see the final Freshman recruiting rankings and UK does not have anyone in the top 30.

5 hours ago, bugatti said:

I know the recruiting game is different with transfers, but it’s a struggle to see the final Freshman recruiting rankings and UK does not have anyone in the top 30.

Let’s see what playing without top freshman is like, couldn’t be any worse than playing with a bunch of top 20 freshman and failing badly the past few seasons.

8 hours ago, bugatti said:

I know the recruiting game is different with transfers, but it’s a struggle to see the final Freshman recruiting rankings and UK does not have anyone in the top 30.

 

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Let’s see what playing without top freshman is like, couldn’t be any worse than playing with a bunch of top 20 freshman and failing badly the past few seasons.

Knowing that Cal left the closet 100% empty, I for one am pretty excited about the quality of team Coach Pope has been able to put together in such a brief period of time.  This may be overly harsh, but I am excited to see a team hopefully looking forward to playing for something other than next year’s NBA draft.

9 hours ago, bugatti said:

I know the recruiting game is different with transfers, but it’s a struggle to see the final Freshman recruiting rankings and UK does not have anyone in the top 30.

Chandler out of high school was a 4 Star with a 97 rating. That would have put him between 19 and 23rd in this year's class.

10 hours ago, bugatti said:

I know the recruiting game is different with transfers, but it’s a struggle to see the final Freshman recruiting rankings and UK does not have anyone in the top 30.

It is strange, but I am ok with it. Ideally going forward it would be nice to have maybe 2 top 30 freshmen. I would not have said that 4 or 5 years ago. Now, if a team plays starts more than 2 freshmen, I don't think they win a title in this NIL/portal era. 

13 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

It is strange, but I am ok with it. Ideally going forward it would be nice to have maybe 2 top 30 freshmen. I would not have said that 4 or 5 years ago. Now, if a team plays starts more than 2 freshmen, I don't think they win a title in this NIL/portal era. 

Seems to me that I read there was only 1 freshman to start among all 4 of this year’s Final Four.  Correct me if that is wrong, relying on dangerous memory.

3 hours ago, Oldercoach said:

Seems to me that I read there was only 1 freshman to start among all 4 of this year’s Final Four.  Correct me if that is wrong, relying on dangerous memory.

Yes, correct, you probably read that in my post here on BGP. 

There were only 3 freshmen starting in the elite 8 with 2 of them on Duke. And I would argue Duke wouldn't have been in the elite 8 if Houston's Jamal Shead didn't get injured.

On 5/9/2024 at 3:02 PM, nikeman49 said:

Let’s see what playing without top freshman is like, couldn’t be any worse than playing with a bunch of top 20 freshman and failing badly the past few seasons.

 

On 5/9/2024 at 6:11 PM, Oldercoach said:

 

Knowing that Cal left the closet 100% empty, I for one am pretty excited about the quality of team Coach Pope has been able to put together in such a brief period of time.  This may be overly harsh, but I am excited to see a team hopefully looking forward to playing for something other than next year’s NBA draft.

 

On 5/9/2024 at 7:46 PM, Voice of Reason said:

It is strange, but I am ok with it. Ideally going forward it would be nice to have maybe 2 top 30 freshmen. I would not have said that 4 or 5 years ago. Now, if a team plays starts more than 2 freshmen, I don't think they win a title in this NIL/portal era. 

For the record, I'm not griping. As I've said for multiple years, unless you have a surefire NBA stud coming from the high school ranks, your better gamble is with the portal. This is just how the game works now.

I do get a kick out of every transfer that signs, we act like UK (or insert another team) struck gold. In reality, nobody could identify 95% of these guys.

It seems UK's roster is nearing completion. Are we able to identify any starters at this point?

11 minutes ago, bugatti said:

It seems UK's roster is nearing completion. Are we able to identify any starters at this point?

Good graphic of the roster from @wildcatsongue on Twitter (x)

1 hour ago, bugatti said:

 

 

For the record, I'm not griping. As I've said for multiple years, unless you have a surefire NBA stud coming from the high school ranks, your better gamble is with the portal. This is just how the game works now.

I do get a kick out of every transfer that signs, we act like UK (or insert another team) struck gold. In reality, nobody could identify 95% of these guys.

Evidently you watch very little college hoops, every player Pope has gotten thru the portal are recognizable by this guy.

2 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Evidently you watch very little college hoops, every player Pope has gotten thru the portal are recognizable by this guy.

Correct. I'm with the 95% (and that is probably low) that does not keep up with Farleigh Dickinson.