{"id":673689,"date":"2026-03-23T02:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/673689\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T02:17:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:17:34","slug":"kentucky-didnt-get-moneys-worth-from-22m-roster-its-on-mark-pope-to-get-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/673689\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky didn\u2019t get money\u2019s worth from $22M roster. It\u2019s on Mark Pope to get more"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 Mark Pope spent the final minutes of Kentucky\u2019s season with his arms crossed, watching quietly Sunday afternoon as the most expensive roster in the history of college basketball exited in the second round of the NCAA Tournament without much of a fight.<\/p>\n

Pope walked off the floor by himself following the 82-63 loss against second-seeded Iowa State<\/a> until a staffer darted in front of him to hand him a box score. Pope folded it in half down the middle to hide its contents. There was no need to look; Pope knew the story it told.<\/p>\n

His second season at Kentucky never went according to plan, with two of his biggest investments \u2014 sophomore center Jayden Quaintance and senior point guard Jaland Lowe \u2014 playing only three games together and neither seeing the floor from mid-January on. Kentucky was also without Acaden Lewis, the original backup plan at point guard who de-committed last spring and ended up at Villanova. That will be the asterisk that Pope can place on the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were disappointed that we never got to run with the roster that we thought we had,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n

Pope had good intentions when he set out to build that roster last spring. He won over the fan base in his first year with a team that ran beautiful offense and played together, but ultimately wasn\u2019t good enough, particularly on the defensive end, to compete for a national championship.<\/p>\n

Kentucky spent a reported $22 million dollars to fix that. Pope didn\u2019t run from that number in the preseason; he embraced it. Almost flaunted it. He wanted to have the most and spend the most.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s spent the past few months backpedaling, pushing against Kentucky\u2019s salary pool \u2014 \u201cwe\u2019ve heard so many numbers go around\u201d \u2014 and even lecturing the media this past week when he was asked if Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg\u2019s claim<\/a> that Kentucky was ready to spend $7 million-$9 million to land him was true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was going to tell you the percent of stuff that was actually reported accurately,\u201d Pope said Thursday, ahead of UK\u2019s dramatic overtime win over Santa Clara in the first round, \u201cit would probably be in the fifth percentile.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if there was ever a time to celebrate Kentucky\u2019s willingness to have the most and spend the most, this was it. Pope should have said that Kentucky wanted Lendeborg, and the process, while unsuccessful, was the right one. Lendeborg has been one of the best players in college basketball, making top-seeded Michigan one of the national title favorites.<\/p>\n

Pope could have said that Kentucky will continue to aggressively pursue the best players. Because what Kentucky did instead was borderline reckless.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to spend what Kentucky spent, you better be landing no-doubt NBA players. Several of them. That\u2019s what it takes to compete for national titles. Kentucky has two players expected to play in the NBA next year: Quaintance, who was a risky signing because he had surgery on March 19 last year to repair a torn ACL and ended up playing only four games, and Otega Oweh, projected to go No. 58.<\/p>\n

The belief around college basketball was that Kentucky spent last spring just to spend, outbidding itself for players and shelling out salaries that were way beyond how many of its players were valued on the open market.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Otega Oweh hit a buzzer-beater Friday that led to a Kentucky win in overtime. But the Wildcats were no match for Iowa State on Sunday. (Jamie Squire \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Iowa State was missing its best player Sunday in forward Joshua Jefferson and still appeared to have a talent advantage. Iowa State, which spent significantly less than seventh-seeded Kentucky, was the perfect picture of how to win in this era. The Cyclones invested in retention, using a majority of their name, image and likeness dollars on their big three \u2014 Jefferson, Milan Momcilovic and Tamin Lipsey \u2014 and moneyballed the rest, identifying players who fit the system and would play with the kind of effort that coach T.J. Otzelberger demands.<\/p>\n

Pope tried to buy effort.<\/p>\n

His response to his first UK team\u2019s defensive struggles was to recruit hard-playing athletes like Mouhamed Dioubate and Denzel Aberdeen who could guard. Pope banked on his ability to always build efficient offenses and overcome any skill set limitations the new players had.<\/p>\n

Early in the season, Kentucky\u2019s offense sputtered and the defensive effort wasn\u2019t there. Eventually, the Cats tried harder, and Pope deserves credit for salvaging a potential nightmare early. Kentucky started 5-4, and it could have gotten a lot worse.<\/p>\n

But Sunday was a reminder that these players just didn\u2019t fit him. Early on, after ball movement led to an open 3 by Collin Chandler, Pope turned to his bench with a big smile and a fist pump. \u201cWe\u2019re moving the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re moving the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is what brings him joy. Pope loves shooting. Loves spacing. Loves beautiful offense. Loves unselfish play. Two years ago, when he was still at BYU, the Cougars carved up the same Iowa State defense with ball movement (21 assists to just 11 turnovers) and floor spacing (13 of 35 3s), which opened up the inside to help the Cougars make 14 of 22 2s.<\/p>\n

The ball movement didn\u2019t last long on Sunday, as a 20-9 lead for the Cats quickly disappeared with an 11-0 Iowa State run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t move the ball,\u201d Pope told his assistants. \u201cCan\u2019t dribble. We\u2019ve got to pass it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kentucky would end up with 20 turnovers and just 11 assists. Too much one-on-one. Too much panicking. Not enough skill to make Iowa State pay for almost always trying to put two on the ball.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the lack of offensive success led to a defeated defensive effort.<\/p>\n

And on the other sideline, Iowa State, even without its star, looked a lot like what Pope had envisioned for his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we were going to have depth and physicality and size,\u201d Pope said. \u201cAnd we felt like we were going to be able to come wave after wave after wave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the Wildcats didn\u2019t quite drown in expectations. But they far from lived up to what was expected for that price tag.<\/p>\n

Ideally, Pope will be able to get to an approach that blends what John Calipari used to do in Lexington and his year-one approach when he landed players who fit him. Cal could deliver and identify stars, and for all his faults, he rarely missed when he swung big in recruiting.<\/p>\n

Pope should get a mulligan, even if most with a realistic eye would question whether, at full strength, this was actually a team that could compete for championships. His job is not in jeopardy yet, but in this era, when you spend and do not win at the level that\u2019s expected, donors will give for only so long. Eventually, they\u2019ll hit pause, and the way to get them to give again is to change coaches.<\/p>\n

The honeymoon is over. And soon Pope will be held to his words that at Kentucky, the expectations are to have the best of everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the greatest place in the world to play basketball,\u201d he said Sunday, which marked six straight tournaments without UK playing in the Elite Eight, the longest drought in school history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes with all of the stuff. It comes with all the pressure and the scrutiny. These guys won games in the NCAA Tournament back-to-back years, and at any other school, that would be good, and at Kentucky, the uniqueness of Kentucky, that\u2019s not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can spend your way to the right answers. You\u2019d better just not keep missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 Mark Pope spent the final minutes of Kentucky\u2019s season with his arms crossed, watching quietly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,3075,354,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-673689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-kentucky-wildcats","11":"tag-mens-college-basketball","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116276091811019041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}