Mark Pope has Plenty of Options on his Recruiting Board

Mark Pope got a commitment from Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr this week and celebrated with him. (UK Athletics Photo)

If you think you are having trouble keeping up with all the transfer portal players that new Kentucky coach Mark Pope and his staff are recruiting, there is a good reason for that.

Pope said during an appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio Monday that he had 29 players on his recruiting board — a huge number for a coach who has only been on the job about two weeks.

Pope has recruited five players to join the team in those two weeks along with keeping Lyon County Mr. Basketball Travis Perry committed to the Wildcats.

“We’re actually working with 29 guys that we’ve really, really zeroed in on,” Pope said. “Every time somebody breaks a bit in our direction or maybe fades a little bit out of our direction, we do more research and more reconnaissance and hear more information about guys and how they’re built.

“I’m elated with where we are right now. We’ve got a ton of work to do. We feel like we’re really close in a lot of areas.”

Translation: Pope and his staff have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C and then contingency plans if those don’t work out.

He compared his roster construction to a puzzle where he was only the right pieces but noting that each piece he adds might change how the next puzzle pieces needs to look.

He has had four players transfer to UK — Lamont Butler of San Diego State, Otega Oweh of Oklahoma, Andrew Carr of Wake Forest and Amari Williams of Drexel.

Highly-touted forward Great Osobor of Utah State is on an official visit to UK now and seems to be trending Kentucky’s way. Shooter Koby Brea of Dayton is scheduled to visit this week. Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney visited last weekend but committed to UConn Monday.

“I knew that we had to put this stuff together really, really fast, okay? I kind of zeroed in on a short list of guys and ended up with actually the four guys that I was desperate to get. And then we’re taking a little pause. I have some more people to add to the staff but I need to take a little pause right now and just kind of see how our pieces are fitting together and then we’ll go light speed again (on recruiting),” Pope said.

Light speed could kick in on Wednesday — the deadline for players to enter the transfer portal. It could kick in again on May 29 — the deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA draft and play another year of college basketball.

“I don’t know how fast we can get to 10 or 11 or 12 (players), but if we get there before this draft deadline, we definitely will take a pause just because we’re gonna leave some room open in case — we’re talking to a bunch of guys that are in that category,” Pope said. “We’re gonna have to leave a little bit of space but we’re not gonna leave too much space because there are really talented players that actually fit us and fit together now.”

Translation: There are enough players available now to fill out a roster that Pope would like to have and he won’t gamble on a lot of players maybe getting out of the draft and then maybe picking Kentucky.