That's a brutal last-minute loss for Bucky Ball. But somebody's gain. Dude is good.

Note that, at the end of that spiel, in which he used the standard word, 'crazy,' to describe the fan attention around Kentucky basketball, Pope corrected himself in real time and said he's trying to train himself to stop using that word. 'It's passion.'

So I talked to Mark Pope today, after the wild Andrew Carr story already published, but asked him about it anyway ... and his answer is an even wilder ride. This dude is all gas, no brakes.
✍️ theathletic.com/5464446/2024/0…

How's Mark Pope racking up players in the portal?

By going the extra mile. Or in Andrew Carr's case, the extra 300 miles round trip to pick him up at a Shell station in the middle of the night in Bowling Green.

theathletic.com/5464446/2024/0…

They haven’t been to the second weekend in five years and the new coach started with zero players three weeks ago. The fact I could even say that’s a possibility now means he’s done a terrific job so far. What am I missing here?

Elite sh— talker, clearly.

Last Friday, Mark Pope flew to Vegas to land Lamont Butler, flew back to host Aidan Mahaney, got a call that Andrew Carr's family had flight issues and diverted to Nashville.

He insisted on picking them up himself. Dropped them at their hotel at 4 a.m.
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Creighton gonna be real good again.

Confirmed this was about Kerr Kriisa, just slightly delayed. There’s not another “boom” in the hopper — yet.

Jaxson Robinson or another long wing who can get buckets would solidify Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team as an upper-half of the SEC roster with second-weekend potential, I think.

🗣️BBN

🗣️ Kentucky Men’s Basketball IS JUST DIFFERENT

#BBN #ItsJustDifferent

There have been two commitments today. And this is Fueger’s second “boom” GIF. A little delayed, but I don’t think there’s another one coming today.

And absurd thing to be typing, but I keep getting asked. So I believe that’s all the Kentucky roster additions today.

In three weeks, Mark Pope has added:

✅Mountain West defensive POY
✅NCAA 3-point % leader
✅3x CAA Defensive POY
✅An ACC starting stretch-4
✅A Big 12 starting wing
✅A Big 12 starting center/McDs AA
✅Pac-12 champ PG shooting 42% 3s
✅Top-40 recruit

Not bad.

Kentucky adds PG Kerr Kriisa, who started 93 games at Arizona and WVU and shot 42% from 3 last season. He’s made 238 career 3s and was a starter on a 33-win, Pac-12 champ No. 1 seed in 2022 at Zona.

So 42% and 50% (Brea) 3-point shooters added to the backcourt today.

There it is.

🗣️BBN

🗣️ Kentucky Men’s Basketball IS JUST DIFFERENT

#BBN #ItsJustDifferent

With the transfer portal entry window closing tonight, myself, CJ Moore and Kyle Tucker are going to be doing a national transfer portal mailbag.

Drop your questions here, and we'll get to as many as we can by early next week:
theathletic.com/5464596/2024/0…

Pope: 'By the numbers, Koby Brea is the most efficient mid-to-high major player in college basketball in the last decade. He’s the best returning shooter in college basketball next year. Koby is a dangerous, dangerous man.'

As Pope lands No. 8 today and No. 9 shortly, including seven transfers in three weeks, this story helps explain how he's selling players on him/the vision:

Get it? Brea(th). Hee-haw.