For Mark Pope’s first Kentucky basketball team, this might be the most important thing Read more at…

New Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope talks to the media during his introductory press conference at Rupp Arena on Sunday, April 14, 2024. A packed house turned out for Pope’s introduction in Lexington. BY JOHN CLAY| UK ATHLETICS For all the immediate goodwill built up by Mark Pope in his first few weeks on the job and all the accolades thrown Kentucky’s way as this 2024-25 roster has come together, the praise hasn’t necessarily been reflected in the preseason projections. As those months-early Top 25 rankings have been posted and updated by national college basketball outlets this spring, the Wildcats have often been on the back end of them. When they’re even included at all. With a 2024-25 roster that now sits at 12 scholarship players, Pope and his UK coaching staff have, by pretty much all accounts, overachieved in the early going, building next season’s team — quite literally — from scratch and seemingly putting together a squad capable of competing at the highest level in year one. In a vacuum, the recruiting results have been spectacular, each new addition celebrated as a possible impact player right away, the parts making up a whole that has re-energized the Kentucky fan base and brought national attention to Pope’s roster-building efforts. And some do have UK ranked relatively high with about five months to go until the start of the 2024-25 season.

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With a 2024-25 roster that now sits at 12 scholarship players, Pope and his UK coaching staff have, by pretty much all accounts, overachieved in the early going, building next season’s team — quite literally — from scratch and seemingly putting together a squad capable of competing at the highest level in year one. In a vacuum, the recruiting results have been spectacular, each new addition celebrated as a possible impact player right away, the parts making up a whole that has re-energized the Kentucky fan base and brought national attention to Pope’s roster-building efforts. And some do have UK ranked relatively high with about five months to go until the start of the 2024-25 season. ADVERTISEMENTSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

A recent Top 25 rundown from 247Sports placed the Cats at No. 15 nationally. The Athletic’s most recent Top 25 — updated on May 30 — had Kentucky at No. 24 in the country, and that was posted just hours before Jaxson Robinson, the leading scorer for Pope at BYU last season, revealed that he had pulled his name out of the NBA draft and committed to Kentucky. ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25, which was posted the same morning, didn’t have UK in the rankings, but the Cats were mentioned fourth among the teams “next in line” for the list. ESPN analyst Jeff Borzello, in a follow-up article a few days later, said that Robinson’s commitment was enough to push Kentucky into the Top 25 (though the actual rankings have not yet been updated). But others still have the Cats on the outside looking in.

UK basketball question marks

“I’m a big fan of Mark,” were the first words out of Lunardi’s mouth when talking to the Herald-Leader on Thursday morning. The longtime ESPN analyst noted that he first met Kentucky’s new coach when he was in his first season at BYU — the 2019-20 campaign — and has closely followed his career, predicting bright times ahead for the Wildcats.

And while Lunardi does see immediate success for this Kentucky team — he’s got the Cats in that 25-28 range, after all — there are certainly some question marks.

First off, all 12 scholarship players are new to Lexington, and Robinson is the only one with any previous experience playing under Pope, who coached him the past two years at BYU.

When discussing UK’s roster, Lunardi mentioned the old Strat-O-Matic baseball board game, where players’ statistics are reflected on cards and the game unfolds as batter and pitcher cards are individually matched up against each other.

“These coaches are basically trading Strat-O-Matic cards,” Lunardi said of all the movement in the transfer portal, leading to questions of chemistry across the country. “… The cards didn’t have to get along. And pass to each other.”

He acknowledged the same could be said for dozens of other college basketball programs, though few, if any, contenders will have turnover to the degree found on Kentucky’s roster.

Lunardi confirmed that his 7 seed projection included the knowledge that Robinson would be on the team. He spoke highly of several incoming UK players, though he did have questions about how some of the guys stepping up in competition level might fare next season.

Based in Philadelphia, the bracketologist used Amari Williams — a transfer from Drexel and the three-time Coastal Athletic Association defensive player of the year — as an example.

“I saw a lot of Amari Williams. And he’s a really nice player,” Lunardi said. “I don’t know if he’s going to thrive in the SEC.”

Along those lines, Lunardi wondered aloud how longer, more athletic SEC defenders might more effectively defend Dayton transfer Koby Brea, who shot 49.8% from 3-point range last season. He stressed that Pope had signed some “really good” players.

“But they didn’t sign Zion Williamson,” Lunardi said. “There isn’t a guy that you go, ‘He’s so good’ or, ‘That duo is so good that it’s going to overcome growing pains.’ Like it’s 75-75 with a minute to go against a top-tier SEC opponent. Who’s the guy? I don’t know that yet.”

Robinson, who averaged 14.2 points per game and earned Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors at BYU last season, might be the most likely leading scorer for Pope’s first UK squad. A few others — Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia) and Otega Oweh (Oklahoma) — averaged double-digit scoring at the high-major level last season, though none of those players played on NCAA Tournament teams.