Former Kentucky Wildcat and 2012 national champion Kyle Wiltjer might be playing professional basketball overseas, but he still keeps a very close eye on what is happening in Lexington. Over the weekend, Wiltjer took to X to ask a very simple, yet incredibly loaded question: "Does Kentucky basketball have a GM?"
The answer is, plainly, no. Despite a hard time recruiting in the portal last offseason, wherein top targets such Donovan Dent spurned Kentucky, Mark Pope has been steadfast in his hardened approach.
And when Wiltjer was informed of that steadfastness, he offered a proposition that sparked a fascinating conversation about the modern era of college basketball.
Wiltjer's Pitch For a New Requirement
"I still have some years playing, but I’m going to start doing my homework on the NCAA NIL era in my free time," Wiltjer wrote. "With this much money being thrown around, I think a GM for every program should be required. Thoughts?"
Jeff Goodman then chimed in, as he tends to when Kentucky is mentioned, agreeing with Wiltjer and expanding on the idea. "Not just a GM. If a program has real money, they should have two people running offseason. Two-pronged. One is a former coach who does initial evals of potential portal guys, other deals with agents, salaries, etc."
Yeah agreed. Gotta treat this like a real front office if this much money is being offered. Guys leaving Europe to make more than nba league minimum !
— Kyle Wiltjer (@kwiltj) May 4, 2026
Wiltjer fired right back in accord: "Yeah agreed. Gotta treat this like a real front office if this much money is being offered. Guys leaving Europe to make more than nba league minimum!"
And they're both right. If Kentucky has money to spend and players to get, there needs to be more than just a head coach in the room making those decisions.
Keegan Brown's Role
Technically, Kentucky did make a move in this direction back in March by hiring Keegan Brown. Brown is heavily involved in scouting coordination, NIL allocation, and analytics. But, for whatever reason, Kentucky stopped short of hanging the general manager keys to Brown.
Regardless of the reason, though, modern college programs tend to operate at a higher level with someone handling higher affairs.
Mark Pope can look right across the road, over at Kroger Field, to see the benefits of hiring someone in that position.
Will Stein Paving the Way
When Will Stein took over as the head coach of Kentucky Football, he immediately recognized this new necessity in the front office. Bringing in Pat Biondo, from Oregon, to serve as the program's official general manager got the Stein era off on the right foot.
And pairing Biondo with Director of Player Personnel Pete Nochta, Stein created a recruiting machine. The results speak for themselves: Kentucky is currently building a Top 10 recruiting class, complete with the No. 2 quarterback in the country and several four-star prospects already locked in. Stein delegated the management side, and it untied the hands of everyone involved.
Having Brown in place is certainly helpful, but according to Kentucky's continued struggles on the recruiting front, it may not yet be enough. Differences between football and basketball aside, there's something to be said about Stein seamlessly selling Kentucky to top players nationwide in a program objectively less esteemed than the one at Rupp Arena.
If one of the only noticeable differences is the implementation of a general manager, little else needs to be said.
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