Kentucky basketball is not in an enviable place. It just had its worst SEC finish ever, there are zero recruits for 2026, former players are criticizing the team's belief, and Mark Pope is battling for his job. Desperation makes us all do things we may never do, and Kentucky just set up a Zoom visit with G-League star Dink Pate.
NEW: Kentucky is expected to have a Zoom call with G League guard Dink Pate within the next week, sources tell KSR. https://t.co/ZPQw1QpQ8H pic.twitter.com/AEqMMSje14
— Jacob Polacheck (@PolacheckKSR) March 8, 2026
Mark Pope recently said, "Everywhere the NCAA declares is legal for us to recruit, we'll explore in-depth." But he wasn't singing that tune just a few short weeks ago.
The receipts: What Mark Pope said before the slump
Rewind a couple of weeks, and Mark Pope was calling for the NCAA to "take a stand" after Charles Bediako got a preliminary injunction to play for Alabama.
"I'm going to take a minute to talk about this... we're all shaking our hands being like this is so incredibly creative. The one stopgap that is kind of spreading right now that maybe has some legs, is kind of a last stand, is the NCAA does get to decide who gets to go to the NCAA tournament. Like, they get to decide that they have that power."
Certainly sounds like he wasn't a fan of things like that back then. So, what changed his mind?
Losing.
The desperation factor
Mark Pope doesn't like to lose, BBN hates to lose, and Kentucky is 19-12. If you are losing, you get desperate, and when you are desperate, things change, sometimes not for the better.
Now, there are things that make the Pate situation a little different. Dink signed with G-League Ignite out of high school, never signed a 2-way contract with a pro team, and has never played college ball. So, it's certainly different. But if Mark Pope was winning on the recruiting trail, do we think that this would be on the radar? I don't.
A spectacular failure in philosophy
And that’s a problem. It's what caused this season to go off the rails. Mark Pope saw what happened last year and tried to totally flip how he plays. Gone were the shooters and offensive pieces; in their place were "dawgs" who could defend and be more athletic. It has failed spectacularly, with one of the highest-paid rosters playing on the opening day of the conference tournament.
But he wants to win, and like he said, if the NCAA allows it, is it really wrong?