Last season is going to be a point of pain for Kentucky Basketball for a long time to come. The Cats spent a small fortune to try to rally around Mark Pope in year two, and the result - not entirely Pope's fault, to be fair - was a 14-loss season that saw them finish a historic program-low 9th in the SEC. That all culminated in a 19-point loss to Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Since then, Coach Pope has been busy trying to reload the roster this offseason; as fate would have it, he's circled Milan Momcilovic as a priority target. The same Milan Momcilovic who scorched Kentucky for 20 in that very aforementioned loss.
After that Round of 32 game, Momcilovic's teammate, Iowa State's Nate Heise, said, "When you get them [Kentucky] to that point, it's like 'Let's just be done.' I think that's their mindset."
Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't feel like a positive omen for Kentucky's chase of Momcilovic.
Pope Pushing For a Turnaround
Why would a player who just helped break your team want to come join that coach the following year? That's the questions Pope is grappling with in this recruitment, but clearly, Kentucky isn't off the table.
Pope not only has to work through that arguable conflict, but he'll have to outpace other programs in on the star in a similarly expensive way.
Enter, of course, Pat Kelsey and the Louisville Cardinals, who have absolutely reloaded this offseason. If Kelsey can land Momcilovic over Pope - both programs are involved - it'd be Pope's most brutal misfire of the offseason. Losing Momcilovic to anyone would be bad enough, but to your arch rival? I'd hate to see the aftermath.
A Deadline Fast Approaching
Louisville has already secured the top transfer portal class, per 247Sports. The Cards closing the deal with Milan would not only put a harsh spotlight on Pope, but it'd make the guys down the road immediate, nationwide title favorites. Although, we can't press the big red panic button just yet.
Kentucky's roster needs star-power, and Pope put all his eggs in the Tyran Stokes basket only for the No. 1 player in the nation to turn heel. But the potential is there on Kentucky's sideline, given good health and the proper tools, and that isn't the perspective of any one desperate Cats fan alone.
Momcilovic himself knows it (per the Lexington Herald-Leader): "I obviously went against Pope at BYU his first year (in the Big 12), and I loved how his team played. I think we went 1-1 against them, but they killed us at their place, because they fly the ball up the court and shoot 3s."
"I really like the way they play...And obviously, Kentucky last year, he didn’t have enough shooters around him to really coach, I feel like, the way he wanted." The guy Kentucky wants sees the vision; all that's left to do now, of course, is to get him to commit to it.
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