Mark Pope looks to be losing a late-stage recruiting battle to historic rival UCLA

Kentucky Basketball is often considered the pinnacle of the sport on the collegiate level, and rightfully so. Only one team has more than the Cats' eight national championships, that being the UCLA Bruins, with 11. While the majority of the Big Blue Nation's distaste with the Bruins reaches far back into history when that program hit their peak, this historic rivalry now has reason for revival.

After initially predicting rising international star Nikola Kusturica to Kentucky, 247Sports' Travis Branham has since removed and updated his guess; as of this morning, Kusturica has been cast to Mick Cronin and UCLA.

With this being Branham's second prediction on the matter, it's extremely unlikely that the already accurate analyst has once again overshot this ordeal and is forced to make another change. From every angle, Kusturica appears doomed to become a Bruin.

That also means that, as a result, Mark Pope and Kentucky are doomed to pivot in order to fill their final roster spot. This isn't the first time in Pope's tenure in Lexington that Coach Cronin has got the best of him on the recruiting trail.

Déjà Blue and Gold With Nikola Kusturica

Around this time last year, Pope and Cronin were racing to land hot-button transfer guard Donovan Dent. After heavy smoke in the Kentucky media circle ultimately led to nothing, Dent landed in California and Pope pivoted to Jaland Lowe. Not an ideal scenario.

Though, this time around, things are far less dire for Kentucky, and Kusturica potentially swinging for UCLA makes sense enough. The Cats not only have a better pool of transfer prospects than UCLA by an objective long shot (No. 2 vs. No. 28 nationally per 247Sports), but the nature of Kentucky's roster would almost demand Kusturica wait in the wings before taking on a guaranteed role.

Averaging nearly 20 points per game overseas will certainly earn you clock to some extent, but with Milan Momcilovic, Kam Williams, and Braydon Hawthorne floating around the same three-spot position - all of whom are senior to the 17-year old - it wouldn't be a simply plug-n-play under Pope.

Cronin, however, looks to have both the financial bag and immediate playing time available for Kusturica from the get-go. If he can take the incessant screaming that comes attached with UCLA these days, I suppose it's not hard to imagine why he'd prefer that destination in the short-term

While it'll be a bummer to miss on a potential future lottery pick in the tides do crash in as expected, this isn't a traditional "whiff" for Coach Pope. He tried to go overboard and add a player that would certainly raise the Cats' ceiling, whilst also ensuring some rotational hiccups along the way.

Kentucky remains a perennial top 25 team entering the season. Don't let rival fanbases get to you over this one, BBN - we've got plenty of reasons to like this team already.

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