Last season, Kentucky basketball was essentially a guinea pig for the new era of college basketball. Pope and the program tried to answer a simple question: Can you buy a national championship? Kentucky had the most expensive roster of any team, and yet, it failed to get them pasts the second round.
As Mark Pope solemnly admitted in the Kentucky Basketball Confidential documentary, the staff and fans only got to see his true vision for the team for a fleeting "17 minutes." The spending didn't work, mainly because their health didn't hold up.
Although, in potentially better news for down-and-out Cats fans, it seems that the folks down Interstate 64 weren't paying attention to the warning signs, and will be attempting their own financial experiment.
The (New) Most Expensive Roster
According to KSR’s Matt Jones, the Louisville Cardinals are currently on pace to field the most expensive roster in the NCAA next season. After the Kenny Payne years ended in disaster, Louisville is doing all it can to invest in Pat Kelsey and put a winning product on the court. Deep-pocketed boosters have apparently decided they are ready to make a move for the Cards.
Already, Kelsey has aggressively attacked the portal, landing two of the most coveted top-20 players in the country: Former Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstead and former Kansas big Flory Bidunga.
A Six Million Dollar Man
Bidunga’s commitment specifically is the crown jewel of this spending spree. Ranked as the No. 2 overall player in the portal, sitting just behind Wake Forest’s Juke Harris, Bidunga brings elite rim protection and interior dominance.
But it’s the price tag that will make your jaw drop. According to On3’s NIL metrics, Bidunga carries an outlandish valuation of $6 million. That is nearing what AJ Dybantsa's level was last season, although Bidunga won't see nearly the same usage as BYU's ball-dominant forward.
But there is no doubt, he will make a serious positive impact. $6 million dollars worth of impact, though? I'm not so sure.
Paying For Progress
Louisville is making a last-ditch though calculated play to get more than one tournament win in Kelsey's third year. The team is attempting to pull off the exact strategy that Mark Pope tried, and failed, to execute last season.
If Bidunga and Shelstead stay healthy and the chemistry clicks, Louisville will instantly become a national threat, and their boosters will look like geniuses who spent their moneywisely. But if the injury bug bites, or if the locker room fractures under the weight of those massive paychecks, the Cardinals will be learning the same expensive mistake Kentucky knows too well.
"Touch money," Cards fans. All that glitters is not gold (or red).
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