What offseason grade would you give Kentucky basketball? 2 analysts break it down

There are three months until the Kentucky basketball program tips off its new era -- without John Calipari on the sidelines. After a busy -- but good -- offseason, Mark Pope has put Kentucky back in the conversation as a team that can make some noise late in the season. 

Kentucky will look entirely different as its entire roster is full of new players. All 12 players on the roster came elsewhere -- with only one former UK commit staying on board after Pope took the job. 

There's no doubt it's been a tumultuous past six months but how should Kentucky be graded for its offseason? Two analysts took a stab.

Field of 68 co-founders Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman handed out their offseason grades for Kentucky basketball -- but first broke down some of their takeaways from the last few months.

"First and foremost he's won over the fan base quickly," Goodman said of Mark Pope. "Now the question becomes; can Mark Pope blend some of the really, really talented players, some of the pros John Calipari had in Lexington, with some of the more experienced program guys he had success with at BYU? If he can do that, then I think -- you have a team and program that can contend for Final Four's."

While Goodman emphasized that a Final Four or significant expectations for Kentucky this season are unrealistic, he understands the craving to win.

Kentucky hasn't made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and have lost in the first round in two of the last three postseasons -- so it's easy to see why fans are hungry.

Pope's roster is made up of numerous fifth-year seniors, so the veteran leadership should be able to help expedite the offseason process and with chemistry. But, that'll be the biggest question overall.

"What I'm more worried about with this Kentucky team and their chances of getting to the tournament. Evan Miya of evanmiya.com did a study," Dauster said. "There has only been one program at the high major level that had fewer than 16 percent of their returning minutes, right, make the NCAA Tournament the next year ... Kentucky has 0 percent of their minutes coming back. "

"They're all nice pieces, but do you have that dude," Goodman said. "They don't really have that."

So what grades did they give out? Here are their grades and explanations:

Goodman: B+

"I think given the circumstances and where they were at, a lot of people were happy with the hiring of Mark Pope and I thought it was a really good hire. I'll say this over and over for people that don't know. This dude is a worker. I don't think people understood that when he was hired at Kentucky ... I think what Pope and his staff did -- I just want to see how the pieces fit."

Rob Dauster: B-

"They missed on (Dan) Hurley, the missed on (Nate) Oats and they missed really publicly on Scott Drew ... I will say, they got through the (hiring) process very quickly, but they missed on the three names they went after as the University of Kentucky. And while he (Pope) put a good roster together, you are Kentucky and I don't know if there's an NBA player on the roster. I don't know if there is a star on the roster."