In March, Kentucky hired Keegan Brown as its director of roster management to aid Mark Pope in the never-ending process of talent evaluation, budget management, and overall roster construction. Yet, after spending $22 million for a second-round NCAA Tournament team last offseason, Pope hasn’t inspired much faith in Big Blue Nation with his encore portal performance.Â
Kentucky has landed Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins as an intriguing backcourt pair, and on Tuesday added Justin McBride to the front-court. However, Pope has let Robert Wright III head back to BYU, whiffed on Donnie Freeman, and worst of all, on Tuesday, he watched as the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit, Tyran Stokes, chose Kansas.Â
It seems Pope wasted his time pursuing Stokes, who was long predicted to choose the Jayhawks, and holding aside the resources necessary to land him likely cost Kentucky top portal recruits. While there’s still time to salvage the offseason, there aren’t many available options on the open market.Â
From blowing through a loaded war chest on a roster that never made sense for his play style to pivoting aimlessly through the portal window, constantly changing course, it’s clear that more than a director of roster management, Pope needs a general manager, but that realization may be coming one offseason too late.Â
It may already be too late for Kentucky to hire a GM for Mark Pope
In college football, we’ve seen numerous examples of stubborn coaches finally relinquishing complete roster control to a general manager when their seat finally gets hot enough. The best example of this might be Oklahoma, which installed Jim Nagy to assemble Brent Venables’ roster and vaulted itself back into the College Football Playoff last season.Â
Now, there’s not a 100 percent success rate on a general manager having final say over the roster he hands his head coach, but considering the modern state of college basketball, building a roster and coaching it are really two separate jobs that demand 100 percent attention. The best programs still give their head coach final say while providing a staff to advise their decision-making. Right now, Kentucky doesn’t meet that criteria as one of the best programs.Â
If Pope were nailing the offseason every year, this wouldn’t be a conversation. A director of roster management would be enough. The reality is, he’s botching the offseason again, and after missing on Stokes, it will be difficult to salvage a title-contending team.Â
This may be a moot point by next offseason because if Pope fails to meet expectations, he will be shown the door. That obvious lack of job security will also make it difficult to hire a general manager, unless they’re not tied to Pope. So altogether, it might be too late. But if Pope gets another offseason to build another roster in Lexington, he certainly can’t be allowed to do it alone.Â
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