Ask Mark Anything: What is up with Mark Pope & UK’s recruiting issues?
In the first decade of the 2000s, I used to do a feature called “Ask Mark Anything” on my blog.
After a long period of dormancy, I have brought the feature back.
It works like this: You can ask me anything — but I choose the questions that I want to answer from communication with readers on my social media timelines and via email.
Let’s get to it.
Question one: Hey, Mark, will Kentucky (men’s basketball) buy enough players to field a team for this upcoming season? — Paul N., via email
Mark’s reply: I know this was asked facetiously, but let’s work through the Kentucky roster for next season as its presently stands.
With the announced plan by Washington point guard Zoom Diallo to transfer to Kentucky and assuming that incumbent UK center Malachi Moreno eventually takes his name out of 2026 NBA draft consideration, the Cats are up to seven players on the roster for 2026-27.
In addition to Diallo and Moreno, Kam Williams, Trent Noah and Reese Potter have already announced plans to return to UK for next season.
The Herald-Leader’s Ben Roberts reported March 9 that Braydon Hawthorne planned to return to Kentucky for 2026-27, too. So unless Hawthorne makes a contradictory statement, I am counting him, too.
Kentucky has signed incoming freshman point guard Mason Williams, the son of newly hired UK assistant Mo Williams, for next year, too.
So that’s seven scholarship players, which is enough to play.
I am confident Kentucky will add more players, either from the transfer portal or, perhaps, international prospects.
While I understand we are in a period of heightened UK men’s basketball fan frustration, it would probably be prudent not to fully blow a gasket over recruiting until Kentucky’s roster construction for next season is complete.
Question two: What goes on when UK (men’s basketball) hosts recruits? I feel like I read over and over, in recent years, about players having unsatisfactory experiences when they visit Kentucky. — Mike J., via email
Mark’s reply: A friend of mine who frets that Mark Pope may be too wholesome a persona to thrive in big-time men’s college hoops recruiting likes to joke that Kentucky is making visiting prospects watch episodes of “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie” with the coaching staff.
To be serious, I am assured that Kentucky recruiting visits pretty much adhere to industry convention in terms of what prospects experience when on campus.
It does seem in the current recruiting cycle, especially, that UK has not gotten the boost that one would expect when it brings prospects to Lexington.
Question three: Comes from Twitter, and asks whether new UK football coach Will Stein can pitch in to help Kentucky woo men’s basketball players?
Mark’s reply: I know this was asked facetiously, but, no, I don’t think that is realistic.
Meanwhile, amid all the fan angst over Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting, Stein and his football staff seem to be riding a “new coach” tidal wave of recruiting momentum right now.
The early returns on UK football’s Class of 2027 harken back to the heralded 2014 recruiting class Mark Stoops signed at a similar stage in his UK coaching tenure.
Question four: Praises Mark Pope as an Xs and Os coach, but asks if his motivational and recruiting skills are sufficient to succeed at Kentucky?
Mark’s reply: I think the questions Nick asks are yet to be answered.
Again, I think the present recruiting efforts to build Kentucky’s 2026-27 roster can only be evaluated once the process is over and we see who UK gets.
The motivational question is interesting. In Pope’s two seasons as Kentucky coach, there have been a ton of big-game wins.
In 2024-25, UK beat Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, Florida and Tennessee twice.
This past season, Kentucky won over Indiana, Rick Pitino, John Calipari and Tennessee twice.
But in both seasons, there have been too many UK defeats vs. relatively middling opposition. I, too, wonder if those result from a motivational issue.
Question five: Comes from X, and asks whether Ashton Feldhaus’s move from head women’s basketball coach at Morehead State to McNeese State is a clear career advancement?
Mark’s reply: McNeese State went 29-6 in this past season and its coach, Ayla Guzzardo, was hired by Georgia and became an SEC head coach.
McNeese finished the regular season rated No. 86 in the NET Rankings.
The Southland Conference, in which McNeese State played, had four teams in the top 200 in the NET.
Morehead State finished No. 200 in the NET.
The Ohio Valley Conference, of which Morehead is a member, had two teams in the top 100, and also had four in the top 200.
All of that suggests, I think, that McNeese is a marginally better job than Morehead.
