There have been plenty of questions surrounding the Kentucky Wildcats on the recruiting trail over the last year. With Mark Pope and his staff trending for several different top players in the 2026 class (and on the cusp of landing several at a few given points in time), why do they still not have a commitment for the 26 class?
Well, Jack Pilgrim and Jacob Polacheck of KSR dove into that with an article detailing the JMI/NIL deal that UK Athletics has put in place, causing issues, but it also sounds
like the emotions of Mark Pope have also gotten in the way over the course of his time in Lexington.
“In negotiations, you can’t have emotions involved. We’re all just doing a job here,” one source directly involved in multiple recruitments told Pilgrim and Polacheck. “Mark, I think he takes it so personal – which is good in a way, but not in negotiations. At the end of the day, I don’t give a **** where my kid goes as long as the people do what they say they’re going to do, ‘We get him better and we do good business.’ But it was really hard to do good business because his emotions got in the way of everything.”
It sounds like the issues for the recruiting problems might also be coming from the top as well, especially as he learns to navigate the waters at a major program like UK.
“[He’d say,] ‘This is Kentucky. We’re not getting in a bidding war.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, well then that’s your risk if you want to lose him… I don’t think he knows how to play in that sandbox yet. I don’t think he knows how to play in this game yet. … Pope has never done this type of business before getting here. He didn’t have to deal with superstars at BYU. He’s getting used to it.”
The good news is these are the kinds of things that can be corrected, so perhaps this is just a matter of Pope learning how to better recruit at a school like Kentucky.
Of course, it does sound like JMI could be making things harder for Pope and Co., so there will need to be some changes there as well if Kentucky is to continue recruiting the best of the best, be it in high school recruiting or the college transfer portal.
Hopefully, this helps some change come from the top, or else, Kentucky’s recruiting struggles could continue for the foreseeable future. Let’s hope that’s not the case and that both Pope and UK/JMI make the necessary corrections.
