Recruiting has become even more complex in the transfer portal era. After taking the job last year, Mark Pope put together an impressive squad in a matter of weeks. Now, with more time and an even more impressive NIL budget, Pope has assembled one of the deepest teams in recent Kentucky Basketball history, with ten total newcomers joining four core returners from the team that went to the Sweet 16 in March.

Obviously, talent is high atop Pope’s list of criteria, but equally as important is fit. During his conversation with Matt Jones on Kentucky Sports Radio, Pope talked about how he strives to find guys who will appreciate the unique culture of Kentucky Basketball, an essential first step in recruiting.

“That happens,” Pope said when Jones asked if there have been times when he’s met with a player and known immediately that it probably won’t work out. “This is a special, special place. So it happens, more often than not, that we’re a little bit in and we’re, like, ‘Ah, you know, I might love his talent but like, oh, he’s not going to survive here.’ Or I might love him as a kid, but his agenda is just different than our agenda. And so that process is really important.”

Pope used Andrija Jelavic as an example. The Croatian big man is still playing for KK Mega Superbet in Serbia and yet to visit Kentucky, but Pope could tell even on FaceTime that he was Kentucky material.

“That was one of the really important parts of the process with Andrija [Jelavic], because I liked him, but you never know. Like, we’ll see how some of the skillset translates, some of the physicality translates, some of those things translate.

“But, as we were exploring all those things, which I was so excited about, all those pieces when I started talking about on the phone, and it was one particular conversation on FaceTime where I’m talking to him, and you could see him get emotional as he started talking about the possibility of playing at the University of Kentucky. And I’m like, that’s it. This is our guy, right? Because he’s not going to miss it.”

“It” is Pope’s way of describing the breadth of the Kentucky Basketball experience. His first team definitely didn’t “miss it,” saying on multiple occasions how lucky they felt to be at Kentucky and how much they loved the experience. The feeling was mutual, which will give last year’s squad a special place in program history.

“Yeah, our guys could, for sure [feel the love from the fans]. And I think is as much as I was happy about that, I was happy that our guys didn’t miss it. Because the craziest thing is like — and this is almost incomprehensible to me — you could actually come here for a year as a player and miss it. Like, you could miss the whole thing.

“We talk to our recruits about this all the time. If you came here and you were just only dialed into yourself, you could actually miss the great uniqueness and the monstrosity that this experience can be. You could actually miss the whole thing.”

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Pope believes his second team won’t miss it either, telling a story about meeting up with Mo Dioubate’s mother in the Bronx earlier this week. Dioubate wasn’t there, but even just in talking with his mother, Pope knows that the Alabama transfer is ready to embrace everything that comes with being a Kentucky Wildcat.

“Spending some time with Mo’s family, they get it too. It’s not just the guys who were coming from a mid-major. I mean, he’s coming from a really good program, but it’s already so ingrained in him how different this is at Kentucky than anywhere else.

“And he’s going to come here with — he’s a beautiful man. He’s a beautiful human being — but he’s going to come here and he’s not going to miss it either. Like, he’s going to take it all in, too, and so I think we have the makings of another group. Hopefully, it’s a staple for us forever, of guys who really understand what this is.”

Height, length, athleticism, physicality, and shooting are all important traits; however, Pope knows better than anyone what it really takes to succeed at Kentucky. And he’s determined to find the guys who have it.

“As the head coach here, running this program, I cannot bring guys in here that are going to miss this. It would feel like I’m disrespecting this place that I love so much, and sometimes like uber-talented guys could come here and miss this, but I think the guys are going to serve us well as a community and a Commonwealth and this incredible flagship program of all of college basketball, are the guys that have come here and not miss it, and those guys could actually hang banners for us.”

Quinn Ewers’ decision to leave Texas for the NFL has already been justified, even after falling to the seventh round, with the quarterback earning a lucrative endorsement deal

Quinn Ewers has shown that his leap to the NFL can be just as profitable as earning through NIL deals in college following news of his Panini agreement.

The 22-year-old wrapped up his impressive and lucrative college career with the Texas Longhorns by declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft after the conclusion of the 2024 season. He was eventually picked by the Miami Dolphins in the seventh round with the 231st overall pick.

Despite being chosen in the final round, Ewers feels he’s landed in a “good spot.”

This comes after he reportedly turned down a $6-million NIL deal to transfer from Texas after three seasons, opting instead for a less lucrative $4.3-million rookie contract with the Dolphins. However, it’s been suggested that his NIL payout could have hit $8 million in 2025 had he stayed.

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His rookie contract is still nothing to scoff at, with Ewers set to pocket $1.075 million annually over four seasons at Hard Rock Stadium. If he had any regrets about the money he left on the table by moving to the NFL, his latest endorsement deal might have eased the sting a bit.

On Friday, Ewers revealed that he had inked an exclusive autograph trading card deal with Panini for his NFL trading cards. The next day, it was disclosed that the deal is worth $3 million, according to a source with “knowledge of the arrangement”, NBC reports.

His decision to swap a more profitable NIL deal for a rookie NFL contract is already proving fruitful, as he’s landed a hefty endorsement deal on top of it — the largest payday for any seventh-round draft pick in his first season.

On the field, Ewers will have to compete with starting QB Tua Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson for a regular-season roster spot. However, his Panini deal alone, worth nearly 70% of his total on-field salary, certainly cushions the blow as he gears up for his debut professional season.

The same can’t be said for former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, whose dramatic drop in the NFL Draft significantly impacted his potential earnings.

After departing the Buffaloes with a $6.5-million NIL valuation, the second-highest in all of college sports, Deion Sanders’ son will now kick off his NFL career with a base salary of roughly $1.15 million, having seen his potential earnings drastically cut due to falling to the fifth round.

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Had Sanders been selected with the first overall pick as some had forecasted months earlier, he could have raked in a staggering $48 million from his rookie contract.

While his new paycheck is still a hefty sum for the average American worker, it’s a far cry from the millions he was projected to earn if his draft predictions had held steady. Prior to being picked 144th, Sanders was the second-highest NIL earner, trailing only Texas wunderkind Arch Manning.

Despite being ranked as the second-best quarterback prospect following last season’s evaluations, five quarterbacks were selected ahead of Sanders. Dillon Gabriel of Oregon, a Heisman finalist who Sanders once outpaced, was drafted by Cleveland in the third round.

This pick secured Gabriel an estimated yearly salary of $1.2 million.

Cam Ward, the top overall pick in the same draft, landed a contract worth nearly $49 million with a staggering $32 million signing bonus after being chosen by the Tennessee Titans. Sanders’ former Colorado teammate Travis Hunter managed to snag a $46.5m contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

It was an unflattering four-game stretch for Kentucky heading into Monday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show, as it lost four consecutive games to end the regular season and SEC Tournament with a 29-24 (13-17) record. The ‘Cats however are still a consensus No. 3 seed in the latest Field of 64 Projections.

D1Baseball, Baseball America and College Baseball Central all have the ‘Cats solidly in the field as a No. 3 seed. They are not among the “Last Four In” in any projection. If selected, it would mark the third consecutive season that Kentucky would be apart of the field (first time ever) although it would be the first time since 2014 that it will not be hosting a Regional in Lexington.

Kentucky is the No. 3 seed in the Conway Regional according to D1Baseball, joined by No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina, No. 2 seed NC State and No. 4 seed USC Upstate. Both the ‘Cats and NC State made the College World Series last season, where Mitch Daly’s walk-off home run lifted Kentucky to a win over the Wolfpack in Omaha.

The ‘Cats are the No. 3 seed in the Clemson Regional according to BOTH Baseball America and College Baseball Central. Clemson is the No. 1 seed in both projections, while No. 2 Southern Miss and No. 4 Rider are projected in Baseball America. Northeastern is the No. 2 seed and George Mason is the No. 4 seed in College Baseball Central’s projections.

Northeastern is team Kentucky will definitely want to avoid, as the No. 19 ranked Huskies boast the nation’s best team earned run average (2.94 ERA).

Although it made an early exit from the 2025 SEC Tournament, Kentucky fell just one spot to No. 37 in the RPI Rankings. The ‘Cats are 8-19 against Q1 teams, 4-1 against Q2 teams, 7-3 against Q3 teams and 10-1 against Q4 teams. Teams that have beaten Kentucky this season (No. 35 RPI Xavier and No. 46 Western Kentucky) remain on the bubble.

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Wisconsin-Green Bay has reportedly filed for a waiver with the NCAA to participate in The Basketball Tournament, a non-certified winner-take-all summer tournament with a $1 million payout, according to ESPN.

The waiver request was filed last week, according to ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, and acknowledges the tournament doesn’t fall within the NCAA’s legislated exceptions. Instead, the waiver argues TBT is a “suitable replacement for a foreign tour” that the NCAA allows college programs to participate in once every four years, according to ESPN.

“When you play overseas, these teams that go to France, Spain, Belgium, whatever, those aren’t NCAA-sanctioned games,” Green Bay head coach Doug Gottlieb said, per ESPN. “So the NCAA’s argument is, ‘Hey, in summer competition, you can’t play these games in the United States. They’re not NCAA-sanctioned.’ So if I played this exact same game three hours north of here in Canada, it’d be OK. It doesn’t make sense.”

Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon also made the point that participating in a true foreign tour can be cost-prohibitive for a small-school program, and by playing in the TBT, it provides a similar experience against elite competition without necessarily enduring massive travel expenses.

“Let’s not worry about the prize money right now, but that could go to a charity, just let us play,” Moon told ESPN. “It’s really about our team and trying to give them opportunities.”

Green Bay’s waiver request reportedly has the full support of Horizon League commissioner Julie Roe Lach and the organizers of The Basketball Tournament, per ESPN.

“The idea of undergraduate teams or student-athletes participating and competing against retired players or current professionals overseas or any number of other types of teams that we get is really appealing to us,” TBT CEO Jon Mugar told ESPN. “We have a long track record of working with and partnering with universities through alumni teams, and now it makes a lot of sense to do that through their actual teams.”

Green Bay reportedly filed a similar request in 2024, but the NCAA’s denial came too late to mount a proper appeal of the ruling, according to ESPN. The Phoenix went 4-28 in Gottlieb’s first season as head coach following a longtime career with Fox Sports Radio.