No longer WCC but…BYU’s Mark Pope to Kentucky.
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WILD. I have to imagine that there’s some concern in both Provo and Lexington over this one. If I’m at BYU fan, I am worried that Pope was a good coach and a perfect fit for the school. BYU is self-limited in its candidate pool. There are only so many highly-qualified LDS coaching candidates or non-LDS candidates who will put up with BYU.
For Kentucky fans, though, Pope hasn’t won any conference that he has coached in. Not even at Utah Valley. He made BYU look really good this year, but for a school that at least thinks it can get almost anyone it wants for the head coaching job, Pope is probably pretty far down the list for most fans. An up-and-comer for sure, but when you’re trying to pull Jay Wright out of retirement or Scott Drew, Nate Oats, or Dan Hurley from their respective schools, you probably aren’t thinking that the guy from BYU is the chosen one.
I liked Pope’s demeanor and energy, so I hope he’s successful. But this is a bit like SCU hiring a SWAC coach after one good season.
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Pope is a Kentucky program legacy guy…was a team captain on Kentucky’s '96 national championship team. Probably wouldn’t have been a candidate otherwise.
This is not unlike Jon Scheyer at Duke and Hubert Davis at UNC…legacies returning to the program and neither had head coaching experience let alone demonstrated head coaching success prior to taking over. Only difference with Scheyer and Davis is they tutored under their predecessor for several years and had become the presumed future HC in waiting.
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Unless I overlooked it here somewhere, don’t think it’s been reported that Pepperdine hired Ed Schilling last week. Most recently an assistant at GCU, prior experience at UCLA and Indiana.
Has Miami (OH) U in common with Sendek, played there the late 80’s prior to Sendek’s tenure.
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Well whoever wrote this piece got it wrong. Jalen Williams of Santa Clara was not even a transfer, nor did he play in the 2023-24 season - NOR did Brandin Podziemski.
Am I reading this wrong? “Six of the 10 players on the 2023-24 All-WCC first team were transfers. Jalen Williams (Santa Clara), Brandin Podziemski (Santa Clara)”.
Otherwise, interesting read.
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Two separate sentences and two separate thoughts/points. But yes poorly written.
All 4 referenced in the 2nd sentence are former WCC transfers who developed in to lottery picks or significant NBA players except of course he’s wrong in including Jalen as a transfer.
Mediocre article, the only new news to me was Mallete committed to Alabama which is significant…will be interested to see how he does there.
He deleted his original post then posted it again with some different wording, on his insta too. Zion Sensley decommits from St. Mary’s
https://x.com/zsensley/status/1782998514064400722?s=46&t=xEUmr_7uuY2KI9DKH3UukA
The Saint Mary’s message board is an entertaining space right now. All blame on Mahaney.
I’m pretty sure this has far more to do with their associate HC leaving. But, what do I know.
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Ouch. That hurts SMC…4 star recruit and local, Riordan player. Was a feather in SMC’s cap to land a highly rated recruit in their backyard beating out Power6 schools.
In earlier responses re: Jefferson and Mahaney departures I more or less said ‘SMC will be fine’ but that was predicated on not continuing to experience more or additional key departures and that they could reload with their highly related commitments from Sensely and Mikey Lewis…now Sensely is out.
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I’m happy knowing while all this chaos is surrounding other WCC teams with the portal - our guys have been highly focussed and grinding it out every day preparing for next season.
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I still think SMC will be fine, but I think they had ambitions of breaking into the top 10 in the country. Now I think they’re hoping just to hold serve as a fringe top-25 team or even a step below. So “fine” remains on the table in absolute terms but below what the Gaels’ hopes were.
Bennett gets the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, but what a crazy off-season for SMC so far. One more week of the portal to go (entrants only, commits will continue to come into May and June).
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Three top players bailing on Bennett? After a solid season and top 10% ranking? Something smells rotten.
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Maybe Bennett’s over-structured offense is taking some of the fun out of the game. A rigid style of play doesn’t fit everyone.
Don’t know that anything is rotten or related to SMC’s structured offense.
Historically these things happen from time to time especially with highly rated, 4 and 5 star recruits. Higher level schools continue to recruit guys even after they’ve committed elsewhere…whispers in the ear: ‘you can do better’.
That and/or he has people telling him he can get more NIL $ elsewhere.
Remember…Paul George committed to KK early then decommitted, reopened his recruitment. Oh, what might have been.
I disagree 92. Things are definitely not going according to plan in Moraga. What’s especially odd, is that Bennett’s own kid is on the team. How can he not get ahead of some of this stuff?
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Some of this might tie into the fact that former SMC Associate HC Justin Joyner is now at Michigan.
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I never said things were ‘going according to plan in Moraga’.
Clearly you never ‘plan’ to land a 4/5 star recruit only to have him decommit.
More so, you are seeing the general chaos going on across college football and basketball now impact SMC and Bennett.
Keep in mind, Bennett has mostly been able to avoid significant roster defections of key players over the last few years. He has had guys leave but they’ve mostly been role players, part-time starters.
But the forces at play are bigger than Bennett or what any other coach has the power to fully control…NIL $, unlimited transferring, AAU mentality that players currently grow up in (jump from team to team).
If you want to believe there are problems or issues at SMC causing all this…so be it. I just don’t think that’s the case…it’s just the reality of college hoops these days.
Another example, Oumar Ballo was buried on the bench at GU, Tommy Lloyd gave him a 2nd chance, brought him with him to Arizona, helped develop Ballo and has grown significantly under Lloyd over the past 3 years. But…Ballo still transferred out to Indiana. Is that a sign that something is wrong with Lloyd and Arizona? I don’t think so…simply another example of the chaotic times.
Edit:
If Sensley ends up at Michigan that probably means 1) Joyner was his primary recruiter, and 2) > NIL $. Doesn’t mean Randy did anything wrong or is driving kids away. Just shows he and other small school & mid-major coaches are fighting an uphill battle against dynamics and forces they have little control over.
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Texas Tech transfer Lamar Washington has committed to Pacific.
The 6’4” sophomore guard appeared in 30 games, averaging 2.1 points, and 1.5 rebounds in 8.9 minutes per game.
https://x.com/portal_updates/status/1783617648686669888?s=46&t=xEUmr_7uuY2KI9DKH3UukA
2024 San Diego City College (CA) G Kevin Bradley, Jr. has signed with San Diego.
https://x.com/sgnlthelgthoops/status/1783742584466411988?s=46&t=xEUmr_7uuY2KI9DKH3UukA