UK head man was forced to put together a full staff and a full roster after losing all 13 scholarship players

After being named Kentucky’s new head coach on April 12, time was not on Mark Pope’s side.

The new UK head man was forced to put together a full staff and a full roster after losing all 13 scholarship players from last year’s roster to either graduation, the transfer portal or the NBA Draft.

The Wildcats’ 7-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 5 nationally by 247Sports and of the teams ranked in the top 15, only Louisville has more commits (8) and new Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey had the benefit of a 2-week head start.

According to 247Sports, UK’s class features No. 21 Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), No. 28 Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), No. 45 Lamont Butler (San Diego State), No. 66 Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), No. 81 Amari Williams (Drexel), No. 104 Koby Brea (Dayton), and No. 118 Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia).

In addition, Pope also signed former BYU signee Collin Chandler, who is coming off a 2-year Mormon mission, Kentucky Mr. Basketball, the state’s all-time leading scorer and 4-star guard Travis Perry from state champion Lyon County, as well as Harlan County 4-star and former South Carolina signee Trent Noah to bring the Wildcats’ number of scholarship players to 10.

Known for his intricate offensive sets at BYU, Pope also made defense a priority early.

“I thought it was super interesting. We’re trying to keep people on their toes. I’m very much an offensive-minded coach that cares deeply about defense, that’s probably the way I would describe myself,” Pope told Andy Katz of NCAA March Madness. “And so our first three guys we signed was the No. 1 defensive point guard, maybe the best defensive backcourt player in the country, and then with Otega Oweh, definitely a top 5-10 perimeter defender and then with Amari Williams, probably the best defensive post, 3-time defensive player of the year in his league.”

With the time crunch he was facing, Pope had to walk a fine line between being aggressive enough to fill out a roster but also patient enough to wait on players that fit together nicely.

“These are all tried and true veteran guys. I’m super confident,” Pope said. “Nobody makes shots every game, that’s why we have the built-in safeguards and parachutes. I like the way these pieces fit together. There’s so many special pieces that we’re excited about and I think they fit together and we won’t know that for sure until we get them here on campus June 10 and get started.”

“We have one assignment and that’s to get No. 9. Everywhere I turn I see the No. 9. That’s all I see,” Pope said. “So, we’re pretty obsessed with that and we’re going to chase it with everything we have. That’s the standard here.”

From there, Pope went on to break down most of Kentucky’s individual newcomers.