Mark Pope will prove people wrong about developing NBA talent this season at Kentucky

When Kentucky hired Mark Pope to be the head coach of the basketball team, there were some concerns fans had with how he would do in this role. At BYU, he wasn't recruiting elite high school players but was still finding success.

Many didn't believe Pope would have a ton of success recruiting elite high school players at Kentucky and developing those players into NBA-level talent.

This season, Coach Pope is going to prove that to be not true as players like Jayden Quaintance, Jasper Johnson, Kam Williams, and Malachi Moreno all have lottery pick upside.

Kentucky fans over the years have begun to become annoyed about one-and-done players because John Calipari's rosters were changing every year, and the team wasn't having a ton of success. Coach Pope wanted to find a balance of one-and-done players to mix with roster continuity and transfer portal players. He has done exactly that on this 2025-26 roster.

Quaintance is a sure-fire top ten pick, even knowing he is coming back from the ACL tear. Williams and Johnson are going to fight with one another for playing time, but they are both players who will play in the NBA at some point.

Many believed Mark Pope was going to utilize the transfer portal to build his roster every season, recruiting players who are elite in college but lack significant NBA upside. The Wildcats head coach is quickly proving that this is not the case, and despite Calipari being gone, the NBA will still be full of Kentucky Wildcats.