Now that Mark Pope has been welcomed back into the fold with a homecoming party for the ages at Rupp Arena, it\u2019s time to get to work. Pope said he was going to spend last night calling players, including \u201call of the guys on the current team, all those recruited, and every player in the portal.\u201d What about his coaching staff? Matt Jones teased some potential news on today\u2019s Kentucky Sports Radio.<\/p>\n
Pope has five spots on his staff to fill. Jones is hearing that two of those are expected to be filled by BYU assistants, one who has been with Pope for a long time focusing on Xs and Os and the other who is younger and a \u201cmathematical analytic savant.\u201d While Jones did not name names, if you look at BYU\u2019s staff, Cody Fueger<\/a> and Keegan Brown<\/a> seem like candidates.<\/p>\n You may not be familiar with Fueger or Brown, but Jones said there is one name in the running for an assistant spot that you would know; if they accept, he believes we will know by tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they are going after one person that would be a heck of a get and I\u2019ll just leave it at that. We\u2019ll see if it happens, but there\u2019s one person they\u2019re going after that everybody would know who it is, that\u2019s a heck of a get. And then there\u2019s a couple where I think they\u2019re looking for one elite young recruiter. And then I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re gonna do with the other spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones said people at UK would like to add someone else with a Kentucky connection, potentially even from the John Calipari era.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s in an assistant spot or a grad assistant spot, but they would like to have someone else with a UK connection. Maybe even someone with a Cal connection because they would like to keep that Cal thing going.\u201d<\/p>\n Is that Tyler Ulis? Ulis cannot be a student assistant because he already held that role for two seasons, but Kentucky could hire him as a grad assistant once he has his degree or as a full-time assistant. There is also talk of adding a general manager role to help with NIL, which Pope seemed open when asked on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the idea is, Mark\u2019s got one that\u2019s his,\u201d Jones said of the staff. \u201cThey\u2019re going after a big name. We\u2019ll see if it happens. An ace recruiter and then somebody else. Remember when Cal was here, we felt like we needed to go get an X and O coach? I think the theory is, Mark is our Xs and Os coach. Now, we\u2019ve got to go find a recruiter because the Xs and Os is Mark and this dude he\u2019s bringing from BYU.\u201d<\/p>\n So, a few trusted right-hand men from BYU, a big name, an ace recruiter, and potentially a Kentucky or Calipari connection. Keep your ears to the ground as we wait for more news.<\/p>\n Want more Kentucky Basketball intel? Join the KSR Club for access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR\u2019s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n How about Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL)? Kentucky received a $4 million donation from two donors on Friday morning, a significant kickstart to the rebuilding efforts. After Mitch Barnhart mentioned Club Blue<\/strong><\/a>, one of Kentucky\u2019s collectives, during his KSR interview, they added 500 new monthly subscribers in 20 minutes. If those subscribers stay committed for the entire year, that\u2019s $150,000.<\/p>\n More money is coming as more donors hop on board to help usher in this new era of Kentucky Basketball.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other thing is, everyone is coming out of the woodwork to try to be a part of this, meaning not just the players, but donors,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou are going to see an influx of donations, the likes of which you haven\u2019t before.\u201d<\/p>\n The disconnect between John Calipari and boosters has been well-documented. Jones didn\u2019t go into specifics about what led to the divide but said everybody is back on board, to the point that a new practice facility, Calipari\u2019s white whale, may even be in the conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s safe to say this: the issue was not just an issue with one group of people. It was an issue with a lot of groups of people. And those groups of people now feel back on board. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think you\u2019re going to see \u2014 it would not shock me if, within a few months, we hear about a practice facility, which probably would make Cal\u2019s head explode, but it wouldn\u2019t shock me. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s definitely gonna happen but it wouldn\u2019t it wouldn\u2019t shock me.\u201d<\/p>\n Learn more about Club Blue, which allows fans and businesses to donate to their favorite UK players and programs here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The post Coaching staff, NIL, Facilities? The latest on Mark Pope\u2019s rebuild at Kentucky<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that Mark Pope has been welcomed back into the fold with a homecoming party…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47848,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47814\/revisions\/47848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NIL rolling in\u2026and maybe even a new practice facility?<\/h2>\n