Mark Pope: "It's been the easiest conversations ever right now, recruiting in the portal."

Things are a little bit different for Mark Pope this go-round, putting the pieces together for his second roster at Kentucky. Last offseason, he had no staff and no recruiting base while getting a late start in the portal — but he did sell out his introductory press conference, giving the Wildcats a nice little boost when talking to that first set of targets.

That’s how he landed his first portal class of Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, Otega Oweh, Andrew Carr, Koby Brea, Kerr Kriisa and Ansley Almonor. Then those guys made history together, giving Pope a proof of concept to work with as he pushes for the next batch of additions — and he’s off to a heck of a start, bringing in Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance from the portal, plus Andrija Jelavic from overseas.

Things worked out last time, obviously, but Pope will be the first to tell you those conversations are easier today than they were then.

“BBN gave us the greatest kickoff gift ever, and then these players gave us the greatest bounce this year. It’s been the easiest conversations ever right now, recruiting in the portal,” Pope said on Monday’s edition of BBN Tonight with Maggie Davis. “It’s been two prong. One, for our freshmen that are coming in, it’s been the greatest confirmation of their decision to come because they got to witness it over the course of the season, right? Then for the guys that we were recruiting, that we have already signed in the portal, and the guys that we’re still recruiting, it’s the easiest sell in the world.

“When you have your guys after a devastating loss in the Sweet 16 at the postgame press conference going out on their own saying, ‘All you transfer portal guys, you don’t understand. If you’re trying to choose a school, this is the place to go.'”

What was Pope’s reaction to that in real time, hearing from the players who first believed in his pitch to make the pitch for him in the next cycle — paying it forward after a fulfilling debut season in Lexington together?

It’s a sign of their character and “being the standard-bearers, the standard-setters,” as he put it.

“We just lost and you’re just full of all these emotions, but I think mostly I felt gratitude that our guys didn’t miss the experience of being a Kentucky basketball player,” he said. “Meaning, not only did — they didn’t miss it by not coming, but you can come and actually miss it. They took it in every single day. They logged almost 400 hours of community service, they were out and reaching out to this community. They were taking it in their heart and their soul that it meant something to represent Kentucky.”

What did he learn from that group as they went through the fire together, taking on a historic SEC schedule and coming out the other side with eight top-15 wins and the program’s first Sweet 16 since 2019? For starters, he knows the Wildcats have to get even better — because they fell four wins short of their goal.

That’s impacted who they’ve gone after in the transfer portal.

“It’s an ongoing process. We actually haven’t caught our breath yet,” Pope told BBN Tonight. “We got back from our Sweet 16 game, landed that morning, and I was on a plane two hours later recruiting — and it’s been madness ever since, because that’s what the job requires. So we haven’t had the chance to dig into the deep, intensive autopsy that we’ll do as we get closer to our portal work being done, but we did take in a ton of data during the season and just anecdotal experience and feeling where we might have some gaps, or where we want to be better, or we want to fill out a roster deeper or more protected, or where we might be able to coach our guys to excel even more.

“We’ve certainly brought all of that into our approach in the portal.”

Oh, and depth. Don’t forget about that. Kentucky got destroyed by the injury bug this past season, including two season-ending surgeries and two other massive rotation hardships on and off leading right into the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Considering the team’s system with constant off-ball movement and the fatigue that comes with it, an extended rotation is mandatory — to the point where 12 scholarship pieces who all played real minutes wasn’t even enough.

The Wildcats have to get even deeper with capable talent, ready to contribute on a moment’s notice. That’s why Pope has been relentless in the portal, loading up on pieces ready to finish what the first group started and build upon the foundation they set for this new era of the Kentucky program.

“One of the things that hurt us this year was we were only at 12 scholarship players and the injuries hurt us, so trying to have the experience and the depth on the roster where we can kind of manage that. The size of our roster and the length of our roster is becoming more and more apparent,” Pope said. “All those things factor in. Our style of play, I hope it evolves and it needs to get a little bit better. All of that data is kind of seeped into where we’ve been in the portal. Also, this increasing understanding of what it requires of you to be a Kentucky basketball player — our guys were so great at it this year.”

Year one is in the books. What will year two bring under Pope?