Mark Pope says Kentucky will add 'a couple superstars' while describing 'winning formula' for roster building

The first priority is winning Tuesday night against LSU, followed by a victory in the regular-season finale at Missouri on Saturday. From there, all eyes are on the SEC Tournament and March Madness to follow. Can Mark Pope lead this Kentucky team on a postseason run? We’re about to find out.

Whether you’re ready for it or not, though, the process of building next year’s roster will begin in the coming weeks — or even days, to some extent. Conference tournaments are here, which means teams’ seasons are about to come to a close. That means the transfer portal is about to go nuclear, players making their future intentions known to make themselves available — even if the official window opens March 24 and closes on April 22. From there, you’ll get visits and commitments all the way through May before players arrive on campus for summer workouts in June.

They’re not kidding when they say the college basketball season never really ends.

With that in mind, Pope was asked about his ideal roster setup knowing what he knows now with essentially a full season under his belt. He’s already added the likes of Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno and Acaden Lewis in the high school ranks while Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison, Travis Perry, Trent Noah and Collin Chandler have eligibility remaining as potential return candidates.

How does he see everything else shaking out? The hope is to add a couple of ‘superstars’ to that mix while bringing back ‘really, really important pieces.’

 “In terms of the roster in the future, we have some really, really important pieces that we’re excited to have back next year, and kind of have a foundation of guys that know what we do, how we do it, what we do in the locker room, what we do at shootaround, what our daily cadence is like,” Pope said Monday night. “We have three incredibly talented rookies coming in so far — and we’ll see how that high school recruiting finishes up. Then we’ll be really, really aggressive in the portal at a couple of positions to bring in a couple superstars.

“That’s the balance we’re looking for, to have some guys that have staying power that can be here multiple years. It’s a couple of really talented freshmen, a couple really talented veterans that come in and understand what Kentucky is all about. It’s probably all three of those prongs that are really important to put together a great roster.”

Pope was asked a follow-up question about getting and staying older, potentially avoiding young talent the way Rick Pitino said his St. John’s program would do moving forward after seeing the current landscape of college basketball. His response? He doesn’t agree.

Adding guys like Johnson, Moreno and Lewis are crucial, raising the talent level while bringing in established veterans to help ease the transition process. It’s all about finding the right balance, not going too heavy on youth or experience, but mixing both.

Duke, led by Cooper Flagg under Jon Scheyer, is a solid example of that this season.

“I think it’s got to be a varied roster. I think really, you want to hit those three places. If you look at it, there’s only really one team that’s having tremendous success as a young roster right now, and that’s Duke,” Pope said. “Duke has a couple of starters, two or three going back and forth, that are freshmen, and then they’re surrounded by a bunch of really, really veteran players, including transfers — a bunch of transfer portal players that have been playing for a long time.

“Coach (Rick) Pitino, actually recently at St. John’s said, ‘I’m not recruiting any freshmen. You have to be old to win.’ I actually don’t believe that. I think that you can bring in the right young players and grow them.”

If you can find young stars, you bring them in and give them the surrounding experience necessary to be successful. It’s like training wheels, guiding the newcomers along until they’re ready to cruise on their own to superstardom.

“I think you can bring in — there’s a chance you can bring in a player that’s going to be a one-and-done, someone that is going to be a superstar and a staple of your team. Surround him with a couple other really, really talented young players that are going to be important pieces of a team,” he said. “Put them with some returning players that know the program and understand how it functions, and that allows you to build a culture from the inside with those guys.

“Then add a couple of elite-level talents from the portal. I think putting all those three things together is probably the winning formula. I think there’s a place for all three of those kind of recruiting areas, and those are three areas we’ll attack.”

We’ve got the core pieces set with returning talent and high school signees. Up next? Portal season.

Time to reel in some big fish.