Mitch Barnhart likes Mark Pope's balance in recruiting: "Anybody can recruit, but not everybody can evaluate"

It would be hard to script a better start to the Mark Pope era than what’s happened thus far. Kentucky’s win vs. No. 6 Duke in the Champions Classic showed that all the refreshing off-court changes since Pope took over for John Calipari may already be translating into on-court results. There are few people happier about that than Mitch Barnhart, who took a chance on Pope after Kentucky’s first two choices, Scott Drew and Dan Hurley, said no.

Barnhart has been right by Pope’s side thus far, calling the audible to hold his introductory press conference at Rupp Arena, presenting him with a commemorative bourbon barrel top after his first win, and even joining in the postgame celebrations in Atlanta, going into the locker room first with water bottles blazing to pave the way for Pope to get doused by his players. It’s quite a contrast from Barnhart’s relationship with John Calipari, which Barnhart himself compared to a strained marriage at times.

This morning, Barnhart appeared on the official UK Sports Network football pregame show and got to brag on Pope some more, specifically how he’s doing in recruiting. The Cats just inked three 2025 recruits, five-star guard Jasper Johnson, four-star center Malachi Moreno, and four-star guard Acaden Lewis. Kentucky is also the frontrunner for five-star forward Caleb Wilson, a top-five prospect who just canceled a visit to Arkansas, effectively eliminating John Calipari’s new program from the running.

“I think the one thing that he uses the word repeatedly, it’s the word balance,” Barnhart said of Pope’s handling of recruiting and NIL. “Finding a balance between that NIL space and fit for your program. I tell people all the time, anybody can recruit, but not everybody can evaluate. You can recruit, you can be phenomenal at going out and bringing people into your program, but if it doesn’t fit you, it’s really not helpful.

“And I think what he’s done this year — and I got, we’re three games into a 31-game slate, but I think if I said one thing early on, fit was real important, and he has fit the pieces of the puzzles together and evaluation, I think, is critical mass in today’s landscape of college sports.”

“You better find people that fit what you’re trying to do and they fit together because you have such a small window of time to get your locker room together. All these new bodies have to mesh quickly in today’s world. You don’t have 3-4 years to get it put together. You’ve got six, eight, ten months at most and all of a sudden it’s got to come together and all of a sudden, you’ve got to have a product that looks like it’s fit together.”

When you read them in full, Barnhart’s comments are more praise for Pope than a shot at Calipari, but it’s impossible not to think of the latter after April’s messy breakup. Either way, I think we’re all — Mitch, especially — happy with the current situation.

Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart on the start Mark Pope is off to:

"Anybody can recruit. But not everybody can evaluate. You can be phenomenal at recruiting. But if it doesn't fit your program, it's really not helpful" 😳pic.twitter.com/4FdD52DMIM

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) November 16, 2024