When will Kentucky land its first top-five recruit? 'We'll wait and see.'

When Mark Pope first got the Kentucky job, two boxes had to be checked that really couldn’t be addressed until later on down the road. The big one? Zero postseason success, not a single NCAA Tournament victory as a head coach. The 1996 national champion could talk a big game about understanding the assignment, but there really wasn’t anything he could do to address those concerns until his very first March. That led to the program’s first run to the Sweet 16 since 2019, just what the doctor ordered amid countless other regular-season accolades that made 2024-25 an absolute blast. Check one.

The second would take even longer to address, and maybe a little more subjective with no set-in-stone answer on a resolution. Pope’s best high school recruit at BYU was Collin Chandler, a top-35 prospect who served a two-year mission before playing college basketball — eventually at Kentucky. No McDonald’s All-Americans, but he signed one immediately in the transfer portal in Brandon Garrison. Was that enough? Not for a program used to stacking five-stars and future draft picks for a decade and a half.

How about two top-30 signees in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno? They were all-stars and earned all of the accolades, but they weren’t consensus five-stars while Pope missed on the likes of Caleb Wilson, Nate Ament, Chris Cenac and Mikel Brown Jr., guys who were. The portal class was insane, headlined by potential top-five pick and former Burger Boy Jayden Quaintance, and he added a big-time international talent in Andrija Jelavic, but for some, they’re still waiting on the big fish — whether or not it actually means anything.

What’s the program’s response to those recruiting questions, knowing they’ve got a dozen committable offers out there in the class of 2026 with some of the country’s biggest names, including No. 1 overall Tyran Stokes? Just wait.

It starts with Pope’s approach to recruiting and connecting with kids, a two-way street with the Wildcats evaluating the right fits for them as much as it is the prospects evaluating the coaches.

“Coach Pope has a natural charisma and energy that — I don’t even know if there’s ever been a kid that’s been afraid of it, but he naturally connects,” UK assistant coach Mikhail McLean told KSR. “He FaceTimes nonstop, he’s not just gonna talk to you on the phone. He’s gonna be goofy with you, he’s gonna let you know if you’re a handsome individual, how handsome you are, how good you are at the sport. He just naturally connects, so it’s rare that he’s scared somebody away.

“He naturally connects and these kids really gravitate to him. His pitch and his sell, how he develops these guys, how he crunches the numbers analytically, how our player development program is as a staff, how we kind of help develop those guys.”

Character fit is massive, but so are playing style and talent fits. They’ve hand-picked some targets over others with better numbers next to their names because they view them as bigger fish than the “big fish” fans are obsessed with reeling in.

Some haven’t even revealed their true size yet — they’re still growing underwater, waiting for the season to start to show themselves off as well-kept secrets. Whether they’re listed as a five-star or McDonald’s All-American or a future draft pick, whatever, there is no worry about overall talent in that building and whether it will be enough when Big Blue Nation gets to see them at Rupp Arena in the coming months.

“We might not have gotten yet that high school guy that’s gonna (make the big-fish splash), but we have some guys our roster this year that have the chance to be those big fishes,” he continued. “We’re recruiting our tails off to get that next quote-unquote ‘big fish’ high school-wise. We’re doing a good job, but we got some guys on our roster right now that’ll have a chance to do it next year.”

Have no fear, though, the staff hears your concerns and are taking them to heart. They know fans like winning recruiting wars as much as on-court battles, the hope being one leads to the other. The more talent you have, the better your chances to win national championships — on paper, at least.

Time will tell on how quickly they pull it off. Who knows? You may not have to wait long.

“We’re working pretty hard. This fan base has helped us, it’s been a great sell,” McLean told KSR. “We’re doing our part and we will wait and see. We’ll wait and see.”

What BBN wants, BBN gets.