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Just how far would Mark Pope go to make sure he has a full roster of players for the 2025-26 basketball season?
He told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports Wednesday that he not only would like to have a full roster of 13 players but would also like to play them all next season.
“We are going to try and round out this roster. I am actually scouring the planet right now for guys that would fit in as maybe a redshirt guy who would maybe kill it in practice or maybe the last year of a career guy who wants to come here and put on this one of one jersey and be a part of this,” said Pope.
“We need to add a couple more pieces but right now we have our roster that is going to own the minutes on the floor and we have the right pieces.”
Pope told Rothstein “we can do it” when talking about next season’s potential.
“There are a lot of teams that can get it done but if we do this right with the right guys we can get this done,” Pope said. “That is our job. That is the standard here and nothing less is acceptable.”
6 Responses
We need one more stretch 4.
Nowadays you can never have to many guys. We had 3 players hurt at the same time last year. I don’t expect that to change to much seeing that if someone has a broken fingernail they sit a game or 2 out. We already have one injury going into the year with JQ. The thing is he will be the best big on the team when he is FULLY healthy. Question is when will that be. I’m not buying September. Bare minimum I’m going to say late November early December. December will be 10 months from the injury and over 9 months from surgery. What he does have working in his favor is that he’s only 17. There is a big difference in a injury like that when your young. You also don’t want him to come back to early especially at his position. He will be banging with the best of them down low. I’m going to predict they bring him along starting out playing him maybe 5-10 minutes a game and them increase that as the season goes on. I definitely think he will be close to 100% by SEC play. If we can get him back by then by the end of conference play he will be one of the best players in college basketball will it be to late to gel with the team? What happens if we are undefeated without him? Hmmm?
If we are undefeated in pre conference play or even 14-1, Quaintance sits out until we lose a conference game. You can’t take minutes away from a position without a good reason. He can get back in shape and find his groove in practice. He has to earn his minutes or destroy the team chemistry. If you are undefeated, you don’t change what got you there, even if you have Michael Jordan waiting for his shot on the bench. Pope can gradually start feeding him minutes to provide rest for Garrison and Moreno or plug him in if foul trouble arises. If we don’t get another 4 guy, Pope can give him spot minutes there.
KSR is saying Ole Miss is in the lead for Perry. Here they go guessing again! Lol Vandy would make the most sense in the sec. Seeing they are usually a offense first team. I don’t know why he doesn’t transfer to Iowa. Perfect offense to set picks for him to get open and shoot the ball. He will make a bug mistake playing in the sec.
I think we are getting close to farm systems in basketball. I was talking with a buddy of mine and he always tells me things that happen before they happen and he was talking about lows and mid majors being like a farm system for the power conference teams. Where the NCAA committee is in the talks of doing away with conference tournaments. Only at large teams get in which mean no more teams that are 500 who win the conference tournament and the team in the conference that has dominated all year is actually the team who plays in the tournament if they are ranked high enough. Like you could get 2 conference USA teams in the tournament and maybe no teams from the horizon if they don’t rank enough. Teams could also trade with one another before the conference part of the schedule kicks in. Teams in each state would be the farm team for major universities. Its in talks but how far it gets I have no clue but I actually think its a good idea, but I don’t know how it would work being that these are schools but with teams becoming LLC it could possibly happen.
I know a 2025 high school graduate that was MVP and very good stats and scores 20 points per game and does very well defensively. Let me know if you are interested in seeing his highlights.