12 down, one to go for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats. Jaxson Robinson was the most recent addition following the draft withdrawal deadline, the piece to tie the group together with a steady scoring presence to go with experience and familiarity.
It’s hard to poke holes in the roster as is, one that’s got a little bit of everything, down to the walk-ons in Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn — 14 total pieces, all equally important.
“I actually have 14 guys on this roster — we have two walk-ons that are vitally important to everything we do. Really, really important to everything we do,” Pope said in a sit-down with Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight. “We win because of our walk-ons, that’s actually true. It’s always been a staple of our programs. These 14 guys on the roster right now are so important.”
There is a lot to love about those pieces as is, but what about scholarship No. 13 and roster addition No. 15? That’s the next order of business for Pope and his staff to finalize.
The Kentucky head coach previously called it a “floating piece,” one they’d be patient on.
“The way we envision it is, it could be a place for a young player, it could be a place for a more senior player that is gonna take a redshirt year, it could be a place for a project, or it could be a place for maybe a high-risk guy,” Pope said.
Where do things stand a month later? Well, they’re still in wait-and-see mode. They know they’re going to fill the scholarship and maybe even get a little bit creative with it, but the who remains up in the air.
“We have one scholarship floating out there and we’ll see,” Pope told BBN Tonight. “Whatever happens is going to be a little bit creative and it’s going to fit really, really well.”
Though he doesn’t know who that player will be quite yet, Pope is certain it’s going to be a guy who will help this program win games one way or another.
“It’s going to be a massively important piece,” he said.
Time will tell on who the first-year coach has in mind to wrap up his debut roster in Lexington.
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