Pope couldn’t give an exact number — hesitating to even throw out a ballpark figure — on how many players he had personally spoken to over the past week and a half.

“We’re hitting the phones hard,” he said with a chuckle.

Pope said there have been “a ton” of first calls, and — while he didn’t come out and explicitly say it — the new UK coach made clear that just because a transfer or high school recruit has been contacted doesn’t mean he’s necessarily a serious target for the Wildcats.

“It’s the second and third and fourth calls that actually make a difference,” he said.

And that’s the situation Pope and his still-growing coaching staff find themselves in as they wade through the transfer portal and the leftovers of the 2024 high school class, building a roster from scratch from the remnants of what John Calipari left behind on his way to Arkansas.

Mark Pope’s first recruits

By Monday night, Pope’s 2024-25 roster had grown from nothing to three players in less than a week.

Former BYU commitment Collin Chandler — a top-40 national recruit — officially became the first player of the Pope era when he flipped his pledge to the Cats last Tuesday.

On Sunday, former Drexel big man Amari Williams — the three-time Coastal Athletic Association defensive player of the year — became the first transfer of Pope’s tenure. The next day, Kentucky Mr. Basketball Travis Perry, who signed with Calipari back in November, said he was all in on his UK commitment after meeting with Pope.

BYU guard Richie Saunders could also be announcing soon that he plans to move to Lexington after playing the last two seasons under Pope in Provo.

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