Kentucky’s men’s basketball payroll reportedly exceeds $20 million, according to a report released by the Lexington Herald-Leader on Thursday.
The figure, estimated to be at $22 million, exceeds the number spent last season and the $4 million former coach John Calipari used to build his last squad as coach of the Wildcats.
Coach Mark Pope joked recently that the program’s payroll was “close to $200 million.”
“We would like to win at everything, guys — like, we really would,” he said. “This is the flagship program in the country, and so I’m fully on board with all of it.”
Pope also embraces the team’s lofty expectations associated with the program.
“We want to play the hardest schedule,” he said. “We want to play the best teams. We want to win the most games. We want to have the best players. We want to have the highest NIL. We want to have the coolest uniforms. We want to have the most media attention.”
One of the team’s transfers — Denzel Aberdeen — opted to leave Florida after the Gators won a national title last season. Abderdeen said the NIL and the collectives aren’t the only reasons he transferred from Gainesville.
“I don't think we all look at it as NIL, I just think that we all came to play basketball at the University of Kentucky,” Abderdeen said during the team’s media day last week. “It’s just amazing program. All the guys that have been in and out of here, everybody that's been here, been to the league, almost everybody. That's our main goal, just trying to win No. 9 for the community and trying to get to the NBA. I think that's our main goal.
"The NIL part is amazing. It helps us out with families and stuff like that, but I don't think anybody comes here for NIL. (We) just come here for the basketball.”
During the SEC Tipoff this week in Birmingham, Calipari, now at Arkansas, spoke about the current state of college basketball.
“I want to help 25 to 30 more families (and) the only way you do that is you're transformational as a coach — You're not transactional,” he said. “If I become transactional, I'm going to pay you this to do this and that, then I won't do this anymore. I don't need to.
“I think all of those said I've done what I do, and I'm not willing to do all this to stay in the profession. If you watched us in practice, you would say he's still connected. I'll know before anybody else that it's transactional now. That's why if someone put their name in the portal, I said, ‘you're not coming back because it's not going to be transactional. If this is what you want, let's go, let's work together.”
Calipari added that a solution is needed that is fair across and beneficial in the future.
“We have to fix some of this stuff before we're out for our own children,” he said. “Right now, the things we're dealing with, we want to put it to other people, but the thing is filtered down to the coach and coaches. We talk about the transfer portal. I don't mind kids transferring. You just can't transfer four times because it's not good for you. Four schools in four years, you'll never have a college degree."
Calipari added that a player should be able to transfer once without penalty but sit out a year after leaving a program for a second time.
“I’m not saying don't transfer,” he said. “We're doing a disservice to these kids the way it's being handled right now.”
Mark Pope, Otega Oweh, Denzel Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe attended the SEC Tipoff event earlier this week in Birmingham. (UK Athletics Photo)
