Friday Headlines: To GM or not to GM for Kentucky Basketball

The amount of change that college basketball has endured over the last few seasons has been astronomical.

In fact, that can be applied to college sports in general.

Who would have thought 5-10 years ago that college athletics programs would be able to pay student athletes up to millions of dollars, and the universities would be hiring general managers to handle the team-building aspect?

It wasn’t that long ago when college coaches were burning rubber down the recruiting trail to do their best to land the nation’s top freshmen and/or transfer portal players with zero money on the table.

Now, it’s all about the money and how you utilize additional resources to build out a roster that can compete.

Kentucky is right in the thick of things with NIL and the expectation of being one of college basketball’s powerhouses. However, it’s been quite a while since the Big Blue program was any real threat.

New head coach Mark Pope is in his second season, and things could certainly be better, even after considering how he’s having to adjust on the fly with three injuries to three key players on the team.

Things before Pope with former head coach John Calipari were far from great, too, which leaves members of Big Blue Nation craving at least a small taste of success from the program they love as much as anything.

Talk of Kentucky hiring a general manager has really picked up as of late, and Pope’s most recent comments suggest that the program is having conversations on that possibility on a weekly basis.

It’s no secret that Pope has been juggling a lot this season and seemed overwhelmed at times. Hiring a GM would surely take some stress off of Kentucky’s HC when it comes to roster building, NIL, and even possibly some of the responsibilities with his assistant coaches.

Do you think Kentucky should hire a GM? Will they make the move sooner rather than later? Or will they stand pat?

Let us know in the comments below!