Donnie Freeman picked St. John’s over Kentucky. The Wildcats felt confident this one was heading to Lexington. Instead, Rick Pitino stepped in late and flipped the script, landing a priority target that Mark Pope had spent significant time recruiting.

And that’s where this loss stings the most. Jeff Goodman believes it is down to mentality. Goodman believes Donnie Freeman chose Rick Pitino because he wanted a coach who would push him harder and prepare him for the pros.

Source told @thefieldof68 that a huge factor in Donnie Freeman choosing St. John's over Kentucky was Rick Pitino."He wanted a guy that would coach him hard, and wanted someone who had coached pros."

Rick Pitino is a legendary coach, and absolutely will coach him harder than Mark Pope would have. To be honest, Rick probably demands more than most college basketball coaches not named Tom Izzo. But none of that is really why Donnie Freeman choosing St. John’s hurts the most.

But Pope missing on Freeman the player isn’t all that bad, it’s all that went into it that makes it sting.

Freeman was the target at power forward. Pope identified him early as a foundational piece and prioritized him while other options who would have committed went elsewhere. That’s always the risk in the portal; when you go all-in on one player, you’d better land him.

I personally don’t believe Freeman is a sure-fire star. He has an injury history that scares me; his defense has not really lived up to the $3 million reported asking price. And all things considered on the court, it really isn’t a terrible miss.

From a pure evaluation standpoint, this isn’t a catastrophic loss.

The problem is the process. When you invest this much time and energy into a top target and come away empty-handed, you don’t just lose the player; you lose momentum, flexibility, and control of your roster build. And because of strained high school recruiting options, Kentucky was already playing catch-up in filling out the roster.

And now Kentucky will need to move on to option 3, or maybe even lower. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing; some of the remaining options are actually good fits. You can look at Justin McBride’s shooting or Devin Williams’ shot blocking and see the impact they could have.

But none of them have the upside that Freeman had, and none of them were seen as priorities.

Missing on Donnie Freeman isn’t about losing one player; it’s about what comes next. Mark Pope put his chips on the table and came up short; it happens. And now Kentucky is building the rest of its roster without another top target, which has happened too often the last few seasons.

It isn’t the end of the world; there are still good options remaining. Some may even work out better than Freeman would have.

Good programs adjust. Great ones don’t let misses define them. Now we find out which one Kentucky is under Mark Pope in year 3.

What do you think? Are the Cats poised to rebound, or is this a sign all is not well in Lexington?