Kentucky's Pope sounds off on Lendeborg's claim, doesn't rebut it - ESPN

ST. LOUIS — Kentucky men's basketball coach Mark Pope had a lot of things to say about Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg's comments that he received a multimillion-dollar offer to play for the Wildcats.

One thing Pope didn't explicitly say: Lendeborg was wrong.

Pope heavily suggested that Lendeborg's claim to The Associated Press that Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million to transfer from UAB in 2025 was inaccurate. However, Pope did not explicitly deny or confirm Lendeborg's reported offer.

«I am trying not to make a commentary on it,» Pope said Thursday ahead of 7-seed Kentucky's first-round game against 10-seed Santa Clara in the NCAA tournament. «This is all part of the distraction that my team is not a part of.

»We will try and embrace the circus nature of this and count on some responsible media member somewhere to actually kind of dig in and find out or just be responsible reporting."

Lendeborg's comments to the AP were published Monday. Pope said that a couple of days ago, outgoing Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart walked into his office and had a conversation about things that were being reported before Pope on Thursday decried the accuracy standards of modern media, calling this «an interesting time in the world.»

Lendeborg told the AP that Kentucky had «started the number with $7 [million] to $9 [million].»

«They were pretty much going off on the route like we'll pay him anything to get here,» he said, noting that the Wildcats' offer was about three times higher than what he took from the Wolverines.

Lendeborg helped the Wolverines (31-3) win the Big Ten regular-season title and receive a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament. Kentucky (21-13) sputtered toward the end of the regular season, going 2-5 in