CRAWFORD | Kentucky paid for Milan Momcilovic. Mark Pope still had to recruit him. | Sports

The Wildcats' reported $6 million investment got them in the room. Momcilovic says Mark Pope's vision for his future closed the deal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Milan Momcilovic committed to Kentucky without ever setting foot on campus. It’s not that unusual, especially these days. But still instructive.

No visit. No campus tour. No coach pointing toward trophy cases or academic buildings. Just a handful of Zoom calls because, as he put it Thursday, "I could care less what the campus looks like. Everyone's got good facilities."

Three years into a college career, he already knew what college looked like.

He wanted to know what his future looked like.

He wanted to know how the offense worked. Why last year's team fell short. Where he'd fit in the plan.

Louisville was in the mix too, at one point, a program he reportedly turned down for less money than Kentucky put on the table.

That Kentucky was willing to invest a reported $6 million certainly didn't hurt.

It also wasn't enough.

"I loved his teams," Momcilovic said, recalling Mark Pope's BYU. "The way his teams played, moving the ball, sharing it, a lot of shooting." He came away believing, "This offensive system was good for me."

When Pope called, "his pitch was he loves playing with shooters."

That got Momcilovic on a Zoom call.

It didn't close the deal.

"I'm more relationship type guy," he said. "I've got to trust you." The Kentucky brand mattered, he said. But trusting the coach mattered more.

Late in the process, Malachi Moreno joined one of those Zoom calls. He talked about his own development at Kentucky. He talked about the offense. He talked, pointedly, about tuning out a fan base disappointed that last season's team hadn't met expectations. Then he called Momcilovic again afterward to answer more questions.

That's part of the due diligence too.

When you're making a multi-million-dollar decision, you don't just trust the salesman.

You call the customer.

The rest of Momcilovic's diligence came from NBA scouts.

They told him his shooting translated. They also told him he wasn't yet a good enough defender — by his own description, "average" — to guard NBA wings.

So, the decision came down to a simple question: Could another year in Pope's system, alongside a passing big man like Moreno, close that gap before next June?

Momcilovic decided it could.

So did Pope's pace. So did Kentucky's spacing. So did a roster full of shooters who would create even more room for him.

None of that required seeing the facilities.

That's the part the price tag can obscure.

Six million dollars doesn't buy certainty. If it did, every wealthy collective would win every recruiting battle.

What it buys is an opportunity to make your case on a Zoom call, without the tour, without the banners, without any of the theater college recruiting once depended on.

Mark Pope still had to make that case.

He made it with an offense Momcilovic had watched carve up his own team. He made it with a vision for where Momcilovic fit. And he made it with a player willing to get on the phone and vouch for him.

Money got Kentucky the meeting.

Mark Pope won the argument.