Kentucky's Mark Pope Responds to Yaxel Lendeborg's Claim He Was Offered $7-9M NIL Contract

Kentucky men's basketball head coach Mark Pope didn't directly deny claims the Wildcats offered Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg $7 to $9 million to attend the SEC program, but he wasn't happy about the entire situation.

"I am trying not to make a commentary on it," Pope said Thursday, per ESPN's Ben Baby. "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."

The comments were in response to those made by Lendeborg in which he told Larry Lage of the Associated Press, "They 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."

Ultimately, Lendeborg decided to attend Michigan despite Kentucky's apparent offer of nearly $10 million.

Baby noted that Pope said outgoing Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart met with him to discuss some of the things that were being reported before the head coach said this is "an interesting time in the world" while criticizing the media's coverage.

Kentucky certainly could have used Lendeborg considering he helped lead the Wolverines to a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance while averaging 14.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from deep.

The Wildcats were never realistic contenders for a No. 1 seed and ended up landing the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region.

That just so happens to be the same region the Wolverines are sitting on top of, which means they could meet each other in the Elite Eight.

And Pope would certainly have to address the comments again if that becomes a reality.