It’s looking more every day like Kentucky will actually field a full roster under new coach Mark Pope — and it’s shaping up to be a pretty good one. A very old one, too. Pope has been on the job for just 16 days and inherited a roster of zero scholarship players. Now he has six.

Andrew Carr, a 6-foot-11 forward from Wake Forest, became the latest addition and fourth transfer to pick Pope and the Wildcats. He gives Pope’s high-octane, 3-point-heavy offense a legitimate stretch-4. Carr averaged 13.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 blocks last season for the Demon Deacons — and he made 37 percent of his 3s on almost 100 attempts.

Also notable: Carr has played 117 college games and made 112 starts. He’s part of a dramatic makeover in the makeup of Kentucky’s roster, which was perpetually young under Pope’s predecessor, John Calipari. This new group already has Carr, former San Diego State guard Lamont Butler (131 games, 102 starts), former Drexel center Amari Williams (105 games, 79 starts) and former Oklahoma guard Otega Oweh (60 games, 37 starts).

Even one of the Cats’ two incoming freshmen, former top-40 recruit Collin Chandler, is 20 years old after serving a two-year Mormon mission. And Kentucky is only going to keep getting older as it continues building out the roster through the transfer portal.

Pope hosted former Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney (69 games, 60 starts) for a visit over the weekend. He’ll host former Utah State forward Great Osobor (104 games, 38 starts) and former Minnesota guard Elijah Hawkins (92 games, 88 starts) for visits this week. Pope’s best player at BYU, 6-foot-7 wing Jaxson Robinson (96 games, 44 starts), also just entered the transfer portal and the Wildcats will be a major player for his services.

As for the latest addition, Carr might be the most skilled player on the roster so far. He had 31 points and 11 rebounds against Georgia in the NIT this season, dropped 28 points on eventual Final Four team NC State and had 26 points, six boards, three blocks, two steals and two assists in a win over Florida. He also had a 12-and-12 double-double against Virginia, an 18-point game against Duke and 17 points, five rebounds and three assists against Clemson.

Not only is he a strong addition, but Carr represents another big recruiting win for Pope. Carr came to Lexington straight from a visit to Texas Tech. Then he took a visit to Villanova right after the trip to Kentucky. And by Sunday night, he announced his commitment to the Cats. This on the heels of Pope’s whirlwind to end last week: he hosted Oweh on Thursday, locked up a commitment and flew across the country to Las Vegas on Friday to close the deal on Butler. He was back in Lexington that same night to welcome Mahaney and Carr.

That’s how you go from zero to six players in 16 days.

Required reading

(Photo: Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

Kentucky Basketball has filled out its staff nicely after hiring Mark Pope as the new head coach.

Since the hiring of Pope, Kentucky has hired former Georgia head coach Mark Fox, former BYU assistant Cody Fueger, former G-League Ignite/USC assistant Jason Hart, and former Baylor assistant Alvin Brooks.

With all of those hirings, Kentucky still needs to hire one more assistant coach for the staff.

Although fans are eager to finish out the staff along with getting a completed roster, it may take some time to find the last staff member for the team, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

Remember, there are now five assistant spots for handling on-court coaching, but only three of them can recruit off campus, those being Brooks, Fueger, and Hart. This final hire is one of the spots for a coach who can’t recruit off campus.

Early on in the process of filling out the staff, many media members and fans thought Keegan Brown could make his way from BYU to Kentucky, but that never came to fruition, along with Orlando Antigua possibly wanting to stay. He has since taken a job at Illinois.

Kenny Payne was an option, but he has since accepted a job at Arkansas to team up with John Calipari. Of course, there were some talks of former Kentucky basketball players joining the staff, including Jeff Sheppard, Scott Padgett, Derek Anderson, Rajon Rondo, Tyler Ulis, and others.

With the staff being basically completed, Pope and Co. will now start to finish the roster for this upcoming year’s team, with a lot of openings to fill and not too much time to do so.

Some owners invest heavily and chase the Kentucky Derby dream for a lifetime without ever experiencing the electricity of competing on the first Saturday in May. In stark contrast, Albaugh Family Stables is getting there with remarkable regularity.

Catching Freedom is set to be the eighth Derby starter since 2016 for the Iowa-based operation, one that stands apart from other major players by keeping its numbers relatively small and bucking the current trend by generally avoiding partnerships.

Racing manager Jason Loutsch, son-in-law to 74-year-old family patriarch Dennis Albaugh, reflected on the start of the run with Brody’s Cause in 2016 and J Boys Echo in 2017. “The first couple of years, I was thinking, ‘We’re the luckiest ever. How can we be so lucky?’ But as I look back at it, a lot of credit goes to our team and our system,” Loutsch said.

They are open to other sales, but they concentrate most of their effort on Fasig-Tipton’s sale of select yearlings each August in Saratoga and Keeneland’s September yearling sale. As soon as those catalogs become available, Loutsch and boyhood friend Ryan Pezzetti go to work on the pedigree side with a laser focus on colts who have the bloodlines to handle two turns.

As for the system they employ, that always will remain a family secret. In discussing the evaluation of each prospect en route to the annual purchase of 12 to 15 yearlings, Loutsch would say only, “there are hoops we need to get through.” Their willingness to be painstaking as they evaluate hundreds of yearlings is no secret.

“We prepare for months before the sales. We’re the first to get there and the last to leave the sales,” the racing manager said. “We work hard. I can’t thank our team enough for all of the hard work they put into it.”

Barry Berkelhammer, who plays a key role as their bloodstock agent, describes the evaluation of yearlings as an “art form.”

“Obviously, to get to the first Saturday in May you have to win some races to qualify,” he noted. “So you have to have 2-year-olds that have got some precocious nature about them.”

Angel of Empire serves as a prime example of the thoroughness of Albaugh’s approach. The Pennsylvania-bred son of Classic Empire was purchased for a relatively modest $70,000 at the Keeneland September sale.

With the scratch of 2-year-old champion Forte, the Arkansas Derby winner went off as the favorite in last year’s Derby and ran an impressive race, missing by a length and a half to upstart Mage for Albaugh’s strongest finish.

Dennis Albaugh’s affinity for Constitution led them to step out while going it alone for Catching Freedom. They went to $575,000 to secure him at Keeneland’s September yearling sale and eventually turned him over to Brad Cox, a Louisville native who has won the Eclipse Award twice as North America’s top trainer.

Catching Freedom stamped himself as one of the ones to beat when he staged a prolonged rally for jockey Flavien Prat to defeat Honor Marie by one length in the March 23 Louisiana Derby (G2). In handling the 1 3/16-mile contest with aplomb, he earned his third victory in five starts and hiked his earnings to $877,350.

Catching Freedom might be the 3-year-old that breaks through for Albaugh. “Any time you win a prep race like the Louisiana Derby, you go in with a lot of confidence because you beat quality, quality horses,” Loutsch said. “He’s done really well since the Louisiana Derby, so it’s really exciting.”

Catching Freedom showed his readiness for the biggest race of his life when he zipped five furlongs in 59.2 seconds April 27 at Churchill Downs. He ranked second of 58 workers at the distance in his final Derby drill.

Loutsch expects the Kentucky Derby to play out very differently from what transpired in Louisiana, where Catching Freedom was left with much to do. “I think we’re going to break a lot sharper than we did in the Louisiana Derby. That wasn’t the plan to stay that far back,” he said. “I think he will sit mid-pack. Hopefully, we’ll get a clear run. When he’s asked to go, I think he’ll make a big run.”

As for the critical question of whether Catching Freedom can last the testing mile and a quarter, Loutsch said, “that is one thing we don’t have to worry about.”

Albaugh is that sure of its system and its process.