Which Kentucky basketball players are coming back after last season?
Currently, the Wildcats are expected to bring back five of six potential returnees from the 2024-25 roster. Freshmen guards Collin Chandler and Travis Perry, freshman forward Trent Noah, sophomore center Brandon Garrison and junior guard Otega Oweh are all expected to carry over from year one to year two of the Pope coaching era at Kentucky. Garrison, perhaps the biggest question mark in this regard, confirmed Saturday night that he’ll be back at Kentucky next season. Only veteran guard Kerr Kriisa has hit the NCAA transfer portal from last season’s Wildcats. Kriisa will play his sixth, and final, college basketball season at Cincinnati.
Who has UK added from the transfer portal?
On Friday, Kentucky formally announced the addition of four players from the transfer portal for next season’s UK team. Those players are former Alabama sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate, former Pittsburgh sophomore guard Jaland Lowe, former Arizona State freshman big man Jayden Quaintance and former Tulane freshman wing Kam Williams.
Which recruits are coming to Kentucky for the 2025-26 season?
Kentucky has three first-year college basketball players lined up for next season.
Two of these players will arrive in Lexington via the traditional high school recruiting route. They are left-handed guard Jasper Johnson and in-state center Malachi Moreno. Both Johnson and Moreno are five-star prospects. Moreno recently won the Kentucky high school Sweet 16 state championship with Great Crossing (Georgetown). Moreno was also a McDonald’s All-American this year. Previously, top-30 high school recruit Acaden Lewis, a guard, was signed to play at Kentucky next season. But Lewis decommitted from the Wildcats last Thursday night
Who else is UK targeting for next season’s team?
Pope and the Wildcats are still looking to add to next season’s roster. Specifically, UK is focused on adding one more guard.
The top candidate right now is former Sam Houston guard Lamar Wilkerson, who is currently on a recruiting visit to UK. Wilkerson is also considering Auburn, Indiana and Ole Miss out of the transfer portal. He averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game for Sam Houston last season. Kentucky is also expected to get a Wednesday visit from Braydon Hawthorne, a four-star high school recruit in the 2025 recruiting class. Hawthorne was previously signed to play at West Virginia, but he reopened his recruitment last month after former Mountaineers head coach Darian DeVries left to become the new head coach at Indiana.
A variety of transfer portal targets have seemingly come and gone for the Wildcats in recent weeks, including the likes of Indiana forward Mackenzie Mgbako, Jacksonville State senior guard Jaron Pierre Jr. and Robert Morris sophomore forward Alvaro Folgueiras, among others.
