Kentucky missed out on its biggest remaining target for the 2025-26 men’s basketball season this week.
That doesn’t mean Mark Pope and his coaching staff are finished in their search for an impact shooter.
With Lamar Wilkerson’s commitment to Indiana on Tuesday — less than 24 hours after wrapping up his visit to UK — the Cats’ projected 2025-26 roster still sits at 12 players. And while Kentucky is widely viewed as a top 15 team for next season — with some national outlets ranking Pope’s team inside the top 10 — there’s still room for improvement.
The biggest need remains outside shooting, and just because Wilkerson — a seemingly ideal fit to fill that void — popped for the Hoosiers doesn’t mean that Pope will abandon his search.
UK also hosted 6-foot-8 wing Braydon Hawthorne — a top 100 recruit in the 2025 class — for a visit Wednesday, but even if he ultimately commits to the Cats, the quest for roster additions won’t be over.
The program is working under the assumption that there will be 15 scholarships available for the 2025-26 season, an increase expected to result from the House vs. NCAA settlement that should be finalized soon. College basketball programs are currently permitted to have up to 13 scholarship players, and Pope had 12 on his first UK roster.
If all five players eligible to return from that 2024-25 group do indeed stick with the Wildcats — and that remains the expectation — then UK would still have up to three additional spots to fill.
As of now, the 2025-26 Kentucky player with the most made 3-pointers in college this past season is 6-8 wing Kam Williams, who made 63 long-range shots at a 41.2% clip as a freshman for Tulane. Former Pittsburgh player Jaland Lowe — the presumed starting point guard for the Cats next season — is next at 41 makes (with just a 26.6% hit rate). And then comes Otega Oweh, who made 27 3-pointers for UK this past season, fewer than one per game.
There will certainly be other shooters on next season’s team, even without more additions. Collin Chandler emerged as a reliable 3-point threat toward the end of Pope’s first season, and incoming freshman Jasper Johnson — a five-star recruit — is expected to get plenty of opportunities from beyond the arc, too.
And that might be enough.
But the pursuit of Wilkerson — coinciding with persistent buzz around the program — is evidence of Kentucky’s continued need for a shooter, with plenty of good options remaining.
As of Thursday morning, accomplished and promising perimeter threats such as Ian Jackson, Rodney Rice
and Cedric Coward — all players listed inside the top 40 of the transfer rankings from both 247Sports and The Athletic — remained uncommitted. Former North Dakota guard Treysen Eaglestaff — another high-level shooter — backed off of his commitment to transfer to South Carolina on Wednesday morning and reopened his recruitment.
That’s not to say that any of those particular players will end up at Kentucky next season. Some have already narrowed their list of options. (And St. John’s has emerged as a favorite for Jackson.) But it is an example of the talent that’s still out there, with other capable shooters sprinkled further down those rankings and additional players certain to jump into the portal in the coming days.
UK has also been linked to former St. John’s guard Jaiden Glover, a top 100 recruit in the 2024 class who played sparingly for Rick Pitino’s team this past season but holds major promise for the future. Glover entered the transfer portal Tuesday.
The deadline for college players to put their names in the transfer portal won’t hit until Tuesday night, and — as long as Kentucky still has that need for a shooter — it’s worth watching to see which players add their names to the list of possibilities.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope is almost finished building his roster for the 2025-26 season. Ryan C. Hermens rhermens@herald-leader.com
New transfer portal rankings
Speaking of the transfer rankings, The Athletic updated its list this week, expanding it to 100 players.
All four of Kentucky’s portal additions are ranked inside the top 40.
The Athletic ranks former Pittsburgh point guard Jaland Lowe as the best player in the Wildcats’ incoming group, placing him at No. 16, making him the top-ranked portal commitment in the SEC.
Former Arizona State big man Jayden Quaintance is just behind him at No. 18 in those rankings. Kam Williams is No. 34, and former Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate is ranked 40th.
No other school has four players in the top 40 of The Athletic rankings.
Otega Oweh, the leading scorer from Kentucky’s 2024-25 team, declared for the NBA draft this week. That was not an unexpected move.
Even before the season ended, the expectation on UK’s end was that Oweh, who has one season of college eligibility remaining, would test the NBA draft waters. While players can get basic written feedback from NBA teams without formally declaring for the draft, taking the step that Oweh did this week will allow him to get more detailed, firsthand information from decision makers at the pro level.
The junior guard will now be permitted to work out for NBA teams and possibly earn an invitation to the league’s Combine in Chicago next month.
Oweh is still expected to return to Kentucky and help anchor the 2025-26 Wildcats. He is not projected to be among the 59 picks for this year’s NBA draft, and — even if he does work his way into draft range this spring — he could still stand to make more in NIL compensation next season at UK than he might as a second-round draft pick.
His announcement Tuesday that he would declare for the draft was simply the latest step in his offseason process, one that is still more likely than not to end with him back in Lexington for another season.
Florida lands a star point guard
The national champion Florida Gators will be losing Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard and Alijah Martin in the backcourt this offseason, but they landed a major commitment Wednesday night.
Former Princeton point guard Xaivian Lee, one of the top perimeter players in the transfer portal, announced that he will play the 2025-26 season at Florida, which is once again expected to be a force in the SEC, with Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and possibly Alex Condon all returning for another run with Todd Golden’s program.
Lee was one of the point guards linked to Kentucky before the Wildcats landed Jaland Lowe to fill that spot, and he’s ranked by 247Sports as the No. 26 overall player in the portal this spring. Lee, a 6-4 guard with one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game this past season, shooting 36.6% from 3-point range.
Daimion Collins finds a new college
Former McDonald’s All-American forward Daimion Collins, who spent two seasons at Kentucky before transferring to LSU, committed to South Florida on Wednesday night.
Collins played only six games in his first season with the Tigers due to injury, but he was able to get on the court for a career-high 30 appearances — with 22 starts — at LSU during the 2024-25 campaign. He averaged 8.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots in 20.4 minutes per game.
The 6-9 forward scored 125 points in 52 games with Kentucky over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Neither 247Sports nor The Athletic has him ranked among the top 100 transfers during this cycle.
Auburn adds intriguing juco player
His name isn’t in the transfer portal rankings from the major college basketball outlets, but that doesn’t mean Emeka Opurum won’t have a big impact at the highest level of the sport next season.
Opurum — a 7-footer from Nigeria — committed to the Auburn Tigers on Wednesday as coach Bruce Pearl looks to fill a frontcourt void left by departing mainstays Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell.
The 7-footer from Nigeria averaged 9.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game for Butler Community College in Kansas, and — while his jump up from the juco ranks makes him a bit of an unknown for next season — it’s clear there’s plenty of talent and upside with Pearl’s latest pickup.
Indiana and St. John’s were among the other schools that extended scholarship offers this spring.
Auburn has also added former Mississippi State big man KeShawn Murphy (11.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this past season) for its 2025-26 frontcourt.
