Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope and players Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr talk to the media after the Wildcats’ 78-65 loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament on March 28, 2025, in Indianapolis. By NCAA| John Clay
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Kentucky has 12 scholarship players on its projected roster for the 2025-26 men’s basketball season, but the chatter around the program and the transfer portal suggests Mark Pope isn’t finished yet.
With at least one more scholarship to give — assuming the UK players with remaining NCAA eligibility do indeed return for another year — the Wildcats are still being linked to several available transfers.
Outside shooting — a staple of Pope’s offensive attack — appears to be the biggest need as the Cats’ coaching staff gets close to finalizing its roster for next season, and shoring up their 3-point shooting is indeed the top priority in the portal at the moment.
Going into Thursday, the player most closely tied to UK’s recruiting efforts is former Sam Houston guard Lamar Wilkerson, whose shooting and scoring numbers skyrocketed from his sophomore to junior seasons with the Bearkats.
During the 2025-26 campaign, Wilkerson — a 6-foot-5 guard from Ashdown, Arkansas — averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, shooting 47.7% from the field and 44.5% from 3-point range. He was 109-for-245 from long range this past season.
Wilkerson averaged 13.8 points per game and shot 34.7% on 150 3-point attempts as a sophomore. He’s a career 82.6% shooter on free throws.
Indiana has been viewed as a favorite for Wilkerson, but, as of Thursday morning, the Hoosiers had not yet landed his commitment, and the buzz has been increasing by the day that Kentucky might be more of a realistic landing spot than previously thought.
Wilkerson could start visiting college campuses as soon as this weekend, and he’s scheduled to see UK, IU, Auburn and Ole Miss before making a final decision.
Lamar Wilkerson averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, shooting 44.5% from 3-point range at Sam Houston during the 2024-25 season.
Lamar Wilkerson averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, shooting 44.5% from 3-point range at Sam Houston during the 2024-25 season. Trevor
The Cats have also been tied to former Jacksonville State guard Jaron Pierre Jr. and former Southern Cal guard Wesley Yates III as possible backcourt additions.
Pierre — 21.6 points per game and 104-for-272 (38.2%) on 3-pointers this past season — could still be a potential addition for UK’s 2025-26 roster. Yates has been viewed as a likely Washington commitment since entering the transfer portal, and the Huskies still appear to be the favorite in that recruitment. Yates spent his first year in college at Washington, though he sat out that season with an injury before transferring to USC.
Former Robert Morris forward Alvaro Folgueiras — the Horizon League player of the year in 2024-25 — also remains uncommitted and is still on Kentucky’s radar.
The 6-9 player from Spain has two seasons of college eligibility remaining and could help UK’s 3-point attack — 45 makes from deep at a 41.3% rate last season — while also giving them another bigger body (9.1 rebounds per game) and skilled passer (3.2 assists per game) capable of playing on the perimeter.
And talented players keep jumping into the portal, which will remain open for new entrants until April 22. On Wednesday alone, players such as Florida State’s Jamir Watkins (1,626 career points), Mississippi State’s KeShawn Murphy (11.7 points, 7.4 rebounds in 2024-25) and Ohio’s AJ Brown (13.2 points per game) all entered the portal.
The final NCAA “dead period” of the spring is over Friday, which will bring the first day of the new recruiting period. That means college coaches will be able to host players on campus and travel off campus to meet with potential recruits.
So far, all four of UK’s transfer portal additions this spring — Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance — have committed to the Cats without taking a campus visit. (Though Quaintance was previously committed to Kentucky as a high school recruit and was already plenty familiar with UK’s campus.
The only two players that UK’s staff hosted on campus before the dead period went into effect were former Florida State forward Taylor Bol Bowen, who committed to Alabama, and former Indiana forward Mackenzie Mgbako, who is no longer considered a UK target following the additions of Dioubate and Quaintance in recent days.
Pope had 12 scholarship players on his first Kentucky roster this past season. It sure looks like he will get to at least 13 for his second Wildcats’ team. Of course, with each new addition crowding the depth chart, the possibility of a defection could increase if Pope does indeed bring in a fifth transfer.
As of now, five players from UK’s 2024-25 team — Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler, Trent Noah and Travis Perry — are all slated to return, along with incoming high school recruits Jasper Johnson, Acaden Lewis and Malachi Moreno.
But there’s still time for that to change. Kentucky players from this past season’s roster have until 11:59 p.m. EDT on April 22 to enter their names in the portal.
UK basketball players in the rankings
The 247Sports transfer portal rankings are constantly being updated to account for new additions and evaluations, and UK’s incoming class is highly regarded by that recruiting service.
As of Thursday morning, Jayden Quaintance was No. 6 nationally, followed by Jaland Lowe at No. 27 and Kam Williams at No. 33.
Mouhamed Dioubate has not yet been added to the 247Sports transfer rankings, but the Herald-Leader was told this week that he would slot into the top 50 once he is placed on the list.
As of now, Louisville holds the No. 1 spot in the 247Sports transfer portal team rankings with the additions of guard trio Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley — all ranked in the top 20 nationally — with Kentucky right behind the Cards in the No. 2 spot nationally.
U of L and UK are currently the only two programs with at least three commitments in the top 50 of those rankings.
SEC commitments on the way?
Auburn and Kentucky missed out on the top-ranked player in the portal: former UAB star Yaxel Lendeborg, who committed to Michigan over the weekend. But Lendeborg might go to the NBA draft anyway, and the SEC has still been raking in high-profile transfer commitments.
Jayden Quaintance is the top-ranked incoming transfer in the SEC, according to the 247Sports list, but the league will also be gaining Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (from Maryland), LSU point guard Dedan Thomas (from UNLV), Auburn forward Keyshawn Hall (from UCF), Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack (from Miami), Texas forward Dailyn Swain (from Xavier) and Alabama guard Jalil Bethea (from Miami) — all considered top 50 national transfers — with UK’s Jaland Lowe, Kam Williams and Mouhamed Dioubate also in that tier.
And that surely won’t be all.
Former North Carolina guard Ian Jackson — a top-10 national recruit in the 2024 class and the No. 7 transfer in the 247Sports rankings — is leaving the Tar Heels, and John Calipari, who recruited him at Kentucky, is once again trying to bring him in, this time at Arkansas. (St. John’s coach Rick Pitino could also be a major player here.)
Former Princeton point guard Xaivian Lee — top 25 in those rankings — could end up with national champion Florida next season, though talk of a move to Kentucky has not completely died down, despite the Wildcats landing Lowe as their projected starting point guard. Duke is also expected to be among the schools in the mix for Lee.
Tennessee is among the potential favorites for former Maryland shooting guard Rodney Rice after already landing his ex-Terrapins teammate Ja’Kobi Gillespie to run the point. Those were the two leading backcourt scorers on a Maryland team that made the Sweet 16 in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and they would make a formidable duo in Knoxville next season.
Villanova could be the Vols’ top competition for Rice, who is also a top 25 transfer.
Louisville native on the move again
Former Louisville high school star Kaleb Glenn, who starred at Male before transferring to La Lumiere (Indiana) at the end of his prep career, will be playing for his third school in three college seasons.
And it sounds like UK fans will see him early in the 2025-26 season.
Glenn, who began his college career at Louisville — averaging 14.9 minutes per game in Kenny Payne’s final season as head coach — tallied 12.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game at Florida Atlantic this past season.
The 6-7 forward is in the transfer portal again, and Michigan State looks like the major favorite to land his commitment. Kentucky will play the Spartans in the Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden on Nov. 18.
Glenn is considered a top 100 transfer by 247Sports.
AJ Dybantsa will play for the BYU Cougars next season and is among those in the mix to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft.
AJ Dybantsa will play for the BYU Cougars next season and is among those in the mix to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft. Jason Snow USA TODAY NETWORK
AJ Dybantsa loses No. 1 ranking
Even the most casual followers of college basketball recruiting know the name AJ Dybantsa, who has long been touted as a generational talent and the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 class.
Well, now that the 2025 recruiting cycle has come to an end, Dybantsa isn’t even the top-ranked recruit in the group.
247Sports announced Wednesday that Kansas signee Darryn Peterson will finish as the No. 1 overall prospect in the class. Peterson — a 6-5 guard — will surpass Dybantsa in the final 247 rankings, which won’t be fully released until next month.
Coach Bill Self still has a lot of work to do in building a roster around Peterson, however.
KU will return only one of its top 11 players from this past season — Flory Bidunga, who averaged 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds — and the Jayhawks have yet to make much of a splash in the transfer portal, where their only commitments are Tre White (Illinois) and Jayden Dawson (Loyola Chicago), neither of whom is in the top 100 in the 247 transfer rankings.
Self’s only other high school signee for next season is Samis Calderon, ranked No. 73 nationally. This blue-blood program has lots of roster spots to fill.
Dybantsa has signed with BYU — the program Mark Pope led for five years before taking the Kentucky job — and it’s not all bad news for the Cougars.
Obviously, their top recruit is still an incredibly talented player, No. 1 ranking or not. And BYU is expected to land former Baylor point guard Rob Wright, who is ranked by 247Sports as the No. 9 overall transfer this offseason.
BYU is also expected to return leading scorer Richie Saunders (16.5 points per game, 43.2% on 3s in 2024-25), plus key contributors Dawson Baker and Keba Keita, as well as incoming high school recruit Xavion Staton, a 6-11 center ranked No. 33 nationally in the 2025 class.
Pope’s former program made the Sweet 16 this year and looks to be in line for another good run.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
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