Kentucky Transfer Portal Insight from a Different Perspective

The college basketball transfer portal opened for business on April 7. For the last month, Mark Pope has been assembling his third Kentucky basketball roster.

Those are two statements that share very little insight whatsoever. That’s because this Kentucky basketball offseason, I took a slightly different approach to the transfer portal. Rather than living and dying with every single bit of news, I chose to simply ride the wave.

The transfer portal is exhausting on the ground floor. It was exhilarating during Will Stein’s rebuild, but I was happy to let Jack, Jacob, Zack, and all the others around these parts do the heavy lifting, allowing me to mostly stay out of the messy online discourse. Without swimming in it, it’s given me a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective on how Mark Pope’s roster-build has unfolded.

Questions About the Roster Rebuild

1. Where is the experience? Mark Pope has only added four newcomers who played college basketball last year. That doesn’t seem like a lot, especially when Pope is only bringing back two players who averaged more than 15 minutes per game a year ago, and one of those missed about two months with an injury.

How much does experience matter? Mark Pope signed nine players in his first Kentucky transfer portal class, and five of them averaged 29 minutes per game or more the year prior. That only applies to Alex Wilkins and Zoom Diallo in this class. The lack of tape on these new guys makes it harder for Kentucky basketball fans to buy stock now.

2. Where are all of the big names in free agency? There was simply a short supply of marquee names in this year’s transfer portal cycle. I doubt many Kentucky fans were salivating at the thought of adding Somto Cyril or Sananda Fru, yet they’re in the top 30 of the transfer portal rankings. Schools have emphasized retention, shrinking the pool of players in the market, making it more difficult for coaches to land big names that would excite a fanbase.

3. Why so few high school recruits? This is a tenuous subject, but unavoidable. Mark Pope put all of his eggs in the Tyran Stokes basket, and now he’s left empty-handed. Signing only two high school players is a bad look, even if you aren’t in the basketball recruiting weeds every day.

4. Where is the shooting? For casual Kentucky basketball observers, when the Wildcats add a new player, the first thing they check is the stats, most importantly, the shooting percentages. Mark Pope’s first season had more lows sprinkled in than Kentucky basketball fans would have liked, but the year ended with a Sweet 16. Fans were sold on his style of play, spacing the floor to get players open looks from three. Can his third team play that style?

Solution: This Kentucky Basketball Team Could be Solid

Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees when you’re right in the middle of it. That’s probably been the case for many Kentucky basketball fans over the last month.

1. Bad Timing Clouds Judgment. Kentucky basketball fans would feel a lot different about Zoom Diallo if he had just committed during his day at Keeneland. Instead, Pope brought in Rob Wright for a visit, giving some hope for a different point guard. When that fell through, Diallo committed about 24 hours later. Justin McBride‘s commitment was announced about 30 minutes before Tyran Stokes committed to Kansas. Right or wrong, the bad outweighed the good, and it left a lingering bad feeling around this roster.

2. Two Roster Retention Wins. Kentucky played a part in ensuring the free agency pool was shallow. Malachi Moreno would have been one of the most sought-after centers in the transfer portal. The former McDonald’s All-American was ahead of schedule. Physicality caught up with him late in the season, but his development over the last three years tells us he’s due to take another step forward this upcoming season. Kam Williams was on NBA Draft big boards when he first made the move to Kentucky. If he can turn flashes into consistent production, he’s a future 3-and-D NBA player. If Moreno had entered the transfer portal, Evan Miyakawa would have ranked him as the No. 4 player in free agency, whereas Williams would have fallen just outside of the Top 100.

3. Multiple Ball-Handlers. You’re judged on your wins and losses, period. However, it’s hard to completely dismiss the shorthand Pope has been dealt with injuries at point guard. Determined not to let that happen again, Wilkins and Diallo give Kentucky two exceptional options at the position. Sometimes in basketball, you just need a guy to go get a bucket. They each have that in their game.

Even though Wilkins and Diallo don’t consistently light it up from downtown. Justin McBride did shoot 40% from three while taking about three per game. Jerone Morton‘s 39% will play too, even though he never hit more than three in a game at Washington State. Trent Noah is due to bounce back after a sophomore slump, while Braydon Hawthorne is a complete wild card on the wing. If the point guards can improve their efficiency by shooting at a lower volume, there should be enough offensive firepower to win some SEC basketball games.

The last month has been filled with PR nightmares for Mark Pope. Despite it all, if you take a step back, you can see a quality Kentucky basketball team on the horizon. You might just have to squint a bit.

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