A potential star player enters the transfer portal. Kentucky expected to be an option.
A player of possible Kentucky interest is entering the college basketball transfer portal.
Illinois guard Andre Curbelo intends to transfer from the Illini program after two up-and-down seasons, and the Wildcats are expected to be a potential landing spot as his process unfolds.
Curbelo — a 6-foot-1 point guard from Puerto Rico — was recruited to Champaign by former Illinois assistant coach Orlando Antigua, who is now, of course, the top assistant on John Calipari’s coaching staff at Kentucky.
The No. 47 overall prospect in the 2020 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, Curbelo averaged 9.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 21.5 minutes per game in his first college season. He also made 55.3 percent of his two-point shots as a freshman.
Curbelo was seen as one of the top newcomers in the Big Ten that season, earning the league’s sixth man of the year honor while playing for an Illinois team that got a No. 1 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
He went into this season as an expected star in college basketball, landing on several preseason national player of the year and All-American watch lists. CBS Sports named him the No. 24 overall player in the country before the season tipped off.
The results didn’t match that hype, however. Curbelo’s numbers dipped in all categories — 7.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 19.3 minutes per game — and he played in just 19 games, missing nearly two months of the season after suffering a concussion in November.
His second season with Illinois — and, apparently, his time with that program — ended with an 0-for-4 shooting effort and two turnovers in just 10 minutes of play in the Illini’s loss to Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He was benched for the entire second half.
Illinois Coach Brad Underwood simply called it a “coach’s decision” to sit Curbelo, offering no further elaboration.
On Monday afternoon, Curbelo announced that he was entering the transfer portal this offseason.
Curbelo and Kentucky?
There’s obviously the strong tie between Curbelo and Antigua that will lead to assumptions about the guard’s next landing spot, but the Herald-Leader was told before Monday’s announcement that Curbelo might test the transfer portal and UK would be a possible suitor if that indeed happened.
Gonzaga, Miami, Pittsburgh and St. John’s have been mentioned as other potential teams of interest since Illinois’ season ended.
Kentucky will clearly be looking for some backcourt help before next season. The Cats will lose Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz, who are out of college eligibility, and they’re expected to lose Shaedon Sharpe and TyTy Washington, both projected as NBA lottery picks. That would leave starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler as the only backcourt contributor from this past season’s team, but his future at UK is also up in the air.
Calipari will have five-star guard Cason Wallace coming in, along with the expected return of sharp-shooting guard CJ Fredrick, who transferred to Kentucky from Iowa last year but sat out the entire 2021-22 season with an injury.
Some UK fans might take pause at the possibility of adding Curbelo for next season. The flashy point guard can play — much like Wheeler — a style that leads to head-scratching mistakes and critical responses at times.
“I just stay true to myself,” Curbelo said the day before Illinois’ season-ending loss. “I know who I am, I know the player I am, and I could really care less what people have to say. They’re just on social media, they’re never going to come up to my face and say it. I know the player I am and I will continue to do my thing. That’s who I am. I take high-risk plays, and I feel like that’s what separates me from other guards, maybe.
“Like everybody says, it’s sometimes good, sometimes bad, but like I said, I’m going to stay true to myself and I’m going to continue to be who I am on and off the floor, always.”
Curbelo has also been a poor three-point shooter in his two seasons of college, going just 11-for-65 (16.9 percent) in 50 games at Illinois. That’s not a stat Kentucky fans will want to see after watching the Cats struggle mightily from three-point range down the stretch of the season.
Still, there’s no denying Curbelo’s potential as a college playmaker, and his disappointing sophomore season was surely partly the result of the lingering concussion issues, and possibly even somewhat attributable to the departure of Antigua from the Illinois coaching staff.
Curbelo will get a fresh start somewhere, and it could be in Lexington.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 4:28 PM.
