Ugonna Onyenso has entered the transfer portal after one season with Kentucky basketball
A player that was expected to play a major part in Kentucky’s future will instead be continuing his college basketball career elsewhere.
UK freshman Ugonna Onyenso’s name was added to the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday, less than three weeks after he confirmed his intention to return to the Wildcats for the 2023-24 season and on the heels of several public comments by Coach John Calipari proclaiming him to be a key part of the program’s immediate plans.
“At the end of the day, my guess is he’ll be — if not the best — one of the best big guys in the country next year,” Calipari said toward the end of this past season.
If the 6-foot-11 center from Nigeria lives up to those expectations, it’ll be to the benefit of another college team.
Onyenso was a late addition to Kentucky’s 2022 recruiting class, reclassifying up a grade and committing to the Wildcats last summer and arriving on UK’s campus in late August, after the team returned home from a preseason exhibition trip to the Bahamas.
The late arrival wasn’t supposed to have much of an impact on Onyenso, who was still 17 years old when he enrolled at UK and went into his freshman year with little expectation of immediate playing time. Instead, the plan was for him to practice against Kentucky’s other frontcourt players — chiefly, returning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe — and learn the game in order to make more of an impact starting with the 2023-24 season.
“I was interested to play for someone like Coach Calipari, because I knew it would help me in the long run,” Onyenso said before the season began, mentioning Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and DeMarcus Cousins as players he admired. “Those are players that people look up to, in the NBA. So coming here, that’s a big thing. I just want to be coached by the coach that coached those players. I want to be one of them.”
While Onyenso said he would like to play right away, he also understood the pecking order at Kentucky, starting with Tshiebwe and including other, more experienced post players.
When Tshiebwe was sidelined with a knee injury a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Onyenso received more opportunities on the court than originally expected. He played a total of 39 minutes — averaging 7.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots — in the Wildcats’ first two games while Tshiebwe remained out.
It was a sneak peek at what was supposed to be a bright Kentucky basketball future for Onyenso, who saw his playing time greatly decreased once Tshiebwe got back to full health but continued to express his contentedness at the way things were going during his freshman year.
He averaged 2.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and 6.9 minutes in 16 games for Kentucky.
Onyenso appeared in just one game over the final eight weeks of the 2022-23 season — three minutes in UK’s 86-54 win over Auburn on Feb. 25 — but he continued to look toward the future.
On the day before Kentucky’s loss to Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament, the promising center spoke to the Herald-Leader and voiced his appreciation for what he’d been through during his freshman year. At that time, he left no doubt regarding his future plans.
“I’ll be back here next season,” he said.
Calipari said a few days earlier that he had met with Onyenso about his limited role during the season and was assured by the freshman that he was happy at Kentucky and looking forward to becoming a bigger part of the Wildcats’ plans in the future. Throughout the season, Calipari talked up Onyenso’s potential to make a considerable impact starting with the 2023-24 campaign, and those comments were not lost on Onyenso.
“That’s a big deal,” he told the Herald-Leader on March 18. “He said that. And it’s up to me to fulfill that pact by really working hard and getting ready for next year. Now that I’ve seen what it is to play college basketball — I just have to get ready for my own time.”
But even as coach and player were on the record enthusiastically looking forward to Onyenso’s future at Kentucky, there was buzz around college basketball that people in the young center’s circle weren’t pleased with how things were going with his UK career and that a transfer to another school remained a possibility.
On Wednesday, those rumblings turned to reality.
Requests for comment from those close to Onyenso have not been returned. As of Wednesday afternoon, neither Onyenso nor UK had released a public comment about his future.
Onyenso’s departure will probably leave a major hole in Kentucky’s frontcourt for next season and scramble Calipari’s plans for the 2023-24 roster.
UK does have McDonald’s All-American 7-footer Aaron Bradshaw coming in as part of the No. 1-ranked recruiting class of 2023, and he’s expected to play major minutes for the Cats in year one. Kentucky’s coaches had been hoping to pair Bradshaw and Onyenso together at times, however, and there was expected to be plenty of playing time to go around for the two centers.
Tshiebwe still has one season of eligibility remaining and has not yet made an announcement regarding his future plans. He is likely to declare for the NBA Draft in the next few days while leaving open the option to return to UK for one more year, though he’s ultimately expected to keep his name in the draft pool this year.
Sophomore forward Daimion Collins is also weighing a possible transfer, and senior forward Jacob Toppin has announced that he will forgo his final season of eligibility to enter this year’s draft. Reserve forward Lance Ware, who will be a senior next season, is expected to return to Kentucky for a fourth year, though he has not yet made an announcement on his future.
In the meantime, UK’s coaches will continue to look for possible frontcourt replacements in the transfer portal, which already includes several high-profile big men, including former Michigan star Hunter Dickinson and two freshmen viewed as high-upside defenders: Oregon’s Kel’el Ware and Marshall’s Micah Handlogten.
Dickinson is widely regarded as the No. 1 transfer in the portal and has already had some initial communication with Kentucky.
Players have until May 11 to enter their name in the NCAA transfer portal.
This story was originally published April 5, 2023 at 12:58 PM.
