The Kentucky basketball roster is filling out. But who can play for the Cats in Canada?
Following several weeks of frustration surrounding this Kentucky men’s basketball offseason, there’s been at least some positive momentum for the Wildcats more recently.
The Cats have actually added players to their previously thin 2023-24 group, with another new arrival or two likely to come in the near future. Two weeks ago, John Calipari barely had enough scholarship players to put a starting five on the court. Now, UK has something more closely resembling a full roster.
There are still plenty of questions around Kentucky’s personnel for the 2023-24 season, however, including one pressing one: who, exactly, will be able to play for the Wildcats during the team’s trip to Canada for the GLOBL JAM, which is now only two weeks away?
The overall makeup and current status of the UK roster has led to speculation over who can actually participate in these international exhibition games next month, when Kentucky will represent the United States in a four-team tournament that also includes squads from Africa, Canada and Germany.
UK won’t be at full strength for that event, but Calipari should have nearly all of next season’s players at his disposal.
One question many fans have asked is whether sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso, who was born in Nigeria and arrived in the United States just last year, will be able to participate in the GLOBL JAM, since UK will technically be representing the USA in an international event.
The Herald-Leader confirmed over the weekend that Onyenso will indeed be allowed to play for the Wildcats. That’s good news for Calipari, who currently has no other options at the center position.
Freshman 7-footer Aaron Bradshaw — one of the top recruits in the 2023 class and a possible NBA lottery pick next year — will not play in the GLOBL JAM next month. Bradshaw is recovering from a foot injury suffered at the McDonald’s All-American Game in late March, and while the reported timelines for his return have varied greatly — anywhere from a few weeks to six months — the Herald-Leader confirmed that he will not play in the Toronto games.
There’s also been speculation over the status of returning UK guard Antonio Reeves and West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell, due to their age. The GLOBL JAM is billed as an “under-23 basketball tournament,” and while Reeves and Mitchell are both currently 22 years old, they’ll both turn 23 before the end of this calendar year. Both will be allowed to participate in the GLOBL JAM, the Herald-Leader has confirmed.
Reeves rejoined the team last week. Mitchell committed to Kentucky on Monday and is expected to immediately move to Lexington.
The final question mark — and likely the final addition to UK’s 2023-24 roster — is Somto Cyril, a 7-footer in the Overtime Elite system. Cyril took a recruiting visit to Kentucky earlier this month, and — while a commitment was at one point expected to be imminent — he is currently concentrating on coursework that would allow him to reclassify from 2024 to 2023 and play college basketball this coming season.
That academic work is not expected to be completed for several more weeks, and that means Cyril will not be eligible to play in the GLOBL JAM, which tips off July 12. If everything goes according to plan, he would arrive on UK’s campus in plenty of time to participate in the program’s regular preseason workouts and practices.
So, that means Kentucky is likely to have 10 available scholarship players for the GLOBL JAM. Five of those players will be guards: Reeves and the freshman quartet of DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard and Joey Hart. Three will be wings: sophomore Adou Thiero and freshmen Justin Edwards and Jordan Burks. And two will be frontcourt players: Onyenso and Mitchell.
In addition, the Cats will have their walk-on group, led by fifth-year senior Brennan Canada, who has appeared sparingly in actual games but has established himself as an important practice player over the course of his UK career.
Plan for Canada
The players already on UK’s campus began individual workouts two weeks ago and started participating in organized team workouts early last week. College teams are allotted four hours per week in the summer for collective on-court activities, and programs taking part in a foreign trip — like the GLOBL JAM — are granted an additional 10 official practices, which UK is expected to exhaust before playing its first game in the Canada event.
The Wildcats are scheduled to arrive in Toronto on July 9, with two days of activities planned in the city before the opening game against Germany at 1:30 p.m. on July 12. UK will face the Canadian squad at 8 p.m. on July 13, with a final pool game against Africa at 1:30 p.m. on July 15 and a medal game June 16. The bronze-medal game will tip at 1:30 p.m. that day, with the gold-medal game scheduled for 8 p.m.
The Canadian outlet SportsNet holds TV and streaming rights to the GLOBL JAM, but an official involved with the event told the Herald-Leader last week that organizers are still working to secure TV/streaming rights for viewers inside the United States, and an announcement on how American fans can watch the games is expected to come soon.
The Baylor men’s basketball team played in last year’s inaugural event, and those games were made available on the ESPN Plus streaming service for fans in the United States.
This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
