Mark Pope explains Kentucky basketball’s transfer portal strategy for the 2025-26 season

For 16 NCAA Division I men’s college basketball teams, the 2024-25 season is still ongoing.

The Sweet 16 of this year’s NCAA Tournament has been set, and this group of schools — which includes seven SEC teams — all still harbor hopes of winning a national championship.

But for everyone else, it’s on to next season. Which means it’s on to the NCAA transfer portal.

The men’s basketball transfer window officially opened Monday and will run for 30 days through April 22. This means men’s college basketball’s annual flurry of roster movement is in full swing.

Since the portal officially opened Monday morning, more than 700 Division I players have entered it, according to ESPN.

Of course, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats are still one of the aforementioned 16 schools vying for an NCAA championship this season. The Cats advanced to their first Sweet 16 since 2019 on Sunday night with a second-round NCAA Tournament win over Illinois in Milwaukee.

But despite the 2024-25 season still being ongoing, Pope and his coaching staff already have their eyes on building up Kentucky’s roster for next season.

During his weekly radio show Monday night, Pope addressed a question related to UK’s transfer portal approach.

“We’re getting all the reporting that everybody’s getting in terms of who’s in the portal, who’s getting in the portal, who’s leaning that way,” Pope said. “While our communication with those people that are rumored to be entering the portal is limited, we’ve been doing a ton of planning.”

Pope added in his response that Matt Santoro, an assistant video coordinator for UK, is tasked with organizing all this information.

Pope won’t have to build a roster entirely from scratch for the 2025-26 season like he did last offseason. But, plenty of roster changes will still take place for UK.

Six players on this season’s Kentucky squad are expected to be out of NCAA eligibility after this season. Guard Kerr Kriisa could receive a sixth year of eligibility due to his injury issues, but Kriisa is not expected to be part of Kentucky’s roster for the 2025-26 season.

The UK scholarship players who will still have eligibility after this season are guards Collin Chandler, Otega Oweh and Travis Perry, forward Trent Noah and center Brandon Garrison.

As such, Pope has space to fill on next season’s Kentucky roster. The Wildcats are set to bring in three freshmen — left-handed guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, as well as in-state center Malachi Moreno — and Pope is still in the recruiting race for five-star power forward Nate Ament, who is expected to make his college commitment in early April.

“We have a dozen massive Excel spreadsheets that we’re updating literally minute by minute,” Pope said Monday. “And with coaching changes, we’ve been able to talk to some kids in the portal. We got to talk to some kids that are entering the portal as we speak, and trying to keep all that organized is a huge task. But it’s really exciting because there’s incredibly talented players. Guys have seen the massive success that our transfers have had this year and I expect that we’re going to have great success recruiting in the portal.”

To Pope’s point, Kentucky has reached its first Sweet 16 in six years — and the first of Pope’s head coaching career — with a brand-new roster compared to one season ago.

According to CBS Sports, Kentucky is the only team in the last 20 years to reach the Sweet 16 after returning zero points from the previous season.

An early name to watch for Kentucky in the portal this year is Josh Dix, a 6-foot-6 guard who previously played three seasons at Iowa. Dix was a two-year starter for the Hawkeyes and averaged 14.4 points and 2.8 assists per game this season while shooting 42.2% from 3-point range on significant shot volume.

Another player to know as the Wildcats look toward next season’s team is Hannes Steinbach, a 6-foot-9 German power forward with international FIBA experience.

This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 7:08 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

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Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription