A high-scoring guard from the NCAA transfer portal is visiting Kentucky
One of the top guards still available in the NCAA transfer portal is on the ground in Lexington to visit Mark Pope and the UK basketball program.
On Sunday, former Sam Houston guard Lamar Wilkerson began his on-campus recruiting visit to the Wildcats.
Wilkerson, a 6-foot-5 guard from Arkansas, is expected to continue his Kentucky basketball visit through Monday night.
Pope and Wilkerson were spotted together at Keeneland on Sunday afternoon.
A high-scoring senior who began his career at the community college level, Wilkerson is scheduled to visit Auburn, Indiana, Kentucky and Ole Miss before making a commitment. Wilkerson visited Indiana on Saturday, prior to his trip to Lexington.
Wilkerson — who is listed by the 247Sports basketball transfer portal rankings as the No. 39 player in the portal — is expected to visit Auburn, then Ole Miss, after Kentucky.
Last season at Sam Houston, Wilkerson averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 47.7% from the field and 44.5% from 3-point range. That was his third season with the Bearkats’ program.
Wilkerson went 109-for-245 on 3-pointers last season, which gave him the 13th-most made 3-pointers in all of NCAA Division I men’s hoops. He’s also a career 82.6% shooter from the foul line.
Wilkerson was one of the most consistent scorers in all of college basketball during the 2024-25 season. Only five players scored at least 10 points in all of their teams’ games last season. That list includes ex-Cat Devin Askew (Long Beach State), Donovan Dent (New Mexico), Sam Hines Jr. (Southeastern Louisiana), Kam Jones (Marquette) and Wilkerson.
In each of the last two seasons, Wilkerson has been a first-team All-Conference USA selection at Sam Houston.
What does Kentucky basketball’s 2025-26 roster look like?
Barring any unexpected changes, it appears that Pope and the Wildcats are looking at adding one more guard to next season’s UK roster.
Currently, the Wildcats project to have 12 scholarship players in place for the 2025-26 season.
This group includes five expected returnees from last season’s UK squad. Those players are freshmen guards Collin Chandler and Travis Perry, freshman forward Trent Noah, sophomore center Brandon Garrison and junior guard Otega Oweh.
Garrison confirmed Saturday night that he’ll be back at Kentucky for next season.
Pope and his coaching staff have already done heavy work in the transfer portal this offseason. Kentucky has formally announced the additions of four players from the portal so far. Those future Cats are sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), sophomore guard Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), freshman big man Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State) and freshman wing Kam Williams (Tulane).
Despite a decommitment from high school recruit Acaden Lewis last Thursday night, Kentucky will still be bringing in at least three first-year college basketball players next season. Two of these players — guard Jasper Johnson and in-state center Malachi Moreno — will arrive via the traditional high school recruiting pathway.
Johnson is a left-handed guard and the No. 18 national recruit in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite. Moreno was a McDonald’s All-American this year.
Kentucky is also still involved in the recruitment of high school senior Nate Ament, a five-star power forward from Virginia. Ament is down to five schools in his college recruitment: Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Tennessee.
On Saturday afternoon, UK got a surprise commitment from Andrija Jelavic, a soon-to-be 21-year-old big man from Croatia. The 6-foot-11 Jelavic has played the last two seasons for Mega MIS, also known as Kosarkaski klub Mega Basket and Mega Superbet, a professional team based in Serbia.
This story was originally published April 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM.
