Which former UK basketball players are transferring again? And other portal news
The transfer portal remains the talk of the college basketball world.
Top-level players continue to make stay-or-go announcements in the wake of Florida’s national championship win this week, and Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats continue to be an active part of ongoing portal recruitments.
Within the last week, UK has landed a trio of players — guard Jaland Lowe, forward Mouhamed Dioubate and big man Jayden Quaintance — from the portal, bringing Kentucky’s transfer haul to four players this offseason. Former Tulane wing Kam Williams committed to UK out of the portal last month, while the Wildcats were still competing in the NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky also now has another scholarship spot to play with, potentially for another portal pickup. Late Thursday night, top-30 high school recruit Acaden Lewis decommitted from the Wildcats.
But the portal musings, obviously, aren’t limited to just the players connected to Kentucky this offseason.
Kerr Kriisa is the only member of last season’s UK team to enter the transfer portal, but plenty of ex-Cats who previously left Lexington via the portal are once again planning to transfer this offseason.
Some of these players have already found new homes for the 2025-26 season, while others are still uncommitted in their repeat trip to the portal.
A look at former UK basketball players on the move again via the portal leads our latest rundown of transfer portal news, along with news of a Kentucky portal target going off the board and an update on what’s going on with Rick Pitino and St. John’s this offseason.
Which former Kentucky basketball players are back in the transfer portal?
As previously mentioned, Kerr Kriisa is the only Mark Pope-era UK basketball player to opt to enter the portal and leave Kentucky. Kriisa is set to play his sixth season of college basketball at Cincinnati later this year.
But dating back to John Calipari’s final seasons in Lexington, plenty of ex-Cats left the UK program via the portal in search of other college homes. Some of these players are on the move again this offseason.
This extends all the way back to the ill-fated 2020-21 Kentucky team, which went just 9-16 overall. From that team, both Devin Askew and Cam’Ron Fletcher are still playing college hoops. And both players hit the portal this offseason.
Here’s a year-by-year look at the former UK basketball players who are back in the portal again.
▪ 2020-21: Devin Askew (guard) and Cam’Ron Fletcher (forward).
Yes, Devin Askew is still playing college basketball. The former UK guard is searching for a fifth school to play his sixth season of college basketball at after spending the 2024-25 season as one of the best scoring players in the nation at Long Beach State.
Askew averaged 18.9 points per game last season for The Beach, and he was one of only five players in the country to score 10 or more points in each of his team’s games during the 2024-25 campaign.
After making 20 starts and playing in all 25 games for Kentucky’s 2020-21 team, Askew spent one season at Texas, two seasons at California and last season at Long Beach State.
Cam’Ron Fletcher played in only nine games for UK during the 2020-21 season. He then moved to Florida State for three seasons and spent last season at Xavier, as the Musketeers reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament after winning a First Four play-in game.
Fletcher has only played in a combined 28 college games over the last three seasons, though. He suffered season-ending injuries during both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons at Florida State.
He averaged 1.3 points in 4.0 minutes across 11 appearances for Xavier last season. Fletcher has already committed to and signed with High Point from the portal.
On Thursday, High Point coach Alan Huss left the Panthers to become the associate head coach and the head coach-in-waiting at Creighton.
▪ 2021-22: Dontaie Allen (guard) and Bryce Hopkins (forward).
Dontaie Allen — an in-state high school star at Pendleton County and the 2019 Kentucky Mr. Basketball — spent two seasons at UK before first hitting the portal in 2022. He then played two seasons at Western Kentucky, which included playing a key role on the 2024 WKU team that reached the NCAA Tournament. Allen then spent last season at Wyoming, where he made 17 starts and averaged 7.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.
Now, Allen is looking for a fourth school at which to play his sixth and final season of college basketball.
Also in the portal again is Bryce Hopkins, who played one season at UK before spending the last three seasons at Providence. Hopkins was an every-game starter for the Friars during the 2022-23 season, which ended with Providence losing to Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
But the injury bug has bit Hopkins hard in each of the last two seasons. In January 2024, Hopkins’ 2023-24 season was cut short by a torn ACL. He returned to game action in December, but only played three games last season before suffering a knee injury that kept him out for the rest of the season.
Hopkins earned first-team All-Big East honors during his first season at Providence, and was a preseason first-team All-Big East selection before this past season.
Hopkins has already found his new home. He committed to St. John’s out of the portal late last month.
Head coach Rick Pitino and the Red Storm will getting a player that 247Sports has ranked as the No. 14 transfer available this offseason.
▪ 2022-23: Daimion Collins (forward).
Collins — who spent his first two college seasons at Kentucky and the following two seasons at SEC rival LSU — is back in the portal again to find a final school to play at. He was a heralded recruit when he arrived at Kentucky as part of John Calipari’s 2021 recruiting class, boasting five-star status and McDonald’s All-American honors. But things didn’t work out for Collins at UK.
As a freshman, Collins averaged 2.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 7.5 minutes. As a sophomore, Collins averaged 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds in 7.9 minutes. Collins’ time as a Kentucky player included the tragic passing of his father, Ben, just prior to the start of Collins’ sophomore season. After his second season in Lexington, Collins went in the portal and transferred to LSU, which is much closer to his original home of northeastern Texas.
Collins played in only six games during the 2023-24 season at LSU due to a dislocated right shoulder that required surgery. But last season, Collins rounded into form and was a regular starter for LSU, averaging 8.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.
▪ 2023-24: Aaron Bradshaw (center), Jordan Burks (guard/forward), Zvonimir Ivisic (forward).
This is where the bulk of the relevant ex-Cat transfer portal activity is taking place.
Three players from John Calipari’s final Kentucky team — who all transferred during the Calipari to Pope coaching transition — are on the move again this offseason.
Bradshaw spent this past season at Ohio State, playing in 22 games while averaging 6.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game. He scored 11 points against UK in Ohio State’s December win over the Wildcats in New York City.
Burks was at Georgetown for the 2024-25 season, where he averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in 18.6 minutes across 34 games (11 starts).
Ivisic went with Calipari to Arkansas and played in 35 games for the Razorbacks. Big Z averaged 8.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, while shooting 37.6% on a high volume of 3-pointers. All of these numbers were improvements compared to his freshman season at UK.
While Bradshaw and Burks are still in the portal, Ivisic has committed to Illinois for the 2025-26 season. This means that Ivisic will play alongside his twin brother, Tomislav, and be reunited with Illinois assistant coach Orlando Antigua, previously of UK.
▪ 2024-25: Kerr Kriisa (guard).
Kriisa is the only member of last season’s Kentucky team to hit the portal. The Estonian played in just nine games for the Wildcats last season before a foot injury sidelined him for the rest of the season. Kriisa is expected to earn a medical redshirt because of that injury issue, which will allow him to play his sixth and final college season in 2025-26 at Cincinnati.
Transfer portal visits are back on the table for coaches, players
Friday marks the return of in-person recruiting for transfer portal players.
College coaches are once again allowed to bring recruits on campus for visits and to hit the road themselves to meet with potential portal pickups off campus.
Previously, a week-long NCAA “dead period” was in place banning such activity.
Obviously that didn’t slow down the frenzy of the transfer portal, though. Three of Kentucky’s four transfer portal pickups came while that dead period was in place. In fact, all four of Kentucky’s transfer portal adds so far this spring have committed to Pope and the Wildcats without taking a recruiting visit to campus.
On Friday, Kentucky formally announced the additions of Dioubate, Lowe and Williams.
Regardless, Pope and his coaching staff will now be permitted to go out and meet with players, as well as host them for visits in Lexington. The name to know on this front is former Sam Houston guard Lamar Wilkerson, a prolific scorer and 3-point shooter.
Wilkerson is expected to visit Auburn, Indiana, Kentucky and Ole Miss before making his decision out of the portal. A weekend visit to Kentucky seems to be in the cards for Wilkerson, who averaged 20.5 points per game while shooting 44.5% on 3-pointers for the Bearkats last season.
Wilkerson is now considered to be the top backcourt target from the portal for Kentucky. After Lewis’ decommitment on Thursday night, perhaps UK now has the space to take on additional guards from the portal.
The Wildcats have reportedly moved on from former Jacksonville State guard Jaron Pierre Jr., a top portal guard who was a 38.2% 3-point shooter last season.
With the dead period lifted, this new recruiting period will be open until the end of the month. Off-campus recruiting will shut down for good starting May 1, but campus visits will still be allowed for parts of May, June, July and August.
Former Kentucky portal target Wesley Yates III commits to Washington
In an expected move, former Southern Cal guard Wesley Yates III is going back to the school where he began his college career.
Yates — who redshirted the 2023-24 season due to a foot injury at Washington before transferring to Southern Cal for this past season — is heading back to Seattle to play for Washington next season.
Yates was a top 50 recruit in the 2023 high school class and averaged 14.1 points per game last season for Eric Musselman’s first Southern Cal team.
Yates also shot 43.9% on 3-pointers last season for the Trojans.
Kentucky was viewed, for a time, as one of the leaders to land Yates from the transfer portal, but he opted to commit to Washington on Thursday for a return to his first college home.
Rick Pitino, St. John’s build roster for 2025-26 season
Rick Pitino and his St. John’s program were the talk of college basketball this past season.
The Red Storm ran all over the Big East, winning the conference regular season and tournament titles, but they fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Arkansas, led by old foe John Calipari.
But Pitino has wasted no time when it comes to retooling the Red Storm’s projected lineup for next season.
St. John’s has been a hub of transfer portal activity in recent weeks.
Two players from last season’s St. John’s team have entered the portal: Sophomore forward Brady Dunlap and junior guard RJ Luis Jr.
Dunlap will get a medical redshirt due to thumb and abdominal injuries that cut his 2024-25 season short. Luis averaged 18.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game last season for St. John’s on his way to earning Big East player of the year honors. But Luis’ time at St. John’s ended on a puzzling note. He scored just nine points and went 3-for-17 shooting from the field in the Red Storm’s NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas, and Pitino didn’t play Luis — St. John’s leading scorer — in the final 4:56 of the game.
St John’s already has two transfer pickups in the fold for next season: The aforementioned Hopkins and Joson Sanon, a guard and former UK high school recruit. Sanon averaged 11.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game as a freshman at Arizona State this past season.
Pitino and the Red Storm also figure to be in the market for former North Carolina guard Ian Jackson, who hit the portal after spending his freshman season with the Tar Heels. Jackson — a former top UK high school recruiting target — is a New York City native who averaged 11.9 points per game in primarily a bench role for UNC last season.
Jackson is expected to visit St. John’s this weekend.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
