Mark Pope praises the former Lexington Catholic star who is transferring to UK
It’s now official: Former Lexington Catholic basketball star Reece Potter will be a member of the 2025-26 Kentucky basketball team.
UK officially announced the addition of Potter — a 7-foot-1 center — to the Kentucky program on Thursday morning.
Potter is set to be the 13th scholarship player for Mark Pope’s Wildcats next season.
“Reece Potter is a Lexington Catholic legend,” Pope, the UK head coach, said in a news release. “He is a lengthy big who has a unique combination of mobility and skill. Reece can really pass, shoot and protect the rim and fits into what we do exceptionally well. Most importantly, he truly understands what it means to wear the Kentucky jersey.”
Potter was a high school star at LexCath before spending the first two seasons of his college career at Miami (Ohio). He played in 56 combined games over the last two seasons for the RedHawks. He committed to UK out of the transfer portal on May 5.
As a sophomore last season, Potter played in 30 games off the bench and averaged 6.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 17.1 minutes per game. Potter shot 36.7% on 3-pointers and 46.6% from the field last season.
As a freshman during the 2023-24 season, Potter made 11 starts and played in 26 total games for the RedHawks. He averaged 6.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 14.2 minutes per game as a freshman, while shooting 45.5% from 3-point range and 44% from the field.
Across his two seasons at Miami, Potter averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game, while shooting 45.4% from the field and 39.8% from 3-point range.
Potter is one of the best players to come from the Lexington high school ranks in recent years. He was a finalist for the 2023 Kentucky Mr. Basketball award after being named the 11th Region’s player of the year as a high school senior. Potter was also the 2023 Lexington Player of the Year, as named by the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com, after averaging 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as a senior.
That season, LexCath won the 43rd District championship and reached the 11th Region Tournament title game.
Potter is set to become the 88th UK basketball player from Lexington.
Reece Potter joins 2025-26 Kentucky basketball roster
Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster now includes 13 scholarship players.
This group is expected to include four returnees from last season’s UK team. Those players are freshmen guard Collin Chandler, freshman forward Trent Noah, sophomore center Brandon Garrison and junior guard Otega Oweh.
Oweh has declared for the 2025 NBA draft, but he’s keeping open his option to return to Kentucky for his senior season.
Freshman guard Travis Perry has transferred from UK to Ole Miss. Fifth-year guard Kerr Kriisa has transferred from Kentucky to Cincinnati.
On the transfer portal front, Kentucky has now announced the additions of six players from the transfer portal this spring. Those future Cats are junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), sophomore guard Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), sophomore center Reece Potter (Miami), freshman big man Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State) and freshman wing Kam Williams (Tulane).
Kentucky will also be bringing in at least three first-year players next season. Those players are 6-foot-11 Croatian big man Andrija Jelavic, guard Jasper Johnson and in-state center Malachi Moreno. Both Johnson and Moreno are arriving via the traditional high school recruiting pathway.
Johnson is a left-handed guard and the No. 21 national recruit in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite. Moreno was a McDonald’s All-American and Sweet 16 state champion this year.
Former high school recruit and UK signee Acaden Lewis, a guard, decommitted from Kentucky this spring and will instead be playing next season at Villanova.
Kentucky is still involved in the high school recruitment of Braydon Hawthorne, a four-star small forward from West Virginia. Hawthorne, who was previously signed to play at West Virginia, has already taken a recruiting visit to UK.
Next season’s UK basketball team now projects to have four Kentucky natives on the roster with Johnson, Moreno, Noah and Potter.
Johnson began his prep basketball career at Woodford County and is the son of Dennis Johnson, a former Harrodsburg, UK and NFL football player.
Moreno was a standout player during his prep career at Great Crossing (Georgetown). Noah was a star at Harlan County and led the Black Bears to the championship game of the 2024 Sweet 16 state tournament.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 10:12 AM.
