Kentucky’s summer basketball practices are over. Here’s what’s next for the Cats
The conditioning tests are complete. The getting-to-know you stage has passed.
Eight weeks of summer basketball practice for Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats are now in the bag. So, what happens next for the UK men’s basketball team?
The 2025-26 edition of the Cats wrapped up their summer practice session Thursday, a whirlwind couple of months on the court for a squad that could start the regular season ranked inside the national top 10 and will carry realistic Final Four hopes into Pope’s second year as Kentucky’s head coach.
Like last year — when every scholarship player on Pope’s roster was new to the program — this has been a critical time on the preseason calendar for UK’s players, a chance to get acquainted with the coaching staff and new teammates before fall practice begins.
Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah are all holdovers from last season’s roster, but Pope has recruited 10 new players for the coming season, many of whom are expected to play major roles for the Wildcats once the real games start in November.
The newcomers — all of them except international forward Andrija Jelavic, at least— arrived in Lexington in early June and jumped almost immediately into Pope’s practice sessions, which started with some grueling conditioning work and quickly escalated into five-on-five action.
Now that those eight weeks of practice are finished, the Cats will get to enjoy the closest thing to an extended break they’ll have until March (or April, if everything goes according to plan).
Once the final practice session wrapped Thursday, players were free to leave campus. Some departed later that day, eager to get home for some time with their families before the start of the fall semester.
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The Herald-Leader was told that those players who left Lexington will be required to return to campus by Aug. 21, when UK will hold a private team event to tip off the preseason.
There’s a team retreat planned for the following two days (Aug. 22-23), and the format of that getaway will follow the template of Pope’s first team, which spent time building houses in Perry County in conjunction with the Housing Development Alliance last August before hitting Laurel River Lake for some fun together on the water.
This year’s preseason team retreat will also include a community service aspect, along with a relaxing activity like last summer’s lake trip. Several UK players on Pope’s first roster mentioned that retreat as one of the highlights of the season and a crucial part of the Wildcats’ early team-building efforts.
Jelavic — the intriguing, 6-foot-11 forward from Croatia with two years of professional experience overseas — should be in the United States by then.
The Herald-Leader was told last week that Jelavic is still on track to arrive in Lexington a few days before the rest of the team reconvenes on campus on Aug. 21. During that time, he’ll undergo the standard medical testing that the rest of the roster has already gone through, and the extra few days before the team retreat will give him some time to get acclimated to campus — and life in the United States, in general — before preparation for the season ramps up.
The first day of fall classes at UK is set for Aug. 25, and team workouts will start as soon as the school year begins, with official practices coming not long after that.
The team’s preseason practice schedule will start the week of Sept. 22. The Wildcats still won’t be at full strength for those sessions.
Projected NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance remains sidelined after undergoing surgery for a torn ACL in March, but photos that went viral — in UK basketball fan circles — last week showed him dunking (while wearing slides) on an outdoor court. Quaintance has targeted a return for the start of the regular season, though that timetable has always been met with skepticism behind the scenes.
He is on track to possibly be ready to play during Kentucky’s nonconference schedule, however, and the Herald-Leader was told late last week that he’s progressing well in his recovery.
Those photos last week received more attention for showing Oweh in a protective walking boot on his right foot. The injury to UK’s leading scorer — and possible SEC preseason player of the year — occurred during a recent practice and is not considered serious.
The Herald-Leader was told that Oweh is expected to be good to go for the start of preseason practice next month. Chandler also missed some practice time this summer with a minor injury but was back on the court for the end of the eight-week session.
The 2025-26 season is fast approaching.
The Cats will have only a few weeks of practice before they’re on the court in front of Kentucky fans for the first time, with Big Blue Madness expected to take place the weekend of Oct. 10 and the annual Blue-White scrimmage tentatively planned for the following weekend.
Purdue, which is No. 1 in ESPN’s early Top 25 rankings for this season, will be in Rupp Arena on Oct. 24 for the Wildcats’ first exhibition game, and UK is set to host the Georgetown Hoyas six days later in the preseason finale.
The first day of the regular season will be Nov. 3. That date is now only 12 weeks away.
