Kentucky is getting help for portal season. Mark Pope explains vision for new job
The NCAA Tournament is still ahead for Kentucky, but it’s never too early to plan for the future. Especially in the current college basketball landscape.
The transfer portal is set to open April 7 — the day after the national championship game — and, like every other team in the country, the Cats will be pursuing new additions for their 2026-27 roster.
Mark Pope would like to have an extra staff member in place for that occasion.
A posting for a new position related to the UK men’s basketball team titled “Associate Director, Player Development” was listed on the university’s jobs’ website recently, and Pope confirmed Tuesday that whoever fills that role will have a hand in shaping future Kentucky rosters.
“Yeah, really important position for us,” he told the Herald-Leader. “It’s a back office position, somebody that can model for us 24/7. That can do salary cap models, that can do win-share models, that can do comparison research, in terms of us trying to get as deep into the details of managing this spring’s roster construction as we can.
“It’s really important to have somebody that, literally — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — is going to be just war gaming and modeling over and over and over again. And so we’re excited about filling that position. It’s going to really help us, as a staff, collect information.”
The official listing calls for applicants with three to five years of experience “working in a fast-paced environment in collegiate or professional athletics focusing on player development.”
There have been calls in some fan and media circles for Pope to hire a general manager for the UK basketball team — a position that other major college programs have adopted in recent years, to varying results — and while this job does not carry that specific title, the listed duties cover a wide range of similar responsibilities.
“This role leverages advanced data modeling, video analysis, and performance evaluation tools to provide the coaching staff with actionable insights on current players and prospective recruits,” the listing reads, in part. “Working closely with the coaching staff and support personnel, the role contributes to innovative roster and resource management practices by evaluating internal and external talent, projecting performance trends, and helping develop forward-thinking strategies that optimize team composition and competitive success.”
The position also includes collaboration with coaches, video staff and analytics personnel “to translate data insights into practical applications for scouting, practice planning, game preparation.”
The listing notes that the position could also include some coaching duties, pending expected changes to current NCAA rules that would allow more team personnel to be involved with on-court instruction.
Pope already has the maximum number of five assistant coaches on his staff, as well as Nick Robinson, the program’s director of basketball operations, who also served as an assistant coach on Pope’s BYU staff and sits with the other coaches on the UK bench during games.
Current assistants Alvin Brooks III, Mark Fox, Cody Fueger and Jason Hart are all on contracts that expire after this season. Mikhail McLean signed a new contract last year that keeps him with the Cats through the 2026-27 season.
The current “player development” job listing would be a position separate from those five assistant coaching spots, however. And the deadline to apply is Friday.
Kentucky in the transfer portal
If Pope can get someone in place quickly enough, it could offer another helping hand for what will be a busy April, no matter what happens on the court in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
And that’s exactly the plan. Pope confirmed Thursday that he wanted this spot filled as soon as possible.
“I’d like to have it in place today,” he said, acknowledging that UK would have to wait until the listing officially closes on Friday before moving forward with a hire.
Kentucky’s staff is hoping for ample roster continuity from this season to next. Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen are both seniors and will be out of NCAA eligibility as soon as Kentucky plays its last game this season. Jayden Quaintance will be a first-round pick in this year’s NBA draft.
But 11 other players on the current roster will be eligible to return for the 2026-27 season. Some of those current Cats will opt for the transfer portal themselves — that’s the nature of college basketball these days — and, since UK has no commitments from the high school ranks, Pope is expected to bring in at least a few players via the portal.
The NCAA changed the college basketball transfer windows for this offseason after widespread criticism of the previous rules. Last year, the portal opened after the first week of the NCAA Tournament, causing chaos for teams like Kentucky that were still alive for the Sweet Sixteen.
That meant coaches had to focus on tournament games while simultaneously scouting and recruiting potential transfers. UK, in fact, landed a commitment from Kam Williams on the morning of its season-ending loss to Tennessee.
In an attempt to alleviate some of that pressure and allow coaches to focus on the most important games of the year, the portal will open this year on the morning after the national championship game. It will also remain open for only 15 days, as opposed to the 30 days it stayed open last year.
That means players who want to explore a transfer this year must enter their names in the portal by April 21 in order to be eligible to switch schools. (They can commit to a new school at any time after that date, as long as they’re already in the portal.)
Even with the new NCAA timetable, it will be important for teams to have staff members monitoring potential transfer activity before the portal actually opens.
Some players whose seasons are finished have already indicated that they will put their names in the portal on April 7, and there has been ample speculation in college basketball insider circles for weeks about other potential big-name players who could be looking for new schools this offseason.
Having staff members available to vet and evaluate potential portal entrants before those recruitments officially start will be integral for any program hoping to make a major splash with transfers this spring.
Pope also made clear Tuesday that he plans to add more positions to his staff, beyond this “player development” job.
“With the changing dynamics, this is not the final piece that we’ll add,” he said. “... And so this is something that we’ve been playing with — just trying to find the right time and exactly the right description of the job where we could understand exactly the window of what we wanted.
“And I think we’re there right now. I think we have some elite-level applicants that will fill this little niche position perfectly. So I’m excited to get through the process and get this person in house and have them grind away.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 11:30 AM.
