‘I’m riding with Coach Pope’: Who’s returning to Kentucky? And who might leave?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pope must rebuild 2026-27 roster after 2025-26 Kentucky goes 22-14.
- Likely returners: Moreno, Chandler plus redshirts Hawthorne and Potter.
- Portal timing, recruiting gaps and NBA draft interest will shape roster moves.
A grueling Kentucky basketball season came to an end Sunday afternoon.
The 7-seeded Cats fell to 2-seeded Iowa State, a second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament that sent Mark Pope’s team back to Lexington well before anyone anticipated when this 2025-26 season began.
Kentucky ended with a 22-14 record after a season plagued with injuries and persistent questions over Pope’s roster construction for his second UK team.
Those questions won’t be going away in the coming days.
Pope will now be tasked with putting together his 2026-27 roster, and the work there has already begun. There are plenty of unknowns as that process ramps up in the coming days.
Leading scorers Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen are definitely gone. Both players were seniors this season, and their NCAA eligibility was exhausted with the Cats’ final loss.
Sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance is almost certainly out the door, too. The 6-foot-10 teenager played in only four games for the Cats due to issues with his surgically repaired knee, but he’s still regarded as a first-round NBA draft pick this year, and there’s still a good chance he will be selected in the lottery, despite the light workload and lingering injury questions.
That still leaves 11 players with remaining eligibility beyond this season. Not all of them will return to play for the Cats. Here’s a closer look at each of those situations as the UK basketball offseason begins.
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Coming back to Kentucky?
Pope inherited zero scholarship players after John Calipari’s departure for Arkansas following the 2023-24 season. He had to build his first UK team from scratch, and he’s said on several occasions that he’d like to lay a foundation of roster continuity moving forward.
That remains the hope, but — after this disappointing 2025-26 season — departures are inevitable. There’s no way that everyone eligible to return to UK for another year will do so.
Who are the players most likely to run it back with the Cats?
Starting center Malachi Moreno, a central Kentucky native and the state’s Mr. Basketball last year, is viewed as a near-certainty to be a Wildcat again next season, assuming he’s still in college. His freshman campaign was one of the bright spots for this UK season, and he has a close bond with Pope.
Moreno hitting the transfer portal would be a stunning development. Kentucky could still lose him — there’s NBA buzz that has the 7-footer as a potential pick in this year’s draft — though there are clear areas for continued development, and the general thinking around the program suggests that he’ll be back in Lexington, even if he does go through the draft process this spring.
In the locker room Sunday, the freshman center sounded like someone who expected to be back with the Cats next season, telling reporters that he intended to come back as a better player in Year 2.
“I think that was something that always drove me, and I felt like they kind of drove me to where I am today,” he said. “So this offseason is really important, and I just got to come back better.”
Collin Chandler is another Kentucky player who showed tangible progress this season, and he also has a strong personal bond with Pope, who earned his commitment while at BYU and flipped Chandler to UK as his first roster addition after taking the job in April 2024.
Chandler pointed out in the postgame locker room Sunday that he had known Pope since he was 15 years old.
“I know what he can do, what he can be, the type of person he is,” he said. “And a type of person like that finds success. And so I’m riding with Coach Pope. ... I love him.”
Stranger things have happened, especially in the current college basketball landscape, but Chandler has been committed to growing his game at Kentucky and has a shared vision with Pope and the rest of the coaching staff. He’s expected to be back in Lexington next season.
Kam Williams, who emerged as a starter at the wing spot before suffering a broken foot in January, remains a player with plenty of upside and two seasons of NCAA eligibility. He worked hard to get back from that foot injury so he could help UK in the postseason, and he’s had nothing but good things to say about his time with the Kentucky program.
No matter what style of play Pope goes with next season, Williams has the versatility and skill set — especially as a 3-and-D threat — to be a fit, and another full offseason could do wonders for his impact on the 2026-27 campaign.
“Obviously, this is a great place,” Williams said after the loss to Iowa State. “I would love nothing more than still wear this jersey. It’s definitely special.”
Two other players, Braydon Hawthorne and Reece Potter, sat out this season as redshirts, and both are expected to return to the team.
Hawthorne is a 6-8 wing with NBA draft upside and should compete for considerable playing time as a redshirt freshman. He told the Herald-Leader recently that he definitely plans to be back at Kentucky next season.
Potter — a 7-1 center from Lexington — turned down other opportunities to transfer to his hometown school last year and could be an intriguing depth piece in UK’s frontcourt next season, with a perimeter-based game that fits Pope’s approach.
UK basketball or the transfer portal?
Changes to the NCAA calendar this year mean the transfer portal won’t open until April 7, the day after the national championship game. It will remain open for two weeks. Players who are already in the portal can pick their new school at any point after April 21, but they must officially declare their intention to transfer by that date.
That means up to a month of waiting to see what Kentucky’s current players will do, and there’s a lot of uncertainty with several of those Cats.
There’s particular intrigue around Mouhamed Dioubate, Andrija Jelavic and Trent Noah.
Dioubate was a key contributor for Kentucky, but the major jump that many were expecting after his two seasons as a role player at Alabama didn’t materialize.
There’s no questioning Dioubate’s ability to impact the game with his toughness. He struggled to show more of the skill that was necessary to make that jump, however, and — if Pope tries to play something closer to the style he utilized in Year 1 as UK’s coach — Dioubate might not be the best fit moving forward. Pope clearly likes his determination and winning mentality, but Dioubate would have plenty of suitors if he sought a change of scenery for his senior year.
“I’m still I’m still thinking about it,” he said Sunday of his future. “You know, now that the season is over, I can have a lot of time to think about it. I’m just processing everything right now.”
Jelavic was a late addition to the 2025-26 roster after playing professionally in Serbia, and he’ll have two seasons of eligibility remaining beyond this one. His dream is to play in the NBA, but he’s still a long way from putting himself into that situation.
Pope showed his confidence in the 6-11 forward by inserting him into the starting lineup midway through the season, and he would certainly have a place on the 2026-27 roster. Given an opportunity to state his future intentions in a recent interview with the Herald-Leader, the Croatian big man said he wasn’t ready to make any decisions beyond this season. He made similar comments Sunday, saying he hadn’t thought about his future.
“I guess now that it’s over, that’s the next step,” Jelavic said. “Just talking to the coaching staff and see the plans for next year.”
Pope made it clear in his own postgame comments that he would like to have Jelavic back for another season, lumping him in with Chandler and Moreno — the other starters at the end of the season with remaining eligibility — as a jumping off point for roster retention.
“Those guys have gained some great experience, and they’re going to get better and better and better,” Pope said. “We’ll start there and kind of build out from there.”
Noah is, of course, a Harlan native who grew up rooting for the Cats and has emerged as a fan favorite in his two years with the program. While Pope has continued to give him opportunities in big spots, his playing time has dwindled when UK has had more roster availability (in both seasons).
The Kentucky native would be welcomed back for Year 3, and — no matter what his role on the court — his NIL opportunities would likely be larger in Lexington than anywhere else, but it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be in a spot to play major minutes as a Wildcat next season.
“I’ve given zero thought to next year, because I was being where my feet were,” Noah said. “I was trying to be as present as I could, because that’s what matters. And if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be giving this team everything I had.”
Those three players should be viewed as toss-ups to return.
Jaland Lowe was supposed to be the starting point guard this season, but a shoulder injury in October derailed that. He was ruled out for the season in time to preserve a year of eligibility — he should have two remaining once the NCAA grants his medical waiver — and he’s clearly talented, but there were questions about his fit for Pope’s offense even before the injury.
Lowe has said on the record that he’d like to return, but he has also acknowledged that nothing is set in stone. And there has been plenty of transfer portal buzz around him in recent weeks.
Brandon Garrison just wrapped up his second season at UK and will have one more year of NCAA eligibility. Pope pulled him from the starting lineup in favor of Moreno after just five games, and while Garrison continued to contribute in a reserve role — and had a considerable impact on the Cats’ win over Santa Clara in the first round of the NCAA Tournament — the major jump everyone was working toward simply didn’t happen in Year 2.
Pope clearly likes what Garrison brings to the floor, especially from an energy perspective, and he could be a meaningful part of next season’s roster, but he’s been another subject of transfer speculation. And with Moreno seemingly entrenched as the starting 5 next season — and playing both bigs at the same time for extended periods unlikely — would Garrison be willing to spend his senior season as a likely backup?
He did say in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s game that he would like to be back at Kentucky for his senior year and would spend the upcoming offseason working to become a better player, leaving the door open for a return to Lexington.
Freshman guard Jasper Johnson was seen as a major addition to Pope’s 2025 recruiting class, a five-star recruit with an explosive offensive game. But Johnson, a central Kentucky native, never looked comfortable for long stretches at UK, and his current game didn’t fit what Pope needed as the season wore on.
That undeniable upside would attract numerous, high-profile suitors if Johnson hits the transfer portal.
Mark Pope’s next roster
Where does all of this leave Pope for next season?
Kentucky’s head coach won’t be waiting around on all of these decisions to come in. He knows he’s going to have to fill roster spots, and — even if the bulk of the current team returns — he knows he will need to add more top-end talent to compete at a championship level in 2027.
Pope’s recruiting struggles are especially relevant here. If Kentucky had locked up a top-10 recruit or two, there would be more flexibility with the upcoming roster construction project. But Kentucky is almost to the end of the 2026 recruiting cycle, and the Cats have zero commitments despite targeting several star prospects from the high school ranks.
No. 1 overall recruit Tyran Stokes is still an option, though his recruitment has been its own roller-coaster ride, with several twists and turns along the way. NBA G League player Dink Pate is a high-upside possibility, and Pope flew to Philadelphia to visit with him late in the regular season. Those will be two players to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
Whatever happens with the current Cats, expect Pope to hit the transfer market hard again this offseason. Even though the portal won’t open until April 7, dozens of players have already made it clear that they intend to transfer.
Kentucky will once again have the financial resources to build what should be one of the most formidable rosters in the sport. That didn’t pan out this season.
And now it’s back to the drawing board.
This story was originally published March 22, 2026 at 6:41 PM.
