Mark Pope needs some transfers at Kentucky. Here are a few talented options
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky will use the 2026 portal to replace departing leading scorers.
- Pope will target top guards, wings and other high-ranked transfers.
- 247Sports early lists show national competition for top portal prospects.
The college basketball transfer portal doesn’t officially open until Tuesday, but talented players from all over the country have spent the past couple of weeks letting it be known that they intend to jump in as soon as possible.
Jaland Lowe, who came to Kentucky out of the portal last offseason, was the first Wildcat to make his intentions clear. A few other players from Mark Pope’s second UK roster are expected to join Lowe before the portal closes for new names April 21.
While college programs haven’t made any overt moves to target prospective transfers — that would be considered tampering, until the portal opens Tuesday — there’s already been plenty of scuttlebutt tying major schools to players who will be on the move.
Expect some commitments to be made public in fairly short order as soon as that two-week transfer window begins. Some players will pop for new schools early. Others will wait to get a clearer picture of what the NIL landscape is looking like for this 2026 offseason.
The pending roster movement is already keeping the national recruiting services busy, and 247Sports has posted its initial rankings for the top players known to be jumping into the portal.
Pope will be targeting some of these highly ranked transfers for his 2026-27 roster.
The UK coach is looking to retain some key players from this past season’s team, and while Pope could find additional help through other avenues — traditional high school recruiting or perhaps the international path — the portal will be most likely to supply the true game-changers for the next Kentucky basketball season.
That doesn’t mean Pope and his staff will simply go after the most highly ranked players. Relying solely on any such lists won’t be the best path to success. Key additions can be found further down the rankings than most UK fans typically scroll, as Andrew Carr (67th in 2024), Amari Williams (84th that year) and Koby Brea (87th in the same transfer class) proved when Pope was putting together his first UK roster.
But Kentucky, which will lose leading scorers Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen off the current roster, needs some can’t-miss additions for the 2026-27 season, even if the Cats can get guys like Collin Chandler and Malachi Moreno back for another season.
With top recruit Tyran Stokes the only true game-changer still thought to be an option in the 2026 high school class, Pope will primarily use the portal to find the stars he needs. And plenty of talented options have already emerged.
Transfer portal rankings
While the 247Sports list is still a work in progress — with only a fraction of the players who will ultimately enter the portal making their intentions known to this point — those rankings already feature some big names at the top.
And as a sign of just how fluid this list will be, word spread late Thursday night that Kansas big man Flory Bidunga is planning to enter the transfer portal, and 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham said he will be the new No. 1 player in the rankings when that list is updated. The 6-foot-10 forward will have suitors from the highest levels of college basketball, with Duke among the early possibilities.
The No. 1 player in the pre-Bidunga rankings was Saint Mary’s forward Paulius Murauskas, a 6-8, 235-pounder from Lithuania who has been a first-team All-West Coast Conference selection in each of the past two seasons. Murauskas played sparingly at Arizona as a freshman but is expected to rejoin the high-major ranks in this cycle. He averaged 18.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 36 for 108 (33.3%) from 3-point range this past season.
There hasn’t been much chatter linking Murauskas to Kentucky just yet, but he could be a fit for Pope’s system and will be pursued by some of the top programs in the country.
There’s already been some UK talk around the next four players on the 247Sports list.
San Diego State wing Miles Byrd has been viewed as an NBA draft prospect, though he’s expected to play one more season of college ball. The 6-7 player from Stockton, California, earned Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honors this past season and is No. 2 on the 247Sports list. He could very well end up as the best defender in the portal this spring.
On the surface, Byrd is not a perfect offensive fit for the way Pope’s first UK team played, but he’s a high-IQ player who can rebound his position and provide excellent perimeter defense, something the Kentucky coach will surely be looking for this offseason.
At No. 3 and 5 on the 247Sports list are Colorado point guard Isaiah Johnson and Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad. Finding a starting point guard that can lead a team with Final Four aspirations will be a high priority for Pope, with Lowe headed elsewhere and no other options for that role in UK’s program at the moment.
Johnson averaged 16.9 points and 3.0 assists per game as a freshman for the Buffaloes, and those passing numbers picked up as the season progressed. He averaged 4.2 assists over the final 13 games of the season, all against Big 12 competition. The 6-1 playmaker from Los Angeles also projects as a solid defender and shot 56 for 148 (37.8%) from 3-point range.
Shelstad — a 6-1 player from West Linn, Oregon — played in only 12 games this past season due to an injury to his shooting hand. He’s expected to receive a medical redshirt that will allow him two more years of NCAA eligibility. He averaged 15.6 points, 4.9 assists and 1.4 steals this season. Shelstad shot just 31.4% from 3-point range, but he was 37.9% from deep on 174 attempts as a sophomore. He’s also a career 84.4% free throw shooter.
Arizona has been linked to Shelstad, and he very well might stay out west, but his recruitment is expected to be one of national interest.
247Sports ranks Providence wing Stefan Vaaks at No. 4, and the 6-7 freshman from Estonia will also receive plenty of calls after shooting 35.0% on 260 3-point attempts this past season. He averaged 15.8 points and 3.2 assists per game.
Vaaks was 13 for 22 from long range in two Big East Tournament games and will be looked at by every program planning to implement a 3-point heavy attack next season, though his defense was a major weakness in his first season of college basketball.
Potential UK basketball targets
Those are the top five in the 247Sports rankings as of Friday morning, but that list will change dramatically as more players enter the portal between now and April 21.
It’s worth noting that 247Sports hasn’t assigned a “five-star” transfer designation to any of the players who are in the portal rankings right now. Last year, the recruiting site gave five-star rankings to 10 transfers, including the No. 1 player, Yaxel Lendeborg, who was pursued by Kentucky before committing to Michigan, earning first-team All-America honors and leading the Wolverines to the Final Four.
So, again, expect more big names to pop in the next two and a half weeks.
One such player could be Santa Clara’s Allen Graves, who has been mentioned as a possible NBA draft pick this year but sounds more likely to stay in college and move on to a high-major program for next season.
Graves, the 6-9 forward who hit the 3-pointer that nearly knocked out Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, appears to be a perfect fit for Pope’s approach, with passing vision and outside shooting ability to pair well with someone like Moreno in the frontcourt.
But Graves hasn’t said anything about his future yet.
BYU point guard Rob Wright is on record as saying he will either stay in Provo or go on to the NBA draft, but there continues to be buzz regarding the portal, and Wright would be one of the most coveted players in the country if he reverses course and adds his name to the transfer pool.
Here’s a quick look at a few intriguing players in the 247Sports transfer rankings who are already planning to hit the portal:
- There’s been some UK chatter related to Georgia big man Somto Cyril (No. 9 on the 247Sports list) — and he was a Kentucky commitment during the John Calipari era — but it’s difficult to envision that happening if Moreno is back with the Cats next season. St. John’s and Arkansas will be a couple of schools to watch for Cyril, who will be one of the most coveted players in the portal. (By the way, Georgia is also losing leading scorer Jeremiah Wilkinson, who is 10th in the 247 rankings.)
- Butler guard Finley Bizjack (No. 21) has been linked as a possible Kentucky target for weeks now. Bizjack — a 6-4 guard from Texas — has less-than-stellar defensive metrics, but he averaged 17.1 points and 2.5 assists per game as a junior this past season. He shot 34.9% from 3-point range in 2025-26, but his perimeter hit rate over the past two years as a starter is 38.1% on 333 long-range attempts. He’s an intriguing offensive player.
- San Francisco wing Tyrone Riley IV (No. 34) was mentioned as a UK portal possibility last offseason, but he ended up staying with the Dons. This spring, he’ll be on the move, and Kentucky is once again being linked to his pursuit. Riley — a 6-6 player from Watts, California — averaged 12.2 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 36.8% on 114 3-point attempts this past season.
- Elizabethtown native Brett Decker Jr. (No. 88) could be an intriguing depth addition for Kentucky after going 114 for 242 (47.1%) from 3-point range as a sophomore at Liberty this past season. Decker is a 6-3 guard that hasn’t shown much from a defensive or creating-shots-for-others standpoint so far, but Pope will need to add some promising role players to his 2026-27 roster, and the Kentucky native is sure to get looks from high-major programs this spring.
Big changes in college basketball
While the portal doesn’t officially open until Tuesday, players who are designated as “graduate transfers” enter this offseason under a slightly different set of guidelines. That’s how Belmont shooting guard Tyler Lundblade was able to commit to Tennessee earlier this week.
With the early addition of Lundblade, the Volunteers have locked up one of the best shooters in the portal. The 6-5 guard has shot 43.9% on 499 long-range attempts over the past two seasons, and he’s ranked No. 17 in the early 247Sports rankings.
Lundblade’s move to Knoxville is the first major addition to what should be a wave of comings and goings within the SEC this offseason.
LSU point guard Dedan Thomas is currently the top SEC player in the portal rankings at No. 6 nationally, and he’s being linked to a few high-major contenders. The Georgia duo of Cyril and Wilkinson are also on the move. Lowe is No. 16 on the 247Sports list, as of Friday morning.
Missouri’s Anthony Robinson II — an SEC All-Defensive Team selection last season and three-year player for the Tigers — will also be on the move. He’s No. 44 in the 247Sports rankings, which will be updated with more players from across the league in the coming days.
Two Louisville players — Sananda Fru (No. 11) and Khani Rooths (No. 50) — are also in the first batch of portal rankings. U of L coach Pat Kelsey is expected to see more departures from his 2025-26 team as he looks to make another major splash in the portal this offseason.
Lots of roster changes are coming to college basketball. And the jockeying for position in the transfer portal is already taking place, a few days before it even officially opens for business.
