Here’s what to know about the Kentucky basketball roster changes for next season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky likely to rebuild much of 2026–27 roster through transfer portal
- Moreno entering 2026 draft; most likely outcome is he returns to Kentucky
- Pope has more salary flexibility amid increased transfer bidding nationwide
College basketball’s transfer portal season is officially only a few days old, but Mark Pope has already seen considerable change within his Kentucky program.
A lot more change will be coming.
Pope’s original plans for an offseason filled with roster retention have already gone by the wayside, with one Wildcat after another hitting the portal in search of a new basketball home.
That’s not a good thing for the continuity Pope was hoping to bring to Lexington when he arrived two years ago. It might not be a bad thing for the product UK puts on the court in Pope’s pivotal third season as head coach.
Though he’ll have more spots to fill than anticipated a few months ago, Pope should also have more financial flexibility one year after an offseason featuring splashy transfer portal signings that were viewed — even at the time — as overreaches from a resource-allocation standpoint.
Kentucky didn’t get the proper return on investment on some of those deals from last offseason, and the aim of Pope and his staff this spring will be to put together a basically new roster through shrewd decisions in the transfer portal.
Here’s what the situation looks like for the Cats:
Kentucky basketball roster so far
As far as 100% confirmed players for next season’s UK roster, there aren’t many.
As of now, that list includes only 6-foot-8 wing Kam Williams, who will be a junior next season, and 6-2 high school point guard Mason Williams, who committed to the Cats last month and is expected to be a depth player at the 1 spot.
Starting center Malachi Moreno has committed to return to Kentucky if he pulls out of the NBA draft. UK is also expected to have freshman wing Braydon Hawthorne and junior forward Reece Potter on the 2026-27 roster. Both of those players sat out this past season as redshirts, and each told the Herald-Leader late in the season that they expected to be back in Lexington, though neither player had made a postseason announcement as of Friday morning.
The only other Wildcat from Pope’s 2025-26 roster who hasn’t made an initial announcement on his next move is 6-5 forward Trent Noah, who has spent the past two years in Lexington and will be a junior next season.
Even if Moreno returns and the others on that list stay with the program, that’s only six players — and three returnees who actually played for the Cats this past season — for Pope’s third roster, far fewer than expected when the 2025-26 campaign began.
Malachi Moreno and the NBA draft
Moreno announced Monday night that he would enter his name in the 2026 draft but return to Lexington for his sophomore year if he removes himself from NBA consideration. The deadline to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility is May 27.
That was a bit of good news for Pope, who made retaining Moreno one of his top priorities this spring but — as is the case with every college player in 2026 — still could have lost him to the transfer portal.
Moreno will spend the next few weeks getting feedback from league decision-makers, going through workouts for NBA teams and likely competing at the NBA Combine next month in Chicago. Though there was some first-round draft buzz around the 7-footer late in the season, his less-than-stellar showing in March and continued questions about physicality and ball security make him a bit of a wild card in this particular draft class.
The most likely scenario remains that Moreno will go through the process and ultimately decide to return to Kentucky for his sophomore year.
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UK players in the transfer portal
The latest list of players who have officially entered the transfer portal features seven Wildcats from Pope’s 2025-26 roster: Denzel Aberdeen, Collin Chandler, Mouhamed Dioubate, Brandon Garrison, Andrija Jelavic, Jasper Johnson and Jaland Lowe.
There’s a lot to unpack there.
The departures of Dioubate, Garrison, Johnson and Lowe were not unexpected. Though Pope would have liked to have some of those players back, all four had NIL/revenue-sharing deals this past season that could not have been matched for the 2026-27 campaign and left UK’s staff with enough resources to get the necessary additions this offseason to put together a contender.
Jelavic, who started the final 20 games of the 2025-26 season at the 4 spot, has entered his name in the portal while also indicating that he could return to Kentucky for the 2026-27 season. While that scenario is not the expected one, instances of a player hitting the portal only to return to his original school after exploring other options have happened in the past.
The expectation is that Jelavic will be playing elsewhere next season, but his situation is worth following.
Chandler’s departure was the biggest blow to Pope’s offseason plans, which started with retaining Chandler and Moreno as two foundational pieces of the 2026-27 roster. Chandler, who started 31 games as a sophomore, entered the portal Wednesday night and is expected to transfer to BYU for next season.
The Denzel Aberdeen situation
While there are few true surprises during portal season these days, seeing Aberdeen among the first names on the official transfer list would qualify as one.
Though the 22-year-old senior played only 41 minutes as a freshman at Florida, the timing and circumstances around his appearances that season would seemingly disqualify him from being granted a redshirt year. With four seasons of college basketball on his record, Aberdeen would need to apply for a waiver from the NCAA to get a year back, and that appears to be a long shot.
He might have another route to extra eligibility, however.
Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday that the NCAA is considering a significant change that would allow athletes five full years of eligibility from the time of their 19th birthday or their high school graduation, whichever comes first, but would eliminate waiver requests, redshirts and other avenues to extended eligibility (outside of extreme circumstances).
There is no guarantee that rule change will happen — and no timeline for implementation if it does occur — but Yahoo’s report cited the possibility that it could be in place for next season. If that pans out, Aberdeen could be among the pool of players granted a fifth year of eligibility.
There’s still ample uncertainty around the situation, but Aberdeen has already made his plans for next season, if he does receive a fifth year of eligibility. He committed to Florida on Friday and will attempt a return to Gainesville, where he played the first three seasons of his college basketball career.
Trent Noah and the portal deadline
Noah is the only contributor from the 2025-26 team who has not shared an initial decision on his future. He could still return to Kentucky, where playing time might be more limited — though Pope has given him opportunities in big games in each of the past two seasons — or enter the portal and look for an opportunity to make a bigger impact somewhere else.
There still seems to be some confusion about the transfer “deadline” among fans who haven’t closely followed the ever-changing regulations around the portal in recent years.
The portal will close for new entries April 21, and players looking to switch schools and be granted immediate eligibility for next season must have their names officially submitted by that date.
However, players who do enter the portal by that April 21 deadline can pick a new school at any point after that date. They don’t have to make a final decision by April 21. They just have to be in the portal by then.
So some of these transfer recruitments can (and will) stretch well beyond that date, with decisions expected throughout May and possibly even later.
What about Jayden Quaintance?
For all the attention paid to Jayden Quaintance throughout the 2025-26 season, there’s been little talk of him so far this offseason.
That’s probably because it’s been expected since the moment Quaintance stepped foot on campus that he would be spending just one season at Kentucky before heading off to the 2026 NBA draft. But he still hasn’t made any announcement on his basketball future, nearly three weeks since UK’s season came to an end.
While Quaintance’s draft stock has taken a hit due to a combination of playing just four games for the Cats — bringing more concerns about his injury status and leaving some questions about his skill set unanswered — and the rise of other players in college basketball, particularly freshmen, the expectation remains that he will eventually enter and stay in the 2026 draft.
He’s still regarded as a top-20 pick by the reputable mock draft sites, and some still have him in the lottery, including a CBS Sports projection this week that placed Quaintance at No. 11 overall.
There has been nothing to indicate he could come back to Kentucky for another season.
Mark Pope’s transfer portal targets
At this point, even the best-case scenario for Pope would mean building a 2026-27 roster with more newcomers than returnees. And he has some major holes to fill.
Otega Oweh, the leading scorer for each of Pope’s seasons as head coach, will be gone, along with the others who have already submitted their names for the transfer portal.
Moreno will be the projected starter at the 5 for next season if he returns, but every other spot in Pope’s starting five is up for grabs this offseason. One positive effect of so many departures is that the UK staff will have more financial flexibility to build a contender for 2027 after being viewed as overspending on assets during the last offseason.
Kentucky might not have quite the roster budget to work with as last year, but the program is still expected to be among the most well-financed in the country for the 2026-27 season. That will put the Cats in a position to contend for such highly touted transfers as BYU point guard Rob Wright and Syracuse forward Donnie Freeman — both legitimate targets — while also keeping them in the race for No. 1 high school recruit Tyran Stokes.
But Pope has several spots to fill, and he’ll need to be deliberate with his resources this offseason. Kentucky could also have more competition in the transfer portal this time around.
While the Cats might have a little less money to work with this offseason, the rumblings around the SEC suggest that several of the schools in UK’s league are willing to spend a little more on their teams for next season, and that’s expected to be true across the sport.
So while there likely won’t be any programs topping $20 million in payroll this offseason, it seems clear that more schools around the country will go beyond the $10 million threshold when putting rosters together, compared to last year.
That will mean bidding wars, especially for the players at the top of the transfer rankings.
How well Pope navigates the next few weeks of roster management will be crucial going into the third year of his tenure.
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 6:15 AM.
