Kentucky basketball hosts its first visitor from the transfer portal
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball has started to have in-person visits with transfer portal recruits.
- Kentucky is hosting Washington guard Zoom Diallo for a visit in Lexington.
- Mark Pope’s program is also recruiting Colgate’s Jalen Cox and Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras.
A new stage of transfer portal season has begun.
In-person visits are underway between college coaches and transfer portal recruits, and Kentucky basketball is getting in on the action.
The Wildcats hosted Washington point guard Zoom Diallo as their first visitor from the transfer portal Friday, a highly-regarded player at a position of need.
While there are now more than 2,000 players in the transfer portal, some big names are still making their respective stay-or-go decisions. Kentucky will continue to be linked to several of these players as Mark Pope’s offseason roster rebuild progresses.
Here’s the latest on Kentucky basketball’s recruiting efforts in the portal.
UK basketball hosts Zoom Diallo for official visit
UK’s first visitor from the transfer portal is on campus in Lexington.
Diallo’s visit to Kentucky began Friday and will continue into Saturday. It included a trip to Keeneland on Friday with Pope and UK assistant coach Mikhail McLean.
A former McDonald’s All-American and four-star prospect in the 2024 high school recruiting class, Diallo played two seasons for the Huskies before hitting the transfer portal. As a sophomore this past season, he averaged 15.7 points, 4.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. Diallo made 31.5% of his 3-point tries on an average of 2.2 attempts per game.
247Sports has Diallo ranked as the No. 25 available player in the portal.
Diallo, whose given first name is Vazoumana, had contact with Kentucky earlier this week after the portal officially opened Tuesday.
The Wildcats are targeting a starting point guard from the transfer portal after junior Jaland Lowe and freshman Jasper Johnson each entered the portal from Kentucky’s 2025-26 team. Pope’s lone high school commitment from the 2026 class is four-star point guard Mason Williams, but he’s projected to be a depth piece on next season’s roster.
Kentucky continues to contact transfer portal players
Pope’s program continues to jockey for position with several other transfer portal players.
The Wildcats have been in contact with the likes of Robert Morris sophomore forward DeSean Goode, Georgia sophomore guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, Syracuse sophomore forward Donnie Freeman, VCU sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr., Yale sophomore forward Isaac Celiscar, Duquesne junior guard Jimmie Williams and Colgate junior guard Jalen Cox.
UK is travelling to conduct an in-person visit with Goode this weekend, according to 247Sports.
Williams is a new name that’s popped up for the Cats.
He began his college career as a bench player at South Florida during the 2024-25 season, before breaking out as a star starter this past season for Duquesne. Williams averaged 15.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the Dukes, while making 33.9% of his 3-point tries on 5.5 shots from distance per contest.
Williams started all 33 of Duquesne’s games this past season. The Dukes went 18-15 overall.
Kentucky is also taking aim at the top point guard in the transfer portal. That’s BYU sophomore Robert Wright III, who averaged 18.1 points, 4.6 assists and 1.2 steals per game for the Cougars during the 2025-26 season.
Wright — who scored 10 or more points in 32 of BYU’s 35 games this past season, while shooting 41% from 3-point range on 139 attempts — is the No. 4 overall player in the portal according to 247Sports.
UK was linked to Wright even before he entered the portal Wednesday morning. Wright was an All-Big 12 Third Team selection this past season and was a Big 12 All-Freshman Team selection during the 2024-25 season at Baylor.
Kentucky basketball target Allen Graves enters transfer portal
In a long awaited move, Santa Clara redshirt freshman forward Allen Graves has entered the NCAA transfer portal.
Graves — who averaged 11.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.9 blocks and 1.9 steals per game during the 2025-26 season — immediately becomes one of the top players in the portal. Graves, who also declared for the 2026 NBA draft earlier this week, shot 41.3% on 92 3-point attempts during his first season of college basketball.
He hit a 3-pointer with just seconds left to give 10 seed Santa Clara a lead over 7 seed Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last month, before Otega Oweh’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer sent that contest into overtime. The Wildcats won that game, and now Kentucky is expected to be a contender in Graves’ recruitment.
In total, Graves recorded 17 points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes in that NCAA Tournament matchup against UK.
Graves, who turns 20 years old in July, is currently projected to be a high second-round pick in this summer’s NBA draft. The deadline to withdraw from this year’s NBA draft and maintain college eligibility is May 27.
March Madness hero Alvaro Folgueiras enters transfer portal
One of the heroes from this year’s NCAA Tournament is entering the transfer portal for a second straight year.
Alvaro Folgueiras, a 6-foot-10 junior forward from Spain, is entering the portal after helping lead No. 9 seed Iowa to a surprise run to the Elite Eight. Folgueiras averaged 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for the Hawkeyes this past season. He’s best known for hitting the game-winning 3-pointer in the closing seconds of Iowa’s second-round NCAA Tournament upset win over SEC regular season champion Florida.
Folgueiras was a bench contributor for Iowa during the 2025-26 season, but he impacted March Madness in a big way. Across Iowa’s first three NCAA Tournament games — wins over 8 seed Clemson, 1 seed Florida and 4 seed Nebraska — Folgueiras averaged 14.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest, while knocking down five 3-pointers.
Folgueiras began his college career by playing two seasons at Robert Morris. As a sophomore with the Colonials during the 2024-25 season, he averaged 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, while shooting 41.3% from 3-point range.
While Folgueiras’ season-long 3-point shooting percentage slid to 33.3% this past season, he’s still expected to be a highly-coveted portal player.
Kentucky had interest in Folgueiras last year when he was transferring from Robert Morris, and the Wildcats are expected to have real interest again as Folgueiras looks to find his third college home.
Former UK players Denzel Aberdeen, Andrija Jelavic commit to schools
So far this offseason, seven players from Kentucky’s 2025-26 team have entered the NCAA transfer portal.
On Friday afternoon, the first of those players committed to a school. That came courtesy of guard Denzel Aberdeen, who committed to Florida.
Aberdeen — a senior who averaged 13.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 30.6 minutes per contest for the Wildcats this past season — needs to be granted a waiver by the NCAA to have a fifth year of college eligibility.
Aberdeen spent his first three college seasons with the Gators, and he was the sixth man on Florida’s 2025 national championship team.
During his senior season at UK, Aberdeen — who turns 23 years old in December — didn’t give any indication that he planned to pursue a fifth year of college basketball.
Aberdeen, who is from Orlando, Florida, announced his return to the Gators on Instagram. In that social media post, Aberdeen said was he was re-enrolling at the school to finish his undergraduate degree.
On Friday night, a second ex-Cat made his college commitment from the portal.
Sophomore forward Andrija Jelavic — who averaged 5.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 15.6 minutes per game this past season — is heading to Ohio State.
The 6-foot-11 Jelavic, who is from Croatia and has past playing experience in Europe, emerged as a starter for UK in SEC play. He was classified by the NCAA as a sophomore this past season because of his professional experience overseas.
Jelavic will turn 22 years old in May, and he has two seasons of college eligibility remaining.
Former UK player Mouhamed Dioubate schedules first portal visit
Ex-Cat Mouhamed Dioubate has set his first visit of transfer portal season.
Dioubate — who averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds during his lone season at Kentucky — has set a visit for Monday to Rick Pitinio’s St. John’s program, according to On3.
The Red Storm make sense as a potential landing spot for Dioubate. He plays a physical, rugged style of basketball that should work in the Big East Conference. St. John’s has won both the Big East regular season and conference tournament championships in each of the past two seasons.
And the 6-foot-7 Dioubate is a New York City native who began his college career with two seasons at Alabama.
Dioubate has already had a Zoom meeting with St. John’s.
Which top transfer portal players have already committed to schools?
Based on the 247Sports transfer portal rankings, only two of the top 25 available transfers have committed to a new school out of the portal.
San Diego state wing Miles Byrd, the No. 9 transfer, has committed to Providence. Tennessee forward J.P. Estrella, the No. 21 transfer, has committed to Michigan, the reigning national champions.
Byrd and Estrella are the only players in the top 50 of the 247Sports transfer rankings to announce their new college homes.
Things are moving slower in the portal this year compared to 2025, but plenty of action will take place this weekend as in-person visits are conducted.
The portal closes for new entries April 21. Players who enter the portal by that date can pick a new school at any point.
