Kentucky couldn’t land Rob Wright. Here’s what happens next for the Wildcats
Update (6 p.m.): Kentucky landed a commitment from Zoom Diallo on Wednesday evening.
The first big domino in Kentucky’s transfer portal pursuits fell Wednesday afternoon, and that decision didn’t go in the Wildcats’ direction.
With star point guard Rob Wright opting to stay at BYU for the 2026-27 season a day after his recruiting visit to Lexington ended, Mark Pope’s search for a starter at the 1 position continues. And the UK coaching staff might now be in a tough spot.
While Wright — the No. 1 point guard in the portal, according to the 247Sports rankings — was a clear priority for the Cats, he was not the first prospective transfer at that position to visit Lexington during this cycle.
UK hosted Washington point guard Zoom Diallo over the weekend, and the 6-foot-4 playmaker was technically the first transfer to arrive in town upon the opening of the in-person recruiting period Friday.
247Sports national analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader on Wednesday — shortly after Wright’s decision to stay put in Provo became public — that he expects UK’s staff to push Diallo for a commitment next.
“All eyes go to Zoom Diallo,” Branham said. “They had him on campus over the weekend. After that visit, I thought Kentucky was in a really good place. They had a real chance at landing his commitment. Obviously, I think they wanted to wait and figure out what was going to happen with Rob Wright. Now that Rob Wright is officially going back to BYU, I think they’re going to put the full court press on Diallo and try to get him across the finish line as soon as possible.”
While that remains a possibility, it’s still unclear how much Kentucky’s pursuit of Wright could negatively affect the program’s chances of landing Diallo.
Ranked by 247Sports as the No. 7 transfer point guard now that Wright will pull his name out of the portal, Diallo would also be a coveted player nationally if he decides to open up his recruitment to a larger pool of suitors.
Going into his Kentucky visit, Arizona was widely viewed as the Cats’ top competition for Diallo, but Tommy Lloyd’s program has taken commitments from two point guards in the past few days, eliminating those Wildcats from the picture.
Diallo could still choose to look at other schools, however. Kentucky has been his only visit to date, but plenty of high-major programs will be looking for talented, proven point guards in this cycle, and there aren’t many options remaining at the top of those rankings.
The priority for UK is clear.
“It’s Zoom Diallo’s to turn down,” Branham said.
Diallo averaged 15.7 points and 4.5 assists per game as the starter at Washington last season, and his playing style appears to be a good fit for Pope’s offensive approach.
“He could be a solid floor-general facilitator,” Branham said. “He’s got positional size. He’s a strong kid who’s already physically developed. He doesn’t make too many mistakes on the floor, gets you in your offense, gets downhill, can get into the paint.
“One area that he has to develop moving forward is shooting the ball. I’ve been watching Zoom since he was a sophomore in high school, and that’s always been an area for him to develop — and it remains that way, even leaving Washington. But he would be a solid point guard.”
Diallo shot 31.5% on 73 3-point attempts last season. He was an 82.5% free throw shooter.
The only point guard on Kentucky’s projected 2026-27 roster is four-star high school recruit Mason Williams, who is the son of new assistant coach Mo Williams and is expected to be a depth piece in UK’s backcourt next season.
Pope entered portal season with the point guard spot as his No. 1 priority, but the top-ranked transfers at that position have been flying off the board.
The top four point guards in the 247Sports transfer rankings have already picked new schools: PJ Haggerty (Texas A&M), Isaiah Johnson (Texas), Dedan Thomas Jr. (Houston) and Jackson Shelstad (Louisville).
VCU’s Terrence Hill Jr. is No. 5 on that list, but other major programs have been pursuing him over the past week, and Kentucky has not been seriously linked to his recruitment. Markus Burton, the No. 6 player in the rankings, has already committed to Indiana.
“If they were to miss on Zoom, it becomes completely open-ended,” Branham said.
Potential options in that scenario, Branham said, could be Furman guard Alex Wilkins, who has been pursued by UK, or Hofstra’s Cruz Davis, who is No. 8 on the 247Sports list, one spot behind Diallo.
But while Branham called Wilkins a top prospect with a “tremendous amount of upside” as a point guard, he was skeptical that he would be physically ready to handle the rigors of being the starting 1 at a place like Kentucky next season.
Wilkins is expected to remain a UK target and could be a starter-level player in the Wildcats’ backcourt, but he’s not necessarily viewed as a potential starter at the point for the 2026-27 season.
Davis is already “down the line” with Texas Tech, Branham said, and there could be too much ground for Kentucky to make up there.
“And after that, it’s guys like Tylen Riley, potentially, that you have to look at — the mid-major guards who are transferring up that are going to be high-major players,” he said.
Riley — a 6-3 junior who played last season at Tulsa — is No. 14 in the 247Sports point guard rankings, three spots behind Jaland Lowe, who departed UK via the transfer portal this offseason and committed to Georgetown on Monday.
“So, yeah, their search for a point guard — if they were to miss on Zoom — could get very, very interesting, very, very quick,” Branham said.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 2:19 PM.
