Kentucky basketball picks up a power forward from the transfer portal
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- James Madison junior forward Justin McBride commits to UK basketball from transfer portal.
- McBride averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this past season for the Dukes.
- 247Sports ranks McBride as the No. 206 player in the transfer portal this offseason.
Kentucky basketball has gotten another commitment from the NCAA transfer portal.
On Tuesday night, Mark Pope’s program got a portal commitment from junior forward Justin McBride, who had a breakout 2025-26 season at James Madison. UK announced the commitment via social media.
McBride is a 6-foot-7 frontcourt player who previously played at Oklahoma State and Nevada. This past season with the Dukes, McBride averaged 15.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. He also converted on 40.0% of his 3-point tries on an average of 3.1 attempts per game from deep. McBride started 30 of James Madison’s 33 games this past season.
247Sports ranks McBride, who took a recruiting visit to UK this past week, as the No. 206 player in the transfer portal this offseason.
At James Madison, McBride played for former Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin, who spent five seasons on John Calipari’s Kentucky coaching staff from 2009-2014.
Before James Madison, McBride spent the 2024-25 season as a sophomore at Nevada. He appeared in 33 games with three starts, recording per-game averages of 7.8 points and 4.2 rebounds while making a career-best 52.2% of his field goal attempts.
McBride was originally a four-star recruit out of Plano Senior High School in Plano, Texas, and was part of the 2023 high school class. As a freshman at Oklahoma State, he appeared in 24 games off the bench. He averaged 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds per game during his first college season.
McBride’s commitment is the latest change to Kentucky’s frontcourt this offseason.
The Cats have lost four key frontcourt players from the 2025-26 team, with forwards Mouhamed Dioubate, Brandon Garrison and Andrija Jelavic all entering the transfer portal and Jayden Quaintance leaving Kentucky for the NBA draft.
Dioubate (LSU), Garrison (Alabama) and Jelavic (Ohio State) have all committed to new schools from the portal.
Earlier this offseason, UK suffered a pair of high-profile transfer portal defeats when Colorado sophomore forward Sebastian Rancik committed to Florida State and when Syracuse sophomore forward Donnie Freeman committed to St. John’s.
Last Friday, Kentucky announced that 6-11 Senegalese forward Ousmane N’Diaye would join the Cats for the 2026-27 season.
With McBride’s commitment, Kentucky now has 11 players in place for its 2026-27 roster.
Joining McBride next season will be N’Diaye, returnees Braydon Hawthorne, Malachi Moreno, Kam Williams, Trent Noah and Reece Potter, along with transfer portal additions Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, high school recruits Zyon Hawthorne and Mason Williams.
Braydon Hawthorne, N’Diaye, Noah and Potter are forwards, while Moreno was UK’s starting center this past season.
Kentucky — which still has up to four roster spots left for next season’s team — continues to pursue players from the NCAA transfer portal, high school and international recruiting pathways.
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
