Kentucky basketball adds an international forward to its 2026-27 roster
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- UK basketball adds international forward Ousmane N’Diaye to roster for 2026-27 season.
- N’Diaye is a 22-year-old forward from Senegal.
- Mark Pope’s Kentucky team now has 10 players in place for next season’s roster.
Kentucky basketball has gone international for its latest roster addition.
On Friday evening, Mark Pope’s UK program announced forward Ousmane N’Diaye would join the Cats for the 2026-27 season.
N’Diaye is a 22-year-old from Senegal who has previous professional playing experience in Germany, Italy and Spain.
The 6-foot-11 N’Diaye becomes the 10th player in place for Kentucky’s 2026-27 roster.
N’Diaye, who has represented Senegal in international basketball competitions, most recently played for Vanoli Cremona in Italy’s top basketball division.
During the 2025-26 season with Vanoli Cremona, N’Diaye appeared in 26 games and averaged 10.2 points and 6.7 rebounds in 27.3 minutes per game. N’Diaye made 42.1% of his shots from the field and 32.1% of his 3-point tries on significant shot volume from deep.
Prior to his breakout season in Italy, N’Diaye also played for Dragons Rhondorf in Germany and Saski Baskonia, Palencia Baloncesto and Granada in Spain.
N’Diaye — who moves well for his size and doesn’t lack for confidence as a shooter — has twice previously declared for the NBA draft. In 2023, he declared for the draft before withdrawing his name prior to the deadline to do so. In 2025, he kept his name in the draft, but wasn’t selected.
N’Diaye is set to become the second UK basketball player from Senegal in program history. He will join Souleymane “Jules” Camara, who was at Kentucky from 1998 to 2003. Camara appeared in 136 games for the Cats.
UK’s projected roster for next season now includes several offseason additions. These recent adds include transfer portal pickups Zoom Diallo, a sophomore guard from Washington, and Alex Wilkins, a freshman guard from Furman.
Kentucky is also bringing in at least two players from the high school ranks: Four-star point guard Mason Williams and guard Zyon Hawthorne.
The Cats are returning Braydon Hawthorne, Malachi Moreno, Kam Williams, Trent Noah and Reece Potter from the 2025-26 team.
Kentucky still has up to five roster spots left for next season’s team, and Pope is continuing to utilize the NCAA transfer portal, high school and international recruiting pathways to find more players.
This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 5:28 PM.
