As May begins, what’s the next recruiting move for Mark Pope, Kentucky basketball?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mark Pope’s Kentucky basketball team still has roster spots to fill for 2026-27 season.
- The Wildcats can still add up to three more players for next season’s team.
- Potential additions for Kentucky include Marcio Santos and Ryan Hampton.
Mark Pope’s 2026-27 Kentucky basketball roster is still incomplete.
While the Cats have already made the bulk of their roster reconstruction moves this offseason, Pope can still fill up to three more spots on next season’s team.
UK’s offseason to date has seen seven players exit Lexington via the NCAA transfer portal and four portal players arriving for next season’s squad. Additionally, the Cats are bringing in one international player and two freshmen from the high school ranks.
Five players from this past season’s UK team — Braydon Hawthorne, Malachi Moreno, Kam Williams, Trent Noah and Reece Potter — are set to run things back with Pope during the 2026-27 campaign, although Moreno is going through the NBA draft process this month.
As long as there are roster spots to fill, chatter will persist about players that Kentucky is targeting for what will be a crucial third season for Pope at his alma mater.
Here’s the latest news to know concerning Kentucky’s recruiting efforts, both in the near and distant future.
Mark Pope traveled to Israel to watch Marcio Santos
Pope made perhaps the lengthiest recruiting trip of his Kentucky coaching tenure this past week when he travelled to Israel to watch Marcio Santos play.
Santos is a 6-foot-8 center for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, but Santos is originally from Brazil and has represented his home nation in many international basketball events.
The 23-year-old Santos — who also previously played pro basketball in his native Brazil and Germany — is averaging 6.9 points and 1.6 rebounds while making 40% of his 3-point tries in 37 EuroLeague games this season with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Santos entered but wasn’t selected in the 2023 NBA draft. That year, he appeared in several games during the NBA Summer League with the Atlanta Hawks.
Santos would be the first UK men’s basketball player from Brazil. He would also add to a new-look UK frontcourt for the 2026-27 season.
From this past season’s team, forwards Mouhamed Dioubate, Brandon Garrison, Andrija Jelavic and Jayden Quaintance are all departing. Dioubate, Garrison and Jelavic will all play for new schools next season after entering the NCAA transfer portal. Dioubate and Garrison are staying in the SEC, with the former going to LSU and the latter heading to Alabama. Jelavic is transferring to Ohio State.
Incoming players for the Cats next season include forwards Justin McBride and Ousmane N’Diaye. McBride is coming off a breakout season at James Madison following previous college stops at Oklahoma State and Nevada. N’Diaye is a 22-year-old from Senegal who is playing professionally in Italy.
Who is left for Kentucky in the NCAA transfer portal?
It’s almost time to officially close the book on the 2026 edition of portal madness.
The NCAA transfer portal closed for new entrants April 21, but players who entered the portal by that deadline are allowed to commit to a new school at any time.
The most talented players from this group have already made their college choices for next season. As of Monday afternoon, just six of the top 100 portal players, according to the 247Sports rankings, have yet to commit to a school for next season.
Those remaining uncommitted portal players are Iowa State junior forward Milan Momcilovic (No. 2 in the 247Sports rankings), Santa Clara redshirt freshman forward Allen Graves (No. 4), Baylor freshman guard Tounde Yessoufou (No. 5), Central Florida junior forward Jordan Burks (No. 84), Oklahoma State sophomore guard Vyctorius Miller (No. 85) and Cal Poly sophomore guard Hamad Mousa (No. 91)
Those top three players still available — Momcilovic, Graves and Yessoufou — have one major thing in common: They’re all early entry candidates for this summer’s NBA draft.
Players have until 11:59 p.m. on May 27 to withdraw from the draft and maintain their college eligibility. That’s what Moreno must do in order to spend next season at Kentucky.
The Cats have been connected to Momcilovic, Graves and Yessoufou during portal season, but there’s no guarantee that any of these talents will be playing college basketball next season. Even if they are, Kentucky will likely have to wait a few more weeks before checking in for a potential major last-minute roster addition.
UK has extended new scholarship offers to 2027 recruits
While pieces are still moving into place for the Cats’ roster for next season, there have also been recent developments as Kentucky recruits the 2027 class.
Three more players were confirmed as UK targets this past week when Pope extended scholarship offers to high school juniors Ryan Hampton, Chase Lumpkin and Jordan Page.
Hampton, a 6-6 small forward who has been discussed as a potential candidate to reclassify to the 2026 recruiting group, is currently ranked as a five-star prospect in the 2027 class. Hampton is the No. 4 overall player in the 2027 class, according to the 247Sports Composite.
He plays prep basketball at DME Academy in Florida. That’s the same school that produced former Louisville star guard Mikel Brown Jr., who will be a top pick in this summer’s NBA draft.
Hampton has already taken visits to Nebraska and NC State as part of his college recruitment.
Lumpkin is a 6-4 shooting guard who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 54 player in the 2027 class. That ranking is likely to shoot up after Lumpkin impressed in late April at the first session of this season’s Nike EYBL travel circuit.
Lumpkin plays prep basketball at McEachern High School near Atlanta. He holds scholarship offers from Alabama, Louisville and Tennessee, among other schools.
Page is a 6-5 shooting guard from North Carolina. The 247Sports Composite ranks Page as the No. 8 overall player in the 2027 class.
Page already has offers from home-state powers North Carolina and North Carolina State, as well as Georgetown.
Pope also spent time this past week conducting an in-home recruiting visit with power forward CJ Rosser, who is the top-ranked player in the 2027 class.
A major change to Kentucky’s 2027 recruiting big board came Sunday afternoon, when five-star center Obinna Ekezie Jr. reclassified from the 2027 to the 2026 recruiting group and committed to Louisville.
Ekezie — whose father, Obinna Ekezie Sr., played 118 games at Maryland and was selected in the second round of the 1999 NBA draft — picked U of L from a top-five list of schools that also included Arkansas, BYU, Kentucky and Maryland. Ekezie is now ranked as the top center in the 2026 recruiting group by the 247Sports Composite.
Following Ekezie’s reclassification, UK now has 10 scholarship offers out to players in the 2027 recruiting class.
