Kentucky’s wait for Milan Momcilovic continues, and more basketball roster notes
A new week has begun, and the college basketball world is still waiting on Milan Momcilovic to reveal where he’ll be playing next season.
The 6-foot-8 forward pulled out of the NBA draft just hours before the withdrawal deadline Wednesday night. A relatively quick college decision was expected to follow, but Momcilovic remained undecided Monday morning.
His recruitment is coming down to a couple of rivals.
Kentucky and Louisville were two of the schools strongly linked to the Wisconsin native during the predraft process, and the Cats and Cards emerged as the two clear favorites quickly after his decision to return to college last week.
St. John’s was the other school most commonly viewed as a serious contender for Momcilovic throughout the month of May, but the Red Storm are no longer in contention. St. John’s landed another star transfer, former Baylor guard Tounde Yessoufou, on draft deadline night.
Momcilovic is the No. 2 overall player in the 247Sports transfer rankings this spring. Yessoufou, who was projected as a first-round pick on some NBA draft boards, is No. 4 on that list.
The other schools expected to make a run at Momcilovic — Arizona, Texas Tech and UCLA, among others — have not established themselves as legitimate contenders, leaving UK and Louisville to battle over his services for the 2026-27 season, barring a late surprise.
U of L already has the No. 1 player in the 247Sports transfer rankings — former Kansas center Flory Bidunga — and adding Momcilovic would bolster Pat Kelsey’s transfer class, which is already ranked as the best in the country.
Kentucky’s transfer class is ranked No. 13 nationally by 247Sports as Mark Pope tries to build his UK roster into a national contender. Momcilovic would bring significant star power to that group and transform the Cats from an unranked team on the preseason Top 25 lists into one of the top squads in the country going into Pope’s third season in Lexington.
The buzz going into the weekend suggested that Kentucky had positioned itself as the team to beat for Momcilovic, who led the NCAA by shooting 48.7% from 3-point range with 136 makes from the perimeter last season at Iowa State, but the commitment hasn’t been officially wrapped up yet.
Until it is, Pope (and the UK fan base) will remain in wait-and-see mode, hoping to end the spring on a positive note following an offseason that has been filled with high-profile recruiting misses.
With Momcilovic seemingly down to just two options, this one shouldn’t go on much longer.
International recruiting deadline
Once Momcilovic decides, the options for established difference-makers in the transfer portal will be completely gone.
The only other uncommitted player in the top 200 of the 247Sports rankings is former Cal Poly guard Hamad Mousa, who is No. 93 on that list. Mousa averaged 20.4 points per game and shot 37.2% from 3-point range as a sophomore last season, but he played sparingly at Dayton the year before that.
Any other impact additions would have to come courtesy of a star high school recruit reclassifying to 2026 or via the international route, which is still supplying top colleges with commitments.
While the NBA draft withdrawal deadline for returning college players was last week, it’s not the final deadline for fans of NCAA teams to track. International players who have not yet played college basketball technically have until June 13 to withdraw from consideration for the 2026 draft and maintain NCAA eligibility.
The biggest potential name in that category has been Italian center Luigi Suigo, a 7-3 teenager with the nickname, “Italian Wemby”, a nod to San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Suigo, who is No. 32 on ESPN’s updated draft board, has drawn interest from Kentucky in the past, but he said at the NBA Combine that Villanova and BYU were the two schools at the top of his current list. (There was considerable buzz around Villanova during Combine week.)
That June 13 deadline will be worth paying attention to for any programs still hoping to make a splash with roster additions this spring. A handful of international prospects have already pulled out of the 2026 NBA draft, including Greek forward Alex Samodurov, who committed to North Carolina over the weekend.
UK basketball practice starts soon
If Momcilovic does pick Kentucky, it won’t be long before he arrives in Lexington.
Most of the players on UK’s 2026-27 roster should be coming to town in the next few days, with the Cats’ summer practice session expected to begin the week of June 15.
That’s only two weeks away.
During the summer, Kentucky’s coaches will have eight hours per week — over the course of eight weeks — to work directly with the players. It will be an important stretch for a team that will once again consist of a majority of new players, with several of those newcomers expected to play key roles for the Cats during the 2026-27 season.
Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, both transfers, are projected as UK’s starters in the backcourt, and that on-court relationship will be especially important to foster. Both players were ball-dominant guards at their previous schools and will likely be sharing the court for long periods of time at Kentucky next season.
The eight-week practice session could also be particularly crucial for the Cats if they do not go on an international trip later in the summer. The program’s original plan to travel to Israel on an exhibition tour was canceled, and it’s possible that the team will now stay in the United States all summer.
2026-27 college basketball rankings
CBS Sports updated its Top 25 for the 2026-27 season over the weekend, taking last week’s wave of NBA draft decisions into account.
It’s pretty clear who the biggest winners and losers were on deadline day, and both programs had Kentucky ties.
St. John’s, led by former UK coach Rick Pitino, catapulted from No. 16 to No. 11 on the CBS list following the surprise addition of former Baylor guard Tounde Yessoufou, who announced a commitment to the Red Storm right around the midnight deadline.
Pitino’s roster will also include returning guard Ian Jackson, highly touted transfer Donnie Freeman and several international additions.
Arkansas, led by former UK coach John Calipari, was the biggest mover in the other direction. While Calipari was able to retain Billy Richmond III, who was looking at one point Wednesday like he might stay in the draft, the Hogs lost sharpshooting guard Meleek Thomas, who was expected to return to Fayetteville when the offseason began but decided last week to remain in the 2026 draft.
Thomas, who was projected to be one of the top players in the SEC next season, is No. 26 on ESPN’s draft board and a potential first-round pick later this month. Calipari’s team dropped from No. 8 in the previous CBS Sports rankings to No. 12 with the loss of Thomas.
Kentucky is still absent from those preseason rankings, though the Cats are expected to rise considerably if they can land Momcilovic, who could vault UK into top-15 territory on such lists.
