Transfer portal talk: After two more Kentucky players leave, who might be coming?
Another week of activity in the NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal saw plenty of news concerning the Kentucky Wildcats.
A pair of players from the 2022-23 Wildcats’ team will be playing elsewhere next season after announcing their intentions to transfer away from Lexington, while the Cats host a recruiting visit for the most coveted player currently in the transfer portal.
UK head coach John Calipari and his coaching staff spent the first couple days of the weekend in Atlanta and Iowa, respectively, for a live recruiting period, which gave UK coaches the chance to evaluate top 2024, 2025 and 2026 high school basketball recruits on the shoe circuits.
But as has become the norm now in college basketball, their focus then shifted right back to the transfer portal.
Here’s what you need to know with UK and the NCAA transfer portal.
CJ Fredrick to leave Kentucky for final college season
Two injury-plagued seasons at Kentucky for guard CJ Fredrick proved to be enough.
On Friday, Fredrick announced that he would enter the NCAA transfer portal in the hope of finding a new college to close his career.
Fredrick’s arrival at Kentucky in May 2021 was a full-circle moment for him: A native of Cincinnati, Fredrick was a high school star in the commonwealth at Covington Catholic. He won a state championship at the school and was the MVP of the Sweet 16 state tournament as a senior.
Fredrick began his college career at Iowa, where he sat out his first season due to injury before emerging as a knockdown three-point shooter as a redshirt freshman.
A transfer to Kentucky followed, as did a torn hamstring that sidelined him for the entire 2021-22 season.
A variety of injuries then derailed what was a strong start for Fredrick in the 2022-23 season, which will go down as his only, on-court season with the Wildcats.
Fredrick averaged 6.1 points in 22.2 minutes per game with 15 starts in 27 appearances last season, while shooting 31.8 percent from three-point range.
On Monday, Fredrick announced he would be heading home to Cincinnati to finish his college career.
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Daimion Collins seeks new school after difficult season
On the same day Fredrick announced his intention to leave UK, sophomore big man Daimion Collins did the same.
A former McDonald’s All-American and the No. 16 overall prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Collins was stuck behind Keion Brooks Jr., Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe in the battle for frontcourt minutes as a freshman.
Then, Collins’ father, Ben, died unexpectedly while visiting his son in Lexington, just a few days before the start of last season. Collins didn’t make his season debut until UK’s third game and failed to play more than eight minutes in any game over the final two months of the season.
After Collins’ transfer announcement Friday, Calipari said on social media that Collins’ grandfather had also died recently.
Collins is expected to transfer to a school closer to his family in their home state of Texas.
When Collins initially chose to come to Kentucky, he selected UK over other finalists Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech.
The Longhorns and newly minted permanent head coach Rodney Terry are expected to once again be interested in Collins.
He has two seasons of college eligibility remaining.
Former Michigan star Hunter Dickinson visits UK
Of course, no transfer portal update concerning Kentucky basketball would be complete without touching on former Michigan center Hunter Dickinson, who remains the top transfer recruit available.
A seismic development in Dickinson’s decision-making timeline occurred last week, when the Herald-Leader was told Dickinson would be taking a recruiting visit to Kentucky.
That visit, which began Sunday, is expected to continue through Tuesday.
John Calipari and company have been ultra-selective when it comes to the portal players they’ve expressed legitimate interest in thus far, with Dickinson and Stanford transfer Harrison Ingram being two of the few players to meet the established threshold.
Ingram committed to North Carolina on Saturday, which leaves Dickinson as the primary, and frankly only, transfer target that Kentucky is seriously exploring at this time.
With that being said, Kentucky will always be floated as a potential transfer destination for any high-level player that enters the transfer portal.
That came to fruition over the weekend, when college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported that former Southern California player Tre White was receiving interest from UK, along with a laundry list of other programs.
White is a 6-7, 210-pound wing who averaged nine points, 5.1 rebounds, and one assist per game while shooting 47.4% from the floor, 26.5% from three-point range and 69% from the free-throw line last season as a member of the Trojans. He was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
Of course, stay-or-go decisions involving several members of the Kentucky team from last season have still yet to be made, most notably with forward Oscar Tshiebwe.
This story was originally published April 24, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
