Former Lexington Catholic basketball star Reece Potter transferring to Kentucky
Former Lexington Catholic High School star Reece Potter is coming back home.
Potter — a 7-foot-1 center who spent the last two seasons playing at Miami (Ohio) — committed to Mark Pope and the Kentucky basketball program out of the transfer portal on Monday afternoon.
Potter played in 56 combined games over the last two seasons for the RedHawks.
Last season, Potter played in 30 games off the bench for Miami. He averaged 6.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 17.1 minutes per game. Potter shot 36.7% on 3-pointers last season and 46.6% from the field.
As a freshman during the 2023-24 season, Potter made 11 starts for the RedHawks. In 26 total games as a freshman, he averaged 6.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 14.2 minutes per game, while shooting 45.5% from 3-point range and 44% from the field.
Before his college career, Potter was a star player locally at Lexington Catholic. He was a finalist for the 2023 Kentucky Mr. Basketball award after being named the 11th Region’s player of the year as a high school senior.
Potter was the 2023 Lexington Player of the Year, as named by the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com, after averaging 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game for a LexCath team that won the 43rd District championship and reached the 11th Region Tournament title game.
According to the 247Sports rankings, Potter is rated as the No. 334 player in the portal this offseason.
What does the 2025-26 Kentucky basketball roster look like?
Kentucky now has 13 projected scholarship players for next season.
Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster is expected to include four returnees from last season’s UK squad. Those players are freshmen guard Collin Chandler, freshman forward Trent Noah, sophomore center Brandon Garrison and junior guard Otega Oweh.
Oweh has declared for the 2025 NBA draft while keeping open his option to return to Kentucky for his senior college season.
Freshman guard Travis Perry entered the transfer portal just hours before the deadline to do so. On Sunday, Perry announced that he will be playing next season at Ole Miss. Previously, fifth-year guard Kerr Kriisa transferred from Kentucky to Cincinnati.
UK has already announced the additions of five players from the transfer portal this spring. Those future Cats are junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), sophomore guard Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), freshman big man Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State) and freshman wing Kam Williams (Tulane).
Potter would be the sixth transfer portal addition for UK this offseason.
Kentucky will be bringing in at least three first-year players next season. Those players are 6-foot-11 Croatian big man Andrija Jelavic, guard Jasper Johnson and in-state center Malachi Moreno. Both Johnson and Moreno are arriving via the traditional high school recruiting pathway.
Johnson is a left-handed guard and the No. 21 national recruit in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite. Moreno was a McDonald’s All-American and Sweet 16 state champion this year.
Former high school recruit and UK signee Acaden Lewis, a guard, decommitted from Kentucky this spring and will instead be playing next season at Villanova.
Kentucky is still involved in the high school recruitment of Braydon Hawthorne, a four-star small forward from West Virginia. Hawthorne, who was previously signed to play at West Virginia, has already taken a recruiting visit to UK.
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 3:01 PM.
