2025-26 Roster Chatter (UPDATE: Oweh Returns, Roster Complete)

[George]

Yaxel Lendeborg is entering the portal. If he doesn’t go pro (I think he will), he’d arguably be the best player of the portal class. Would love to see Pope land this guy.

Ugh. Auburn’s the rumored landing spot if he doesn’t go pro.

[George]

Michigan’s 247 insiders are saying Gwath is a UK lean, fwiw.

[teamchemistry15]

I see what you're saying.

With that said, Doron Lamb, Darius Miller and Terrance Jones are all three better basketball players than anyone we will have on our roster next year.

There are levels to this.

You have no way of knowing that right now.

[teamchemistry15]

* Back on "improvement of individual players":

What we see at Kentucky isn't going to be what the players were like when they left their previous schools. This is happening all over America. It's why the portal is super powerful and why it's re-arranged the game of college basketball.

Otega Oweh again is a great example. Different guy here. Those types were all over college basketball. You're hoping somebody like Silas Demary would not be the same guy Georgia had.

As they get older, they tend to get better. Kentucky fans haven't seen a lot of that because Cal never bought into it. But age has become as much of a currency as talent.

There are a lot of super talented players that are just in a place that isn't a great fit. Maybe they went somewhere that ran a bad system for their style, they got recruited over, or had a coach that pulled them for every little mistake. Division 1 basketball players are really good at basketball. Some just need a year or two to grow up, some need to fill out, and some just need an opportunity to play.

[Joneslab]

Coaches get as much info and background as they can....then its a real educated roll of the dice on any players.

Pope got really good buy-in from this group of players. That's one of the most important things to be able to accomplish in the portal era.

He'll obviously have to do the same thing next season with a pretty much all-new group. It can't be easy, but obviously them's the breaks.

Another reason you need guys like Oweh, Garrison, Chandler, and Perry to return: gives you a base of players that can serve as leaders to help meld a team.

[George]

Pop Isaacs to Ole Miss.

[KCKUKFan]

You have no way of knowing that right now.

Considering that they're three of the more celebrated players of Kentucky's modern history, I'd say it's a fair guess.

That's not a knock on our roster next year, either. I only mentioned them because you used them as an example.

[Joneslab]

It took Darius Miller awhile to become what he became. Probably about midway through his junior year you saw that he could be a star. Senior year he was obviously a terror.

These coaches today don't have that luxury. Guys have to pretty much get into programs and be ready to go at a high level. A guy like Silas Demaree does have an advantage there, because he's started in the SEC for two straight years.

[Joneslab]

Downes probably mentioned this above, but Kentucky has now turned its attention to Central Florida's Keyshawn Hall. Again: not a role player.

Also, it's obvious that Kentucky's looking for size. Everybody targeted so far is massive. Hall is a 6'7" guard, Demaree is huge, etc. They must have seen what's happening at Auburn and Duke and some other places and are like, "We need to get bigger."

[George]

Downes probably mentioned this above, but Kentucky has now turned its attention to Central Florida's Keyshawn Hall. Again: not a role player.

Also, it's obvious that Kentucky's looking for size. Everybody targeted so far is massive. Hall is a 6'7" guard, Demaree is huge, etc. They must have seen what's happening at Auburn and Duke and some other places and are like, "We need to get bigger."

No, I hadn't mentioned him yet because I'm hoping beyond hope that this doesn't happen. Wherever he transfers will be his eighth different school, dating back to high school. He's the definition of a team cancer, and I really don't want to have to see if Pope can fix him.

[George]

Maryland’s Ja’kobi Gillespie is rumored to soon enter the portal, with Kentucky and Tennessee thought to be the early favorites.

[Joneslab]

Just looking across college basketball this season and thinking about the best transfers (and these are guys who only came into new teams this season, not ones who'd transferred before), you don't see a lot of guys who were stars before moving. The Hunter Dickinsons of the world are still very rare, even in the portal era.

(And these are just off the top of my head, I obviously may've missed a few. Also of note, none of our transfers are listed here.)

20. Tucker DeVries: was thought by some to be the best transfer on the market last season. Very good but didn't quite live up to billing

19. Deivon Smith, St. John's: solid year, moments of brilliance, wasn't 100% healthy

18. Elijah Hawkins, Texas Tech: solid year on a very good team

17. Zeke Mayo: not nearly the player Kansas thought they were getting, but a starter on an NCAA Tournament Big XII team

16. Arthur Kaluma, Texas: on his third team, flashes of greatness but got drowned out by Tre Johnson

15. Frankie Fidler, Michigan St.: a mainstay on a really good team

14. Johnell Davis: arguably the most "disappointing" of the transfer class only because he came in with such high expectations

13. Tyrese Hunter, Memphis: one of the nation's best three-point shooters

12. Khalif Battle, Gonzaga: one of the most sought-after transfers, was up and down but had a strong second half

11. Sion James, Duke: would've been a standout on any other team

10: Malik Dia, Ole Miss: very good offensive center, one of the best in America

9. Andrew Stojakovic: not on a good team but one of the nation's elite offensive players

8. Mark Mitchell, Missouri: at times the most dominant big man in the SEC

7. Vlad Goldin, Michigan: elite, old school big

6. Chaz Lanier: very good...but probably not as consistent as Tennessee fans thought he'd be

5. Danny Wolf, Michigan: tremendous player, exceeded all expecations

4. Cliff Omoruyi, Alabama: elite defender and rebounder, was exactly as advertised

3. Kadary Richmond, St. John's: again, pretty much exactly as advertised

2. Chucky Hepburn, Louisville: at times one of the nation's best scoring point guards

1. JT Toppin, Texas Tech: the gem of the class

[Joneslab]

Maryland’s Ja’kobi Gillespie is rumored to soon enter the portal, with Kentucky and Tennessee thought to be the early favorites.

Another guy who would be at his third different school in three years.

However, the situation at Maryland is admittedly kooky.

[Joneslab]

^ Looking at that list above, it's hard to find many guys on there (and there were literally hundreds I left out) who you'd think of as automatic gamechangers based on what they did at their previous schools.

Hepburn would be one, probably. (But in that dynamic, Storr was the guy that I think everybody thought would be the better of the two.) Johnell Davis. Goldin, probably, because of what they did at the other school. Lanier.

Other than that? You have to really dig in to most of these portal guys to find "superstars" like Toppin became, and even then that word doesn't fit with 95% of the portal. Just as it doesn't with 98% of incoming freshmen.

VERY hard to find superstars in this game wherever you look. Most guys who become superstars are coached up, they get old, they get better, they hone skills. They don't just appear out of the portal and step in and

[KCKUKFan]

Maryland’s Ja’kobi Gillespie is rumored to soon enter the portal, with Kentucky and Tennessee thought to be the early favorites.

Now this is more of what I'm talking about.