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

[George]

I agree. Last year I liked the group as a whole but often wondered if there was some tension between Williams and a few others.?

Not sure if Williams was doing his best to be a leader and hold others accountable or if there was some in house beef between a few of the players?

I rewind and watch some of the games and Williams just has that "if looks could kill' look on his face sometimes..


Anyways doesn't matter, Oweh is the star of the team and it all starts with him in my opinion, it's his team...

I think Williams had an odd personality. Never saw anything that made me think there were chemistry issues.

[KentuckyWild2020]

I think Williams had an odd personality. Never saw anything that made me think there were chemistry issues.

Something.

Overall, still think it was a tight nipped group.

[KCKUKFan]

Cats just landed a HUGE get. We got our stretch 4!

Welcome, Andrija Jelevic.

Pope out here moving in silence.

[Bluesong]

Who saw that coming?

[justafan]

Yeah, I agree. I was just scouring the net trying to find anything I could.

Also, to justafan’s point, I have seen where a few changes are being talked about in regards to the portal. Nothing specific. But it surely can be exhausting trying to keep up.

Yep - I suppose there can be limits to the portal - but as we've seen, there is nothing preventing someone contacting a player directly. The portal, IMO, just gives a "first line of communication" sort of avenue. If someone knows how to get a hold of Oweh, for example, and offer $4M, how do they do that without the portal? Did they fly a plane over Lexington? They used out-of-band methods (or out-of-portal, in this example).

So, rules on the portal will ease those types, but for the Oweh's of the field, money offers will make it to them with or without the portal.

It's just me turning the volume up on the broken record - the ruling against the NCAA just opened a pandoras box of issues that with free-market are going to be hard to get a handle on anytime soon. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it, but I'm a realist and the way it is currently I'm not sure what is going to be the solution.

Maybe: the P4 conferences form some sort of association and a equivalent players association and start drawing up agreements. Every player wanting to play for the P4 schools will need to sign their equivalent contract. This will invoke a players union, most likely, and we'll have NBA-lite, formally, as opposed to figuratively now.

[George]

Cats just landed a HUGE get. We got our stretch 4!

Welcome, Andrija Jelevic.

Pope out here moving in silence.

His name was mentioned weeks ago, but it didn’t seem worth mentioning at the time. Just a “here’s a guy the Cats should look at,” then BOOM. Pope’s been working this one the whole time and we don’t even know it.

Awesome.

He’s drawing “meaner Grant Nelson” comparisons.

[Joneslab]

Always interesting when Kentucky adds a foreign player because we've had so few of them in the history of the program (for obvious reasons).

Looks like in the few videos he plays that prototypical Euro game. You would think at his age he'd be stronger than Big Z was but toughness and grit is sometimes the big drawback for these eastern Europeans.

In a 1-2 punch with Dioubate, however, this on paper looks like a really intriguing development.

Hope we can make it a two-fer with Wilkerson tomorrow.

[George]

Always interesting when Kentucky adds a foreign player because we've had so few of them in the history of the program (for obvious reasons).

Looks like in the few videos he plays that prototypical Euro game. You would think at his age he'd be stronger than Big Z was but toughness and grit is sometimes the big drawback for these eastern Europeans.

In a 1-2 punch with Dioubate, however, this on paper looks like a really intriguing development.

Hope we can make it a two-fer with Wilkerson tomorrow.

This comes from Pilgrim so take it fwiw, but he says the staff believes this commitment will not impact BG’s decision, and they fully expect him to return.

[George]

On the other hand, IU is supposedly allowing Wilkerson to name his price.

If leaves Bloomington without committing, we may just get him.

[Joneslab]

Kentucky will host West Virginia decommit Braydon Hawthorne next week.

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-wildcats/news/kentucky-hosting-braydon-hawthorne-official-visit/

[George]

Kentucky will host West Virginia decommit Braydon Hawthorne next week.

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-w...fficial-visit/

Could be a fun project if he isn’t expecting too much at first.

[George]

Hawthorne:

He cooks Dybantsa a couple times.

[teamchemistry15]

Sounds like the tide has turned and we are expected to keep Garrison.

Lowe/Johnson
Need a starter here/Johnson
Oweh/Williams
Dioubate/Andria
Garrison/JQ

Chandler and Noah can also fill at the the 3 and 4 and Moreno at the 4 and 5.

If Pope gets a quality guard to plug in at the 2, we are a legitimate ten or eleven deep and would have to be in consideration for a title favorite.

[teamchemistry15]

Could be a fun project if he isn’t expecting too much at first.

People elsewhere are acting upset that we are checking into him. For the 13th guy on the team this is exactly what we want and exactly what we've all been screaming about for the last decade. Bring in some guys who can develop and grow into the system.

[George]

And here’s some Jelavic tape. He’s the white guy.