Who will be on the Kentucky basketball roster for Mark Pope’s first season as head coach?
Mark Pope will be the next men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, replacing John Calipari, who stepped down from the position earlier this week after 15 years on the job. Pope will have his work cut out for him to build a formidable roster for his first season in charge.
Even before Calipari’s departure — he was announced as the new head coach at Arkansas on Wednesday — the outlook for the Wildcats’ 2024-25 season was filled with uncertainty. Calipari had lined up the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class — a group featuring six high school prospects from the 2024 class — but there was little in the way of guarantees beyond that. Though 10 of Kentucky’s 12 scholarship players from this past season were underclassmen, none had publicly pledged to return to Lexington by the time Calipari announced his resignation Tuesday, and it was expected that the majority of those Wildcats would be playing basketball elsewhere by the time the 2024-25 campaign began.
With Calipari gone, the situation is even more precarious. Here’s a look at what Pope can expect following the official announcement Friday morning that he will be UK’s next head coach.
KENTUCKY PLAYERS ON THE MOVE Of the 12 scholarship players on Kentucky’s 2023-24 roster, only Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell, who played their fifth years of college basketball, are out of NCAA eligibility. But, as of Saturday night, more than half of the remaining group had already announced their intentions to play elsewhere next season.
Rob Dillingham: UK’s second leading scorer is projected as a lottery pick in the 2024 NBA draft after establishing himself as one of the most gifted backcourt players in the country this past season. Dillingham revealed that he would enter the draft — and forgo his remaining three years of eligibility — shortly after Calipari stepped down Tuesday, though he was certain to make that move even if the coach had returned to Lexington. Justin Edwards: Projected as a possible first-round NBA pick this year following his freshman season with the Wildcats, the 6-foot-8 guard from Philadelphia has also entered the draft and will not return to the Wildcats for a second year. Edwards started 30 games this past season, second only to Reeves, who was a starter in all 33 of Kentucky’s games. Adou Thiero: Perhaps UK’s most physical player during the 2023-24 season, Thiero battled injuries but established himself as a key member of the Wildcats’ rotation. He has entered the NBA draft — he’s not projected as a pick — and put his name in the transfer portal, though he announced last month that he was open to returning to Lexington after going through both processes. That was before Calipari left to take the head coaching position at Arkansas, however, and the most likely scenario is that Thiero will play elsewhere in college basketball next season.
