Mark Pope and the Kentucky staff weren’t messing around this offseason, combining returning talent like Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison and Trent Noah, incoming freshman Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno, as well as six talented transfers from the portal. ESPN recently ranked their top transfer portal classes in college basketball for next season.
After all of the work they put in this offseason, Pope and the Wildcats are sitting at #2 overall in ESPN’s rankings, right behind Rick Pitino and St. John’s, who “narrowly got the top spot” as the best portal class, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello wrote in the rankings release. As for Kentucky, Borzello says it came down to the question surrounding Jayden Quaintance and if he will be healthy or not to start the season, someone Borzello recently called “one of the best defenders in the country last season.” That question was the only thing that stood in Kentucky’s way for that top spot.
“Mark Pope also landed five top-100 transfers, and if it were guaranteed that Quaintance would be healthy for the start of the season, the Wildcats might have the top spot. They’re also relying more on leaps from rising sophomores and steps forward from last season’s rotation players. But this group has the right mix of talent and proven production, and Pope will likely start up to four of the transfers. The key to the season could be Quaintance, who could miss time after suffering a torn ACL in late February.”
– Borzello on Kentucky’s transfer class.
Based on the transfer rankings, Quaintance is clearly the highest ranked, as ESPN has him slotted #7 overall. The next closest is Jaland Lowe at #25, followed by Kam Williams (#60), Mo Dioubate (#61), and Denzel Aberdeen coming in at #76. Mark Pope knew what he was doing constructing the roster, with a nice mix of returning and incoming talent, all culminating a lot of experience.
Kentucky is widely seen as at least a top 15 team heading into next season according to many outlets, and their work through the portal is the key to that.
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