Kentucky basketball transfer portal: Top 5 takeaways as Mark Pope retools squad after Sweet 16 loss

Mark Pope seems to have barely taken time to draw his breath in 13 months since becoming Kentucky's coach. Pope had to scramble to assemble an entirely new roster for 2024-25 and has been putting the finishing touches on next season's team. Here are five takeaways from Pope's second run through the portal.

Top 5 takeaways from Mark Pope's Kentucky portal run

The return of big man Brandon Garrison was a big deal for a Kentucky program that has had almost no player retention in prior offseasons. (Photo Credit: IMAGN)

5. There is a genuine player retention focus here.

Under John Calipari, Kentucky rarely kept any players. The successful players jumped to the NBA and those who didn't seemed to feel stigmatized, rushed into the transfer portal. While some of that is the nature of the game, Pope is returning Brandon Garrison, Colin Chandler, Trent Noah and potentially Otega Oweh. That's a new situation for Kentucky fans.

4. While Pope is portal-heavy, he's not really going one-and-done.

Similarly, while Pope is working portal-heavy, on this second edition of the Wildcats, he has chosen not to focus on one-and-done portal players. Last year's batch included Koby Brea, Amari Williams, Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson, Lamont Butler and Ansley Almonor. This time, Denzel Aberdeen is the only certain one-and-done transfer.

3. Help inside is on the way.

Kentucky was thin inside and struggled on the backboard. Height was obviously a focus. Freshman Malachi Moreno will be joined by international pickup Andrija Jelavic, each of whom is 6-foot-11. 6-foot-9 Jayden Quaintance was a big pick-up and late portal add Reece Potter is 7-foot-1. The 'Cats picked up some much-needed help on the backboard and in post defense.

2. Point guard was again a major focus.

The biggest issue Kentucky had in 2024-25 was that the Wildcats had a shortage of point guards. Kerr Kriisa was injured in December, Jaxson Robinson was ruled out in February and Butler battled injury issues down the season's stretch. The addition of Lowe and combo guards Aberdeen and freshman Jasper Johnson says that Pope doesn't intend to run out of point guards again.

1. Plenty still depends on the return of Otega Oweh.

At the end of the day, Kentucky's roster is either perfectly balanced or potentially one player away. Not to put too many eggs in one basket, but the return of Otega Oweh would be pivotal. Oweh, who is being evaluated by the NBA after declaring for the draft, could return. His 16.2 points and 4.7 boards per game from last season would give Kentucky enough firepower to withstand even the SEC.

If Oweh does return, Kentucky is a likely SEC favorite. Without Oweh, it's not as if Kentucky can't succeed. But there's a significantly lower amount of room for errors or injuries.

What do you think of Kentucky's 2025-26 team? Share your take below in our comments section!