Indianapolis
The first Kentucky basketball season of the Mark Pope era came to an end Friday night, a 78-65 loss to 2-seeded Tennessee leading to the Wildcats’ exit from the NCAA Tournament.
The Volunteers defeated UK in the Sweet 16 round of March Madness, finishing off Pope’s first season in charge of the Cats on a sour note. Kentucky tied the record for most wins over AP top 15 teams with eight, but injuries hampered the 2024-25 campaign, and UK couldn’t pull off a third victory over the Vols at the end.
The Cats did advance past the first week of the tournament for the first time since 2019, however, and Pope and his coaching staff will now turn their full attention to the offseason. While this process won’t require nearly as much rebuilding as last year — when John Calipari left for Arkansas and the entire roster of scholarship players departed the program — there will be several spots to fill.
Six of the players on Pope’s first team have exhausted their college eligibility.
Four of the Wildcats’ starters Friday night — Koby Brea, Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams — are now done with college basketball. Jaxson Robinson, who was a starter before being sidelined with a season-ending wrist injury, is also out of NCAA eligibility.
Ansley Almonor, a reserve forward, has also exhausted his eligibility. There have been discussions within the NCAA about a possible rule change that would give all players a fifth season to play. If that happened, Almonor — who played three years at Fairleigh Dickinson before transferring to UK for this season — would be among the players that would benefit. But there have been no indications that the rule will change in time for Almonor to return for next season, and both he and UK officials have told the Herald-Leader that they expect this to be his final year in college.
Six other scholarship players on Kentucky’s roster could come back. Here’s what to expect from each of those Wildcats.
Kerr Kriisa’s basketball future
Kerr Kriisa, who has been sidelined since Dec. 7 with a foot injury, will be eligible for a medical redshirt after missing the majority of what was supposed to be his final season of college basketball.
It remains unclear whether or not Kriisa will return to the NCAA ranks next season, but he is not expected to be part of Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster if he does. Kriisa spoke to reporters last week for the first time since his injury, and — while he did outline the recovery process from his foot surgery in great detail — he declined to say anything definitive about his basketball future beyond this season.
Pope has also deflected questions about Kriisa’s future. Kentucky is expected to pursue a veteran, defensive-minded point guard in the transfer portal this offseason to complement two talented incoming freshmen in the backcourt — Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis — and whichever other young guards return from the current roster.
Kriisa, who is from Estonia, did acknowledge in his interview session last week that he might return to Europe and begin his pro career.
“I don’t know if I want to do another three months — you know, college summers are long,” he said of the build-up to the NCAA preseason. “So I might go overseas. We’ll see.”
Kriisa could also enter the transfer portal again — he’s already played for Arizona and West Virginia previously in his college career — but don’t expect him to be back at Kentucky.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope celebrates with Otega Oweh (00) following the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament second-round win over Illinois. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
Kentucky’s Collin Chandler, left, Koby Brea, Otega Oweh and Andrew Carr walk to the sideline during a timeout in Friday’s NCAA Sweet 16 game against Tennessee at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
Otega Oweh’s big decision
The most attention over the next several weeks will be on Otega Oweh, who emerged as Kentucky’s leading scorer in his first season playing for Pope.
Oweh, who played his first two years of college basketball at Oklahoma, will have one more season of NCAA eligibility remaining, under the current rules. If he chooses to return to college, it will be at Kentucky, where playing under Pope has helped expand his offensive game after coming to Lexington with the reputation as a defense-first player.
Retaining Oweh would be a major offseason victory for Pope and his staff as they search for roster continuity in an attempt to build a foundation for their future vision of the program. Getting Oweh back in Lexington won’t be a slam dunk, however.
The 6-foot-4 guard is expected to go through the NBA draft process, so there’s always the possibility that he turns heads there and emerges as a potential pick this year. The draft withdrawal deadline for college players will be May 28. Oweh’s decision could extend to that date. (The NBA Combine is set for May 11-18.)
As of now, Oweh is not projected as an NBA draft pick this year. He was ranked No. 86 on ESPN’s most recent list of draft prospects. (There will be only 59 picks in this year’s draft.)
A return to Kentucky appears to be the most likely outcome to his offseason process.
Will Brandon Garrison be back?
The other Kentucky player with previous college basketball experience before this season and remaining eligibility beyond it is sophomore forward Brandon Garrison, who played primarily as the backup center behind Amari Williams in his first year with the Cats.
Garrison — the only former McDonald’s All-American on this roster — played his freshman year at Oklahoma State, and he came to Kentucky knowing he would be in an understudy role, of sorts, with Williams operating as the starting center.
His time at UK has been uneven, but Garrison has shown flashes of the talent that made him such a highly touted recruit, and his natural passing ability — and growing 3-point game — make him an intriguing fit for Pope’s five-out offensive style.
Garrison has grown in his first season at Kentucky, but there has been buzz in college basketball circles for weeks that his name could hit the transfer portal in the coming days. While he’s not listed among the top 100 prospects in ESPN’s NBA draft rankings, Garrison has also been the subject of pro speculation. The Herald-Leader has been told that multiple teams are interested in his unique skill set for a player of his size — 6-10 and 250 pounds — though there doesn’t yet appear to be quite enough interest for him to be a likely pick in this year’s draft.
Still, it would not be a surprise if he tested the NBA draft process, even if only to get firsthand feedback from pro scouts. The portal also remains an option, though the UK staff has been working under the assumption that he is likely to return to Lexington next season.
Even if Garrison does return, Kentucky will be bringing in McDonald’s All-American big man Malachi Moreno — a highly skilled, 6-11 recruit expected to play on the perimeter — and the Cats will also be prioritizing a veteran post player in the transfer portal to help replace departing starters Andrew Carr and Amari Williams.
UK also remains in the mix for top-five recruit Nate Ament, a 6-9 power forward who has Duke and Louisville among the other schools on his list. On Friday morning, the Cats added 6-8 wing Kam Williams, a perimeter player who emerged as a major 3-point threat as a freshman at Tulane last season.
Kentucky freshman Collin Chandler has rapidly progressed in recent weeks and projects as a potential starter for the Wildcats if he sticks around Lexington after this season. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
Collin Chandler’s next step
Collin Chandler — a former top-40 recruit from Farmington, Utah — will be the most interesting of UK’s freshman trio to watch in the coming weeks. The 6-5 guard left the United States for a two-year church mission after high school, and the expected signs of rust were obvious upon his return to America last offseason.
He was the first recruit to commit to Pope after the coach left BYU for Kentucky, but Chandler has also been the subject of transfer rumors, basically since he arrived in Lexington, with a return back home to the state of Utah a source of speculation for months.
Despite the talk, Chandler has remained consistent in his praise for Pope and the UK program. His playing time has picked up in recent weeks — partly due to the injuries to Butler, Kriisa and Robinson — and he was one of the stars in the Cats’ first-round win over Troy last week. He also made several big plays in UK’s win over Illinois in the second round of the tournament.
UK’s staff, knowing the transition back to basketball would be difficult, has voiced confidence in his long-term ability to be a starter-level player for the Wildcats, and there have been obvious signs of that potential in recent weeks.
Following Kentucky’s final home game against LSU this month, Chandler — while talking about the legacy left behind by this team’s seniors — certainly sounded like someone who would be back in Lexington next season.
“The things that they’ve taught us — for the people that are going to be here next year, their DNA as players — I think is going to run through this program for a long time,” Chandler said. “It’s going to exist because of what they’ve instilled in us and taught us as young guys.”
Chandler, who turned 21 years old last month, is engaged to be married in early May, and he spoke to the Herald-Leader at the NCAA Tournament about the welcoming home he’s found in Lexington. Throughout this tournament run, he’s given every indication that he intends to be back at Kentucky for his sophomore season.
Trent Noah and Travis Perry
Kentucky natives Travis Perry and Trent Noah joined the program last year as presumably the 11th and 12th players on the depth chart, but they both received meaningful playing time as freshmen.
Noah was signed with South Carolina before Pope got the UK job, and he backed out of that commitment to join the Wildcats. Perry originally signed with Calipari and was the only player from the former coach’s 2024 recruiting class to stay on with Pope after the transition.
Both players came to UK knowing that opportunities on the court would be difficult to come by in year one, but Noah and Perry were still pressed into early action as freshmen — due largely to the Cats’ injury troubles — and the expectation is that both will be back with Kentucky next season.
Noah and Perry have both praised Pope — and the UK coaching staff, as a whole — for their development over the course of this season. The Kentucky head coach has voiced confidence in their ability to be impact players later in their careers, while backing up those words by giving them looks on the court in big games. Perry was the first player off the bench in the NCAA Tournament opener, and Noah was the first Wildcat to check into the game in the second half of that win over Troy.
Playing time will likely be a challenge again in year two — and there might come a time when Noah and/or Perry consider a move to a program that offers a greater chance for major minutes — but neither player has shown any outward signs that a transfer is on the table this offseason.
Great Crossing’s Malachi Moreno (24) is one of three high school prospects signed to play at Kentucky next season. Brian Simms [email protected]
Next Kentucky basketball roster
The four set-in-stone additions for the 2025-26 season are 6-4 guard Jasper Johnson, 6-2 guard Acaden Lewis and 6-11 post player Malachi Moreno — all top-35 recruits nationally — as well as Williams, the Tulane transfer who should be an instant-impact player for Pope’s program.
Kentucky certainly appears to be in a good position to bring Oweh, Garrison, Chandler, Noah and Perry back for another run, with additional reinforcements coming from the transfer portal.
That said, the portal era has made roster continuity a major challenge for college basketball coaching staffs, with competing programs able to offer bigger roles and better NIL compensation opportunities based on their own personnel needs.
While none of these five players — Oweh, Garrison, Chandler, Noah and Perry — appear to be less than 50% likely to return, the odds of the current landscape in the sport would suggest that it will be unlikely that all five are back at Kentucky next season.
Who stays and who tests the portal — as well as the NBA draft — will be worth watching, obviously. If Pope can get all five of these players back, it would go a long way toward building a foundation for the roster moving forward.
These players’ decisions will be revealed in the coming days and weeks. But it will almost certainly be months before the 2025-26 UK men’s basketball roster is fully settled.
