Mark Pope immediately addressed a massive hole in the Kentucky basketball program via the transfer portal, adding nine players from various programs, including one from BYU, Jaxson Robinson. He also picked up a few recruits in the 2024 recruiting class: Collin Chandler, Trent Noah, and Travis Perry. Let’s take a look at the current roster and then predict the starting five and the eight-man rotation.
This team is very guard-heavy and will be low on bodies in the paint. However, the big men they do have on the roster will be forces to reckon with down low. I should also point out that the positions listed below are how they are listed on the official roster put out by the Kentucky Wildcats team. Plenty of times, some of these guards play a small forward position.
Otega Oweh, Junior, transfer from Oklahoma
Lamont Butler, Graduate Student, transfer from SDSU
Jaxson Robinson, Graduate Student, transfer from BYU
Koby Brea, Graduate Student, transfer from Dayton
Collin Chandler, Freshman
Travis Perry, Freshman
Grant Darbyshire, Junior
Walker Horn, Junior
Kerr Krissa, 5th Year Senior, transfer from West Virginia
Ansley Almonor, Senior, transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson
Andrew Carr, Graduate Student, transfer from Wake Forest
Trent Noah, Freshman
Brandon Garrison, Sophomore, transfer from Oklahoma State
Amari Williams, Graduate Student, transfer from Drexel
A Good Problem to Have
The problem with predicting this year’s starting lineup is that seven of these nine transfers were starters in their last program, and the other two were 6th men of the year winners. Robinson won the Big-12 6th Man of the Year award, and Brea won the same award in the Atlantic 10 when he played at Dayton. Therefore, you could argue that all nine transfers could be starters. This doesn’t include Collin Chandler, one of the top recruits in the 2024 class and was the Utah Gatorade Player of the Year.
As you can tell from above, this team is deep and experienced, with seven players being seniors or graduate students. Add three juniors into the mix, and you have a big group of upperclassmen who have accumulated lots of college basketball minutes. This is an excellent problem to have, but it’s tough to predict exactly how the starting five will shake out.
C: Brandon Garrison
PF: Andrew Carr
SF: Jaxson Robinson
SG: Otega Oweh
PG: Kerr Krissa
Some of these are bold, as underclassmen are taking the spots from upperclassmen. However, this is the lineup Mark Pope rolls out for game one. And he will probably have a substitution list that looks like this:
Amari Williams for Brandon Garrison
Ansley Almonor for Andrew Carr
Koby Brea for Jaxson Robinson
Collin Chandler for Otega Oweh
Lamont Butler for Kerr Krissa — This was the toughest prediction, I’m not convinced Butler can’t steal the job from Krissa.
While it’s not super common to have a 10-man rotation in basketball, and most coaches like to be around 8 to keep their best players in at all times, I think we will see these ten play throughout the year, and opponent and score will often dictate the mix.
It’s early, and my predictions may change, but that’s currently the roster and rotation Pope uses this year. It’s an impressive one full of something that John Calipari almost rarely had: experience. Pope will make some serious noise in the NCAA during his very first year on the job.
