Mark Pope explains Kentucky basketball’s transfer portal strategy for the 2025-26 season
The 2024–25 season for 16 NCAA Division I men’s college basketball teams is still in progress. This year’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 has been announced, and all seven SEC clubs are among the teams that still have a chance to win a national title.
Everyone else, however, will have to move on to the following season. This indicates that it is now on the NCAA transfer portal. Monday marked the formal start of the 30-day men’s basketball transfer window, which ends on April 22. This means the yearly rush of rosters for men’s college basketball
Of course, the 16 colleges named above are still competing for an NCAA title this season, including Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats. The Cats defeated Illinois in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee on Sunday night, advancing to their first Sweet 16 since 2019.
Pope and his coaching staff are already focused on bolstering Kentucky’s roster for the upcoming season, even though the 2024–25 campaign is still in progress. Pope responded to a query regarding the UK’s transfer portal strategy on Monday night during his weekly radio program.
Pope remarked, “We are receiving all the reporting that everyone is receiving regarding who is in the portal, who is entering the portal, and who is leaning that way.” “We have been doing a lot of planning, but we have not had any contact with those who are allegedly using the portal.” In his reply, Pope also mentioned that Matt Santoro, the UK’s assistant video coordinator, is responsible for coordinating all of this data.
