Fans Stunned as Kentucky Star Announces Return for Senior Season

The transfer portal isn’t always an immediate success for basketball programs. It doesn’t have the same ability to bring in one year athletic mercenaries like football. Chemistry and the ability to play together matter a ton for the flow of a basketball game. This doesn’t mean programs shouldn’t grab transfer players, but it does mean that programs that have been completely rebuilt through the portal are struggling in 2024. They lack togetherness and chemistry and aren’t finding a good flow to the game. Yet, there’s an outlier,

According to college basketball analytics expert Evan Miyakawa, of the 17 teams that flipped their roster over, only four are doing better than expected (based on pre-season roster talent), and one is doing exceedingly better, Kentucky.

“Kentucky’s impressive start to the year with a brand new roster and a new head coach, Mark Pope, has undoubtedly been one of the year’s biggest storylines. However, their success is an outlier compared to other high majors. The disappointing nature of many of these other teams further demonstrates how remarkable Kentucky’s immediate team chemistry has been.”

His ability to turn a roster completely over and rebuild it with the right guys who know how to play together and take on the best competition in all of college basketball is remarkable. Pope has his guys playing together, and while we can see it with our eyes, the analytics back it up.