In the transfer portal and NIL era, roster turnover is part of the game. Gone are the days when guys stayed four years at the same college because they enjoyed the campus environment, embraced the development process, or just felt stuck because transferring required them to sit out a year. Even before the last few […]
In the transfer portal and NIL era, roster turnover is part of the game. Gone are the days when guys stayed four years at the same college because they enjoyed the campus environment, embraced the development process, or just felt stuck because transferring required them to sit out a year. Even before the last few years of lawless college basketball, one-and-done schools like Kentucky experienced a revolving door of players every season.
Mark Pope has a chance to change all of that. He has already flipped over the table of typical roster construction with 14 scholarship players on the team this season. I’m still shaking off my instinct to worry about keeping that many egos happy when it comes to playing time, but at worst, too much depth is a problem of kings.
Even more eye-opening, Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen are the only two seniors on this team. In theory, Kentucky could return 12 scholarship players in 2026.
They won’t, of course. Barring a disaster, Jayden Quaintance will leave for the NBA Draft after this season and become the latest Wildcat selected in the lottery. Maybe even the top 5. Jasper Johnson and Kam Williams are the other two names you hear floating around with some draft buzz, but they are not the guarantee Quaintance is.
How many Kentucky players could plausibly return in 2026?
All of this amounts to 11 players from this year’s roster who could reasonably be on the 2026-27 team, which would be some kind of record. John Calipari famously did not even utilize 11 scholarships some years, much less flirt with the prospect of returning 11 scholarship players. Plus, he had far too many one-and-done players or two-and-unjustifiably-feel-like-a-failure players for that to be plausible.
Even during the Tubby Smith and Rick Pitino days, a handful of seniors always graduated out of the program each year, leaving room for multiple freshmen to help fill in the maximum 13 scholarships.
Will it happen? Probably not. As innovative as Mark Pope can be, he would have to be a magician to convince all 11 possible returners to come back to Kentucky, in addition to whatever incoming top recruits might commit (ahem, Tyran Stokes…Deron Rippey Jr.). Some guys will most certainly pull a Travis Perry and surprise us during the portal window with a transfer. However, the fact that 11 returners are reasonably on the table is unprecedented. And you never know. Pope managed to roster 14 legit ballers this year. Maybe he can go for 15 in 2026.
Category: General Sports