Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate worked with campers at the Father/Son Camp Saturday.
It’s really hard to imagine how Mark Pope could have done a lot better with his first two transfer portal classes at Kentucky.
He had little to no time to put together a roster last year but found gold in the transfer portal with Otega Oweh, Koby Brea, Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Brandon Garrison, Jaxson Robinson and Ansley Almonor.
Pope has added six transfers to his second recruiting class and five of them are ranked among ESPN’s top 100 transfer prospects with only Miami (Ohio) center Reece Potter not in the top 100.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello ranked his transfer portal classes Monday and listed Kentucky as No. 2 on his list.
“Mark Pope also landed five top-100 transfers, and if it were guaranteed that (Jayden) Quaintance would be healthy for the start of the season, the Wildcats might have the top spot. They’re also relying more on leaps from rising sophomores and steps forward from last season’s rotation players,” Borzello wrote.
“But this group has the right mix of talent and proven production, and Pope will likely start up to four of the transfers. The key to the season could be Quaintance, who could miss time after suffering a torn ACL in late February.”
St. John’s coach Rick Pitino has the No. 1 ranked transfer class — and of course Kentucky will play St. John’s this season on Dec. 20 in Atlanta. Like Kentucky, St. John’s also has five transfers ranked in the top 100 of the transfer portal by ESPN.
Michigan, Louisville, Florida, Washington, Indiana, Oklahoma, Southern California, Iowa, Creighton, Auburn and NC State complete the top 10.
Quaintance, a 6-9 sophomore from Arizona State coming off ACL surgery, is ranked No. 7 on the top 100 list. Junior point guard Jaland Lowe, a Pitt transfer, is ranked 25th. Sophomore small forward Kam Williams of Tulane is ranked 60th and junior forward Mouhamed Dioubate came in at 61st. Senior guard Denzel Aberdeen of Florida is rated 76th but coming off a national championship season with the experience he has probably should be rated higher.
2 Responses
So we have 5 transfers in the top 76. That’s very very very great. If you just have a team of our transfers we would still be a top 15-20 team. Then you add experience on the roster with Oweh Garrison Noah and Chandler and you have a top 5-10 team. Then you can add 4 very good freshman to the mix 3 top 35 freshman and Jelavic who would be a top 50 recruit in America and you have yourself a top 3 team. Ready to win every game. There shouldn’t be to many games we are favored to lose. Maybe 4-5 games. I think we should win over 30 games with this roster. I’m thinking we either win the sec or finish in the top 3. I think the best 6 SEC teams in order are #1Kentucky #2Florida #3Alabama #4Arkansas #5Auburn #6 Tennessee
The real question is whether Pope can adjust his coaching philosophy to match his personnel. This team may not be suited to put up 35 three point shots a game. It appears to be a tougher defensive/rebounding team that will flourish more with 2 point shots, especially in the paint. Pope will need to play more zone just to change things up and disrupt the flow of the game. I would be happy with a smothering defense that dominates the boards and only puts up 20 three point shots a game as long as they can make at least 7 of them.