Mark Pope breaks down what Kentucky values in transfer portal recruiting

Kentucky Basketball has had as much success as any program in the past two offseasons in the NCAA Transfer Portal. That’s because of the amount of evaluation, both on and off the court, the staff works on in deciding who to bring to Lexington.

Mark Pope discussed the Wildcats’ portal approach in an interview this week with Jon Rothstein at CBS Sports. He explained why they’re such buyers into the portal, especially in this new era, as they can assess and analyze anything and everything about a possible transfer for them.

“Well, there are real advantages to recruiting out of the portal. There are constraints, for sure, and there, there’s the scary part of it. But there are real advantages in terms of you get to see players – all of their data, all of their film, all of their experience, all of their media interactions, all of their social interactions, all of their interactions with a fanbase. All those things come into play and you actually get to evaluate players based on all of that data,” Pope said.

“We’re, you know, we’re very, very much hyperbolically pushed towards the edge in a pro-style of play so the guys that we’re looking for that fit us? They’re a little bit of a specific, niche group and, so it makes it — it actually makes it really fun and challenging,” Pope added.

Kentucky has gotten specific about what it needed, in both the players and the people, that it is bringing into the program from the portal. That’s been even more challenging with the total amount of transfers the Wildcats have had to add, especially during the coaching transition last year.

Still, it’s been an area in which the Wildcats have found success. That starts with last year’s class of nine additions, with eight of those ranking in the Top 125 overall of On3’s Industry Ranking of 2024’s Top Transfer Portal Players. All of them had their impact on the fanbase off-court and on the team on-court, with Kentucky (24-12) having one of their better seasons as well as their best postseason run of the decade in making the Sweet 16.

“We were a first and only one in a number of statistical success categories last year with a totally revamped roster. I think a lot of the reason was because we were able to take in all that data, first and foremost, about what type of people these were,” said Pope. “The guys I got to coach last year? Like, these are, these are guys that all of us would be proud to call our sons, man. They, they’re incredible young men and they, they adopted this place and embraced it and, and wore this jersey with such tremendous pride. And so, when you start from a place like that and then you get to kind of cherry pick the specific skill sets that work with you, it was actually, it was a wonderful project and our guys came through in a big way.”

Big Blue Nation will hope that its staff has made similar picks this offseason out of the portal. The Wildcats currently have the No. 1 class in On3’s 2025 Team Transfer Portal Rankings with the five commitments, all who are in the Top 100 of On3’s Industry Ranking right now, of Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State), Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), Kam Williams (Tulane), and Denzel Aberdeen (Florida).

Kentucky clearly has a system that works with transfers with what they’ve added the past two offseasons. It’s now about making all of those additions work together with the roster made up of seven transfers, with two returning and five incoming, in the bluegrass.