Mark Pope 'out of my mind excited' for 2025-26 Kentucky team

Mark Pope was forced to build his initial Kentucky roster from scratch last season. Retaining no scholarship players from the John Calipari era, Pope had to look toward the transfer portal to build his team one player at a time.

That’s not exactly the case entering year two, as Pope has had a full year to recruit and has a handful of players from his initial roster set to return in 2025. Kentucky has still hit the portal hard given the amount of seniors lost from his first roster, and Pope couldn’t be more excited about the group he’s pieced together this offseason.

“I’m so excited, man, I can’t even tell you, like, I’m out of my mind excited about this group,” Pope told CBS Sports’ John Rothstein in a recent interview. “I’m so excited about our returners. Like, the thought of actually having some continuity when we step on the practice floor for the first time in mid June — that we’re gonna have some guys that know our terminology, know we do, and not just some guys, but some elite, elite level veteran talent.”

Mark Pope will have Brandon Garrison, Trent Noah and Collin Chandler all returning from last year’s squad. Otega Oweh, the team’s leading scorer, is still undecided on his plans for next year. Oweh declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, but has maintained his eligbility and has the option to return to Kentucky, or college in general, next season.

Having those three, or potentially four, return next season has put Pope in a position to not only return veteran players — but return veterans in his system. All are expected to make positive jumps in production this coming season.

“And then this influx of new guys,” Pope continued. “We just had a bunch of guys on campus last weekend that are newcomers, and to see them together with our new guys. Just how they interact off the court, which is such a huge part of being a basketball player at the University of Kentucky.

“Man, I left that weekend, feeling more excited than ever about actually getting this group fully together. I think it’s got a chance to be an incredibly special group.”

As it stands, however, those returners will be joined by quite a few new names. Kentucky boasts one of the top transfer portal classes in the country featuring Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate, Jayden Quaintance, Andrija Jelavic and Denzel Aberdeen. They’re also bringing in a pair of top-30 recruits — both from Kentucky — in Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson in the hopes of bringing home title number nine.