Kentucky contacts Utah guard transfer Deivon Smith

Another transfer portal target emerged on Saturday for Kentucky basketball. New head coach Mark Pope is zoning in on some bigs as the Wildcats hosted Drexel transfer Amari Williams for an official visit over the weekend, but the Wildcats also need to find some guards.

A Pac-12 transfer has emerged. According to 24/7 High School Hoops, Utah guard Deivon Smith has heard from Kentucky and numerous others. Creighton, Florida, Kansas State, Louisville, Miami, NC State, St. John’s, VCU, Villanova, Wake Forest, and Washington are all involved in this transfer portal recruitment.

Deivon Smith (6-0, 172) is now looking for his fourth school in five years. The Metro Atlanta native began his career at Mississippi State playing for Ben Howland in 2020-21. From there, Smith transferred to Georgia Tech and spent two seasons playing for Josh Pastner. After the Yellow Jackets moved on from Pastner, Smith moved out to Utah and had a career season playing for head coach Craig Smith.

As a true senior, Deivon Smith averaged 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 7.1 assists in 29.5 minutes per game. All were career highs. The veteran also shot 40.8 percent from three on 2.5 attempts per game after never shooting better than 28 percent from three in his first three seasons at Mississippi State and Georgia Tech.

Deivon Smith is a good rebounding guard who led the Pac-12 in assist rate (43.2%), according to KenPom. Smith finished the season ranked No. 3 nationally in assist rate. Those assist numbers have not been a fluke. Smith was top-five in the SEC in assist rate at Mississippi State and top-five in the ACC in assist rate at Georgia Tech.

The transfer has one season of eligibility remaining. Pope has another transfer target in the backcourt.

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