Kentucky basketball transfer Joey Hart commits to Ball State
Former Kentucky player Joey Hart has found a new home after entering the transfer portal following the 2023-24 season, his only in Lexington.
According to Hart’s own Twitter account, he’ll head to Ball State to play next season. Here was that post announcing his new destination:
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.
In his seven appearances this season, Hart scored a grand total of three points off of his one and only three-point attempt. It actually set some history, though, as it gave Kentucky a total of 118 points in a win over Marshall, marking the Wildcats’ highest scoring output in a single game in the 15-year tenure of John Calipari.
Hart played high school basketball at Linton-Stockton as a native of Linton, Indiana. He was a three-star prospect there as the No. 244 overall recruit in the 2023 cycle. That’s according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He finished rated as the No. 52 SG in the class and the No. 7 prospect out of his state.
Hart committed to Kentucky as part of the No. 1 class in the country per On3’s 2023 Industry Basketball Team Recruiting Rankings. He was originally committed to UCF but was then a late addition, alongside Jordan Burks, to make it an eight-man freshman class for UK.
Kentucky active in portal
For Kentucky, the transfer portal will be massive in building out Mark Pope’s first roster.
With the previously-top-ranked recruiting class falling apart following John Calipari’s departure, plus all but one scholarship player on last year’s roster going to the NBA Draft or transferring out, Kentucky’s overhaul comes by default.
Per KSR, the Wildcats are also reportedly in touch with the following players: Duke guard Jeremy Roach, Dayton guard Koby Brea, Oklahoma guard Otega Oweh, Stanford forward Andrej Stojakovic, Drexel forward Amari Williams, BYU center Aly Khalifa, Oklahoma State guard Javon Small and Belmont forward Cade Tyson.
Roach is a multi-year starting point guard for Duke who averaged north of 14 points per game last season. He’d be one heck of an addition. As would a guy like Oweh, a bulldog defensive player who averaged double-figures for Oklahoma, and Brea and Tyson were among the top 3-point shooters in college basketball last season.
A solid crop of possible targets for Mark Pope and Kentucky so far. Of course, there’s also some BYU players that could come with Pope, as well as some potential freshmen recruits on the horizon as well.