Kentucky transfer Adou Thiero trims list to five schools, including return to Wildcats

Kentucky transfer Adou Thiero has winnowed down his potential destinations to five finalists, On3’s Joe Tipton confirmed. The visit list was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello.

Thiero is considering Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and a possible return to the Wildcats.

The 6-foot-6, 200 pound guard has played in 45 games across two seasons at Kentucky. He averaged 7.2 points per game in 21.4 minutes a night in 25 appearances in 2023-24. He started 19 games for the Wildcats last season.

He also boosted his rebound and assist figures, and projects out to be a potential NBA Draft pick in years to come.

Thiero raised some eyebrows with a recent Instagram post showing a large UK logo, presumably on the ceiling of some athletic facility. That post spurred speculation that he was leaning toward coming back to Kentucky, though nothing definitive has actually come from it.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

Background on the transfer portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such asynchronous contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.