PITTSBURGH — Kentucky’s 2023-24 season reached its denouement Thursday evening. UK, the No. 3 seed within the South Area, fell to 14-seed Oakland, 80-76, within the first spherical of the NCAA Event at PPG Paints Enviornment.
Following UK’s third straight opening-weekend exit in March Insanity, John Calipari and the Wildcats have roster administration questions as they start turning their consideration to the 2024-25 season.
This is a take a look at the offseason forward, and what subsequent season’s roster may appear like:
Which Kentucky gamers may go away?
Two UK seniors, Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves, have exhausted their school eligibility and will not be again.
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Reeves will go away a large gap: His 20.2 factors per recreation was the most effective single-season mark of Calipari’s 15-year tenure. Mitchell, when wholesome, was the staff’s finest rebounder, a gifted passer and a constant shooter from all areas of the ground.
Then there’s the freshmen.
Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner probably will declare for the NBA draft. Large males Aaron Bradshaw and Zvonimir Ivišić may do the identical. And relying what he hears from Calipari and NBA expertise evaluators, sophomore 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso would possibly go away for the draft as properly.
Which UK gamers may return for 2024-25 season?
Rising junior Adou Thiero solidified himself as a starter in 2023-24, and will play a good bigger position — and supply a much-needed veteran presence — subsequent season.
If Bradshaw and Onyenso determine to place the professionals on maintain for one more yr, they might return and present what they’re able to when wholesome for a full season. (Foot accidents sidelined each for all the preseason and the primary month of the 2023-24 marketing campaign.) Ivišić is a barely totally different case; whereas he wasn’t injured like Bradshaw and Onyenso — the opposite two members of the Wildcats’ 7-foot trio — he sat out from the second he arrived on campus in October till the NCAA lastly cleared him to play Jan. 20. Ivišić would possibly decide a full school season to display what he can do will increase his draft inventory, of which he has to watch carefully. He is declared for the draft twice already earlier than withdrawing his title. If Ivišić declares for the draft once more, he won’t be permitted to take away his title a 3rd time.
Elsewhere, freshman Jordan Burks, a late addition to the Wildcats’ top-ranked 2023 signing class, flashed indicators of promise in restricted taking part in time. Joey Hart, who, like Burks, joined the 2023 recruiting class late within the recreation, performed in simply seven contests and solely tried two photographs. A yr of school expertise — regardless of it being extra apply reps than minutes in dwell video games — would possibly assist him carve out a extra distinguished position subsequent season.
Kentucky basketball switch portal watch
Doable departures: If Burks and Hart do not see paths to extra taking part in time subsequent season — and do not wish to accept spot minutes off the bench — the pair may enter their names into the switch portal.
Coming in: Dillingham, Reeves and Sheppard had been three of probably the most deadly 3-point shooters in program historical past. So the Wildcats will desperately have to land a sharpshooter (ideally, a couple of) to fill out the 2024-25 roster. No matter what the three 7-footers do, including a veteran front-court participant to the combo (within the vein of Mitchell, who joined UK as a fifth-year senior) can be a shrewd transfer.
2024 Kentucky basketball recruiting class
No shock right here: The Wildcats will usher in one of many nation’s most ballyhooed recruiting courses subsequent season. The 2024 class is ranked No. 2 nationally, per 247Sports’ Composite staff rankings. And they won’t be achieved: 5-star small ahead Liam McNeeley, who just lately decommitted from Indiana, already has heard from Kentucky’s teaching employees. Even when McNeeley goes elsewhere, UK’s class is flush with expertise. The haul options 4 five-star prospects (Boogie Fland, Karter Knox, Jayden Quaintance and Billy Richmond) and a pair of 4 stars (large man Somto Cyril and in-state celebrity Travis Perry, the all-time main scorer in Kentucky highschool historical past).
Attain Kentucky males’s basketball and soccer reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and observe him on X at @RyanABlack.