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Who Has Kentucky Contacted and Who Could They Target in the Transfer Portal

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© Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports/ © Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports/ © Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports/

The transfer portal is heating up with the 2022-23 college basketball season coming to a close. With the season ending, players are looking to potentially take their talents elsewhere by putting their names in. The Kentucky basketball team is keeping their eye out and looking to capitalize on some available talent.

To this point, there are five prospects in the portal that Kentucky has reached out to, but don’t be surprised to see that list grow in the coming days/weeks.

Contacted Targets

Chris Ledlum, F (JR) – Harvard: Ledlum was one of the first players to enter the portal for 2023. He will have two years of eligibility.

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The forward stands 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds. In his junior year, he averaged 16.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

Ledlum’s strengths include his high basketball IQ, his off-ball skills, his physical length and strength, and also his defensive ability. He averaged 1.8 steals per game this season and was second in the Ivy League with a 92.4 defensive rating.

His weaknesses are his overall athleticism and ability to shoot from beyond the arc. This season, he struggled shooting only 31.4 percent from three. For his career, he is only a 29.4 percent three-point shooter.

Other schools that have reached out to Ledlum include Indiana, St. John’s, Ohio State, Maryland, Arkansas, Xavier, UCLA, Nebraska, Florida, and LSU.

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Dalton Knecht, G (SR) – Northern Colorado: Knecht is one of the top-scoring threats in the portal for 2023. He has one season of eligibility.

Knecht is a 6-foot-6, 200-pound guard who averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists this season. He shot 47.9 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from three.

In addition to his ability to shoot, Knecht has the quickness and athleticism to make plays at the rim as well.

The athletic, scoring threat will be heavily desired as many top-tier programs have reached out to him already.

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Kel’el Ware, F/C (FR) – Oregon: Ware was a 5-star prospect in the 2022 class. He stands 7-feet tall and 210 pounds. He will have at least 3 years of eligibility left.

Coming off the bench for Oregon at 15.8 minutes per game, Ware averaged 6.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks.

The talented center has great size, length, and athleticism. He has an expanded skill set and ability to guard positions 1-5, much like former Kentucky 7-footer, Willie Cauley-Stein. Ware can create shots in mid-range, low post, and can stretch the floor with his ability to shoot the three.

TJ Bamba, G (JR) – Washington State: Bamba is a 6-foot-5, 215-pound shooting guard/small forward that can score in multiple ways. He will have two seasons of eligibility.

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This season, he averaged 15.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. He shot 37.2% from three. Another gifted scoring option should Kentucky end up locking him down.

Bamba has also entered his name in the 2023 NBA draft while maintaining college eligibility.

Graham Ike, C (JR) – Wyoming: Ike had a medical redshirt this season after sustaining a foot injury back in November. However, the season prior, Ike was one of the best big men in the country.

In 2021-22, the 6-foot-9, 225-pound center averaged 19.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.

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In addition to Kentucky, he has heard from Arkansas, Arizona, Arizona State, Butler, Colorado, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, San Diego State, Seton Hall, Tennessee, Washington State, Xavier, and West Virginia.

Potential Targets

Ace Baldwin, G (JR) – VCU: Baldwin is a 5-foot-11, 170-pound guard from Baltimore. As a recruit of the 2020 class, Kentucky actually recruited him out of high school. He was an AAU teammate of former Wildcat, Immanuel Quickley.

This season, Baldwin averaged 12.7 points, 5.8 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. This was good enough to earn him Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. He also was named the conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Even though there is a prior connection, it is not likely that he will end up a Wildcat. There have been multiple predictions with close to 100% certainty that Baldwin will follow his coach, Mike Rhodes, to Penn State. But, nothing is decided as of yet.

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A player like Baldwin, a veteran point guard, will definitely be the type of player that Kentucky will look out for in the portal with the departure of Sahvir Wheeler.

LJ Cryer, J (SR) – Baylor: One of the best players in the portal, Cryer will be highly sought after. A freshman on the 2021 Baylor national championship team, Cryer has become one of the team’s stars.

This past season, Cryer displayed his ability to efficiently score at all three levels, averaging 15 ppg on 42 percent from three. In addition, Cyrer ranked in the 94th percentile in offensive efficiency against man-to-man defenses.

Given that Kentucky’s freshman guards will receive a lot of playing time, Cryer coming to Kentucky is unlikely unless there is an unforeseen issue, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Jerome Tang of Kansas State was Cryer’s lead recruiter when he was at Baylor, which assumes Kansas State as the early favorite.

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Puff Johnson, F (JR) – North Carolina: Johnson is the younger brother to former Tar Heel and current NBA player, Cam Johnson. He will have two years of eligibility. While it has been reported that Kentucky has reached out to Johnson, his father Gil, says that is not the case.

Johnson averaged 4.1 points and 2.7 rebounds for UNC this season off the bench. He stands 6-foot-8, 200 pounds, with good length and athleticism. Out of high school, Johnson was labeled as a shooter/scorer but only shot 38.7% from the field, 28.3% from three, and 65.8% from the free-throw line.

Ahron Ulis, G (JR) – Iowa: Ulis is the younger brother to all-time Kentucky great, Tyler Ulis. He has one season of eligibility.

In his first two seasons at Iowa, Ulis served more as role player off the bench until he earned a starting role this season. In 22 minutes per game, he averaged 6.1 points, 2.1 assists, and 1.6 rebounds.

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The connection to the program is obviously there. His experience would be beneficial to have around for the young, freshman guards in DJ Wagner and Rob Dillingham coming in.

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John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart Share Details of Their Meeting, “Exit Strategy”

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John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart sit down and discuss the future of the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball program.

The talk of the town the last few days has been of the meeting between John Calipari and Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. One fan even created a Twitter/X account dedicated to tracking Calipari’s plane from New Jersey to Lexington.

The meeting finally took place on Tuesday afternoon at Barnhart’s farm. Afterward, Kentucky Insider quickly learned that Calipari would be returning for his 16th season as coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, with some changes. There are rumors of what changes are coming, but we are confident that there will be some staff/support staff changes and some day-to-day, operational changes.

Less than twenty-four hours removed from that meeting, the two discussed the details in a pre-recorded interview with LEX18.

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Barnhart started the interview by putting to bed the rumor that he and Calipari have “no relationship”, pointing out that both he and Calipari are part of 40+ year marriages, and have worked together going on 16 years.

“We know how to manage relationships,” Barnhart said. “This notion that we have no relationship is garbage… I’m not a guy that gets in coach’s business, and they will all tell you that. At the end of the day, I trust him (Calipari) to do his job. Let’s put the notion of no relationship out the door.”

So what did they talk about in the meeting? “We talked about things we want to get better at. The elephants in the room,” Barnhart said. The biggest elephant in the room has been the lack of success from the Kentucky basketball program over the last four seasons, despite a number of talented players coming in.

“Our fans know what the standard is. We know what the standard is. The mantle of what we have been entrusted with is critically important to us. We talked about that,” Barnhart said. How do we change that dynamic in a world of NIL, transfer portal, older rosters?”

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Calipari says, “We gotta get older,” and it sounds like he will be doing so, combining young and veteran talent, rather than being reliant on one or the other.

“There have been teams that have taken a bunch of transfers. One year they did okay, the next year they fell flat on their face,” (cough, cough, Arkansas) Calipari said. “With the current environment, you can’t have five freshmen starting. If you have freshmen, they’ve got to be supplemented with some veteran, talented players.”

Barnhart is confident in the guy who he hired 15 years ago can adjust to the current landscape of college basketball.

“If there has even been a person that has been able to adapt and adjust in the game, Cal has,” Barnhart said. I remember when he first came here, he made the comment, ‘We’re going to have to adapt to this new era of ‘one and done’.’ He adapted. We will have to adapt and just to a new world of NIL and transfers.”

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Barnhart and Calipari also discussed the absence of defense and toughness from recent teams, and it will adjust how Calipari uses the summer.

“I’ve never worked on defense in the summer. Now, I’m looking at this summer and say this may be where we try to get the foundation set defensively,” Calipari said. “Toughness. Some of it is recruiting toughness. I think the class we are bringing, a bunch of these guys have more toughness to their game.”

It’s clear, that both Barnhart and Calipari, who are in the twilight of their careers, want to end on a positive note. Now on more common ground, they will look to make changes in hopes that it pays off with postseason success.

“Not a lot of people in our industry get to exit the way you want to exit. I want us to be able to exit well and be able to say we left it (Kentucky basketball) in a really good spot for the people that came behind us.”

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Men's Basketball

Everything Players and Staff Had to Say after Losing to Oakland

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© Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Well, Kentucky’s 2023-24 season is over after getting upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to 14-seed Oakland. A lot of questions are surrounding the Kentucky basketball program.

Head coach John Calipari and players let all of the sadness out and spoke on the touching subjects after the loss.

John Calipari

Calipari really felt like this team was built March. “They shouldn’t be and our team and our season, defined by that game, but it will be. This one is painful. … This team, I really felt was built for this moment, even though we were young.”

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Calipari says the mistakes from the team was due to the youth. “We made some critical mistakes at critical times today. When you have a really young team and look at where did the mistakes come from, they were freshmen.” When asked if his philosophy will change moving forward, Calipari says he doesn’t know, but he has changed lives doing it the way he is. “”I’ve done this with young teams my whole career. It’s gonna be hard for me to change that because we’ve helped so many young people … I don’t see myself just saying, ‘Ok, we’re not going to recruit freshmen.’ … We have an unbelievable group coming in.”

It was clear, though, that Calipari really believed that this team could have done something special. “I just come back to, I hate it for these guys that people try to define this season by that game, and it’s natural and it’s how this business works but this group was a ball to coach.”

Players

Then, it was the players’ turns to talk with the media, and as you can imagine, it was a devastated locker room. Tre Mitchell, one of the veterans on the team, appreciated his time at Kentucky. “I’ve loved every single second of being at Kentucky. I got an opportunity to live out a dream, and I built bonds with people that will last a lifetime.”

Reed Sheppard was very emotional after the game, talking about how this team was fun to play with, and it being their last time on the court together. “It sucks losing, but it sucks losing knowing it’s your last time playing with this group. This group has been unbelievable. There’s no team that’s been like this on/off the court. We’re all super close. Being able to play at Kentucky and have a special group of guys around me.”

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Sheppard continued on how “special” this Kentucky team was. “You guys could tell how special we were. How close of friends we were on and off the court. It sucks ending the season no matter what. Especially with this group. We’re all really close. We’re all best friends. Knowing that we won’t play with the same group of guys next year is tough. But you know, we have a lot of memories.”

Rob Dillingham also expressed that same comradery feeling. “It means everything to me. I might not show it all the time, but I love everybody on the team. I love putting this (Kentucky) jersey on. Every time I go out there I get chills looking at the crowd. It’s just crazy to think we’re done right now.”

Just like that, Kentucky’s season has come to a shocking halt. A special team ended with a very disappointing March. Now, big questions will need to be answered .

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SEC Coach Compares Rob Dillingham to NBA All-Star

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One SEC coach compares Rob Dillingham to an accomplished NBA All-Star.
Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

You will be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining player in college basketball than Rob Dillingham, with opposing players and coaches saying as much throughout the season. Vanderbilt head coach, Jerry Stackhouse, is the most recent to do so.

Following a loss to Kentucky, where Rob Dillingham scored 23 points and 5 assists, Stackhouse complimented Dillingham and his style of play, even describing him as his “shifty”, the moniker he goes by on social media, ‘Rob wit da shifts’.

“I would say he is so shifty. I think that’s the word that I would describe him, and I saw him in high school,” Stackhouse said. “He’s the guy that’s capable of exploding and going for 25 or 30 on any given night. I think that’s why you’re seeing him projected on the draft boards and his own because he has that type of ability.”

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There is one NBA guard in particular that Dillingham reminds him of, former NBA All-Star and champion Kyrie Irving.

“Being able to play one-on-one, create off the dribble kind of Kyrie Irving-like,” Stackhouse said. “I think once he continues to grow as a defender, he’s going to be a guy that you try to pick on, but I think he has to that same shift in this that he has on offense he can apply that and become a good on-ball defender as well.”

Considering Stackhouse’s experience as an NBA All-Star caliber player, and now as an NBA/college coach for the last decade, his compliment holds value. That said, his praise didn’t stop there.

Stackhouse also mentioned that this Kentucky team is arguably the best he has seen since he started at Vanderbilt in 2019. “Kentucky is really good, talented offensive team,” Stackhouse said. “The best that I’ve seen I think since I’ve been here. …I think it’s time for a big run this year (for Kentucky).”

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