When Mark Pope was hired to be the next coach of the Kentucky basketball program, he didn’t have a ton of time to put together a roster for the 2024-25 season. This meant it was going to all come together via the transfer portal.

Knowing that Coach Pope brought in a brand-new roster, the 10-2 start with wins over Duke and Gonzaga is excellent.

Isaac Trotter of 247Sports ranked the best transfer portal classes so far this season, and he had the Wildcats second behind Tennessee.

Trotter had this to say about Kentucky’s transfer portal class, “Pope’s deep roster was built with little-to-no positional overlap. Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh are physical, drive-first, two-way guards whose skillsets pair perfectly with Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea, two on-the-move shooters. Bigs like Andrew Carr, Brandon Garrison and Amari Williams are all comfortable with the ball in their hands to execute Kentucky’s handoff-heavy scheme. When that’s not working, or transition buckets aren’t flowing, Pope can lean on ’em as post-up threats to create good looks. Pope might be Kentucky’s MVP. This hot start wouldn’t be possible without his deft touch with roster construction and X’s and O’s.”

Coach Pope had to go and find a group of players from the portal who would be great in his system, and he did just that. He has the Wildcats ranked tenth in all of college basketball, and this team is gearing up for SEC play.

The Wildcats now have an elite coach when it comes to the X’s and O’s, which will be really helpful in March. Mark Pope used the transfer portal to perfection this offseason.