• Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope must replace seven seniors from the 2024-25 roster.
• The Wildcats have three high school prospects signed for the 2025-26 season: Jasper Johnson, Acaden Lewis and Malachi Moreno.
• Five players from last season could return, but none have made official announcements about their plans.

LEXINGTON — After assuming the reins of his alma mater, coach Mark Pope had to build the Kentucky basketball roster from scratch. The dozen scholarship players who were part of the 2023-24 team? All of them left. Some because their college eligibility was up. Others departed for the NBA draft or transfer portal.

Pope shouldn’t have quite as much heavy lifting heading into Year 2.

That’s because five players could return from last season.

The only certainties: The Wildcats have signed three high school prospects in the 2025 recruiting cycle.

And they must replace their seven-member senior class. Only one of them could still be playing college hoops during the 2025-26 campaign, though: Kerr Kriisa revealed March 31 he would enter the transfer portal.

But Pope and his staff already have one portal player in the fold for next season: Former Tulane wing Kam Williams committed March 28.

Bookmark this page as The Courier Journal tracks offseason news related to UK’s 2025-26 roster. 

G Kerr Kriisa (6-foot-5, 185 pounds, Fifth-year Sr.): Kriisa appeared in UK’s first nine games of the 2024-25 season … and that was all she wrote for the Estonian. A foot injury suffered in the team’s overtime win over Gonzaga on Dec. 7 simply never healed to the point he was cleared to return to the floor. While he said March 31 he’d put his name into the transfer portal, 11 days before that, Kriisa pondered the possibility of heading back overseas to start his professional career. Kriisa averaged 4.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for the Wildcats; his assist average ranked No. 2 on the team behind fellow point guard Lamont Butler (4.3). Should he enroll at another university, it will be his fourth team in six seasons. He started his college career at Arizona (2020-21 through 2022-23) before moving on to West Virginia (2023-24) and then Kentucky.

Here are the six Kentucky seniors who have played their final collegiate games:

• F Ansley Almonor (6-foot-7, 244 pounds)
• G Koby Brea (6-foot-7, 215 pounds)
• G Lamont Butler (6-foot-2, 208 pounds)
• F Andrew Carr (6-foot-11, 235 pounds)
• G Jaxson Robinson (6-foot-6, 192 pounds)
• C Amari Williams (7 foot, 262 pounds)

This section will be updated as Kentucky players announce whether they plan to return to Lexington for the 2025-26 season.

Here are the five players who might be back with the Wildcats:

• G Collin Chandler (6-foot-5, 202 pounds)
• F Brandon Garrison (6-foot-11, 250 pounds)
• G Trent Noah (6-foot-5, 220 pounds)
• G Otega Oweh (6-foot-4, 215 pounds)
• G Travis Perry (6-foot-1, 188 pounds)

What to know: While no member of the above quintet has made an official proclamation regarding their intentions for next season, each offered differing takes following Kentucky’s season-ending loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

A rising senior, Oweh simply shook his head when asked whether he’d given thought to the 2025-26 campaign.

Garrison, who would be a junior next season, said he would head back to Oklahoma and huddle up with his family and agent before deciding what’s next.

Chandler, Noah and Perry, the three signees in UK’s 2024 recruiting class, are set to be sophomores. Perry, the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school basketball history, said he “certainly” plans to suit up for his home state program next season. Chandler said that with the team so focused on winning the program’s ninth national title, he “hadn’t really talked much about” next season with the coaching staff.

Noah made the most definitive statement of any potential returnee.

“Kentucky, this is my dream school,” he told The Courier Journal. “I don’t want to put on any other jersey besides this one. So, yeah, (being back next season) is the plan, for sure.”

G/F Kam Williams (6-foot-8, 195 pounds): Williams became the first transfer commitment for the Wildcats’ 2025-26 squad on March 28, hours before the team’s Big Dance battle versus Tennessee. An uber-athletic wing, Williams averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1 block per game for Tulane during the 2024-25 season. He also was an All-American Athletic Conference Freshman Team selection after pacing the Green Wave in 3-point percentage (41.2; 63 for 153).

G Jasper Johnson (6-foot-4, 174 pounds): Johnson, a Lexington native, is a UK legacy. His father, Dennis Johnson, once starred for the Wildcats’ football team along the defensive line. (The elder Johnson now is Woodford County’s athletics director and head football coach.) Jasper Johnson committed to Kentucky on Sept. 5 during a ceremony at Woodford County High. Jasper led Woodford County to the KHSAA Sweet 16 in 2023 — the school’s first appearance in the event since 1986 — before transferring to national prep powerhouse Link Academy. He finished his last season of high school basketball competing in the Overtime Elite league in Atlanta. Johnson is considered a five-star prospect by ESPN, while Rivals, 247Sports and On3 gave him four stars. Per the 247Sports Composite, Johnson ranks No. 18 nationally — and No. 5 among shooting guards — in the 2025 cycle.

G Acaden Lewis (6-foot-2, 170 pounds): Lewis gave his pledge to Kentucky on Nov. 2. He picked UK over his two other finalists, Duke and UConn. A star in the nation’s capital, Lewis was the Gatorade District of Columbia Boys Basketball Player of the Year in 2023-24 after averaging 14.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game for Sidwell Friends School. He also lifted the team to the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference title and the District of Columbia State Athletic Association Class AA championship. Lewis is the No. 30 recruit in the country for 2025, per the 247Sports Composite, slotting in as the fifth-ranked point guard.

C Malachi Moreno (6-foot-11, 230 pounds): Moreno got the Wildcats’ 2025 recruiting class off the ground Aug. 19, announcing his commitment during a ceremony at Great Crossing High in Georgetown. Now a McDonald’s All-American, Moreno was named Kentucky’s 2025 Mr. Basketball after averaging 21.5 points, 14.8 rebounds, 3.6 blocks and 3.5 assists per game during the regular season. He then propelled the school to its first state title in boys basketball, tallying 24 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks against Bowling Green in the championship game of the UK HealthCare Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena. Not surprisingly, Moreno won the Sweet 16 MVP award. Moreno entered the Sweet 16 with 2,392 points and 1,896 rebounds during his high school career, which began when he still was an eighth grader. Moreno clocks in as the No. 27 player nationally in 2025, per the 247Sports Composite — and the No. 2 center.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

Louisville coach Pat Kelsey and Kentucky coach Mark Pope overachieved this men’s basketball season, hastily assembling rosters without the benefit of any scholarship returnees. It’s a good thing they proved they can mold a team in that manner.

They’ll do the same thing again in their second years at the helm, possibly to a lesser degree, this offseason. As important as playcalling and scouting are to winning games, putting together the right personnel might be the toughest part of coaching in this climate.

Kelsey and Pope made it look simple last year. Better accept the fact now that there will be some guesswork involved and the roster and rotation may not all come together perfectly as it did for each coach this past season.

It’s not so easy to find replacements for two of the best point guards in the nation: U of L’s Chucky Hepburn and UK’s Lamont Butler.

Kelsey has maintained the recruiting philosophy that high schools will always be important to building a program. He’s chosen to replace Hepburn by signing Mikel Brown Jr., who is considered a top-10 player in the Class of 2025, according to 247Sports.

Pope still is looking for the next Butler. Kerr Kriisa, who was the Wildcats’ top backup until he injured his foot in December, made it official Monday that he’s transferring from UK.

Although UK signed point guard Acaden Lewis, who is ranked 35th in the Class of 2025 according to 247Sports, the Cats are looking to bring in another experienced lead guard from the transfer portal who might function as the Day 1 starter.  

Get used to it.

Until multiyear contracts become the norm in college basketball, continuity will be a luxury that most rosters just won’t have from one season until the next.

If the Cards are fortunate, their frontcourt rotation next season will come from players who were all on the roster this season:

Forward James Scott started 31 games. Forward Khani Rooths appeared in all 35 games as a freshman. Center Aly Khalifa sat out as a redshirt after transferring from BYU. And forward Kasean Pryor could choose to return on a medical redshirt after missing all but seven games with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

That would be a great starting point without even bringing up wing J’Vonne Hadley could choose to return, reclaiming a year he played in junior college. Kelsey was able to establish a locker room culture that they were a part of last season and could give next season’s team a head start in building.

But a little bit of luck has to be involved in keeping returnees intact for myriad reasons. Tampering from other coaches is an underreported problem. Agents shopping for better name, image and likeness deals could always be a factor. Or players searching for a specific role — be it more playing time or different responsibilities — could lead to someone assumed to be staying entering their name in the transfer portal.

The only players who seem safe to assume will return to UK next season are Travis Perry and Trent Noah, and that’s primarily because they’re both Kentucky natives.

Guard Otega Oweh has one year of eligibility left but could decide to enter his name in the NBA draft instead. Center Brandon Garrison, at the least, may go through the draft process. And there have been rumblings for a while that 21-year-old freshman Collin Chandler, who delayed playing for two years while on a church mission, would transfer after this season.

Roster overhaul is the new norm in college basketball. If this season proved anything, it’s that the Cards and Cats can take comfort in knowing they have coaches who have done it before.

The foundation was established for Kelsey and Pope, so rebuilding the roster should be much easier than what they experienced putting it together for the first time.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky lawmaker Pamela Stevenson, the top-ranking Democrat in the GOP-led state House, launched her U.S. Senate campaign on Monday, vowing to help “stop the recklessness” in Washington if elected. The seat has long been held by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is not seeking reelection in 2026.

Stevenson, an attorney and minister, ran for state attorney general in 2023 but lost by a wide margin to Republican Russell Coleman. The only Kentucky Democrats to win statewide that year were Gov. Andy Beshear and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, who won reelection to second terms.

Known for a fiery speaking style at the Kentucky Capitol, Stevenson pledged to continue fighting for health care access and public education, noting in an introductory digital profile that her legislative colleagues “know they only have a problem with me if they go after” her causes.

Her Senate announcement came days after Kentucky lawmakers ended their 2025 session.

In the digital profile, Stevenson didn’t mention by name Republican President Donald Trump — who has dominated the political landscape in GOP-trending Kentucky since first winning the White House in 2016 — but the Democrat signaled her disapproval with the country’s direction since Trump started his second term.

“We need someone to stop the recklessness in Washington,” said, Stevenson, the minority floor leader in the Kentucky House. “Someone to restore the balance of power.”

Stevenson is the first Black woman to lead a legislative caucus in the Kentucky General Assembly. In her digital biographical sketch, the Louisville, Kentucky, native says her father was a union welder and her mother was a clerk. Stevenson says they lived down the street from her grandparents’ church, where Stevenson serves as a minister, and she talks about her military service as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force.

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, announced in February that he won’t seek reelection next year but will retire when his current term ends. Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

On the Republican side, former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron has entered the Senate race, while U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and businessman Nate Morris are considering Senate runs. All three speak glowingly of Trump, hoping to land his endorsement. Beshear defeated Cameron in the 2023 governor’s race, and speculation continues to build over whether the term-limited Beshear will run for president in 2028.

One potential wild card in Kentucky’s Senate race next year is Democrat Rocky Adkins, a former longtime state lawmaker who has deep political connections statewide. Adkins lost to Beshear in the 2019 Democratic gubernatorial primary and now serves as Beshear’s senior adviser in the governor’s office.

“While Rocky continues to receive tremendous encouragement from across Kentucky, he has not made any decisions on any race,” said Emily Ferguson, a spokesperson for Adkins.