When John Calipari departed Kentucky for Arkansas last offseason, he took a significant portion of his roster with him. On Saturday, the Razorbacks secured a Sweet 16 appearance with contributions from former Wildcats DJ Wagner, Zvonimir Ivisic, and a group of freshmen who had initially committed to Kentucky. Their leading scorer, Adou Thiero, was sidelined due to injury.
With no returning players from the previous season, new head coach Mark Pope faced the challenge of completely rebuilding Kentucky’s roster. He demonstrated how, in the era of unrestricted player movement through the transfer portal, a team can be reconstructed almost instantly.
On Sunday, Pope’s group of transfers ended Kentucky’s five-year Sweet 16 drought with an 84-75 victory over Illinois, marking a unique milestone in college basketball history—one only possible in today’s transfer-heavy landscape.
This achievement would have been unimaginable in previous eras. Under past transfer rules, players had to sit out a year before competing, making it nearly impossible for a new coach to completely overhaul a roster within a single offseason and still assemble enough talent to make a deep tournament run.
Pope didn’t just rebuild one competitive team—he nearly had enough talent for two. His transfer class featured leading scorer Otega Oweh and sharpshooter Koby Brea, who played a crucial role against Illinois. Additionally, he added Jaxson Robinson from BYU and Kerr Kriisa from West Virginia, though both missed the postseason due to injuries.
Kentucky is now the only team to ever reach the Sweet 16 without any prior production from returning players. However, Pope isn’t the only first-year coach excelling in the postseason. Every coach involved in the BYU-Kentucky-Arkansas coaching shuffle led their respective teams to the Sweet 16, alongside Dusty May at Michigan. May’s achievement was particularly notable, as he inherited a program that had missed the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons and won just eight games in 2023-24.
Equally impressive was Pat Kelsey’s turnaround at Kentucky’s in-state rival, where he led a 19-win improvement for a team that hadn’t participated in March Madness since 2019.
In today’s college basketball landscape, patience is no longer a necessity. If a new head coach fails to capitalize on the transfer portal quickly, he might not be the right fit for the job. In Kentucky’s case, Pope has proven he certainly is.
