Mark Pope breaks down 2024-25 Kentucky roster
After being named Kentucky’s new head coach on April 12, time was not on Mark Pope‘s side.
The new UK head man was forced to put together a full staff and a full roster after losing all 13 scholarship players from last year’s roster to either graduation, the transfer portal or the NBA Draft.
The Wildcats’ 7-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 5 nationally by 247Sports and of the teams ranked in the top 15, only Louisville has more commits (8) and new Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey had the benefit of a 2-week head start.
According to 247Sports, UK’s class features No. 21 Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), No. 28 Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), No. 45 Lamont Butler (San Diego State), No. 66 Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), No. 81 Amari Williams (Drexel), No. 104 Koby Brea (Dayton), and No. 118 Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia).
In addition, Pope also signed former BYU signee Collin Chandler, who is coming off a 2-year Mormon mission, Kentucky Mr. Basketball, the state’s all-time leading scorer and 4-star guard Travis Perry from state champion Lyon County, as well as Harlan County 4-star and former South Carolina signee Trent Noah to bring the Wildcats’ number of scholarship players to 10.
Known for his intricate offensive sets at BYU, Pope also made defense a priority early.
“I thought it was super interesting. We’re trying to keep people on their toes. I’m very much an offensive-minded coach that cares deeply about defense, that’s probably the way I would describe myself,” Pope told Andy Katz of NCAA March Madness. “And so our first three guys we signed was the No. 1 defensive point guard, maybe the best defensive backcourt player in the country, and then with Otega Oweh, definitely a top 5-10 perimeter defender and then with Amari Williams, probably the best defensive post, 3-time defensive player of the year in his league.”
