When head coach John Calipari took the Arkansas job, he took the few guys on the roster who didn’t go pro. That left new head coach Mark Pope with an empty roster to fill throughout the offseason. The good news is that it’s still Kentucky, which can and did land a ton of quality players via the portal.

In the backcourt, the Wildcats landed Kerr Kriisa (Arizona), Lamont Butler (San Diego State), and Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), all of whom were starters at their prior teams. Koby Brea was the 6th Man of the Year at Dayton and led all of NCAA Basketball in 3PT percentage at 50% in over six attempts a game. The one guy Coach Pope brought from BYU was Jaxson Robinson, the Big 12 6th Man of the Year who led the Cougars in scoring.

The frontcourt is a four-man group. OK State transfer Brandon Garrison is the lone underclassman transfer, while Amari Williams is a 6’10 center and multi-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year big man. Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr is a stretch forward who shoots the ball well, while Ansley Almonor, was the lead scorer from Fairleigh Dickinson.

It’s a roster filled with veteran and proven talent, and based on what Coach Pope did at BYU, the Wildcats should be good this season. But will they be good enough to satisfy the Kentucky fanbase?