All of the 7-footers are gone. Which big men can Mark Pope get for first UK basketball roster?

All of the 7-footers from Kentucky basketball’s 2023-24 roster will be leaving Lexington.

Freshman bigs Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State) and Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) have both announced their plans to transfer from UK to other schools following the landmark coaching change that saw John Calipari step down after 15 seasons coaching the Wildcats.

Just one day after UK alumnus Mark Pope was formally introduced as Calipari’s replacement, sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso announced his plans to declare for the 2024 NBA draft.

As such, all three of the 7-footers from Calipari’s final Kentucky team won’t be factoring into the future of UK basketball under Pope.

Between players leaving via the transfer portal, declaring for the NBA draft and decommitting from what was a six-player 2024 recruiting class, it’s obvious Pope has significant work to do when it comes to assembling his first Kentucky basketball roster.

Within this wider scope of player recruitment, getting some big men to come to Lexington is a priority.

The only scholarship player certain to be on Pope’s first UK team is combo guard Collin Chandler, a former BYU signee who will be following Pope to Lexington. Additionally, 2024 UK signee Travis Perry — a guard who is the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history — is likely to remain a Wildcat under Pope.

Both centers in the 2024 recruiting class who signed to play at UK when Calipari was the head coach — Somto Cyril and Jayden Quaintance — have reopened their recruitments. Cyril said he will still consider the Wildcats as part of his new recruitment.

Stay-or-go decisions must still be made by freshman guards Jordan Burks and reigning national freshman of the year Reed Sheppard from last season’s Kentucky team. And while Burks was deputized at the “5” during a rash of early-season availability issues for UK last season, he is not Kentucky’s center of the future.

So with all of this in mind, here’s a look at the big men available for Pope to pick up via both the NCAA transfer portal and traditional high school recruiting.

All transfer rankings used are from college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa.

Former BYU center Aly Khalifa has Kentucky in his top three

Let’s start with the player most likely to become a Kentucky Wildcat in the near future. BYU center Aly Khalifa — a 6-foot-11, 270-pound player — is in the NCAA transfer portal and has Kentucky as one of his three future options.

Khalifa’s list is down to Kentucky, Louisville and a return to BYU, where he played the 2023-24 season under Pope. Prior to that, Khalifa played his first two college basketball seasons at Charlotte.

Khalifa entered the portal last Friday (the same day Pope was officially announced as the next Kentucky coach) with a “do not contact” tag, which often signals that a player intends to follow his coach to a new school.

Originally from Egypt, Khalifa spent time at the NBA Global Academy in Australia as a prospect and arrived at Charlotte as a three-star recruit and the No. 60 overall center in the 2020 recruiting class, per 247Sports.

After redshirting the 2020-21 season, Khalifa was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year for the 2021-22 season after posting per-game averages of 7.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. As a redshirt sophomore in the 2022-23 season, Khalifa averaged 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Khalifa was Charlotte’s leading rebounder, second-leading scorer and second-leading assist man that season.

Khalifa transferred to BYU ahead of last season and went on to average 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in 29 games played (26 starts) for the Cougars. But the big development in Khalifa’s game last season came with his passing ability.

Already known as a stretch big, Khalifa averaged a career-best 4 assists per game at BYU, which ranked 141st in the nation. He ranked first in the Big 12 Conference and seventh in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.59-1). Per Kenpom, Khalifa’s 32.8 assist rate — calculated as a player’s assists divided by the field goals made by a player’s teammates while he is on the court — ranked 34th nationally. He had 115 assists against 32 turnovers for the season.

In addition to his deft passing ability — which played a big role last season in some of the offensive sets Pope ran with the Cougars — Khalifa is also a credible 3-point shooter.

He made 35.1% of his 57 3-point attempts during his first season at Charlotte, 38.1% of his 126 attempts during his second season at Charlotte and 31.5% of his 92 attempts during his first season at BYU.

Many college basketball observers noted that Ivisic — the 7-foot-2 Croatian known to Kentucky fans as “Big Z” — would be a good fit in Pope’s offense due to his passing, play-making and shooting abilities.

Khalifa, ranked as the No. 12 overall transfer portal player as of Wednesday morning, also fits this mold, and appears likely to factor into Pope’s first Kentucky team.

Drexel transfer Amari Williams is set to visit Kentucky soon

If Khalifa is of the Ivisic mold, then former Drexel big man Amari Williams fits more into the defense-first archetype that Onyenso had at Kentucky.

Williams — a 6-10 forward with a 7-foot-5 wingspan who previously played four seasons at Drexel — was the first player from the transfer portal to set up a visit to Kentucky with Pope as the head coach. Williams will be taking a visit to UK on Sunday and Monday.

A native of England, Williams’ defensive credentials are impressive: He won the last three Coastal Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year awards and led the conference in blocks in each of the last three seasons.

Williams has career averages of 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.6 assists per game across 105 total games played with the Dragons.

A CAA First Team selection in each of the last two seasons, Williams also packs scoring punch. During both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, Williams averaged more than 12 points per game for Drexel.

When Williams entered the NCAA transfer portal last month, he also declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Ranked as the No. 102 overall transfer portal player as of Wednesday morning, Williams is in demand from several high-major schools.

In addition to UK, Williams had set up visits to Mississippi State, St. John’s, Creighton and Indiana.

Who are the other top big men available for Mark Pope and Kentucky?

There’s no shortage of other big men available for Pope to pursue via both the transfer portal and the traditional high school recruiting route, although most of the elite class of 2024 prospects are spoken for when it comes to their college plans.

Here’s a look at the best big men still available via each recruiting route.

NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL

▪ Power forward Mark Mitchell (Duke): Ranked as the No. 2 overall transfer portal player, the 6-foot-9 Mitchell averaged 10.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game over the last two seasons at Duke. Mitchell started 67 of 68 career games with the Blue Devils and averaged 28 minutes played per contest.

Mitchell shifted to a true power forward role as a sophomore with the Blue Devils, and struggled to shoot from the perimeter last season (27.5% from 3 during the 2023-24 season).

▪ Center Jonas Aidoo (Tennessee): Ranked as the No. 3 overall transfer portal player, the 6-foot-11 Aidoo will be a familiar name to UK fans as he played the last three seasons at Tennessee. Aidoo started all 36 games for the Volunteers last season and averaged 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game for a Tennessee squad that reached the Elite Eight.

Aidoo was an SEC All-Defensive Team selection this past season as part of a Tennessee team that finished the year with the No. 3 adjusted defensive efficiency in the nation, per KenPom.

▪ Center Vladislav Goldin (Florida Atlantic): Ranked as the No. 4 overall transfer portal player, the 7-foot-1 Goldin began his college career at Texas Tech before playing the last three seasons at Florida Atlantic. He played in all 107 games (and started all but one of those contests) for the Owls.

Goldin averaged 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game for the 2022-23 FAU team that reached the Final Four. He averaged 15.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game this past season as the Owls reached the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection.

Goldin, a native of Russia, has never attempted a 3-pointer in college basketball. His former coach at FAU, Dusty May, was hired this offseason as the new head coach at Michigan.

▪ Center Robbie Avila (Indiana State): Ranked as the No. 13 overall transfer portal player, the 6-10 Avila has become a cult college basketball hero with the nickname “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” thanks to his modern style of play as part of an Indiana State team that charmed the nation last season.

Avila, known for wearing goggles on the court, was a focal point of a Sycamores offense that finished 13th in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom. He posted per-game averages of 17.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He made 39.4% of the 155 3-pointers he attempted, and projects well in a Mark Pope offense.

Avila’s head coach at Indiana State for the last two seasons, Josh Schertz, was hired at Saint Louis this offseason.

▪ Power forward Maliq Brown (Syracuse): Ranked as the No. 17 overall transfer portal player, the 6-8 Brown has played two seasons at Syracuse. Brown made 25 starts and appeared in 61 games for the Orange. Last season, Brown averaged 9.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.8 assists per game.

Brown was an ACC All-Defensive Team selection last season and he led the conference in steals with 71 swipes in 32 games.

Brown began last season as Syracuse’s backup center, before an injury to starter Naheem McLeod forced McLeod to miss the rest of the season. Brown started the final 18 games of the 2023-24 season at center for Syracuse.

HIGH SCHOOL RECRUITING

▪ Power forward Khani Rooths: Ranked as the No. 32 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class by the 247Sports Composite, Rooths is a former verbal commit to Michigan who decommitted from that program after an offseason coaching change.

The 6-8 Rooths played his prep school basketball at IMG Academy. In a message posted to social media Tuesday afternoon, Rooths reiterated that his recruitment is open.

“My recruitment is 100% open. I am not focusing on 1 or 2 schools. If coaches would like to speak to me they can connect with my mother or me. This was to clarify my situation at the moment. Any other information is false,” the message read.

▪ Power forward Makhan Diouf: Ranked as the No. 101 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class by the 247Sports Composite, the 6-11 Diouf played high school basketball in Arizona and his recruitment has largely been limited to West Coast schools.

▪ Center Luke Bamgboye: Ranked as the No. 127 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class by the 247Sports Composite, the 6-10 Bamgboye played high school basketball at the Arizona-based Compass Prep, the same school that produced recent UK one-and-done guard TyTy Washington.

Bamgboye was an all-defensive team selection in the Nike EYBL scholastic league last season.

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