Kentucky basketball adds another high-scoring, 3-point shooting threat for next season

cameron drummond

Thu, May 16, 2024, 9:24 a.m.·5 min read

Kentucky basketball has secured a transfer portal commitment from a high-scoring, mid-major star with a track record of 3-point shooting success.

On Thursday morning, former Fairleigh Dickinson forward Ansley Almonor committed to head coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats from the transfer portal. Almonor, a 6-foot-7, 219-pound forward, played three seasons for the Knights.

He has one season of college eligibility remaining.

Almonor’s production for Fairleigh Dickinson exploded during the last two seasons. After playing mainly as an option off the bench in the 2021-22 season, Almonor shifted into a starting role over the last two campaigns.

Almonor played in 36 of Fairleigh Dickinson’s 37 games during the 2022-23 season, which included two wins in the NCAA Tournament. One of those victories, of course, was a monumental 16-seed over 1-seed upset in which the Knights defeated Purdue in the round of 64.

During that season, Almonor made 34 starts and averaged 13.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists. He made 86.1% of his free throws and 38.1% of his 3-pointers in 28 minutes played per game.

Almonor — who was named the Northeast Conference’s Most Improved Player for the 2022-23 season — had two rebounds and two steals in 25 minutes played during that famous March Madness upset win over the Boilermakers.

Most of those already impressive numbers got even better last season.

Almonor played in all 32 games for the Knights last season with 31 starts. He averaged 16.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists and made 39.4% of his 3-pointers on significant shot volume: Almonor went 93-for-236 from behind the 3-point line last season, and averaged nearly three made 3-pointers per game.

Almonor was a first-team All-Northeast Conference honoree last season as the Knights went 15-17 overall and missed out on the national postseason.

Despite playing in the Northeast Conference — which KenPom ranked as the worst conference in the country last season — Almonor’s individual numbers stacked up strong nationally.

Per KenPom, Almonor ranked highly in the following areas:

▪ 268th-best free-throw shooting percentage in the nation (81.5%).

▪ 396th-best 3-point shooting percentage in the nation (37.6%).

▪ 427th-best effective field goal percentage in the nation (53.1%).

▪ 446th-best true shooting percentage in the nation (56.5%).

Almonor was the second-leading scorer in the Northeast Conference last season while also being a top-15 rebounder among league players. He also shot 43.6% from the field, which was a top-10 mark among Northeast Conference players.

Almonor’s remarkable individual play also stands out because of the coaching changes Almonor has experienced at Fairleigh Dickinson. Almonor has played for a different head coach in each of his three college seasons (Greg Herenda as a freshman, Tobin Anderson as a sophomore and Jack Castleberry as a junior).

Almonor initially arrived at Fairleigh Dickinson as an unranked prospect in the 2021 recruiting class. He entered the transfer portal in March.

It appeared likely that Almonor was going to head to Siena, a school in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, before Kentucky got involved in his portal recruitment.

“We did everything to help offer him a great NIL package and were (in) the lead vs. other mid-majors, but obviously weren’t expecting to compete with a P5 (power-five program),” Frank Ambrose, co-founder of the Siena-endorsed NIL collective Saints March On, told the The Times Union newspaper.

Almonor had a virtual visit with Pope, the Kentucky head coach, last weekend, and followed that up with an in-person visit to Lexington this week.

According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Almonor ranks as the No. 1,120 overall transfer portal player, as of Thursday morning.

Almonor represents the 11th player confirmed to be part of Pope’s first UK squad, and the eighth player landed by Pope this offseason via the transfer portal.

He joins the following players who will be on the 2024-25 Kentucky team:

▪ First-year guards Collin Chandler (a former BYU signee), Travis Perry (a former Lyon County High School star) and Trent Noah (a former standout at Harlan County High School and former South Carolina signee).

▪ Second-year center Brandon Garrison (who played last season at Oklahoma State).

▪ Third-year guard Otega Oweh (who previously played two seasons at Oklahoma).

▪ Fifth-year guards Koby Brea (who previously played four seasons at Dayton), Lamont Butler (who previously played four seasons at San Diego State) and Kerr Kriisa (who previously played at Arizona and West Virginia).

▪ Fifth-year forwards Amari Williams (who previously played four seasons at Drexel) and Andrew Carr (who previously played two seasons each at Delaware and Wake Forest).

Ansley Almonor averaged 16.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists and made 39.4% of his 3-pointers as a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson last season.

Mark Pope continues roster transformation for Kentucky basketball

Almonor is now the 11th player lined up to play at Kentucky next season for Pope.

That team probably won’t feature any scholarship holdovers from John Calipari’s final 2023-24 Kentucky squad.

Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State), Jordan Burks (Georgetown), Joey Hart (Ball State), Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) and Adou Thiero (Arkansas) are players from the 2023-24 Kentucky team that will transfer to new schools.

Additionally, Ugonna Onyenso and D.J. Wagner are still in the NCAA transfer portal.

Also from last season’s team, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Reed Sheppard have declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves have exhausted their college eligibility.

College basketball players had until May 1 to enter the transfer portal. The early-entry deadline for the 2024 NBA draft was April 27, and players who entered the draft with remaining NCAA eligibility have until May 29 to remove their names from consideration and return to school.

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