There’s a lot new with Kentucky basketball. Here’s early scouting report of 2024-25 Cats

LEXINGTON — Kentucky basketball opens the 2024-25 season — and the Mark Pope era — next week, as it welcomes Wright State to town for a 7 p.m. tipoff at Rupp Arena.

The Wildcats held their annual Big Blue Madness event earlier in October, which included a 3-point competition and dunk contest. Then they held a scrimmage session during the repurposed Blue-White event — though only fans in attendance at Memorial Coliseum were able to watch in person, as it wasn’t televised. And now, UK is done with the preseason, routing Division II clubs Kentucky Wesleyan and Minnesota State Mankato in a pair of home exhibitions.

But there’s still plenty to learn about this season’s roster.

The Courier Journal provides insight about this edition of the Wildcats by answering key questions entering the 2024-25 campaign:

What’s new with Kentucky’s 2024-25 roster?

Kentucky huddled just before taking control of the game against Minnesota State during their exhibition game at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. on Oct, 29, 2024.

Everything. From the scholarship players to the coaches, not a single part of the 2023-24 team is back this season. For that reason, the 2024-25 roster is historic: Per bigbluehistory.net — a statistical database devoted to detailing every aspect of Kentucky’s men’s basketball program — the 2024-25 campaign will be the first time UK has fielded a roster without a returning scholarship player from the previous season. Two seniors from last season, Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves, ran out of college eligibility. Three more (Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Reed Sheppard) entered the NBA draft. The other seven scholarship players transferred: Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State), Jordan Burks (Georgetown), Joey Hart (Ball State) and Ugonna Onyenso (Kansas State) left the SEC, while three ex-Wildcats (Zvonimir Ivišić, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner) followed former UK coach John Calipari to his new intraconference gig at Arkansas.

With Calipari gone, Kentucky turned…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/theres-lot-kentucky-basketball-heres-091748898.html

Author : The Courier Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-31 09:17:00

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