NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early top-25 power rankings for 2021-22 season

There’s no question that this past season was a complete disaster for Kentucky Basketball. But this program never has back-to-back bad years under John Calipari so expect a major bounce-back campaign in 2022. There’s a complete roster turnover, including the departures of BJ Boston, Devin Askew, Olivier Sarr, and likely Terrence Clarke.

To avoid having a bunch of underclassmen once again throughout the roster, the Wildcats went out and landed a pair of talented transfers. One was former West Virginia center Oscar Tshiebwe, one of the best interior defenders in college basketball. Another is Kellan Grady, a 6’5 shooting guard who averaged 17 ppg in four seasons at Davidson. He’s also a career 37% three-point shooter, an area where Kentucky was awful at this past year.

There’s also a trio of top-40 freshmen coming in, including point guard Noah Hickman and forwards Bryce Hopkins and Daimion Collins. Any could be breakout stars but the hope is that these three are solid rotational pieces that are two-way contributors.

Expect sharpshooter Dontaie Allen to have an even bigger role, while Keion Brooks, Jacob Toppin, and Lance Ware to improve with another year in the system. And there are still three scholarships left and plenty of talent in the transfer portal that would be interested in joining Kentucky. And with Askew now out, don’t be surprised if there’s another top-tier point guard joining them shortly.