NCAA Basketball: 25 biggest offseason winners heading into 2021-22 season

After what was a disastrous season overall for head coach John Calipari and Kentucky Basketball, we all knew that the offseason was going to be one to watch. And to their credit, the program was involved in more storylines than anyone else. Although things didn’t always work out, as the Wildcats missed out on five-star recruit Jalen Duren for this upcoming season, as well as losing former commit Nolan Hickman to Gonzaga as well.

But plenty did go well for the program too. The first came with some important transfer pickups in CJ Fredrick and Kellan Grady, as well as Sahvir Wheeler, who led the SEC in assists last week at Georgia. But the two biggest moves of note were the return of leading scorer Davion Mintz for an extra year, along with five-star guard TyTy Washington de-committing from Creighton and ended up at Kentucky, arguably an upgrade over Hickman.

An under-the-radar win for the program was the lack of transfer departures outside of Cam’Ron Flecther and Devin Askew. Guys like Keion Brooks Jr. and Dontaie Allen have real potential and if given a larger role can truly become real impact players.

I would also make the point that while failing to land Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn is a loss for the upcoming season, that it’s also a win long-term. He and West Virginia transfer Oscar Tshiebwe wouldn’t be a good fit on the court and had the former Mountaineer been stuck on the bench, that could’ve caused future issues with transfers and Coach Calipari, as they may not trust that he wouldn’t land another player at their position, which could hurt them in the portal in April and May.