Kentucky Basketball: 3 ways Tre Mitchell will help the Wildcats next season
Recently, the college basketball world was hit with the sudden news that legendary Coach Bob Huggins was calling it quits after a Hall of Fame career. While Huggins will be remembered fondly for his run-and-gun Cincinnati Bearcat teams and the noise his Kansas State Wildcat teams were able to make in the tournament, his exit from the game did not go according to plan. Nonetheless, when the dust settles history will be kind to Coach Huggins tenure at the helm of the West Virginia Mountaineers; after all, he led the team to the Final Four in 2010.
In the modern landscape of college basketball, a coaching change inevitably brings about entries into the transfer portal. The head coach is always a big part of the reason that players choose to play for a particular school. When he is no longer there, the option to find a better fit is often an easy decision. For Tre Mitchell, the 6’9″ power forward who played just one season for the Mountaineers, Huggins’ exit signaled the end of an era and an opportunity to seek change.
Tre Mitchell will play for the fourth team of his college eligibility next season. Are the Kentucky Wildcats the right fit for the athletic big man?
Mitchell is a player who has experienced great individual success at the NCAA level. In 2021 he was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 while he was a member of the UMass Minutemen basketball team. However, after averaging 18.8 points 7.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore, Mitchell decided that it was time for a change of scenery.
That decision led to one year stays as a member of the Texas Longhorns and the West Virginia Mountaineers basketball teams respectively. Next season, Mitchell is taking advantage of the 2020 COVID ruling that allowed players whose careers were impacted by the pandemic to have an extra year of eligibility. As an experienced and versatile frontcourt player, Mitchell could have an immediate effect on the SEC basketball landscape. Let’s take a closer look at the ways Tre Mitchell will make an impact for Coach John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats next season.