When John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas last offseason, he took much of his roster with him. On Saturday the Razorbacks made the Sweet 16 behind former Wildcats DJ Wagner, Zvonimir Ivisic, and a group of freshmen who were originally headed for Lexington with the team’s leading scorer Adou Thiero sidelined with an injury.
Without a single player remaining on the Kentucky roster from last season, first-year head coach Mark Pope had to completely overhaul the roster in Lexington last offseason, and he proved that with the freedom of player movement that the transfer portal provides, program rebuilds can be immediate. On Sunday, Pope’s group of transfers ended Kentucky’s five-year Sweet 16 drought with an 84-75 win over Illinois and left a bizarre mark on college basketball history, one that could only be made in this modern transfer portal era.
Kentucky is the first team to ever make the Sweet 16 that returned 0 points from the previous season
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 24, 2025
This type of accomplishment wouldn’t have just been unthinkable in the past, but it may have also been impossible. With players forced to sit out a year as a transfer, it used to take multiple seasons to rid a program of the previous coach’s players. And, if you were to completely overturn a roster in your first offseason, there would be no way to attract enough talent to win two games in the NCAA Tournament.
Pope nearly attracted enough talent for two Sweet 16 rosters. His nine player portal class included leading scorer Otega Oweh, and sharpshooter Koby Brea who took over against Illinois, but he also brought Jaxson Robinson with him from BYU and added Kerr Kriisa from West Virginia who were both out with injuries this postseason.
While Kentucky is the only team to ever get to the Sweet 16 without any past production on the roster, Pope isn’t the only head coach having postseason success in his first year with a new program. Each member of the BYU-Kentucky-Arkansas coaching love triangle led his team to the Sweet 16 this year, as did Dusty May at Michigan. May specifically took over a program that had not made the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons and had won just eight games in 2023-24.
Kentucky beats Illinois, which means 25% of the Sweet 16 will be occupied by first-year coaches at schools that didn't win an NCAAT game and/or missed March Madness altogether a year ago:
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 23, 2025
John Calipari (Arkansas)
Dusty May (Michigan)
Mark Pope (Kentucky)
Kevin Young (BYU)
Almost as impressive as May’s first-year Sweet 16 run, Pat Kelsey took over Kentucky’s in-state rival and spearheaded a 19-win improvement for a program that had not been a part of March Madness since 2019.
Patience is a virtue, but in college basketball, you may not need it anymore. If your new head coach doesn’t hit the ground running in the transfer portal era, he may not be the right man for the job. At Kentucky, Pope certainly is.