SEC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2024-25 season
By Justin Wiles
7. Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky is one of the teams in the conference that needed to completely rebuild its roster this offseason. Once John Calipari took the Arkansas job nearly every player on the roster entered the transfer portal. When Mark Pope was hired he had a ton of work to do.
With all the major pieces this season coming from the transfer portal, the Wildcats needed to find players that would be good on both ends of the court. The offensive additions should make this a competitive team from the jump. Pope had Jaxson Robinson (14.2 ppg) follow him from BYU to Lexington, and he added six other double-digit scorers from the transfer portal. Kerr Kriisa (11.0 ppg) from West Virginia, Andrew Carr (13.5 ppg) from Wake Forest, and Otega Oweh (11.4 ppg) from Oklahoma, all had successful seasons at power conference schools last season. And Ansely Almonor (16.4 ppg) from FDU, Koby Brea (11.1 ppg) from Dayton, Lamont Butler Jr (9.3 ppg) from San Diego State, and Amari Williams (12.2 ppg) from Drexel all were solid players at the mid-major ranks.
Many of the transfer portal additions are also very good on the defensive end of the court. Amari Williams was the CAA Defensive Player of the Year for the past three seasons while at Drexel. He averaged 1.8 blocks and 7.8 rebounds last season. Brandon Garrison will also add some depth in the post. Last year at Oklahoma State he averaged 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.
The Wildcats are one of the few teams in the conference that, on paper, are solid on both ends of the court. As long as everything comes together for Pope, there shouldn't be any concern about what the Wildcats can achieve this season. Mark Pope has been a very good coach since he took over at Utah Valley nearly a decade ago. There might be some growing pains to start the season since none of the players on the roster have played together before, but there aren’t many concerns with the roster makeup. Kentucky should have a good offense and a solid defense, making it one of the better teams in the SEC from day one.