{"id":682096,"date":"2026-03-27T13:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/682096\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:04:34","slug":"early-predictions-on-the-kentucky-basketball-players-who-will-stay-in-lexington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/682096\/","title":{"rendered":"Early predictions on the Kentucky Basketball players who will stay in Lexington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Pope is knee deep in player meetings right now. All the players have already spoken about their plans directly after the Iowa State loss,<\/a> but plans change.<\/p>\n

When the Transfer Portal opens up on April 7th, Kentucky could be getting as few as 3-4 players or as many as 10. This next week will be huge in the roster-building portion of the offseason.<\/p>\n

With that said, I do think there is a pretty clear line about who stays and who goes.<\/p>\n

Where will Kentucky\u2019s roster be in 2 weeks?<\/p>\n

We know Otega and DA are gone, Zach Tow and Walker Horn are also out of eligibility. Jayden Quaintance made it clear he wasn\u2019t likely playing in college any longer. Reece Potter and Braydon Hawthorne have announced their intent to return (if Kentucky will accept them). But everyone else is still uncommitted. I am going to give you a percentage chance of them being on the roster next year, and then let you know which players I think ultimately return.<\/p>\n

Brandon Garrison- 70%
Jaland Lowe-65%
Reece Potter- 70%
Mo Dioubate- 30%
Kam Williams- 60%
Andrija Jelavic- 75%
Collin Chandler- 60%
Trent Noah- 30%
Braydon Hawthorne- 95%
Jasper Johnson- 40%
Malachi Moreno- 50%<\/p>\n

Trent Noah
Collin Chandler
Mo Dioubate
Jasper Johnson<\/p>\n

Mo will be in a similar spot as Moreno. The fit isn\u2019t great. I love Mo, and I hope he stays, but I can see him wanting to go play ball in a role that will maximize his senior year.<\/p>\n

Trent Noah may stay for the NIL. He has to get more confident, but if he can give you 10 minutes a night and grab 4-5 boards, that\u2019s a win for a guy who will have been in your system 3 years. But I think he will go to somewhere he will get a lot more playing time, places like Butler, Providence, Creighton, where shooting and hustle are the biggest things.<\/p>\n

Collin Chandler is in a unique spot. The dude is married, he loves playing for Mark Pope, and he genuinely was one of the nicest dudes all year long. But he seems to want a different role, and he may command a nice price on the open market. This is the closest one of the bunch to call, but I do think he leaves.<\/p>\n

Jasper endured his struggles, but I think it\u2019s more the fact that Pope forced him to play point. The young man wasn\u2019t ready for that; he is a small 2-guard. He is going to need time to develop his physicality and get that AAU mentality out. I hope he stays, but I don\u2019t think he does.<\/p>\n

Malachi Moreno is an interesting one. I can see Moreno leaving for more money and a different role. Pope\u2019s big men are completely different than how Moreno currently plays. If he stays and develops, he will be really good, but he may want to go to a place that will showcase more of what he does well. It\u2019s a toss-up, but I think there will be just enough money to keep him in Lexington.<\/p>\n

Jaland Lowe is another toss-up. His dad\u2019s comments about them not waiting for Mark Pope to go recruit over them mean he is looking to start. He has talent, and I think another year in the system would be great. But this is about as 50-50 as Chandler right now. Pope has seen what Lowe can be in the summer, before the injury. If he likes what he saw, he will be back. But there is a bevy of point guard options already in the portal, and Lowe may not be willing to share the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Kam Williams and Brandon Garrison should both be back. Garrison is involved in a lot of stuff around town, and he will likely make more money here than anywhere else. Williams is interesting; he never found his footing in Mark Pope\u2019s system. But Mark Pope\u2019s system really wasn\u2019t run this year. He can be effective, I think he comes back.<\/p>\n

Potter, Hawthorne, and Jelavic are locks unless Kentucky decides to move on from them. I don\u2019t think they do.<\/p>\n

Who do you think stays, and who do you think leaves? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Pope is knee deep in player meetings right now. All the players have already spoken about their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-682096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball","10":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-mens-basketball-recruiting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116301285019124104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}