{"id":730233,"date":"2026-05-10T01:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:24:23","slug":"franck-kepnang-commits-to-kentucky-basketball-via-ncaa-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730233\/","title":{"rendered":"Franck Kepnang commits to Kentucky basketball via NCAA transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elm:icon;slk:Louisville Courier-Journal;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"Louisville Courier-Journal\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"pr-2.5 max-w-[150px] max-h-[40px] min-[601px]:max-w-[115px]\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/232C1E841BC0BB863E0E9B74B574D5BADEBDCEDD7912DF6C56EBCD799BAD61E9\/subgraphmysterio\/resizefill_w0_h40;quality_80;format_webp\/\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ryan Black, Louisville Courier Journal<\/p>\n<p>Updated Sat, May 9, 2026 at 8:10 PM UTC<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"976\" height=\"1084\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_louisville_courier_journal_669\/e55bfbb62a0736b8db23c8c664846573.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Franck Kepnang commits to Kentucky basketball via NCAA transfer portal<\/p>\n<p>LEXINGTON \u2014 Coach <a data-ylk=\"slk:Mark Pope;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/story\/sports\/college\/kentucky\/2024\/11\/05\/kentucky-basketball-ncaa-tournament-march-madness-sec-uk\/73316866007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Pope<\/a> has found another center for <a data-ylk=\"slk:Kentucky basketball;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kentucky basketball<\/a>&#8216;s roster.<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-ylk=\"slk:Wildcats;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/sports\/kentucky\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Wildcats<\/a> netted a commitment Saturday from <a data-ylk=\"slk:Franck Kepnang;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/gohuskies.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/franck-kepnang\/17035\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Franck Kepnang<\/a>, who has played on the West Coast during his college career.\u00a0Kepnang&#8217;s pledge was announced by the\u00a0<a data-ylk=\"slk:UK Sports Network&#039;s official account on X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UKSportsNetwork\/status\/2053195116064416024\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">UK Sports Network&#8217;s official account on X<\/a>, the platform formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026-27 campaign will be <a data-ylk=\"slk:Kepnang&#039;s seventh season as a collegian;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/franck-kepnang-1.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kepnang&#8217;s seventh season as a collegian<\/a>. The 6-foot-11, 225-pound native of Cameroon began his career at <a data-ylk=\"slk:Oregon;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/goducks.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Oregon<\/a> in 2020-21, a year in which the NCAA paused the eligibility clock for all athletes amid the coronavirus pandemic. After appearing in 35 games (with five starts) in 2021-22, Kepnang transferred to <a data-ylk=\"slk:Washington;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/gohuskies.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He suffered a season-ending injury after playing in only eight games in 2022-23. In the next two seasons (2023-24 and 2024-25) Kepnang combined to play in 24 games.<\/p>\n<p>Last season was his best so far, as he made 25 starts in 27 appearances for the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Huskies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/washington-huskies\/3470\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Huskies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kepnang finished third in the Big Ten in total blocks (55) and\u00a0blocks per game (2.07) in 2025-26. He also averaged 6.2 points and 6.3 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per outing.<\/p>\n<p>Franck Kepnang highlights: Watch Kentucky basketball transfer portal commit<\/p>\n<p>Reach <a data-ylk=\"slk:Kentucky;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/college-sports\/sec\/kentucky\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kentucky<\/a> men\u2019s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: <a data-ylk=\"slk:Franck Kepnang to Kentucky basketball, Mark Pope in transfer portal;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/story\/sports\/college\/kentucky\/2026\/05\/09\/franck-kepnang-kentucky-basketball-ncaa-transfer-portal-uk-wildcats-roster-mark-pope-recruiting\/89463173007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Franck Kepnang to Kentucky basketball, Mark Pope in transfer portal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Black, Louisville Courier Journal Updated Sat, May 9, 2026 at 8:10 PM UTC Franck Kepnang commits to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,10932,72656,423,234,4000,6656,6,90512,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-730233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-career","10":"tag-franck-kepnang","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-kentucky","13":"tag-kentucky-basketball","14":"tag-mark-pope","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-the-uk-sports-network","17":"tag-utah","18":"tag-utah-jazz","19":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116547674504595758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730233","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=730233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}