Wednesday Headlines: Winning the Transfer Season Edition

Kentucky has been tabbed as one of the winners of the transfer market

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Aug 18, 2021, 6:40am EDT

The transfer portal made its way to the forefront of college athletics this past year as transfer rules relaxed, allowing players the opportunity to transfer without sitting out a year.

And as a historic number of college basketball players entered the portal, Kentucky was one of the schools that took full advantage.

The Wildcats did well enough that Jeff Borzello at ESPN considered Kentucky one of the biggest winners of the transfer portal just behind Texas. The Cats brought in Oscar Tshiebwe (West Virginia), CJ Fredrick (Iowa), Sahvir Wheeler (Georgia), and Kellan Grady (Davidson).

Here’s what Borzello had to say.

We’re used to seeing John Calipari land several of the top high school prospects, but he and his staff hit the transfer portal hard this spring (while still bringing in multiple five-star recruits, of course). Oscar Tshiebwe averaged nearly a double-double at West Virginia two seasons ago, while Kellan Grady is a big-time scorer who earned all-conference honors all four seasons at Davidson. Sahvir Wheeler (Georgia) led the SEC in assists and CJ Fredrick (Iowa) was arguably the best 3-point shooter in the portal.

While Kentucky did very well in the transfer portal, it’s hard to argue with being behind Texas, as new head coach Chris Beard completely retooled his roster in the portal. The Longhorns brought in six of the top 30 transfers in the ESPN rankings, including arguably the top overall transfer in Marcus Carr, All-PAC 12 first teamer Timmy Allen from Utah, Tre Mitchell from UMass, and Dylan Disu from Vanderbilt. Not to mention Devin Askew from Kentucky.

If John Calipari finds success with the transfer portal on the court, expect Kentucky to regularly be a significant player in the transfer portal in the years to come.