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BYU Transfer Aly Khalifa is Reportedly Down to Three Schools
On the same day that Mark Pope officially became the head coach at Kentucky, BYU starting center Aly Khalifa entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Khalifa entered the portal with a label of "do not contact." In the transfer portal era, that typically means the transfer has a destination in mind when they enter the portal. It's only been a few days since Khalifa entered the portal, but he is already down to three schools: Kentucky, Louisville, and BYU. Khalifa is considering a return to BYU, even though the Cougars haven't named a replacement for Mark Pope.
Kentucky seems like the odds-on favorite to land Khalifa's services given his relationship with Mark Pope, but perhaps a year in Provo will be enough to convince Khalifa to finish his college career at BYU. Until BYU has a coach in place, it's unlikely that they will be able to retain Khalifa. It's for this exact reason that we said BYU needs to move quickly to repace Mark Pope. Without a coach in place, there's no one in the chair to keep the roster together.
Khalifa is one of the most unique players in college basketball. He is 6'11, he plays below the rim, and he is the best passing big man in college basketball. Khalifa had the best assist/turnover ratio in the country last year among players that were 6'5 or taller. Last season, he averaged 5.7 points per game, 4.0 assists per game, and 3.7 rebounds per game. BYU ran a lot of its offense through Aly Khalifa. It was thanks to Khalifa that BYU could run the five-out offense and shoot as many threes as they did.
Khalifa isn't the only BYU starter in the transfer portal. Point guard Dallin Hall entered the transfer portal on Thursday. If Chris Burgess, the Utah assistant who has been one of the top candidates to replace Pope, is hired, he will have the best chance of any candidate to retain the roster. Burgess was an assistant at BYU when the Cougars signed Dallin Hall. He also had a hand in recruiting a large chunk of the roster.
