Kentucky Basketball: Calipari Visiting Dickinson; Fredrick, Collins Portaling; Big Decisions on Deck
LEXINGTON, Ky. — With the announcement of shooting guard CJ Fredrick and forward Daimion Collins both entering the transfer portal, a total of 10 players from Kentucky's 2022-23 roster have announced a move of some sort.
Fredrick, Collins and Sahvir Wheeler are in the portal, Jacob Toppin and Cason Wallace are confirmed as entrants in the 2023 NBA draft, while Chris Livingston, Antonio Reeves and Oscar Tshiebwe have all declared for the draft but have maintained their college eligibility. After a quick-ending saga, Ugonna Onyenso took his name out of the portal and is returning for a second season in Lexington, joining veteran and former walk-on Brennan Canada.
That leaves two scholarship players yet to publicly announce decisions:
- Adou Thiero
- Lance Ware
While nothing is confirmed, the eventual decisions appear to be clear-cut, as the expectation is that both Thiero and Ware will return to UK.
The big decisions now lie with the three players currently testing the draft waters, as well as what Kentucky and head coach John Calipari opt to do in the transfer portal. As of now, the huge choice appears to be either going all in on landing Michigan transfer center Hunter Dickinson in the portal, or biding time to see if Tshiebwe wants to come back for a third season.
As reported on Thursday, Dickinson is headed to Lexington for a visit, now slated for Monday, April 24. He was visiting Kansas on Thursday and has attention from just about every major program in the country, being that he is the top-ranked player in the portal.
While it isn't impossible that both Dickinson and Tshiebwe are both wearing blue and white next season, the decision of Dickinson appears to be contingent on what Tshiebwe decides to do.
Calipari flew to Ann Arbor, Mich. to meet with Dickinson on Tuesday, discussing the plans of Tshiebwe among other things, he said on the Barstool Roundball Podcast.
"We talked about that situation obviously because that's very contingent on even if I was interested in them. I wanted to meet with them to talk about that because that has a lot to do with me even being interested in them," Dickinson said.
An additional tweet from Kyle Tucker of The Athletic stated that Tshiebwe has given UK "his blessing to go build the best roster they can while he figures out what to do." It appears that Kentucky could be closing in on landing Dickinson, which would likely mean Tshiebwe would either keep his name in the draft or perhaps go portaling himself.
As for Livingston and Reeves, both players could go either way, though there is a clear lean for both. Livingston is represented by Klutch Sports Group and Rich Paul. The clear goal has always been getting drafted for the forward, and current signs point to keeping his name in the draft, though a second season at UK would likely jolt his draft stock.
In regards to Reeves, while the pre-draft process really hasn't gotten fully underway, it's expected that he'll be told getting drafted this year is unlikely and that he would also benefit from another year in Lexington — a decision he's more likely to follow through with.
"I don't know what i'm gonna do. I'll just sit down with my family and with coach to figure out what i'm gonna do next," Reeves said following UK's NCAA Tournament defeat to Kansas State. "I'd love to be back. I love the school. I love the fans. I love everybody here."
As May begins, there will be more and more light shed on the situations for all three currently testing the waters. It's likely that there will be action in the portal for Kentucky before then, however.
More on the soon-to-be Wildcats HERE.
Inside Kentucky basketball's somber locker room after NCAA Tourney defeat HERE.
More on the potential roster overhaul in Lexington HERE.
More on the loss to Kansas State HERE.
Want the latest on national football and basketball recruiting, including Cats targets? Head over to SI All-American for the latest news, blogs, and updates about the nation's best prospects.
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