Named AP Co-Coach of the Year along with Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino talked about Kentucky’s Mark Pope during a press conference at the Alamodome in San Antonio on April 4, 2025.
The NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal continues to ebb and flow, and Kentucky basketball remains a major player in it.
UK already has two commitments from the portal for the 2025-26 season.
Mark Pope and the Wildcats picked up a portal commitment from former Tulane freshman wing Kam Williams on the morning of March 28, just hours before UK’s 2024-25 season ended with a loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. Then on Saturday morning, Kentucky added a portal pledge from former Pittsburgh sophomore guard Jaland Lowe.
Kentucky remains active in the portal as well, with plenty of rumors continuing to swirl about additional transfer targets for UK, especially for the frontcourt.
Elsewhere, SEC programs continue to snap up some of the most sought-after players in the portal, all while Florida gets set to compete for a national championship against Houston on Monday night.
Here’s who Pope and his coaching staff are still pursuing to come to Lexington next season from the portal, along with other transfer portal notes from around the country.
Alvaro Folgueiras remains frontcourt option for UK
Kentucky’s top need via the portal now is for the frontcourt, and a star mid-major player from Spain is one of the Wildcats’ biggest targets.
Robert Morris sophomore forward Alvaro Folgueiras has some of the most notable accomplishments of any player, at any level, in the portal.
The 6-foot-9 forward was was the Horizon League’s player of the year this past season for a Robert Morris team that made its first NCAA Tournament trip in a decade. Folgueiras averaged 14.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.2 blocks for the Colonials, while shooting 41.3% on 3s and 54.8% from the field.
In a loss to Alabama in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Folgueiras had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 33 minutes against the Crimson Tide.
247Sports had Folgueiras ranked at No. 30 in its transfer portal rankings, as of Sunday night.
KenPom also ranks Folgueiras highly in a number of metrics, including defensive rebounding percentage, effective field goal percentage, offensive rating and true shooting percentage.
May 12, 2023: Indiana basketball gets a commitment from one-time Duke signee Mackenzie Mgbako. After opening up his recruitment, Mike Woodson put him in touch with Carmelo Anthony as a reference. That conversation helped convince the former five-star prospect to come to Bloomington where he was named Big Ten co-Freshman of the Year. He was highest high school recruit to sign with IU since Romeo Langford in the 2018 signing class.
Mackenzie Mgbako is a former five-star high school recruit who played his first two college seasons at Indiana. Rich Janzaruk USA TODAY NETWORK
Former Indiana forward Mackenzie Mgbako still available
Also still in the transfer portal is former Indiana forward Mackenzie Mgbako, a sophomore and former five-star recruit from the 2023 recruiting group.
Last season with the Hoosiers, Mgbako averaged 12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists. Mgbako, who started all but one game over the last two seasons at Indiana, is also “testing the waters of the NBA.”
According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Mgbako is a top-10 player available in the transfer portal, as of Sunday night, though 247Sports ranks him at No. 59 overall.
A former McDonald’s All-American in 2023, Mgbako was initially signed to play at Duke before flipping to Indiana. He was also recruited in high school by John Calipari to UK.
The 6-foot-9 Mgbako — a career 81.7% shooter from the free-throw line — is one of only two players from the transfer portal who have taken a recruiting visit to the UK campus. The other is former Florida State forward Taylor Bol Bowen, who has already committed to Alabama.
Currently, an NCAA “dead period” is in place, which means college coaches aren’t allowed to meet in person with recruits, on or off campus. This dead period lasts through Thursday, which means Friday is the