Kentucky’s biggest splash in the transfer portal may also be its most overlooked star.
Mark Pope landed Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic, and the numbers from last season explain why the hype followed him to Lexington. Momcilovic led the Cyclones in scoring at 16.9 points per game and knocked down 48.7% of his threes on 7.5 attempts a night. That kind of production made him one of the most coveted names in the portal, and on many platforms he was ranked as the No. 1 player available.
That’s why Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports leaving Momcilovic off his preseason All-American teams turned heads. Trotter released first, second and third teams for the upcoming college basketball season, and Momcilovic was not among the 15 players selected. For a player who was one of the best shooters in college basketball last season, the omission has plenty of Kentucky fans scratching their heads.
There are reasons someone could make that call. Kentucky is going to ask more of a lot of players offensively than Iowa State did, and the Wildcats are built around scoring in a way the Cyclones weren’t. With more mouths to feed in Lexington, Momcilovic may not get the same volume he had before.
The other issue is that his game is still heavily defined by shooting. Last season, he averaged 3.1 rebounds and one assist per game, and those are the areas he’ll need to improve if he wants to force his way into All-American territory this year.
Even so, the expectation is that Momcilovic’s impact on winning for Kentucky will be massive. The belief is that he’ll finish with top-15 value in college basketball, and there’s confidence that he’ll be an All-American by the end of the season if he rounds out the rest of his game.
What Kentucky is about to get, though, is the shooting show. Momcilovic is set up for a huge year as a perimeter threat, and Rupp Arena should see plenty of threes falling this season.
In Other News...
Kentucky Is Ahead Of Rivals But Big Blue Nation Wants One More Move
Mark Pope has Kentucky in a better place than it was a year ago, at least on paper, as he heads into his third season with a roster that already has the Wildcats sitting No. 15 in Jon Rothsteins preseason top 45. More importantly for Big Blue Nation, Kentucky is currently positioned ahead of several familiar measuring-stick programs, including Louisville, Indiana, North Carolina and Kansas, which is the kind of early footing that tends to get attention in Lexington.
Still, the roster may not be finished, and that is where the intrigue lives for Kentucky fans. Pope is continuing to explore one more addition, with the conversation centered on a couple of very different possibilities, including a highly regarded young forward who would need to make a notable leap in class and a veteran wing whose path depends on an eligibility fight under NCAA rules. For a team already drawing respect in the preseason, the last move could be the one that determines whether Kentucky merely looks solid or starts looking like a true threat. [Read more 🡒]
La Familia Faces A Massive Memorial Coliseum Test With Everything Still Alive
Memorial Coliseum is about to get a postseason feel that fits the moment, with La Familia set for a high-stakes meeting against Kansas alumni team JHX Hoops in the TBT 2026 Alumni Championship. For Kentuckys basketball alumni, the setting and the opponent both bring extra weight, and the reward is simple enough to understand: win here and the path stays open toward the tournament final and the $2 million prize.
The matchup also carries a familiar edge for Kentucky fans, since this is a Kentucky-Kansas showdown that echoes a national title meeting from 2012. TBTs Elam Ending only adds to the tension, turning the finish into a target-score chase once the clock goes away in the fourth quarter, so every possession figures to matter long before the final horn. [Read more 🡒]
Kahlil Whitney Saw Something Kentucky Fans Needed From This Young Roster
A recent scrimmage between Kentuckys current roster and the alumni group La Familia offered a useful early look at where this young team stands, and Kahlil Whitney came away impressed with several players who could matter once the season starts. Whitney, who has stayed close enough to the program to watch the new group up close, pointed to noticeable growth from the kind of names Kentucky fans have been eager to track, including Malachi Moreno, Zoom Diallo and Braydon Hawthorne.
The setting itself came with a few roster quirks, as both sides were missing pieces and the lineups shifted enough to make the run more about evaluation than final answers. Even so, Whitneys read suggested there is real upside in this group, with Moreno drawing praise for his improvement and Diallo showing the kind of speed and downhill burst that can change the feel of a game. For a Kentucky team trying to sort out its identity early, those are the kinds of observations that tend to stick. [Read more 🡒]