Transfer portal talk: For Kentucky basketball, the Hunter Dickinson saga enters another week

At this point, it could come at any moment.

The transfer portal destination for former Michigan star center Hunter Dickinson is the talk of men’s college basketball at the moment.

The only problem? Nobody knows where Dickinson is going, apparently not even Dickinson himself.

Tuesday afternoon brought the hope that Dickinson would reveal his next college destination after becoming a star big man over the course of three seasons at Michigan.

But as it turned out, the only thing that was revealed on the Barstool Roundball Podcast was the format in which Dickinson will make his college choice.

Dickinson — a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection who entered the NCAA transfer portal in late March — will announce his college choice on Barstool Sports’ Instagram account.

During the podcast, Dickinson described how heavily the decision to pick a new school has weighed on him, and described the process of due diligence he’s completed when it comes to finding a new college basketball destination.

His second recruitment now appears to have a shortlist of four schools: Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and Villanova.

Dickinson has taken recruiting visits to all four schools.

While precious little information has trickled out from Dickinson’s camp during his transfer portal process, it’s abundantly clear Dickinson is the player UK head coach John Calipari is most interested in adding to next season’s UK roster.

Dickinson is the only player that’s been seriously courted by the UK coaching staff during the transfer portal process, and the reasons for that are plentiful.

Kentucky’s current lack of meaningful experience among frontcourt players would be boosted by Dickinson, who played in 94 games at Michigan and was a reliable post presence with per-game averages of 17.2 points and 8.4 rebounds across his three seasons in Ann Arbor.

A career 36% three-point shooter, Dickinson also averaged 1.6 assists and blocks each per game at Michigan.

The 7-foot-1 Dickinson would occupy a floor-spacing role as a “five” on next season’s Kentucky roster next to incoming freshman Aaron Bradshaw at the “four.”

The stay-or-go status for Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe still remains unclear, as Tshiebwe mulls the start of his professional career after two highly productive seasons at UK, although those campaigns both lacked vindicating team success in the NCAA Tournament.

Tshiebwe has entered his name in the NBA Draft while keeping open the possibility to return to college.

He has until 11:59 p.m. on May 31 to pull out of the draft. The NBA Combine is not scheduled to end until May 21.

This is to say that Tshiebwe will probably still be assessing his own personal future long after Dickinson makes his college transfer choice.

In addition to Kentucky’s five-player 2023 recruiting class — which is the top-ranked recruiting class in the country — Dickinson would be a sixth new player to join the Wildcats next season.

Players currently known to be departing UK from last season’s team are: Jacob Toppin (NBA Draft), CJ Fredrick (transfer to Cincinnati), Sahvir Wheeler (transfer to Washington), Daimion Collins (NCAA transfer portal) and Cason Wallace (NBA Draft).

The stay-or-go status for three Kentucky players — Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston and Tshiebwe — remains unclear.