NCAA basketball transfer portal is now open. Here’s what it means for Kentucky’s teams.

The NCAA transfer portal is now, officially, open for business for college basketball players.

The portal opened Monday — following Selection Sunday and the reveal of the 68-team NCAA Tournament brackets — and it will remain so for 45 days before it closes May 1.

This means that over the next few weeks around the country, thousands of NCAA college basketball players will be mulling their futures at their current schools. And for teams taking part in postseason events like the NCAA Tournament, one eye will have to be trained on some of the sport’s top talents as they seek a new home.

According to 247Sports, more than 1,800 men’s college basketball players put their names into the transfer portal last year.

While it remains to be seen how many college basketball players will enter the portal this spring, there are already significant changes to the recruiting landscape as far as the portal is concerned.

The most significant change relates to the December news that the NCAA is allowing all athletes to transfer for a second time through the end of the 2023-24 season, without having to sit out a season.

Of course, entering the transfer portal doesn’t mean a player will be leaving their current school. For example, last year Vanderbilt guard Tyrin Lawrence put his name into the transfer portal, only to return and play for the Commodores this season.

Other transfer portal conditions include players having a 30-day window to enter the portal following a coaching change and graduate transfers being allowed to enter the portal at any time.

What does this mean for Kentucky men’s basketball?

The two essential, veteran presences on this Kentucky basketball team were both acquired via the NCAA transfer portal in fifth-year guard Antonio Reeves (Illinois State) and fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell (West Virginia, with previous college stops at UMass and Texas).

Kentucky was also heavily involved in several portal recruitments that didn’t pan out last year: Keshad Johnson (San Diego State to Arizona) and Hunter Dickinson (Michigan to Kansas) were two of the highest-profile misses for the Wildcats.

While there’s still plenty to be decided on the hardwood for this 2023-24 version of Kentucky — UK’s round of 64 NCAA Tournament game against Oakland is set for Thursday night — there will be plenty of roster turnover when looking ahead to the 2024-25 team.

Kentucky will lose a lot from this year’s squad via the NBA draft and the exhaustion of college eligibility. The Wildcats currently have a six-player recruiting class for next season, and four of these players have already signed their national letters of intent to come to Lexington.

But experience is what has won in college basketball of late, and head coach John Calipari will surely be portal shopping in the weeks to come.

What does this mean for Kentucky women’s basketball?

As with the men’s ruling, women’s college basketball players are also now officially able to enter the transfer portal.

Per NCAA rules, all athletes must request a notification of transfer during the 45-day portal window, prior to engaging in any communication with potential new coaches.

Though players are only technically able to enter the portal within the designated window, athletes may announce their intention to transfer at any time, and many often do. As of Selection Sunday, the Women’s Basketball Blog lists more than 100 players who have declared their intention to enter the portal.

The NCAA Tournament coinciding with the opening of the portal presents coaches with a unique challenge: Keeping an eye on who may fill a particular need for next season while staying focused on what’s left of this season. However, for schools who missed the big dance, conversations regarding next season’s roster can take center stage.

Kentucky is currently without a head coach following last week’s announcement that Kyra Elzy was fired.

Not only have the Wildcats lost two active players since then, but a new head coach is not yet in place to oversee recruiting out of the portal, an avenue that athletics director Mitch Barnhart said the program would use during the offseason.

“In the world that we’re in, within the transfer portal and all of those things, the rosters are fluid,” Barnhart said this month. “And that doesn’t mean that’s where we want to live, or we want to build out of all that. There’s gonna have to be some pieces of continuity to what we have, and then build out of that through the things that are available to us.”

In recent seasons, the Wildcats have brought in several players via the transfer portal, including three of Kentucky’s top four scorers from the 2023-24 team: Ajae Petty (LSU), Maddie Scherr (Oregon) and Eniya Russell (South Carolina).

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Kentucky has two women’s basketball commitments. With Kyra Elzy out, are they still in?

Another Kentucky women’s basketball player intends to transfer. This time it’s a freshman.

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