Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25: No. 10 Kentucky

Through Oct. 31, Sports Illustrated will count down its preseason college basketball Top 25 with overviews of each team. Here are the full rankings so far.

It’d be hard to call Mark Pope’s first season in Lexington, Ky., anything but a smashing success. He inherited no returning scholarship players in early April when he took the job and found a way to put together a team that got Kentucky back to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019. Pope’s offensive system is among the sharpest in the country, and Kentucky fans have every reason to be excited about how it might look with a more talented and deeper roster in ’25–26.

Much of last season’s group were seniors, but Pope kept the one star with eligibility remaining: Otega Oweh. Oweh raised his game significantly in the Kentucky system, benefiting immensely from improved spacing to average north of 16 points per game. He tested the NBA draft waters but decided to return for his senior year, a wise decision given he would likely have received only a two-way contract had he stayed in the draft. The continuity he and other returners like Brandon Garrison and Collin Chandler bring is huge after last season’s complete fresh start.

Most around the country believe Kentucky spent the most on building its roster of any team in the sport, with a budget reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader to be approximately $22 million. How did they spend it?

Projected Starting Lineup

PG: Jaland Lowe
SG: Denzel Aberdeen
SF: Otega Oweh
PF: Mouhamed Dioubate
C: Jayden Quaintance (once healthy)
Key Reserves: G Jasper Johnson, W Kam Williams, C Brandon Garrison

Key Additions

The talent level has improved at Kentucky compared to a year ago, but this still isn’t a roster lined with future NBA stars the way John Calipari’s teams were. The one exception to that is Jayden Quaintance, coincidentally a former Calipari commit at Kentucky who spent last season at Arizona State. He’s an elite rim protector (maybe the best in the country) and is rapidly improving in other facets of his game, but is coming off a torn ACL suffered late in the season. You’d expect caution in bringing him back, but even if he only returns for SEC play, Quaintance is a potential game-changer … especially given how Kentucky struggled on the defensive end a year ago. Garrison and freshman Malachi Moreno can hold down the five spot in the meantime.

Arizona State transfer Jayden Quaintance is coming off a torn ACL suffered late last season. | Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

They’ll also have more physicality next to Quaintance with Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate, one of the best dirty-work guys in the country. Analytics models loved Dioubate because of his dominance on the glass and defensive versatility, though his inability to stretch the floor made him a clunky fit in Alabama’s offense. Similar challenges could emerge in Pope’s offense, but those issues may be a worthwhile trade-off for the defensive boost.

In the backcourt, expect a hodgepodge of transfers, returners and freshmen. Jaland Lowe is the biggest addition. He struggled with efficiency last season at Pittsburgh, but he has all the tools to be an elite college point guard and should benefit from Pope’s system. Denzel Aberdeen transfers in from Florida, where he played a key role for the national champion Gators. He’s a big guard who can play on or off the ball, is a consistent shooter and physical driver. And keeping Jasper Johnson home was big: The Lexington native is a big-time scorer who should provide a spark.

Two x-factors: Kam Williams and Andrija Jelavić. Williams is a big wing who shot 41% from deep at Tulane and sports impressive defensive versatility. Jelavić is a big body at 6' 11" who can stretch the floor.

Causes for Concern

Kentucky was in the top 25 nationally in three-point percentage a year ago, and Pope’s teams at BYU took and made a ton of threes. This year’s Kentucky isn’t necessarily built that way. In its projected starting five, only one player (Lowe) made more than one three per game last season … and Lowe shot just 27% from deep. It will be interesting to see how Pope adapts his offensive system around this group’s strengths, which is much more its ability to attack the basket.

There’s also the question of Quaintance’s health. The best version of Kentucky requires a healthy Quaintance, but the recovery timeline is aggressive for him to be ready early in the season and being thrown into the fire in SEC play wouldn’t be easy either. If he takes a year to get fully healthy, it caps Kentucky’s ceiling.

The Bottom Line

This is a deeper, more talented and more athletic Kentucky team than the one we saw last year, one with the potential to be much improved defensively. If Pope can find creative ways to operate efficiently on the offensive end (and there are plenty of reasons to believe he will), this could be one of the best two-way squads in the country. With a healthy Quaintance, this is a team that can compete for a national championship.