Mark Pope calls Kentucky's final scholarship a 'floating' spot

Kentucky just about has a complete roster, which provides new head coach Mark Pope plenty of flexibility with his final roster spot.

In just a couple of months, Pope was able to go from zero scholarship players on the roster, one freshman signee, and one walk-on to a full 12-man roster. Of course, there’s still a 13th scholarship slot for Pope to use if he so chooses. At his summer press conference Tuesday, he was asked about his plans for potentially adding one more piece.

Pope was pretty non-committal about whether Kentucky would even use the open scholarship and was vague about how it could be filled. Here was his comment on the matter per KSR’s Jack Pilgrim:

“Mark Pope says no update on the 13th scholarship, still up in the air. Says they’re monitoring several different options, including the international path this summer.” Pilgrim added this quote from Pope: “There are always new things that happen there late.”

Pope has certainly taken his time with the final few spots after completing a mad dash to compile a mostly-complete roster in April and May. Let’s take a look back at how the team came together so fast and furiously.

On the perimeter, Pope grabbed a potential rising star in Oklahoma’s Otega Oweh, who has two more years to play and flashed a ton of upside as a starter for the Sooners in 2024.

At point guard, Pope went a little yin and yang, nabbing a trash-talking Estonian fireball in Kerr Kriisa, whose a bomber from the 3-point line and a veteran distributor. To counter Kriisa’s offense and flair, Kentucky also added San Diego State point guard Lamont Butler, an elite perimeter defender who also hit a game-winning buzzer-beater in the 2023 Final Four.

On the wing, there’s plenty of shooting. Koby Brea was a big coup after seemingly every blue blood pursued him. While not a superstar, he’s nearly 50% from 3 on high volume and should be a plug-and-play sharpshooter. The same can be said for Jaxson Robinson, a potential college superstar in his senior year after improving drastically over his last two at BYU.

The spacing continues as we move down the floor with Ansley Almonor, a very under-the-radar addition which came after the initial wave, but he’s a floor-spacing four-man who was actually the top scorer among Kentucky’s transfer additions in 2024.

Around him, there’s Andrew Carr also at the four, a floor-spacing seven-footer who will thrive as a Pope player. Then, there’s defense at the five with Brandon Garrison and Amari Williams, the former a young and mobile rim-protector, and the latter a more grounded and gnarly man-to-man defender that won Defensive Player of the Year at his prior conference.

With the freshmen — Travis Perry, Trent Noah, Collin Chandler — that’s a pretty complete group. Now, Wildcat fans will sit and wait to see if Mark Pope chooses to further add on to the group.