Brennan Canada will return to Kentucky for another season

Brennan Canada is running it back for one more year. The senior forward from Mount Sterling, KY just announced he is returning to Kentucky for a final season, using his extra year of eligibility from the NCAA.

“I know I could have had other opportunities, but this is the only place I want to play college basketball,” Canada wrote on Instagram. “Let’s run it back one more year BBN!🤍💙”

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Canada joined Kentuky’s program as a walk-on in 2019 and in January 2023, was given a scholarship. His numbers don’t jump off the page — 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 steal over four seasons — but he has been an invaluable teammate, consistently providing veteran leadership on and off the court. A star at George Rogers Clark, Canada was one of the best prospects in Kentucky coming out of high school, finishing with 1,371 points and 776 rebounds and earning All-10th Region First Team honors. Instead of pursuing playing time and bigger opportunities elsewhere, he chose to live out his dream by walking on at Kentucky. Canada was one of five Kentucky seniors to participate in Senior Night festivities on March 1.

“He makes some of the guys look bad in practice because he always comes in and he’s always ready to kill them. Some days you come in, you just want to have fun, but he goes 100 miles per hour,” Oscar Tshiebwe said of Canada leading up to Senior Night. “The coaches get so mad at some guys because of how fast and how he’s always ready.

“We appreciate Brennan because he makes all of us better because he don’t come in just to take it easy. He comes in, he works hard, he runs. And Coach will be like ‘If Brennan is running like that, why are you not running?’ So now people start to pick it up. So he makes everybody work hard every day, not to take it easy. We appreciate him so much, he has helped us a lot.”

Kentucky’s “Stay or Go” Decisions Forthcoming

Canada’s decision is one of many coming from the program in the coming days and weeks. On his final radio show of the season, John Calipari said he will sit down with each player this week to discuss their future plans. Senior guard Sahvir Wheeler already entered the transfer portal and will play somewhere else next season. Fellow seniors Oscar Tshiebwe, Jacob Toppin, Antonio Reeves, and CJ Fredrick also have an extra year of eligibility remaining due to the NCAA’s COVID waiver. Freshman Cason Wallace is a projected lottery pick and is expected to go to the NBA Draft.

As Jack Pilgrim shared on Sunday, fellow freshman Chris Livingston is expected to test the NBA Draft waters and is leaning towards going pro. Reeves may also test the waters but is more likely to return if he can make more from NIL than as an undrafted free agent. Sources tell Jack that sophomore Daimion Collins is leaning toward transferring closer to home and freshman Ugonna Onyenso could even transfer elsewhere.

“I think we’ve got a good group of young people,” Calipari said last week. “I believe we’ll have guys coming back that need to come back and we will benefit by having them. And we’ll go from there. The portal, that’s down the road for us. Let’s see where all this other stuff is down the road.”