Kentucky has one more open scholarship -- who will it go to?

Jaxson Robinson is a Kentucky Wildcat. With the reigning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year finally on board, new head coach Mark Pope has added a high-level scorer to his backcourt. Robinson’s addition gives Pope a dozen scholarship pieces heading into his debut season this fall. That means he has one more spot to work with. Where will he look to use it?

Pope and his staff could take plenty of different angles for that 13th scholarship. He even mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the final spot would be a “floating piece”, meaning UK could target any number of prospects. Whether that be through the portal, internationally, high school, young, old, etc. — it’s not yet clear who the coaches will lock in on.

There will be a slew of options though. Let’s dive into some possible avenues that the Kentucky staff could go down to fill that last roster spot.

A high school reclass prospect?

There is a trio of 2025 high school recruits known to be seriously considering reclassifying to 2024. The most-mentioned option is five-star wing Will Riley (No. 19 overall), who plans to officially visit Kentucky next week, as well as Alabama. There is real smoke to a reclass with the 6-foot-9 scoring machine, who has been on fire during the Nike EYBL circuit this season. Head coach Mark Pope and the rest of Kentucky’s staff have made him a priority for either class.

The other two are five-star shooting guard Darryn Peterson (No. 3 overall) and five-star combo guard Jasper Johnson (No. 10 overall). Peterson, who has been rumored as a reclass candidate for over a year now, was a priority target under the old Kentucky staff. Pope has made his move by re-offering Peterson and another visit to UK is on the table. Then you have Johnson, a Lexington native who will be home all summer long and is being courted heavily by Pope and his staff.

Johnson and Riley both turned 18 earlier this year, indicating that a reclass is likelier for them than most of their peers. That being said, both are staying quiet on which way they might be leaning.

Another transfer option?

If Kentucky opts against a high school prospect, they could turn their eyes to the transfer portal once again. There are a handful of portal prospects yet to choose a new school that Kentucky had expressed interest in at one point.

The main one is Miami’s Wooga Poplar, although the sense has been that Kentucky would ultimately choose between Poplar and Jaxson Robinson. With Robinson on board, Poplar will likely continue to look elsewhere. Poplar will reportedly visit Oregon next week. Kentucky and Arkansas have been mentioned as possible visit destinations — we’ll wait to see how that plays out. But for now, don’t expect Poplar to follow Robinson to Lexington.

Kentucky also contacted Northern Illinois point guard David Coit in what feels like years ago (by years ago I actually mean mid-April, but you understand how time hasn’t been real the last two months). After one year at community college, the 5-foot-11 native of Ohio has spent his first two college seasons at NIU and was named All-MAC in both. He averaged 20.8 points and 3.4 assists in 37 minutes per game last season.

Another name mentioned a while back with interest from Kentucky was UCLA’s Berke Buyuktuncel, a 6-foot-9 native of Turkey who played sparingly as a freshman with the Bruins last season. He averaged 4.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per contest. BYU and Nebraska are the two schools he’s visited so far.

Kentucky’s pool won’t be limited to just these options, either. Florida State’s Jamir Watkins, Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins, and Arkansas’ Trevon Brazile, among others, are all available — Pope has just yet to make contact with them as far as we know. The big question: Would any of them be willing to sacrifice minutes to play on an already deep, veteran-laden roster?

Hell, maybe another Tre Mitchell situation will pop up for Kentucky later this summer. Anything can happen in today’s landscape. Pope doesn’t have to rush this 13th scholarship by any means.

A long-term development piece?

This is where I personally believe Kentucky and Pope will lean. The roster is currently 12 players deep with only three of them incoming freshmen. The other nine all transferred to UK in hopes of establishing a steady role for the 2024-25 season (a testament to Pope’s recruiting pitch). There are only so many minutes to spread around though. Seven of the incoming transfers will be seniors and they all expect to play.

Could Kentucky still add another player with immediate impact potential? Of course. Again, there are options out there. But with the many pieces in place that expect to battle for rotational minutes right away, pitching another high-usage transfer to join the mix could be a losing fight. That might not be the case with someone young who is eager to develop for a couple of seasons.

Could that be class of 2024 Vanderbilt decommit Jamie Vinson, who visited Kentucky earlier this month? It’s been quiet on that front since he was in Lexington. The 2024 cycle is drying up quickly, but there are players still available such as four-star PF Sammie Yeanay (decommitted from Arizona State on Wednesday), four-star SF Zion Sensley, three-star PF Luke Bamgboye, and three-star SG Jeremiah Johnson, among others lower in the rankings. Sensley, in particular, has not heard from UK at this time.

What about a young international prospect yet to be named? By possibly adding a less-talented, raw developmental piece (regardless of where they’re from), that pool of names will be one we are mostly unfamiliar with. But the idea would be to bring that player in and allow them to develop for a year or two before letting them break out.

The most likely outcome is the final scholarship piece goes to someone who won’t play right away. But Kentucky is going to lose several players after this season due to exhausted eligibility. Having another piece for the future will be important for creating extra continuity going into year two.