KSR Today: Roster Building Continues
Welcome to Sunday, Big Blue Nation. The last weekend in April wraps up today. This time next week many in this beautiful state will be recovering from Kentucky Derby weekend. A tentpole event for the state is right around the corner, but it’s kind of hard to look ahead to anything at the moment.
We are currently neck-deep in roster-building season in both basketball and football. New head coach Mark Pope and his coaching staff have the most work to do. The Wildcats are finishing off a visit with Saint Mary’s guard transfer Aidan Mahaney, but also officially added two pieces to the roster on Saturday.
San Diego State guard transfer Lamont Butler and Oklahoma wing transfer Otega Oweh each signed with the Wildcats on Saturday. That gives Pope five scholarship players locked into the roster for next season.
Mahaney remains a top target for Pope and his staff. Could another commitment be arriving this weekend? Meanwhile, Great Osobor has an upcoming visit with Kentucky. The Wildcats could be considered the favorite in that transfer recruitment. Andrew Carr also has a Lexington visit locked in. We also saw BYU wing Jaxson Robinson enter the transfer portal on Saturday. The Sixth Man of the Year in the Big 12 is going through the NBA Draft process but has long been linked as an option for Kentucky.
Expect some more developments throughout the week. Things are happening fast.
Kentucky Basketball Roster Tracker
Ray Davis, Devin Leary become Day 3 picks
Day 3 of the 2024 NFL Draft wrapped up on Saturday over seven hours with rounds 4-7 being completed. Kentucky saw two players come off the board with Ray Davis getting selected in the fourth round and Devin Leary getting selected in the sixth round.
For the fourth year in a row, Kentucky has had at least three players drafted. Andru Phillips and Trevin Wallace came off the board on Friday in the third round. The Wildcats have now produced eight Day 2 draft picks in the last five years.
Davis is entering a situation in Buffalo where he could become RB2 behind James Cook for an offense that might lean run-heavy in 2024. Leary could find himself in a camp battle with former Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham for a roster spot.
We will have more on the draft fits today as the NFL turns the page to the next part of the offseason. Over the next few days, I will have my draft reports posted on all 32 teams. Stay tuned to see how your team performed over draft weekend.
DJ Waller Jr. is a Cat
While Day 3 of the NFL Draft was finishing up, Kentucky recorded its first recruiting win of the spring transfer portal window. Michigan transfer DJ Waller Jr. committed to Kentucky during his official visit in Lexington.
Waller played over 100 snaps for Michigan as a true freshman and will have three years of eligibility remaining as he begins his career at Kentucky. The Youngstown (Ohio) Cheney product finished his rookie season with 12 tackles. At 6-foot-3, Waller can provide excellent length outside in Kentucky’s zone scheme and is a favorite to open the season as a starter opposite of Maxwell Hairston. This could allow former Ohio State transfer Jantzen Dunn to now singularly focus on nickel.
The pieces are beginning to come together on defense.
Rubber match in Columbia
After blowing a lead in the ninth inning on Friday night, Nick Mingione’s squad found a way to respond on Saturday. Despite falling in an early 6-1 hole, Kentucky scored 11 unanswered runs and then held off another ninth-inning rally by the Gamecocks to win 15-13.
This team is not boring.
Ryan Waldschmidt continued his hot streak with the bat on Saturday night going 4-of-6 at the plate with a double and one RBI. Waldschmidt is hitting .519 in his last 52 at-bats with seven home runs, five doubles, and 19 RBI. The former Charleston Southern transfers also extended his hit streak to 12 games and his multi-hit game streak to eight games in the win.
No. 4 Kentucky (33-8, 16-4) will face No. 24 South Carolina (28-14, 10-10) in a rubber match at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday. The SEC Network will be on the call.
The latest from Nike EYBL
KSR’s Zack Geoghegan, Jack Pilgrim, and Jacob Polacheck are in Memphis this weekend to cover the first Nike EYBL session of the spring/summer. However, no coaches are at the event due to it being a quiet recruiting period. But there is still intel to uncover.
There will be more content rolling out from the event over the next couple of days, but we got three updates on Saturday as recruiting season heats up for the class of 2025.
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