Mark Pope is 'scouring the planet' for Kentucky roster additions: "We need to add a couple more."

The plan was to stick with the 13-man roster as it stood following Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen‘s commitment — and then Travis Perry entered the portal to shake things up. Will Mark Pope find a replacement for the state’s all-time leading scorer or keep things as is? How will the House settlement impact roster flexibility, and in turn, Kentucky‘s plan to round out the roster? We saw walk-ons Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn hit the portal, too, opening the door for a 15-man group — if that’s how things unfold, as expected.

Pope finally shared his answer on Wednesday, confirming he is, in fact, looking for additional pieces before calling it a day on 2025-26. But it’s not about getting greedy with guys capable of suiting up this season.

As he puts it, the 12 scholarship players he has signed up for next season — including Otega Oweh, assuming he comes back, as expected — are the guys Kentucky plans to roll with. The other pieces he hopes to add will be long-term development pieces the program will bring along at their own pace for rewards down the road.

Where is he looking? All over the globe.

“I’d like to play them all. I have 12 guys right now. I have 12 guys that will help us, and we’re actually going to try and round out this roster,” Pope told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. “I’m actually scouring the planet right now for guys that would fit in as maybe a redshirt guy that would kill it in practice or be a last year of your career guy that wants to come here and put on this one-of-one jersey and be a part of this.”

How many pieces? If he has it his way, it’ll be a few — potentially hitting that 15-spot mark that could be allowed if and when the settlement passes.

“We need to add a couple more pieces,” Pope continued. “But right now, we have our roster that is going to own the minutes on the floor. We have all of the pieces.”

All of the pieces to do what? You know what.

“We can do it,” he said. We can get it done. There are a lot of teams that can get it done, but if we do this right with the right guys, we can get this done. That’s our job. That’s what we’re supposed to do, that’s the standard here and nothing less is acceptable.”