Tre Mitchell brings versatility, leadership to young Kentucky team

John Calipari had checked every box necessary in terms of young talent at Kentucky. Five blue-chip recruits with All-American status in DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Aaron Bradshaw and Reed Sheppard, then two intriguing three-stars in Jordan Burks and Joey Hart. Factor in returning sophomores Adou Thiero and Ugonna Onyenso — two other high-potential pieces — and you’ve got the ceiling in place.

But what about the floor? Who is there to keep it from crumbling when adversity hits, especially early? Antonio Reeves helps, specifically in the backcourt. There’s your go-to scoring threat when things aren’t clicking for Wagner or Dillingham. But what about in the frontcourt? That’s where West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell comes in.

A fifth-year senior, that’s the first thing he made clear when he put pen to paper with the Wildcats on Monday.

“My team and personal goals this year are one and the same, grow and win as much as possible,” Mitchell said. “With a young core, growth is on the horizon and it won’t hurt for these guys to have someone with experience in college basketball to lean on when they need it.”

His former coach who has known Mitchell’s family for nearly two decades agrees. The skill is obviously there (more on that in a second) but Basketball Stars of America founder Daryn Freedman says the 6-foot-9 forward’s leadership and experience is exactly what this roster was missing.

With him joining the fold, along with the return of Antonio Reeves, the Wildcats become quite interesting.

“He’s a great guy. Tre is a great kid, not a problem kid,” Freedman told KSR on Monday. “He doesn’t get in trouble, gets good grades, someone for the freshmen to look up to. I’ve been a college coach the last three or four years and having guys who the younger kids can look up to is a big thing. Kids come in — freshmen, no matter how good or highly recruited they are, they come in with big eyes.

“It’s good to have that, getting the other senior back (Antonio Reeves) too. That would have been a really, really young team without Reeves. With Tre? That’s tough.”

Freedman previously worked with Calipari for a decade. He started out with the Hall of Fame coach at UMass as a manager and practice player. When Coach Cal left to go to the Nets, he joined him in New Jersey, then with the Philadelphia 76ers. Then he followed him to Memphis as a Director of Basketball Operations.

If there’s one person that knows what Calipari is looking for in a player, it’s Freedman. Mitchell joins Adou Thiero, Nate Sestina and Jonny David as past standouts for Basketball Stars of America who ultimately played in Lexington partially thanks to that connection.

He didn’t want to get too involved in this recruitment — Mitchell’s stepfather is also close with Coach Cal — but Freedman saw the fit the second the West Virginia transfer decided a move was necessary for his final season of eligibility.

“I stayed out of this one as best I could, but I knew as soon as Tre entered the transfer portal and Kentucky needed (help), I knew that was going to be something,” he said. “I had a feeling it was going to come together.”

What are the Wildcats getting in Mitchell as a player? For comparison’s sake, look at Nate Sestina, who he coached and Kentucky fans are familiar with. Sestina was 6-9, 230 pounds and averaged 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest on 46.3% shooting and 40.7% from three in 19.8 minutes per game — Per-40 numbers of 11.6 and 7.7. Mitchell this past season at WVU? 15.6 points and 7.3 rebounds Per-40 while shooting 47.0% from the field and 36.4% from three.

Freedman says Kentucky will be getting a bigger, more athletic version of Sestina in Mitchell.

“Having coached both of them and watching both of them over the years, Tre is like a bigger and more athletic version of Nate, a little more post skills,” he told KSR. “You can throw the ball to Tre in the post and he’ll score. And Cal loves a post presence — loves a post presence. That’s his favorite thing. But he’s really developed his perimeter game because he wants to play pro when he’s done in college.”

Things have gone well for Mitchell up to this point in previous stops at UMass, Texas and West Virginia, but Freedman believes Calipari will help take his game to another level.

“I think (Bob) Huggins was doing a good job of developing him, but I think Coach Cal can definitely help that,” he added. “He can help on the perimeter and make shots, but he’s also a guy you can throw the ball to and he can score inside, so I think that’ll be good.”

What position will he play in Lexington? Well, that’s one of his best traits. He’s not defined by one in particular.

His former coach believes he’ll play the four at Kentucky, but he’s capable of sliding up or sliding down a spot if need be. His versatility allows him to be a plug-and-play guy anywhere on the floor.

“Probably the four and the five,” he said. “The cool thing with Tre is — one thing I’ve learned as a coach, if you have a guy who can rebound and guards bigs, even if they’re a perimeter guy, you can play them at the five when needed. There are lineups where if you want to go small and have four of these stud guards and wings, you can put Tre out there. He’s probably more of a four than anything else.”

Kentucky needed size, depth and experience to close out the 2023-24 roster. It got all of the above in Tre Mitchell.

“It’s a lot of talent,” he told KSR. “But having a few older guys be leaders when the times get tough, that’s a great thing to have.”