Kentucky went all-in last offseason, blowing everyone out of the water by spending $22 million on its roster. It ended up blowing up in Mark Pope’s face.
Pope had the most money to spend, but he didn’t spend it well. A four-million-dollar deal for Jayden Quaintance netted Kentucky just four games over performance, and Jaland Lowe’s season-ending injury left the Wildcats without a true point guard for all but nine games.
Kentucky avoided a first-round NCAA Tournament upset, but after getting embarrassed by Iowa State, Pope enters Year 3 on the hot seat, and with considerably less money to throw at his problems. If that wasn’t enough pressure, Pat Kelsey has gotten Louisville back on the map, and though Year 2 of his tenure didn’t go to plan either, the Cardinals are suddenly upping the ante and positioning themselves to be a top spender in this portal cycle.
Louisville set to host Flory Bidunga and Jackson Shelstad
While Kentucky appears to be strategically laying out its list of targets for this cycle, Louisville is reportedly “throwing bags at everybody,” as one source put it to CBS Sports’s Adam Finkelstein. As Finkelstein said on Wednesday, Louisville has “elite buying power,” and that’s already been on display.
Louisville is poised to be a major player in the portal this cycle.
— 247Sports (@247Sports) April 8, 2026
“They have elite buying power,” says @AdamFinkelstein
Don’t be surprised if the Cardinals are heavily involved with some of the top prospects — including No. 1 overall transfer Flory Bidunga 👀 pic.twitter.com/w8Tc1ML61F
Kansas transfer Flory Bidunga is the top available player in the cycle so far, and while he’s had a long list of suitors, Kelsey was one of the first coaches to get him on campus, hosting both the 6-foot-10 big man and Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad on a joint visit.
Bidunga was the Defensive Player of the Year in the Big 12, and though Shelstad spent most of his junior season injured, he’s one of the most proven veteran guards in the country. Adding them both would position Louisville to challenge Duke for ACC supremacy, and in the state of Kentucky, it could tip the scales to the Cardinals, especially if Pope whiffs in the portal again.
When you’re the head basketball coach in Lexington, there’s always going to be pressure, but it’s amplified when the other team in the state is a contender too. It was for John Calipari when Rick Pitino was competing for titles, and though this is a diet version, Pope and Kelsey are clearly jostling for position.
Louisville won last year’s meeting 96-88 at the KFC Yum! Center. If Pope doesn’t want that to become a trend, he’ll need to build much smarter in the portal last year. Kentucky threw a bag at everyone last year, and it didn’t work, so there’s no guarantee that Louisville will enter 2025-26 with some kind of superteam. But that the possibility exists at all just piles a bit more pressure on one of the most pressure-packed jobs in the country.