Every transfer portal target that John Calipari and Kentucky have reached out to

Historically, Kentucky hasn’t done much in the transfer portal under John Calipari, but this offseason has to be different. Kentucky needs a change and Mitch Barnhart has trusted his old dog to learn new tricks and one of those is to pillage the transfer portal for the best veteran talent. 

Coach Cal has always gotten the most talented high school players, but over the past several seasons, they haven’t hung around long enough for Kentucky to become an experienced national title contender. It appears that Cal is finally applying his recruiting expertise to the portal and has been in contact with many of the best available players this offseason. 

Here are the six players that Kentucky has reportedly been in contact with that are the team’s top transfer targets this offseason. 

Omoruyi has been a defensive anchor at Rutgers for the past two years, this season averaging 2.9 blocks per game. He has tremendous length with a 7-foot-6 wingspan and should have been considered for National Defensive Player of the Year, yet didn’t even win the award in his own conference. His offensive game is limited but could be improved with better talent around him. 

Freeman was one of the leading scorers in the Horizon League, averaging 21.1 points a game last season, his second at Milwaukee. He’s a volume shooter, though only hit 35% from three on 7.0 attempts per game. 

Johnson was the leading scorer on a defensively-minded South Carolina team that massively over-achieved in the SEC last season. Johnson has one year of eligibility remaining after spending two years at Ohio State and two at South Carolina with head coach Lamont Paris. He shot under 40% from the field last year. 

Ivy-Curry has spent three of his four years in college at UTSA, though he spent the 2022-23 season at Pacific before returning to the Roadrunners. As a senior, he was the leading scorer at UTSA averaging 17.1 points and 3.0 assists, but only shot 40.1% from the field. 

On Tuesday, Ivy-Curry committed to Virginia Tech to replace two players who could be heading to Kentucky.

Pedulla is a rock-steady point guard with some scoring pop, however, he was over-extended as Virginia Tech’s go-to option which hurt his efficiency. At Kentucky, with a better supporting cast, he’d be a quality shooter at point guard and would settle in as a facilitator. 

Nickel is a proto-typical 3-and-D wing with legit size, who hit nearly 40% of his threes last season. He averaged 8.8 points a game despite only starting seven of 33 contests for the Hokies.