LEXINGTON, Ky. — This time last year, not much was known about Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats.

The new leader of the UK men’s basketball program had been on the job for less than six months. He’d yet to coach a game, and every scholarship player on his first roster was new to the program.

That group was a high-floor collection of talent — most of them seniors, and nearly all of those entering their fifth year of college — and the combination worked out all right. Pope’s Cats scored some victories over highly ranked opponents in the regular season and then — despite major injury issues — advanced to the second week of the NCAA Tournament, the first time the program had been that far in six years.

Pope’s second roster should have a high floor, too. But this team’s ceiling is much higher.

Otega Oweh is now a senior, potentially the SEC preseason player of the year and a proven force at this level. New backcourt acquisitions Denzel Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe — both projected starters — are upperclassmen who bring skills that should translate well to Pope’s system. Those two are expected to make jumps this season.

The same goes for transfer forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who has a ton of potential — he’s more skilled than he was able to show over the past two years at Alabama — in addition to the physical, athletic, defensive-minded traits that will make him a key Kentucky player no matter how much he improves.

Likely coming off the bench will be Tulane transfer Kam Williams, who could probably start just about anywhere else in the country and might end up as UK’s top 3-point shooter this season. He’s a legitimate NBA draft prospect for 2026, and he’s still just 19 years old.

The Wildcats’ injury issues last season gave Trent Noah an opportunity to play more than originally expected, and the Kentucky native came through in some big spots. Noah — along with program newcomers Braydon Hawthorne, Malachi Moreno and Reece Potter — will all be battling for minutes in a similar way this season, but their biggest contributions to UK basketball might be further down the line.

That leaves five rotation players. And that group is an intriguing one. These are the players who could ultimately define Kentucky’s season. If a few of them — or, Pope hopes, all of them — can live up to their potential over the next few months, this team could be responsible for hanging a banner in Rupp Arena — the difference between a good season and a truly memorable one.

Andrija Jelavic

An indication of just how intriguing the depth of potential really is for this roster? High-ceiling guys like Dioubate and Williams didn’t even make the cut for this top-five list, and the player everyone knows the least about is first in the countdown.

Andrija Jelavic (pronounced an-dre-uh yell-uh-vich) only arrived in the United States in August, so he missed all eight weeks of the Wildcats’ summer practice session. Starting out so far behind might ultimately lead to a diminished role for the 6-foot-11 forward from Croatia. But … what if it doesn’t?

If Jelavic clicks the way UK’s coaches were expecting when they recruited him, he could be a key cog in Pope’s offensive approach. He’s tall for a perimeter-oriented player, and he’s got the kind of passing touch that should play well in Pope’s system. Teammates haven’t seen much of him yet, but the first thing many noticed was the smoothness for his size.

“You can just tell that he has that foreign feel,” Lowe said. “He can pass the ball, and he can shoot the ball at a very high level.”

Jelavic has two years of pro experience for a Serbian team in the Adriatic League, and he comes across on and off the court as much more mature than the typical college newcomer. Teammates have called him a fast learner; FIBA’s records say he turned 21 years old in May; and the NCAA has classified him as a sophomore due to his experience.

He might be a newcomer to college basketball, but he has all the tools to make a major difference for this Kentucky team, just as soon as he’s done playing catch up.

Brandon Garrison

The backup center on last season’s team, Brandon Garrison said in an exit interview with the Herald-Leader in the spring that he came to Kentucky on a “two-year plan” outlined by Mark Pope during the recruiting process.

Well, year two has arrived.

Garrison — a 6-10, 245-pound junior — has another season of NCAA eligibility beyond this one, but he’s made it clear that he’d like to work his way onto NBA draft boards by the end of the 2025-26 campaign. He should get plenty of opportunities.

With the final player on this list sidelined indefinitely, Garrison is expected to be Kentucky’s starting 5 to begin the season, and it’s likely he’ll be in that role for high-profile games against Louisville (Nov. 11), Michigan State (Nov. 18) and other marquee nonconference opponents.

Garrison was inconsistent as Amari Williams’ primary backup last season, but some of the undeniable talent that he flashed was tantalizing. He’s a big body, but he can make 3-pointers and drop dimes as a perimeter passer. He has the necessary skills to be a difference-making rebounder and defender, with early buzz out of preseason practice suggesting that he should be able to guard multiple positions, especially away from the basket.

He just has to put it all together. And he has to do it consistently. And that hasn’t happened yet.

Garrison was a McDonald’s All-American out of high school and played more of a traditional, on-the-block role as a freshman center at Oklahoma State. In many ways, his first year at Kentucky — in Pope’s much-different system — was like starting from scratch. So, the rust and growing pains last season can be excused, to a certain extent.

There are no more excuses. Kentucky needs Garrison to hit the ground running and play at a consistently high level this season. If he can do that, these Cats can go a long way.

Jasper Johnson

Kentucky fans have been hearing about Jasper Johnson — a Lexington native, UK legacy athlete and a longtime five-star-rated player in the 2025 recruiting class — for years.

The 6-5 guard is finally here. What will he bring to the table in year one? We’ll see.

This Kentucky roster has all kinds of talent in the backcourt. Lowe and Oweh will start for the Cats, and most preseason projections have fellow veteran Aberdeen joining that duo to form a three-guard lineup.

But Pope will need some depth on the perimeter, too, and — if he doesn’t end up starting — Johnson has the ability to be an instant spark whenever he checks into a game, no matter who the opponent happens to be.

Considered to be one of the best bucket-getters in the freshman class nationally, Johnson is a microwave scorer. He’s a 3-point threat. He’s crafty and often difficult to stop with the ball in his hands. He can get to the basket at will. Keys for him will be limiting bad shots, knowing when to pass off and — if he doesn’t gain considerable strength in the short term — figuring out how to score against bigger, longer, more physical defenders, especially in SEC play.

That’s on the offensive side of the ball. While capable defensively, his work on that end was inconsistent as a high schooler — not uncommon for a young player with his scoring gifts — and those who have watched him closely over the past few years will be interested to see how well he can play defense at this level.

Make no mistake, Johnson will be on the court plenty for Kentucky this season. He’s the highest-rated recruit Pope has ever pulled out of high school, he has aspirations of being a one-and-done college player, and Pope didn’t bring him to Lexington to sit around.

But will he do enough to be out there during crunch time? And will he show enough discipline as a shot-taker to lead his older teammates to trust him with those looks in close games? If he can check those boxes, Johnson will be a dangerous member of this Kentucky team.

Collin Chandler

No matter who you talk to — coaches, players, others who have been through the Joe Craft Center — one name that has kept popping up since the beginning of UK’s summer practice session is Collin Chandler.

The 6-5 guard came to Lexington last year as one of the team’s biggest mysteries, too. He arrived in town not long after returning to the United States off a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he had barely touched a basketball during that time.

That story is well-chronicled: Chandler had to get up to speed on a roster stacked with veterans, his playing time dropped off considerably — he didn’t even appear in some games amid the struggles — but he worked his way back into the rotation and ended up being a key player off the bench by tournament time.

Everyone knew last season would be a bit of a grind. Chandler made it work in the end. It’s interesting to think what might be possible by the time the 2025-26 postseason rolls around.

Chandler was viewed as a possible one-and-done talent out of high school — before embarking on that mission trip — and early accounts suggest his NBA-level upside is still very much there. He has a chance to be one of this team’s best 3-point shooters — 52.5% over the final seven games last season — and new teammates have marveled at his athleticism. He can create for himself and others off the dribble.

And it’s not all offense. Oweh told the Herald-Leader that Chandler was leading the team in every defensive category in early practices, and Mark Pope confirmed that he’s the top Cat in the staff’s primary measure of defensive impact. That’s a scary combination.

Everyone got a little glimpse of what Chandler is capable of at the end of last season. The 21-year-old sophomore — with a full offseason and preseason behind him, for the first time as a college player — should be showing even greater flashes of talent from the start in year two.

At his floor, he should make consistent, meaningful contributions out of UK’s backcourt. His ceiling is something else altogether. Chandler could turn into a legitimate Kentucky basketball star before he leaves college, and that turn could very well begin this season.

Jayden Quaintance

When debating the most intriguing player on this UK roster — and the one whose play could transform a great collection of talent into a championship roster — is there any other choice?

Jayden Quaintance is not just projected as an NBA lottery pick, he’s already cracked the top five on some prominent boards for the 2026 draft. And that’s with his status for this season — on a new team, with a new coach, still just a little more than six months removed from major knee surgery — very much up in the air.

That’s the degree of talent we’re talking about here.

Quaintance is listed at 6-10 (and a half) and 255 pounds. Prominent analytics sites project him as one of the best defenders in the country. He’s incredibly athletic. He’s so strong that Pope — a former NBA center — has said that it “hurts so bad” simply getting a “natural high-five” from the 18-year-old. (Shake hands with the kid, and you won’t call hyperbole on that one.)

Bottom line: Quaintance is not only a great long-term basketball prospect, but he’s a great player in the here and now. As soon as he gets on the court, that is.

His freshman year at Arizona State was cut short due to a torn ACL, and he had surgery to repair that injury in March. The word out of his camp at the time of his commitment to Kentucky suggested that he would be ready to play at the start of the 2025-26 season, but that timetable never seemed realistic. Pope has since acknowledged that’s likely not happening, and a common projection from inside the UK program suggests he might not debut until January.

The focus will be on getting Quaintance to 100% health and having him at full speed for the Wildcats’ stretch run. Pope and UK’s staff aren’t going to do anything to jeopardize the teenager’s NBA status, but he’s fully expected to suit up for the Cats at some point.

Quaintance’s ability to impact a high-level college basketball game is not in question, especially with the talent he’ll be surrounded by at Kentucky. The biggest questions are when he’ll be back on the court, how quickly he can get up to speed and whether or not he can enter the month of March in full health and firing on all cylinders.

The answers to those questions could go a long way in determining UK’s fate this season.

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