Kentucky loses first player to transfer portal in a major blow for Calipari’s next roster

John Calipari has lost his first player to the NCAA transfer portal, and it’s a major blow to the Kentucky basketball coach’s roster-building hopes for next season.

Sophomore guard Adou Thiero entered the portal on Thursday, UK confirmed to the Herald-Leader. The 6-foot-8 player from Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, will now explore his transfer options with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Thiero — a lightly regarded recruit out of high school in the Pittsburgh area — played sporadically as a freshman but emerged as a key player for the Wildcats during the 2023-24 season. He started 19 of 25 games as a sophomore — missing eight games due to injury — and provided a physicality that Calipari said his highly skilled roster generally lacked.

One of 10 scholarship players with NCAA eligibility remaining, Thiero was viewed as one of the most important potential returnees for Calipari, who said on his season-ending radio show Monday night that he would welcome back anyone on the current roster.

Kentucky’s season ended with an 80-76 loss to 14-seeded Oakland last week, another disappointing upset in the NCAA Tournament. The Cats have not advanced beyond the first week of the tournament since 2019, and Calipari’s program has just one March Madness victory during that drought.

“You know what I’m thinking right now? If someone says to me, ‘I’m coming back.’ I’m sayin’, ‘Under eight months, and we got the first game of the year. Let’s go!’” Calipari said Monday night. “Just under eight months, and we’ve got the start of next year,” Calipari said. “Because I want this taste out of my month, and I want it to go forward. So if any of them say that, that’s what my comment will be to them.”

Thiero was one of just two sophomores — along with 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso — among those 10 underclassmen, a group that includes eight freshmen. As such, Thiero could have provided next season’s roster with some desperately needed continuity amid what is likely to be another revolving door of personnel over the next few months.

Calipari will bring in six new recruits, but the rest of the roster remains unsettled. Fifth-year players Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves are out of college eligibility, and announcements on some of Kentucky’s other players will likely be coming over the next few days.

Freshman guard Rob Dillingham — projected as a top-10 pick — will enter the NBA draft. Fellow freshman Reed Sheppard, a Kentucky native, is also viewed as a surefire lottery pick, and the consensus — outside of the state, at least — is that he’s most likely to enter and remain in the draft. Justin Edwards, another freshman, is likely to stay in the draft, too. Freshman point guard D.J. Wagner is in some prominent mock drafts as a second-round pick.

Kentucky’s trio of 7-footers — Aaron Bradshaw, Zvonimir Ivisic and Onyenso — will all have decisions to make. None of those three players is widely projected as a sure draft pick this year.

The only other scholarship players on the roster were freshmen Jordan Burks and Joey Hart, who did not have significant roles on this season’s team. Burks’ playing time dwindled when the three 7-footers made their debuts after starting the season on the sidelines. Hart played just 10 minutes total over Kentucky’s 33 games.

Calipari said Wednesday that he expected to meet individually with each of Kentucky’s players over the next couple of days, and stay-or-go decisions typically begin trickling out after those meetings.

The transfer portal opened March 18 — the day after Selection Sunday — and players can enter the portal up until May 1. Just because a player enters his name in the portal does not mean he cannot return to his current school, but that has been a rare occurrence.

The loss of Thiero will be viewed as a particularly tough blow for Kentucky. He’s the son of a former Calipari player — his father, Almamy Thiero, played for the coach at Memphis — and he was a major contributor to this past season’s team despite playing through injuries and missing time with various ailments related to his continued growth spurt.

Thiero was listed at 6-8 and 222 pounds this season, and he’s likely to be bigger than that as a junior, with elite athleticism and guard skills on top of that size. He told the Herald-Leader in UK’s locker room following the loss to Oakland that he didn’t yet know what he would do for next season.

Before UK began its postseason — a few days after Thiero tallied zero points, six rebounds and two blocks over 16 minutes in an upset win at Tennessee to end the regular season — the 19-year-old was asked about his role on this team after regularly being moved around in different positions throughout his freshman year.

“My role — I don’t know. Once again, it changes every game,” he said. “Sometimes I have to score. Sometimes it’s just rebounding. Like the Tennessee game, I didn’t really score. I just had a couple of rebounds and blocked shots. But I think if I can just bring energy — always try and get offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, a couple of blocks, some steals — if that’s what I have to do for us to win, then I’ll do that. I think I just gotta come in and play … as hard as I can, and we should be in the right place.”

One thing UK men’s basketball acutely needs: A coaching succession plan

Barnhart, Calipari discuss future of Kentucky basketball. ‘Both of us want to exit well.’

Fair or not, this will be a major sign of how Calipari’s make-or-break offseason is going

Another son of a former Kentucky basketball star has entered the NCAA transfer portal

There’s no question what ruined this Kentucky basketball season. Can John Calipari fix it?