There was a time earlier in this offseason when Kentucky was missing on one high-profile prospect after another -- everybody from Rob Wright III to Donnie Freeman to the sport's top-ranked high school player, Tyran Stokes. Those men committed to BYU, St. John's and Kansas, respectively, for lots of money.
More to the point, they very publicly rejected Kentucky's money for other programs, causing Mark Pope's seat to warm considerably. Is the third-year UK coach's seat still hot? A nice season is likely required to restore confidence among diehard fans, and recruiting wins guarantee nothing in that regard.
But, that acknowledged, there's no denying Pope and his staff regrouped from their previous misses impressively by luring rotation piece Malachi Moreno out of the 2026 NBA Draft and adding Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic -- and the latest bit of good news came Saturday when former Duke and Missouri standout Mark Mitchell committed to the Wildcats one day after receiving a temporary restraining order to pursue a fifth season of college basketball via a Jefferson Circuit Court ruling in Kentucky. Mitchell averaged 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 33.8 minutes per game at Missouri last season. His addition to Kentucky's roster has the Wildcats up to No. 12 in Version 24 of the 2026-27 CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 preseason college basketball rankings, where Florida remains No. 1 based on a projection that the Gators will return six of the top seven scorers -- specifically Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Rueben Chinyelu, Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown -- from a team that was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaking of projections, you might've heard that the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA's stay request in the Wisne vs. NCAA lawsuit Friday, immediately rendering qualifying players from the Class of 2022 once again ineligible unless they otherwise have been granted temporary restraining orders or injunctions. This ruling impacted the status of Florida's Denzel Aberdeen, Michigan's Kenny Noland, Gonzaga's Javon Bennett and Louisville's Seth Trimble, among others.
But what I've decided to do here is simply leave them, and everybody like them, attached to their rosters because they're all still A) committed to their respective programs, and B) attempting to restore their eligibility so that they can play a fifth year in college. If all of them, or any of them, are ultimately unsuccessful, I'll adjust accordingly when that's official. But for now, I'm choosing to treat them like I would've treated committed high school prospects in the old days when their eligibility was sometimes in question way deeper into the calendar than this because of academics and/or what the NCAA once called extra benefits.
Put another way, committed players will be roster-members until they're officially not.
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