Kentucky guard D.J. Wagner during player introductions before Kentucky played Penn at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia on Saturday, December 9, 2023.
Which Kentucky basketball players entered NCAA transfer portal?
G Kerr Kriisa (6-foot-5, 185 pounds, Fifth-year Sr.): Kriisa appeared in UK’s first nine games of the 2024-25 season … and that was all she wrote for the Estonian. A foot injury suffered in the team’s overtime win over Gonzaga on Dec. 7 simply never healed to the point he was cleared to return to the floor. While he said March 31 he’d put his name into the transfer portal, 11 days before that, Kriisa pondered the possibility of heading back overseas to start his professional career. Kriisa averaged 4.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for the Wildcats; his assist average ranked No. 2 on the team behind fellow point guard Lamont Butler (4.3). On April 6, on his personal Instagram account, Kriisa announced he had committed to Cincinnati. UC will be his fourth school in six seasons. Kriisa started his college career at Arizona (2020-21 through 2022-23) before moving on to West Virginia (2023-24) and then Kentucky.
G Travis Perry (6-foot-1, 188 pounds, Fr.): Perry was a consistent presence for the Wildcats last season, appearing in 31 of the team’s 36 games. When UK was hampered by injuries in the backcourt, the in-state star moved into the lineup, starting four times. But the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school basketball history found points harder to come by in his first season at the college level: Perry averaged 2.7 points per game. (In addition, he averaged 0.8 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 9.7 minutes per outing.) Coincidentally, his two best scoring performances came against the same team: Alabama. Perry had a career-high 12 points in a loss to the Crimson Tide on Feb. 22. Then he had 11 points against UA in a lopsided loss in the SEC Tournament on March 14. Perry put his name into the transfer portal on April 22, the final day the window was open. He committed to Kentucky (and former coach John Calipari) in November 2023. At that time, Perry picked UK over his four other finalists: Alabama, Cincinnati, Ole Miss and Western Kentucky. Prior to his transfer decision, Perry had been the only remaining connection linking the end of Calipari’s reign to the beginning of Pope’s tenure. Perry will remain in the SEC: He committed to Ole Miss on May 4.
