After making minimal plays as a freshman, another Kentucky Wildcat has entered the transfer portal.
In 2009, John Calipari was appointed as the University of Kentucky’s basketball coach. A timeline covering the fifteen seasons he led the Cats to four NCAA titles and four Final Four appearances. By: Christopher Leech, Marcus Dorsey, Brian Sims
Guard Joey Hart, a freshman, played one season of collegiate basketball at the University of Kentucky before registering for the NCAA transfer portal. The 6-foot-5 rookie from Linton, Indiana, Hart saw just 10 minutes of action in his seven games with the Wildcats in 2023–2024. In Kentucky’s 118-82 victory over Marshall on November 24, he played for three minutes, his highest playing time of the season. He also scored his only points as a Wildcat, a
In that game, with forty seconds left, a three-pointer. Hart was not considered a high-major recruit until late in his senior year, despite the fact that as a high school player in Indiana last season, he shot 41% from 3-point range and averaged more than 23 points per game. He ultimately chose Kentucky over Rutgers and Indiana, which had also begun to seriously pursue him late in the 2022–2023 season. John Calipari and the UK coaching staff were keeping an eye on the program’s stay-or-go decisions in advance of the 2023 NBA draft, when he joined the UK programme in the midst of significant roster uncertainty.
This week, Calipari—who has spent the last 15 seasons at Kentucky—is anticipated to be announced as Arkansas’s new head coach. In the transfer portal on Monday, Hart joined fellow freshman from the United Kingdom Aaron Bradshaw as the fourth player on the 2023–24 roster to disclose future plans. Justin Edwards, a rookie guard, went into the NBA draft last week. (Bradshaw also intends to declare for the draft, though he may decide to go back to school.) Adou Thiero, a sophomore forward, announced on the transfer portal the week prior to Edwards’ decision that he would enter the draft as well, but he would specifically leave open the option to return to Kentucky.
