He ultimately averaged 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds in 7.9 minutes per game over 25 appearances. Tragically, Collins’ father died unexpectedly at age 43 on the eve of the 2022-23 season, and the 19-year-old struggled through his sophomore year. He played just 7.5 minutes per game as a freshman but was projected as a possible breakout player in year two. Daimion CollinsĬareer so far: A McDonald’s All-American out of high school, Collins came to Kentucky with tremendous upside but a still-growing, relatively raw skill set. Fellow former UK player Sahvir Wheeler was the program’s top offseason acquisition and the Huskies will likely face an uphill climb to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. Outlook for 2023-24: Coach Mike Hopkins is back with Washington but likely on the hot seat heading into next season, which will be Brooks’ final year of college basketball. He transferred to Washington after that, and led the Huskies (16-16) with 17.7 points per game last season. The only UK returnee with any game experience as a sophomore, he averaged 10.3 points and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds per game (mostly off the bench) despite missing time due to injury during the 9-16 season of 2020-21, then started 33 games as a junior, averaging 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. son of the UK basketball great - so there could be some realistic postseason hopes here.Ĭareer so far: A star recruit, Brooks was a role player in year one with the Wildcats. Coach Richard Pitino’s program brings in some transfers and returns its top two scorers and will be led by Jamal Mashburn Jr. He should be an important piece for a Lobos team that started last season 14-0 before skidding to an 8-10 league mark in the Mountain West Conference. Outlook for 2023-24: Yes, Baker, who turns 25 years old next week, is still in college. He averaged 12.5 points per game for the Bulldogs last season, but he’s since transferred to New Mexico for the 2023-24 campaign. Baker then transferred to Fresno State, where he played just five games in his first season due to a knee injury. He left UK for Arizona, where he broke into the rotation in his first year (2019-20) and then was averaging 12.0 points per game before a wrist injury ended his 2020-21 season. Jemarl BakerĬareer so far: Baker was a lightly regarded recruit - by Calipari’s five-star standards - out of high school, sat his first year in Lexington with an injury and didn’t play much (9.1 minutes per game) as a redshirt freshman. A wave of incoming transfers - including Jaylon Tyson (Texas Tech), Fardaws Aimaq (Texas Tech), Mike Meadows (Portland State), Keonte Kennedy (Memphis) and Jalen Cone (Northern Arizona) - should see Cal improve, but the Bears are still unlikely to be an NCAA Tournament team. Outlook for 2023-24: New head coach Mark Madsen takes over the Bears’ program, and Askew should once again be a featured player on the team. He then moved to Cal, where he was the only double-digit scorer (15.5 points per game) on one of the worst teams in Division I basketball (a 3-29 record). Devin AskewĬareer so far: Maligned as the freshman point guard on Kentucky’s ill-fated 2020-21 team, Askew left for Texas after that season but ended up playing about half the minutes with the Longhorns, averaging just 2.1 points per game. WKU won’t be projected as an NCAA Tournament team, but Allen should get plenty of opportunities to be one of the program’s best players this season. Outlook for 2023-24: Allen will look to build on his solid ending to last season with an even better showing next season, and the Toppers will be going through a period of transition with Rick Stansbury out as head coach and Steve Lutz now in charge of the program. He averaged 9.3 points and shot 37.6 percent on threes for WKU in 2022-23. He transferred to Western Kentucky and got off to a slow start there before emerging as one of the Hilltoppers’ top scorers midway through last season. Allen had a couple of other big games as a redshirt freshman, but he didn’t play much toward the end of the season and was used sparingly as a sophomore. He was a brief sensation in his first season on the court, coming out of nowhere to hit seven threes and score 23 points off the bench in a double-overtime win at Mississippi State (after scoring just seven points and appearing in only four games to that point in the 2020-21 season). Basketball from Pendleton County sat out his first year at UK due to injuries.
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