Monday Headlines: Basketball Decisions Edition

Mar 27, 2023 - 11:45 AM

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament Second Round-<a href= — Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

We’re one week removed from Kentucky’s postseason exit from the NCAA Tournament. With the offseason comes decisions for each player’s future. While they still have plenty of time to decide, Kentucky Sports Radio noted on Sunday what they anticipate will happen.

Expected to Stay: Adou Thiero, Brennan Canada, CJ Fredrick, Lance Ware

Expected to Go: Cason Wallace, Daimion Collins, Jacob Toppin, Oscar Tshiebwe, Sahvir Wheeler

True 50-50 Decisions: Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston, Ugonna Onyenso

The “Expected to Stay” column is promising for a few reasons. Thiero has an incredible motor and work ethic with a second year jump highly anticipated. Ware is the soul of the locker room and a voice a young team could benefit from next season. Canada’s return is to be expected while Fredrick could be intrigued by the thought of what a fully healthy season at UK might look like.

The “Expected to Go” column has the most names, including some of Kentucky’s best players from this past season. That’s to be expected with Wallace having the ability to be a lottery pick. Toppin and Tshiebwe could both return to Kentucky and heavily benefit from NIL deals, but it’s likely both are on their way out. Collins is expected to transfer closer to Texas to be with his family and Wheeler’s finish to the season is more reason to indicate he’ll look for options outside of Lexington.

The “True 50-50 Decisions” column is what’s troublesome. Chris Livingston had a decent finish to the year, but feels like he could take a PJ Washington-like jump with more time to develop over the course of a second season at UK. Livingston isn’t being mentioned in many NBA mock drafts and there’s not much indication that will change. It’s almost certain that Reeves will go un-drafted if he leaves. He has an opportunity to return to UK for one more season and capitalize on a nice NIL deal while also getting one more year of college. Ugonna Onyenso hasn’t given any indication that he’s leaving, but there seems to be a worrying sense that a program could pry him away from Kentucky. It’s expected John Calipari and his staff will fight like crazy to retain their highly touted big man.

Let us know what you think about the futures of each of these players. Should they stay? Should they go? What do you think they’ll decide to do?