2025/26 roster?

[TheRealVille]

As of today, there's 9 players who are or will be currently on the roster.

Front court:
Scott
Khalifa
Pryor
Fru
Rooths

Back court:
Brown
Hadley
Rogers
Johnson

Some questions and some unknowns.

1. Will those who played return?
2. How good are the two redshirts?
3. How many other newcomers will there be?

The only sure thing would seem the two signed freshmen will be here. Pryor also said today he will be back. But we all know things could change in a minute in the NIL world. Even signed letter of intents are no guarantee.

This includes the two redshirts who both are 5th year seniors. Looking at their stats from their former teams, both appear to be more like role players instead of star players. Could they be recruited over with the portal?

Both Scott and Rooths are projects and have a lot of improvement to make. Will Kelsey seek to find more talented and polished players in the portal? Will the star recruit Nate Ament sign?

Will Koren Johnson return to be the backup to a true freshman? Will Hadley choose to accept a smaller role and come back?

Some people are privy to who the coaches believe are the players they want back regardless of who may transfer in. Both Khalifa and Rogers are supposed to be two of those players.

I guess it really all comes down to how many and how good any transfers will be. Pretty soon we will start reading about the many players that are in the portal. Kelsey may be content with his current roster and only needs to add a few complimentary transfers, or he may be looking to improve the rosters over some of the current players?

I don't have any insight, but I can produce a guess. I believe Kelsey would accept transfers over current players if those transfers are star players like Hepburn and Edwards. Players like Hadley and Johnson and the redshirts could easily be told they may want to make a date with the portal.

Would Coach Kelsey want to be loyal to guys like Rooths and Scott or would he be ready to recruit over them?

I'm more interested in this than the rest of the NCAA tournament.

 

[Thecycle27]

I think this year shows the importance of team chemistry and good culture. You want to keep the leaders. That is a priority. They have to get the really talented freshman in check.

The way it looks this could be a really small portal year. They may only add 1-2 guys which I would love. Continuity matters.

4-5 spot 5 legits guys-Khalifa, Scott Pryor and Fru. Add 1. Athletic good defender again decent 3 point shooter.
3) Rooths and Hadley. Add 1 Ament would de enough here. Nasty group here. Hadley may not stay and they may miss on Ament. Ament has to be as good as advertise. Rooths has to work on his shooting. Ridiculous athletes that defend multiple spots.

They get Ament then they may not have to get another 4-5 because he could slide to 4.
To me that is a hell of a front court even if they don’t add.

The key to the season is the back court. Doesn’t sound like Johnson is coming back.

Rodgers and Brown. Only room
For 2 guys. One has to be elite shooter-scorer. The kid from Iowa is an example but sounds like he is going to UK. The other need to have played at this level or really good at the lower.

Really fluid. They miss on Ament, Johnson, Hadley and Rooths all leave. Then they have some work to do.

 

[2330859]

My only advice is that Kelsey have no less than 13 Division 1 players with sufficient talent to compete at NCAA Tournament level on the 2025-26 roster.

He must have a true rotation of 10 players, and expect going in that at least 2 or three will experience injuries and be unavailable. This game has reached NBA physicality, and you can expect injuries. The only way to survive, is have enough roster for depth, and talent contribution that does not require any kid having to play over 32 minutes a game. Chucky was spent by tournament time, but gave everything he had, along with Edwards and Hadley.

 

[Bardman]

Don’t think you can call a starter (Scott) a project. Rooths is not bad - he’s a FR who will continue to improve. Still would call him a project.

 

[shadow force]

Need to upgrade the front court, especially the center position. Would love to have a big rim protector that can also shoot/score. I love Scott's effort and athleticism but he is simply too limited offensively to get the Cards where they want to be. He almost literally only dunks and that's it and is terrible at the FT line. Unsure of Aly at this point in time.

It will be very difficult to replace Hepburn at PG. He was one of the best UofL point guards ever in his one year here and a true floor general on both ends. I know Brown Jr. is talented but he's still only a freshman.

Need more quality depth at every position. Need another sharp shooter from 3 to replace Reyne. More guards too in case of injury or foul trouble. Can't have another class with two injury redshirts even though I know CPK was planning on using Kobe and Aly next season. Frank tried his best but he simply wasn't good enough to play at this level. Think we need an overall upgrade in talent and athleticism all around where possible.

Just hard to say right now without knowing for sure who is returning and who is leaving.

 

[TheRealVille]

Don’t think you can call a starter (Scott) a project. Rooths is not bad - he’s a FR who will continue to improve. Still would call him a project.

Sure you can, especially when he only started because there was no one else. James Scott is not just a average shooter, he's a horrible shooter. He has no post moves either. All he did offensively this season was dunk lobs. He's a total project.

Doesn't mean he can't improve.

 

[CardHack]

Sure you can, especially when he only started because there was no one else. James Scott is not just a average shooter, he's a horrible shooter. He has no post moves either. All he did offensively this season was dunk lobs. He's a total project.

Doesn't mean he can't improve.

To be completely fair to James, he is a good ballhandler for a Center and this is where not having Reyne on the floor hurt him. A Center could drop off in the lane on pick-and-rolls when Reyne wasn't on the floor because defenses just overhedged on both Chucky and Terrence on those dribble motion handoffs that took place on the free throw line extended. When we had Reyne that Center had to come up to hedge and they had to switch.