Less than a week after its season-ending loss to Iowa State, Kentucky is losing a key guard to the college basketball transfer portal. After appearing in only nine games in 2025-2026, Jaland Lowe will seek his third different school.
Lowe, who has not played since Jan. 10, will enter the transfer portal once it officially opens in April, ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported on Saturday. With a medical waiver, the 21-year-old could have two years of remaining eligibility.
Lowe had season-ending shoulder surgery in January, leaving his availability for the beginning of the 2026-2027 season up in the air.
Lowe committed to Kentucky from the 2025 college basketball transfer portal as one of the top guards on the market. The former four-star recruit broke out in his second season at Pittsburgh, averaging 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game in 2024-2025 as the Panthers' top scorer and facilitator. His arrival was supposed to help Mark Pope replace the departing Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson, but he instead spent most of the year nursing a pesky shoulder injury.
Despite his disappointing junior season, Lowe is expected to once again be among the top guards in the portal. He averaged just 8.0 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists in his nine-game stint with Kentucky.
Lowe is now the first Wildcat to announce his decision to enter the transfer portal since the team's March Madness run concluded. Kentucky is already set to lose leading scorers Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen, with forward Jayden Quaintance also confirming his decision to enter the 2026 NBA Draft.
Lowe, a Texas native, received offers from Texas Tech, SMU, Memphis, Boise State and Oklahoma State coming out of high school, among others.
