The Kentucky basketball team picked up an intriguing commitment from the college basketball transfer portal on Monday. Former Miami Ohio center Reece Potter announced that he will play for Mark Pope and the Wildcats next season. Potter has spent the last two seasons playing for the RedHawks, and at 7'1″, he is a force down low. Potter is bringing good size and potential to Lexington.

“NEWS: Miami (OH) transfer Reece Potter, a 7-foot-1 center and Lexington native, has committed to Kentucky, he tells @On3sports,” Joe Tipton said in a post.

Reece Potter joined the Miami Ohio basketball team back in 2023, and he has had a couple of solid seasons with the RedHawks. As a freshman, Potter appeared in 26 games and he averaged 14.2 minutes per game. He finished the year averaging 6.0 points per game, 3.0 rebounds per game and 1.1 assists per game.

Potter's numbers went up a little bit this past season as he averaged 17.1 MPG in 30 games. He ended up averaging 6.5 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 1.2 APG. After the season ended, Potter decided that he wanted to move on from Miami Ohio, and now he has landed with the Kentucky basketball team.

Mark Pope just finished up his first year with the Wildcats, and it was a successful one. Kentucky was one of the best teams in the loaded SEC this year, and it ended up making a run to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats earned a three-seed and ended up losing to Tennessee in the Sweet 16.

Pope and Kentucky are looking to take things a step further next season, and adding talent in the transfer portal is always a big help. It will be exciting to see Reece Potter in a Kentucky basketball uniform next season.

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Transfer portal overview

The college basketball transfer portal opened up on March 24th, and it was open for about a month as it closed on April 22nd. The final game of the season took place on April 7th as Florida won the national title over Houston, and the portal opening up before then does create issues for teams that are still dancing.

First of all, players that want to transfer had to make a difficult decision. They could either finish up their season with their current team and miss out on potential opportunities, or they can skip the NCAA Tournament so they can find their next home. We saw this happen during the tournament as Michigan freshman Justin Pippen left the program before the Sweet 16.

This also creates an issue for coaches as they are trying to devote 100% of their time to tournament preparation. A lot of coaches want to wait until their season is over before they explore the transfer portal. All in all, the opening date creates some issues.

The college basketball transfer portal is only open during this initial window, unlike football, which has two different windows. There will be a lot of transfer portal news in the college basketball world even with the portal closed as there are still a lot players without homes yet.