Jordan Burks, a late addition for UK basketball last year, has chosen portal destination

Former UK men’s basketball player Jordan Burks has his transfer portal destination.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Burks — a 6-foot-8 forward from Decatur, Alabama, — will become a Georgetown Hoya after playing one season at UK.

Burks, who entered the NCAA transfer portal April 19, averaged 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per game last season. He played in 20 games as a freshman.

Last season, Georgetown went a dismal 9-23 overall in head coach Ed Cooley’s first season with the Hoyas.

To begin the 2023-24 season — which was ultimately John Calipari’s final season as the Kentucky head coach — Burks was a backup post player. He was deployed in that role while all three of Kentucky’s 7-footers (Aaron Bradshaw, Zvonimir Ivisic and Ugonna Onyenso) were unavailable to play.

But once those big men began seeing the court for Kentucky in December, Burks’ playing time dipped significantly.

Only once in SEC play last season did Burks play more than seven minutes in a game: That came during a blowout win at Vanderbilt on Feb. 6, when Burks scored 13 points in 15 minutes.

Burks didn’t play in either of UK’s postseason games in March: An SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M and an NCAA Tournament loss to Oakland.

Similarly to former UK guard Joey Hart — who announced he would transfer from UK to Ball State after also playing one season in Lexington — Burks was a late addition to Kentucky’s top-ranked 2023 recruiting class.

Ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a three-star recruit out of high school, Burks was originally committed to and signed his national letter of intent with another SEC school, Ole Miss. Burks backed off that pledge after a coaching change in Oxford when Kermit Davis was fired and Chris Beard was hired.

Burks was ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 178 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class.

He committed to Kentucky last June and said playing for Calipari was the driving force behind his decision to come to UK.

“I feel confident in my decision because Coach Calipari is genuine,” Burks said when he committed to the Cats last summer. “He’s a family guy. He’s honest, he doesn’t lie. He tells every player the same thing. It’s not going to be easy, because if it was easy then everybody could do it. That’s why (Kentucky is) the best fit for me, because (Calipari) wasn’t promising me any minutes, nothing. Just, ‘You’ve got to come work. You’ve got to work for what’s yours.’”

Burks was one of only five three-star recruits (per the 247Sports Composite) to ever play for Calipari at UK.

According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Burks ranked as the No. 507 overall player in the transfer portal, as of Thursday morning.

Mark Pope constructs his first Kentucky basketball roster

First-year Kentucky head coach Mark Pope is building his first UK basketball roster from scratch.

Along with Burks, Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State), Joey Hart (Ball State), Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) and Adou Thiero (Arkansas) are players from the 2023-24 Kentucky squad that will transfer to new schools. Additionally, Ugonna Onyenso and D.J. Wagner are still in the NCAA transfer portal.

Also from last season’s team, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Reed Sheppard have declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves have exhausted their college eligibility.

Five of the six players that Calipari had lined up in Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class decommitted from the UK program.

Fland, Knox and Richmond have already committed to Calipari and Arkansas. Somto Cyril will be going to Georgia and Jayden Quaintance will be going to Arizona State.

In-state guard Travis Perry, the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history, is the only original UK recruit in the 2024 class who will remain committed to UK and play for Pope, who was previously the head coach at BYU and Utah State.

Perry is one of 10 players who are known to be part of Pope’s first Kentucky basketball team.

The others are first-year guards Collin Chandler (a former BYU signee) and Trent Noah (a former standout at Harlan County), third-year guard Otega Oweh (who previously played two seasons at Oklahoma), fifth-year guards Koby Brea (who previously played four seasons at Dayton), Lamont Butler (who previously played four seasons at San Diego State) and Kerr Kriisa (who previously played at Arizona and West Virginia), fifth-year forward Amari Williams (who previously played four seasons at Drexel), fifth-year forward Andrew Carr (who previously played two seasons each at Delaware and Wake Forest) and second-year center Brandon Garrison (who played last season at Oklahoma State).

May 1 was the deadline for college basketball players (including graduate transfers) to enter the transfer portal. The early-entry deadline for the 2024 NBA draft has also already passed.

Players who entered the draft with remaining NCAA eligibility have until May 29 to remove their names from consideration and return to school.

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