Kentucky’s final player from the Calipari era makes a decision. He’s going to transfer.
Kentucky’s Jordan Burks is entering the college basketball transfer portal.
The 6-foot-8 forward from Decatur, Alabama, is the last UK player from John Calipari’s final season with the Wildcats to reveal the next step in his basketball career, and he’ll be moving on from Lexington following one year with the program.
Burks averaged 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.1 minutes, making appearances in 20 of Kentucky’s 33 games as a freshman this past season. He began the season as a backup post player, with UK’s trio of 7-footers — Aaron Bradshaw, Zvonimir Ivisic and Ugonna Onyenso — all starting on the sidelines. Once those three players made their season debuts — Bradshaw and Onyenso in December, and Ivisic in January — the playing time for Burks dried up.
Other than scoring 13 points in 15 minutes against Vanderbilt on Feb. 6 — UK won that one 109-77 on a night when the entire team got in on the fun — Burks did not play more than seven minutes in any game once conference play began. His last action as a Wildcat came on Feb. 24, when Kentucky beat Alabama 117-95 in Rupp Arena and Burks went scoreless in three minutes on the court.
He did not play in either of UK’s two postseason games — the SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M and the NCAA Tournament loss to Oakland.
Calipari left UK after 15 seasons to become the new head coach at Arkansas, and he’s been replaced by former BYU coach Mark Pope, who will have a major roster rebuild to work though in preparation for the 2024-25 season.
Burks was originally committed to Ole Miss as a high school recruit, but he backed off of that pledge after Kermit Davis was let go following the 2022-23 season, with Chris Beard hired to take over the Rebels’ program.
247Sports ranked Burks as the No. 38 small forward in the 2023 class — he did not have a national ranking from that recruiting service — and he was No. 178 overall in the 247Sports composite rankings last year.
Burks’ decision comes after national freshman of the year Reed Sheppard revealed Thursday that he will enter the NBA draft — where he’s projected as a lottery pick — and forgo the final three years of his college eligibility. They were the last two scholarship players from the 2023-24 roster that had not yet made a public announcement on their basketball futures.
Rob Dillingham and Justin Edwards have already declared for the draft. Onyenso — projected as a second-round pick — is also in the draft and does not plan to return to college.
Bradshaw (Ohio State) and Ivisic (following Calipari to Arkansas) have already announced their transfer destinations for next season. Joey Hart, who played sparingly as a freshman, will play at Ball State next season. D.J. Wagner and Adou Thiero have also entered the transfer portal but have not yet made a decision on what comes next.
Thiero has a return to Kentucky among his final five options. The other schools on his list are Arkansas, where he’d rejoin Calipari, along with Indiana, North Carolina and Pittsburgh.
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