Another John Calipari player is leaving Kentucky. This one plans to stay in the NBA draft.
Another University of Kentucky men’s basketball player made an announcement regarding his future Monday night.
Ugonna Onyenso — a 7-foot sophomore on this past season’s UK team — will declare for the NBA draft. Onyenso plans to hire an agent and forgo his remaining two years of NCAA eligibility, according to ESPN.
He said that he made his decision before meeting in person with new Kentucky coach Mark Pope.
“As of today, I don’t plan on entering the transfer portal,” Onyenso told ESPN. “I feel like I am ready for the NBA. I haven’t met with Mark Pope. I only spoke on the phone with him three days ago. I’m ready to go to the next level and show what I can do, but I’m not closing any doors.”
Onyenso, a 19-year-old post player from Nigeria, had a more definitive statement in the same interview with ESPN, who ranks him as the No. 47 overall prospect in the 2024 draft.
“I’m not thinking about coming back to play college basketball,” he said. “I’m 100% focused on the NBA.”
The transfer portal closes on May 1, and any players who have not entered their names by that point would remain with their current schools if they returned to college basketball. The final NBA draft deadline is May 29.
Onyenso played sparingly as a freshman — arriving on campus just before the start of the 2022-23 academic calendar — before emerging as the Wildcats’ starting center in year two despite missing the entire preseason and the first month of games with a foot injury suffered over the summer.
He averaged 3.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots in 18.6 minutes per game, making 14 starts in 24 appearances as a sophomore. He made his debut in the Cats’ win over North Carolina on Dec. 16 and blocked 10 shots in a victory over Ole Miss two months later, setting a new UK record for most blocks in a game in Rupp Arena and tying the overall mark held by Navy’s David Robinson, who swatted 10 Kentucky shots in a loss in Lexington in 1987.
Onyenso is the latest Kentucky player to leave the program in the wake of John Calipari’s departure. The longtime UK coach stepped down last week after 15 years with the Wildcats to take over the Arkansas Razorbacks’ program.
