LEXINGTON, Ky. — It didn’t take Mark Mitchell long to decide that he wanted to be a Kentucky Wildcat.

Mitchell, one of the top basketball players in the SEC over the past two seasons, committed to the Cats on Saturday, just one day after earning another season of eligibility and transfer rights through a lawsuit against the NCAA that was adjudicated in a Kentucky courtroom.

The legal wrangling in Mitchell’s case will drag on, possibly for several more weeks, but he is now officially part of Mark Pope’s roster for the 2026-27 season and will be allowed to join the team and enroll in classes at UK. The fall semester begins Monday.

Mitchell — a 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward from Kansas City, Kan. — spent the past two seasons at Missouri after playing his first two years of college basketball at Duke. Before that, he was a McDonald’s All-American in the high school class of 2022.

Pope has been looking to make a 15th and final addition to his 2026-27 roster for the past several weeks, noting the particular need for a player who could bring some physicality and versatility to the frontcourt.

Kentucky’s search centered on two such possibilities in recent days. One of those players, former Michigan State forward Jaxon Kohler, an elite rebounder for the Spartans last season, committed to BYU on Thursday night after having multiple conversations with Pope.

Mitchell was also at the top of UK’s wish list, however, and he had been more closely linked to the Cats than Kohler, a Utah native who grew up 15 miles from BYU’s campus and was expected by many in college basketball circles to head back home for the 2026-27 season.

Pope didn’t waste any time reaching out when Mitchell was officially allowed to enter the transfer portal Friday afternoon. And a commitment came swiftly after that.

Shortly after Mitchell entered the portal, 247Sports inserted him at No. 6 in its national transfer rankings.

“He’s a really versatile forward that does a lot of the small things to impact winning,” 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader. “He’s a big forward. He’s really mobile. He covers ground. He’s versatile defensively. He’s a good rebounder. He’s really smart. He’s tough. He’s not a good shooter, but he’s an effective slasher who uses his body well and has really good touch around the rim.

“At the end of the day, he has his limitations, but he’s aware of his limitations and plays to his strengths really well. That drives winning.”

Mitchell’s addition will be a major boost to Kentucky’s prospects for next season.

Four of the spots in UK’s starting lineup were presumed to be filled coming out of the team’s eight-week summer practice session, with transfer guards Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins expected to start in the backcourt, top-ranked transfer Milan Momcilovic locked in at one forward spot and returning starter Malachi Moreno, an NBA draft prospect, cemented at center.

International addition Ousmane N’Diaye, a 22-year-old player from Senegal with multiple seasons of professional experience in Europe, and James Madison transfer Justin McBride have been viewed as the top options to fill a traditional 4 role in Pope’s lineup, but neither player locked down that status over the summer.

Mitchell, if he’s ultimately ruled eligible at the end of his legal process, is now expected to be the starting 4 for the Cats, who were already projected to be ranked in the 15-20 range nationally to begin the season and should see that standing improve with the addition of another proven college veteran.

After starting 67 games over his first two seasons at Duke, Mitchell transferred to Missouri and became an even bigger star for coach Dennis Gates’ program. The 22-year-old has been an All-SEC selection in each of the past two seasons. As a senior at Mizzou, he averaged 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

Mitchell has also improved greatly as a secondary playmaker and 3-point shooter over the past year. His assist rate nearly doubled from his junior to senior seasons, and he shot a career-high 38.8% (albeit on only 49 attempts) from long range last season.

Brandon Mitchell, the player’s agent and older brother, told the Herald-Leader that Mitchell would be looking to raise his shot volume from beyond the arc during his fifth season of college basketball. Mitchell has never attempted more than 54 3-pointers in any of his four college seasons.

“I think one thing to point out is the volume of shots. Because he can shoot,” his brother said “There’s a stigma that, ‘He can’t shoot.’ Like, if you pull out the tape, show me where he can’t shoot. He can shoot, right? If you see more shots go up from him, then you’re gonna see more shots go in.”

Pope has implored his frontcourt players to shoot more 3s (if they’re capable of making them) over his first two seasons as Kentucky’s coach, and he’s built a Year 3 roster — led by Momcilovic, the top outside shooter in college basketball — that shouldn’t be shy letting it fly from long range.

“This team can really shoot it,” Pope said as summer practice was coming to an end. “My goodness, we have a lot of weapons that way.”

Branham is among those who are skeptical that Mitchell will turn into a high-volume threat from 3-point range. “I’m not envisioning that he’s going to be taking a lot of 3s next year,” he said, listing outside shooting as one of the player’s limitations, along with being left-hand dominant as an offensive player. But those are nitpicks for a forward who should bring plenty to UK’s lineup.

“I think he’s a real needle-mover and establishes an even higher floor for them entering the season,” Branham said, projecting that Kentucky should now be in the 10-15 range in the preseason rankings, with a lineup capable of making a deep NCAA Tournament run.

If Diallo, Wilkins, Momcilovic, Mitchell and Moreno do indeed form Pope’s starting five, the UK bench would be filled with other proven 3-point shooters like Kam Williams, Jerone Morton, Trent Noah and McBride, as well as potential floor-spacing college newcomers Mason Williams and Braydon Hawthorne, plus the physical presence of low-post threat Franck Kepnang, a 7-footer who’s expected back up Moreno at the 5.

Kentucky is also already familiar with what Mitchell is capable of on the court.

UK squeaked out a 78-72 victory over Missouri in the SEC Tournament in March, but Mitchell nearly led the Tigers to an upset in that game. He scored a career-high 32 points, with 23 of those coming in the second half, including a flurry that saw the versatile forward drop 14 points in a span of seven minutes to put Mizzou ahead late in the game.

In the UK locker room afterward, the Cats were still awestruck by Mitchell’s performance. Denzel Aberdeen was asked what had gotten into the Missouri forward.

“I have no idea,” Aberdeen said. “But he went crazy.”

Moreno lamented that UK had let Missouri stay within striking distance, noting that it almost cost the Cats the game, thanks to one player.

“We were kind of letting them play around,” he said. “And then once Mitchell got hot, he got hot.”

Now, Mitchell is a Wildcat, though his eligibility battle will continue.

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards issued a temporary injunction Friday that granted Mitchell the right to enter the transfer portal and gain eligibility for the 2026-27 season, but his ruling will not be the final word in that case.

The NCAA, which has been on the losing side of similar lawsuits in several other states over the past few weeks, has vowed to continue its fight to keep players from the high school class of 2022 from playing college sports during the 2026-27 school year.

Players from that class were not grandfathered into the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility model, which was implemented earlier this year and will give all current and future college athletes a total of five years to play up to five seasons in their respective sports.

That decision left players in Mitchell’s situation out of eligibility despite having played only four seasons at the college level, leading to the wave of lawsuits around the country this summer.

There is no exact timetable for Mitchell’s case to be resolved, though he will be permitted to take part in team activities in the meantime.

Kentucky’s regular season opener is set for Nov. 3 against Manhattan in Rupp Arena.

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