Welp, Mark Mitchell’s stint as a Kentucky Wildcat lasted all of about nine days.
On Monday afternoon, On3’s Joe Tipton reported that the 6-foot-9 fifth-year transfer has decommitted from Kentucky and will be heading back to Columbia, Missouri, seeking to become a member of the Missouri men’s basketball program — again.
Earlier this summer, on July 31, a federal court ruling initially granted Division I athletes from the high school class of 2022 an additional year of eligibility, opening the door for players such as Mitchell to potentially return for a fifth season.
The ruling that unfolded on July 31 was later appealed, and temporarily paused, which created the complicated eligibility situation that we’re seeing now.
Although a Kentucky judge granted Mitchell a temporary restraining order, which allowed him to play for Kentucky this season, his journey to Lexington became murky after the SEC voiced its concerns about professional athletes returning to college.
Which brings us to today, when Mitchell ultimately re-enrolled at Missouri, seemingly avoiding a potentially complicated legal battle over his transfer to Kentucky.
Mitchell would have been a massive addition to Kentucky’s 2026-27 roster; there’s no other way to word it, as he averaged 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists this past season for the Tigers, all of which were team-highs.
Ranked as the No. 6 overall player in the transfer portal, Mitchell’s commitment even propelled the Wildcats’ transfer class to No. 1 in the nation, joining Milan Momcilovic (Iowa State), Franck Kepnang (Washington), Zoom Diallo (Washington), Jerone Morton (Washington State), Justin McBride (James Madison) and Alex Wilkins (Furman).
Kentucky’s front-court is back to the way it was before Mitchell’s commitment, consisting of Malachi Moreno, Ousmane N’Diaye, Kepnang and Kam Williams.
Now, as Mitchell heads back to Missouri, we’ll wait and see if head coach Mark Pope decides to take another jab at filling the 15th roster spot, or if he’ll just stay out of this eligibility mess completely and run with the roster as it currently is.
Our own, Tanin Smith, broke down the news today in video form on our YouTube channel and it’s great. Watch it when you get a chance to help better understand how we got here today.
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