Analytics believe Kentucky has the second most talented roster in college basketball

Mark Pope pressed every correct button when it comes to building a roster for the upcoming 2025-26 season, which is why the Kentucky Wildcats will be one of the best teams in the nation.

There are four boxes to be checked when putting together a college basketball roster: 1) Land players in the transfer portal, 2) Land elite high school recruits, 3) Retain players from your team the year before, and 4) Find international talent.

Coach Pope checked all four of these boxes with his roster for the upcoming season, adding fire to the fact that this team can win the national title.

One of the best analytics pages in college basketball now is Bart Torvik, and one of the metrics on this website really likes the Kentucky Wildcats. One metric that means a lot is the Projected Effective Talent numbers, and the Wildcats' number was 87.6. This was good for second, only behind the Duke Blue Devils, whose number is 90.5.

It doesn't come as a surprise that this number is so high for Duke, as they have so much projected NBA talent, but so do the Wildcats. Jayden Quaintance is a player who many expect to be selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, and more than likely, he will be a top ten pick.

Jasper Johnson, Kam Williams, Otega Oweh, Jaland Lowe, and Malachi Moreno are players on this team who have a shot to be a first-round pick if they play well for Pope's Wildcats.

If the Kentucky Wildcats have as much talent as these metrics say, it is hard to see Pope not having one of the best teams in college basketball.

Knowing the Wildcats have all of this talent on one of the deepest rosters in college basketball, it should help Pope's team keep fresh legs throughout the long season.

Many believe that once John Calipari left for Arkansas, Kentucky wouldn't have a lot of elite talent, but according to these numbers, Pope's roster is more talented than Calipari's. Arkansas's projected effective talent number is 79.9, so Pope has an edge.

Kentucky fans get a little more excited every day for the college basketball season and seeing metrics like this lifts the level of excitement even more. Coach Pope, in his second year at Kentucky, has the Wildcats looking like a title contender with one of the best rosters in all of college hoops.