Mark Pope is excited about adding players who are familiar with playing in the SEC

Kentucky has just three returning players for next season in Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah. Mark Pope and his staff hauled in an impressive transfer portal class to go along with the returnees and the two incoming Freshmen, Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Pope signed seven players from the transfer portal, with two of them coming from the SEC>

Mark Pope says he is happy about two of his incoming players being familiar with the conference, with one even winning a National Championship this past season. He's excited about all of the players he has coming in, but you can't replicate having that SEC experience under your belt. Mo Dioubate and Denzel Aberdeen have exactly that.

"I'm just excited about having great players. We're really blessed to have some great players coming in from the SEC and coming in from other places, in the country and in the world. We have guys that are veteran guys that have been through it. It's nice the SEC guys know the league and they know the physicality and they know talent and they kind of know the flow and venues are gonna be familiar to them. ...Mostly, I'm just excited about the guys that we got. This Mo Dioubate, man, I think he's a special person. ...The second or third conversation, we were talking about his family and his history and his faith and his commitment to all three of those things. He wasn't talking about that, he was talking about his life and how he thought about the world and his decision-making. But it was so clear and transparent that it's all built on those three foundations. I think he's special and then his skillset fits us in a brilliant way. ...This Denzel Aberdeen, he's coming here wearing a big, fat, giant ring and there's no way to replace that type of experience and he's a beautiful kid. Spending time with his parents was really special. Comes from a military background, he cares about people, and he's an incredibly talented basketball player. Specifically those two guys, I can't wait to get them here and I can't wait for them to come experience basketball at the University of Kentucky."Pope on his SEC experienced transfers.

Dioubate and Aberdeen are certainly familiar with playing in the SEC. That will help the team when conference play comes around, but nothing can compare to playing at the beast that is Kentucky basketball.

Brandon Garrison and the other two returnees will be key in helping the transfers along in the learning process with what all comes with playing at Kentucky and the expectations, but the two SEC transfers will have a leg up on the other newcomers as they get deeper into the season.