Even though it’s not the most sustainable approach, creating competitive lineups via the transfer site has suddenly become the means to create a winner. We’ve moved past the days of John Calipari bringing in several elite talents for Kentucky; instead, Mark Pope continues to grow with this gateway every year. This offseason, several Wildcats found new colleges, but Kentucky eventually signed another well-known player.
A 6-5 guard from Mattapan, Massachusetts, excelled as a freshman at Furman this past season, growing into one of the top young guards in the mid-major and Southern Conference. Despite having only one year of college experience and set to make a significant move into the SEC, Wilkins demonstrated the ability and potential to succeed on a larger platform.
One of the most productive players in the Southern Conference, Wilkins averaged 17.8 points and 4.7 assists while he was a starter for the Paladins. In addition to being named to the Second Team All-SoCon and winning the league’s Tournament MVP award, he led the conference in assists and finished second in total points. As a true freshman, Wilkins was a very effective guard on the offensive end and made a lot of shots.
Wilkins’ career got off to a great start with a couple early 20-point performances. He also flirted with a double-double multiple times, finishing twice with a career-high nine assists. He led the SoCon in made field goals by spreading the ball and putting it in the hoop. He saved his best for the most crucial portion of the season, which included a season-high 34-point performance in the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals versus UNC Greensboro. He demonstrated his worth less than two weeks later with a heroic 21-point performance in a Big Dance loss to UConn.
Let’s not act as though Wilkins is the ideal guard; raw scoring ability is one thing. He continues to improve as a ball distributor and was one of the national leaders in turnovers. He will have much more difficulties at Kentucky since SEC defenses are far more formidable than those he faced the previous season. In any case, Wilkins demonstrated against UConn that he is not intimidated by the larger stage and that he had the natural ability to play a significant role in Kentucky’s backcourt.
stage.
Kentucky has been losing players through the portal, as we have mentioned, but they have now added a second new member to the transfer class. Although Pope and his staff are far from done this offseason, Wilkins and former Washington point guard Zoom Diallo are important components of an impressive new-look backcourt. Wilkins is a fantastic raw shooter who has the potential to become a star in the coming years, but Kentucky will need to do more in the coming weeks if they want to be a serious contender.
