BYU transfer Aly Khalifa set to visit Louisville

The Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball program has had a chaotic last month since the season-ending loss to Oakland.

This week, the Wildcats went from John Calipari to Mark Pope as the program’s head coach.

While it felt like a much-needed transition in power, a deep tournament run could’ve kept Calipari in Lexington for at least another season. It was probably time to move on after a few disappointing runs, but the Pope era is likely to be far different.

Pope, a former player at Kentucky himself, was the head coach at BYU.

The Cougars will likely have a plethora of players, like many programs, that hit the transfer market. Several may follow Pope to Lexington, but the Cougars center, Aly Khalifa, has a visit scheduled to Kentucky’s rival, Louisville, in the near future.

The 6-foot-10 center went from Charlotte to BYU, spending two seasons with the former and then one with the latter. At Charlotte, he averaged 7.6 points as a freshman and then 11.7 as a sophomore.

With the Cougars under Pope, Khalida got 19.4 minutes per game and turned that into 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game, also notching a career-high 4.0 assists per game.

The Cats hope to bring several players from Pope’s squad while also potentially bringing in recruits and keeping players from Calipari’s final roster. Kentucky will have a long road ahead to craft their 2024-25 roster.