This morning, five star freshman forward Kahlil Whitney formally announced his transfer out of the University of Kentucky. Ranked by one service as the #11 overall player in his recruiting class, the Chicago native has seen his playing time, and statistical production significantly diminish as the season has gone on.
There had been rumors of Whitney seeking a transfer away from UK circulating for weeks already, so this announcement is not all that surprising.
Here’s the tweet Kahlil Whitney made at 10:50 this morning:
Thank You?? Next chapter?? pic.twitter.com/P3z1RNzHa8
— Kahlil The Dragon Whitney (@KahlilWhitney) January 24, 2020
If you look at the replies to that tweet, you’ll see that an overwhelming majority are responses from Illinois Fighting Illini fans hopeful he’ll come back and play in his native state. There have been rumors Whitney could transfer to Illinois circulating for some time, and on paper it makes sense. Illinois has a dominate one and five on the roster, but the could use a talented natural three like Whitney in their lineup.
Just three weeks ago, we sat down for an exclusive with The Dragon in Lexington, and you can read part one here at this link and part two over at this link. During the interview, we discussed the other schools that were in his final cut before he selected Kentucky, and the short list included Illinois, as well as Florida State, Oregon and Georgetown.
Naturally, one could assume that any of those four schools could be the next destination for him.
If he decides to transfer, he will have the ability to do so to any school without any restrictions, per NCAA rules.
It’s also possible that he’ll just enter the NBA Draft process, and bank on impressing scouts and GMs via the combine and workouts. He averaged just 3.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in only 12.8 minutes of action in 2019-20. He becomes just the 12th player to transfer away from Kentucky in the John Calipari era.
At 1:04 pm, UK sent out their release on Whitney, and it included the following statement from Coach Cal.
“First and foremost, Kahlil is a great kid,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “This is tough for me because Kahlil is a tremendous person who is going to do great things. I certainly don’t want to see him go because I wanted to continue to coach him, but I understand his decision and, as we always do here, will support him in whatever way we can.
“As I told Kahlil today, I hope he goes on and does his thing and makes us all proud.”
“I know he will stay in touch with us and I know our fans will continue to support him as he takes this next step.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.