WVU Transfer Tre Mitchell Commits To Kentucky

Kentucky looks to have secured what is likely their final piece to the 2023-24 men's basketball today, after news broke late Thursday night that this player had hit the transfer portal. Tre Mitchell, the standout West Virginia Mountaineer looking to spend his fifth-year elsewhere after head coach Bob Huggins resigned from the program due to a DUI incident, announced he would be headed a state over to Kentucky to play for John Calipari.

The public announcement came on Monday afternoon, fresh off of his visit to Lexington. "Next chapter," simply put Mitchell in his social media post.

The transfer will now join 7 freshman, 2 sophomores, and 1 fifth-year senior to help bring a little more experience to a very young roster.

He continued on his decision in a press release with the school, stating that, “Kentucky basketball and its fan base speaks for itself... An opportunity to be a part of something like this doesn’t come around very often. Coach Cal is a Hall of Fame coach who understands the game and the players he wants to play for him, but it’s the lifelong relationships with his players that stood out to me the most. That only happens when you know someone cares about their players."

“My team and personal goals this year are one and the same, grow and win as much as possible,” Mitchell said. “With a young core, growth is on the horizon and it won’t hurt for these guys to have someone with experience in college basketball to lean on when they need it.”

While he's new to UK fans, he's not new to Ethan Bock, the writer for West Virginia Sports Now who covered him for 34 games this past year. I asked him what kind of player and personality he'd be bringing the program. "Tre is a versatile player that can score at every level on the floor at the 4. He can be very inconsistent at times, but when he’s on, he’s on. As a person, Tre is a good dude and will represent the program in a first class manner."

New faces, new program, I too do not see that being an issue for the newest Wildcat. Tre has spent his collegiate career at many schools, starting with the University of Massachusetts in 2019-21, then at Texas University from 2021-22. Including last season in Morgantown, he's managed to average just under 14 points and 6 rebounds a game for his college career. In a program that lost a 16/14 a night kind of guy in Oscar Tshiebwe, the frontcourt was desperate this summer to fill some of the lost production. Standing at 6-foot-9 and weighing 225 lbs., he looks to be a great and last minute name from the portal to help the Wildcats this winter. And speaking of Tshiebwe, if I'm not mistaking, he came from that same school as well. I'm fine with trying our luck there again.

It's kind of odd to think, in the middle of June we were crying because we were stuck with only the No. 1 recruiting class and two inexperienced sophomores to walk-out on the court next season. In what seemed like a flip of a switch, the staff has managed to get a return in top-scorer Antonio Reeves and pull over a major addition in Tre Mitchell as the offseason movement is looking for a close.

He's now officially, a Cat... And our roster looks to be coming together nicely.