It has only been 12 hours since the transfer portal officially opened for men’s basketball, and Kentucky has already lost six players to the transfer portal, mostly recently one of its starting guys in Andrija Jelavic.

Jelavic, a 6-11 forward out of Zagreb, Croatia, became Pope’s first recruit from overseas, and became a key part of Mark Pope’s rotation, and eventually earned a starting spot over Mo Dioubate in the beginning of SEC play.

He continued playing significant minutes in the absence of Kam Williams after Williams’ injury against Texas on Jan. 21.

He averaged 5.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 0.4 steals, playing 15.6 minutes per game in rotation with Dioubate, and finished four games with double-digit scoring margins.

Two of those performances came against SEC opponents, the first being an 11 point five rebound performance against LSU, and the second being an 11 point 3 rebound performance against South Carolina.

The former 4-star recruit committed to Kentucky after spending two seasons with Mega Superbet, a professional Serbian team. 

While Jelavic is technically a freshman, the NCAA ruled him as a sophomore due to his experience in the professional league overseas.

Jelavic was initially expected to be a key part of Pope’s offense, but expectations fell short, while he did shoot over 47 % form the field, he was limited in those shots overall, and from the three, shot just 27.6 from the three.

While Jelavic showed flashes of potential, similar to Brandon Garrison, it seems Pope’s focus for retention relies heavily on consistency rather than potential.

Kentucky awaits the decision of four remaining players in Collin Chandler, Kam Williams, Trent Noah and Jayden Quaintance.

Pope will now turn to an overflowing transfer portal in search of new role players, as the Wildcats currently have just one incoming commitment and only two confirmed returners in Reece Potter and Brayden Hawthorne.

Players will have until April 21 to enter the transfer portal.