Another year, another stabilizing grad transfer for UK basketball

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Kentucky graduate student forward Nate Sestina dunks the ball to finish Kentucky’s game against Michigan State as part of the State Farm Champions Classic on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. UK won 69-62. Photo by Michael Clubb | Staff

For the second year in a row, the Kentucky men’s basketball team has added a player to its roster that we aren’t used to seeing in the blue and white. Last year, that player came in the form of Stanford graduate transfer Reid Travis, but this year, it’s Bucknell transfer Nate Sestina.

Every year the UK basketball program has to get used to playing with essentially a brand-new roster, which is why we’re used to hearing head coach John Calipari talk about his teams not fully coming together until the end of the season. However, older, experienced guys like Sestina and Travis bring an edge that a consistently young Kentucky team needs.

Sestina, a 6-foot-9 forward from Emporium, Pa., brings communication to the floor, which is important for a young team.

“He can help us. But there are times that I’ll say, Nate, don’t say one word. And then it’s crickets,” Calipari said. “Because he is so dominating with his voice, sometimes they get to where, we’ll all play off of him. You can’t do that. Not in these loud arenas. Everybody. But it’s one of the things young kids have to learn. But it’s nice to have him starting us.”

Sestina averaged 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game his senior season at Bucknell and was named to the Second Team All-Patriot League. Calipari told reporters that good communication on the floor stems from maturity and experience, and his vocal skills are infectious.

“To be honest he’s like a stretch 4, he shoots it, good with the ball. It’s nice having a veteran that talks. I mean he overtalks, he tries to get the guys to talk,” Calipari said. “He can play some 5, but if you play him at 5 you’re going to stretch the court with him as a 5 and probably post somebody else. But he’s good in the post. Reid was just a physical — Nate lost 25 pounds. So he’s at 235 right now and physically in great shape and running and he’s really been a great addition to this group.”

Travis was the first incoming transfer UK had added since Mychal Mulder in the 2015-2016 season. Whether or not the Kentucky basketball program will continue to consistently recruit grad transfers is up in the air, says assistant coach Joel Justus, but they’ll take as a year-by-year basis and see what the needs of each team will be.

“I think it goes back to finding the right guys. I think whether they’re in high school, whether they’re five-star, four-star, whatever it is, you’ve got to have the right people,” Justus said. “You can’t really tell what that group (graduate transfers) is going to look like until a later date. Whereas if you’re looking at high school players, you’re kind of seeing who they’re going to be…. I think it’s worked out really well with Reid, we’re really happy with where Nate is right now. I think it all goes back to, ‘do they want this?’”