According to Pat Forde, all signs are pointing to Stanford transfer Reid Travis landing at Kentucky.
Forde followed his update with a jab at John Calipari:
To update the update: all signs pointing toward Reid Travis as a grad transfer to Kentucky. Different kind of one-and-done. Calipari has been critical of grad transfers in the past, but I guess situations change.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) May 31, 2018
Here’s an excerpt from Forde’s article where he discusses one-and-done and says the Final Fours have stopped at Kentucky and Duke:
In 2015, when Duke won the national title and Kentucky finished 38-1 and advanced to the Final Four, the two programs had a combined nine players drafted. Since then the highly touted recruits have kept coming and going, but the Final Fours have stopped.
In 2016, Kentucky tapped out of the NCAA tournament in the round of 32, its earliest elimination under John Calipari. Duke advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating No. 13 seed UNC Wilmington and and No. 12 Yale, then it was routed by Oregon. The Wildcats had three players drafted (Jamal Murray, Skal Labissiere and Tyler Ulis) and the Blue Devils had one (Brandon Ingram, third overall). Each program also lost players to transfer: Marcus Lee and Charles Matthews from UK; Derryck Thornton from Duke.
In 2017, Kentucky advanced to the regional final before losing to eventual national championship North Carolina at the buzzer. Duke was upset in the NCAA second round by eventual Final Four team South Carolina. Seven players from the two teams were drafted — four from Duke (Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard, Harry Giles, Frank Jackson), three from Kentucky (De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Bam Adebayo). All but Kennard were freshmen. And, once again, that was not the only underclass turnover — Isaiah Briscoe and Isaac Humphries both left Lexington and went undrafted, while Chase Jeter transferred out of Durham.
This past season saw Kentucky eliminated in the Sweet 16 by Kansas State and Duke lose in the regional final to Kansas in overtime. Despite once again not reaching the programs’ lofty goals, the player exodus is major. Four freshmen are leaving the Blue Devils for the draft (Marvin Bagley III, Wendell Carter, Trevon Duval, Gary Trent), and three for sure are leaving the Wildcats (Hamidou Diallo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Knox). Kentucky learned Wednesday that freshman P.J. Washington is returning to school, but Jarred Vanderbilt and Wenyen Gabriel made the decision to go pro. Sacha Killeya-Jones and Tai Wynyard also both left UK this spring, after two seasons.
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