Mark Pope and Kentucky have landed its eighth transfer portal addition of the offseason as Farleigh Dickinson power forward Ansley Almonor signed to the Wildcats Friday following his commitment Thursday.
Ansley is one of the best shooting mid-major bigs out there and he is a tremendous mover without the basketball,” Pope said via press release. “He’s a fearless competitor with great leadership qualities. Ansley is a finance major who comes from an unbelievable family from Haiti. He’s a great addition to this roster as a veteran presence with a lot of college basketball under his belt.”
Almoner, who will be entering his final year of eligibility, is a Spring Valley, New York native. He played each of his first three college seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson.
The Empire State native is a three-star transfer portal prospect ranked the portal’s 317th best player and 52nd best power forward.
As a freshman during the 2021-22 season, he averaged 3.5 points per game in 24 games and four stars.
He played in 36 games and started 34 as a sophomore during the 2022-23 campaign, averaging 13.6 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists. He helped lead the Knights to a Northeast Conference tournament title by averaging 13.3 points per game in FDU’s three conference tournament wins and then led the team to a First Four victory in the NCAA Tournament over Texas Southern by scoring 23 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
In the Round of 64, Almonor and No. 16-seeded FDU upset No. 1-seeded Purdue. He scored one point, grabbed two rebounds and picked up two steals in the historic win over the Boilermakers. He then scored seven points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Knights’ loss to N0. 9-seeded FAU in the Round of 32.
This past season, he put together a First Team All-NEC campaign.
In 32 games and 31 starts, he averaged 16.4 points per game, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists while shooting 43.6 percent from the field, 39.4 percent from three on 236 attempts and 80.0 percent from the free throw line. He scored a season-high 30 points in a win over Le Moyne, went for 27 in a loss to Columbia, 26 in a loss to Jacksonville and was twice named the NEC Player of the Week.
Almonor fills a need for the Wildcats in the front court as he becomes the second power forward added to UK’s 2024-25 roster joining Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr.
With the addition of Almonor UK has now filled 11 of its 13 scholarships with transfers Amari Williams (Drexel), Lamont Butler (San Diego State), Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), Carr, Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), Koby Brea (Dayton) and Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia) as well as incoming freshman Collin Chandler, Travis Perry and Trent Noah all on board.
The Cats are still in pursuit of an all-around scorer, with BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson, North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier, and Miami transfer Wooga Poplar all on its radar. All three players are currently going through the NBA Draft process and must remove their names from the draft by the end of May to return to college.
