The Kentucky Wildcats are on the board again.
Mark Pope and the Cats have landed a commitment from Fairleigh Dickinson forward Ansley Almonor.
Almonor will have one year of eligibility remaining.
Almonor began his college career as an unranked class of 2021 recruit out of Our Saviour Lutheran School in New York. He played sparingly as a true freshman, appearing in 24 games (four starts) while averaging 3.5 points and 1.7 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game. He showed signs of becoming an impact player down the stretch, reaching double figures in three of his final seven games while hitting 10 of his last 21 3-point attempts.
Over the next two seasons, the 6-foot-7, 219-pound Almonor became one of the best shooters and overall players in the Northeast Conference.
In the 2022-23 campaign, he averaged 13.6 points on 43.4% field-goal shooting (38.1% on 3s), 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game. The Knights made it to the NCAA Tournament as a 16-seed, beat Texas Southern in the play-in game, then took down top-seeded Purdue in the Round of 64, becoming just the second 16-seed all-time to take down a 1-seed before falling to Florida Atlantic in the Round of 32.
In the win over Texas Southern, Almonor recorded 23 points on 5/11 shooting (5/8 on 3s) and eight rebounds. But in the games vs. Purdue and FAU, he was held to eight total points on 2/12 shooting (2/8 from deep), with 10 rebounds, one assist, one block, two steals, and four turnovers.
Another notable performance that year came in an 83-61 loss at Pittsburgh in which he scored 10 points on 4/9 shooting (1/4 from deep) with two boards, two blocks, an assist, and a steal.
In the 2023-24 season, Almonor averaged 16.4 points on 43.6% field-goal shooting (39.4% on 3-balls), 5.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. His most notable performance came in a 104-71 loss at Illinois, where he recorded 20 points on 7/16 shooting (4/9 on 3s), three rebounds, one assist, one block, and one steal in 32 minutes.
He also scored 21 points on 7/16 shooting (4/12 from deep) with three boards, two assists, and a block in a 71-70 win over a Saint Peter’s team that won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament.
Almonor attempted 7.4 3s per game last season (12.8 total attempts) and 5.5 the year prior (11.1 attempts), so about half of his shot attempts come from deep. He’s also an 82% free-throw shooter for his career on 2.1 attempts per game.
Almonor primarily played from the 5 spot for the undersized Knights, but he’s more suited as a stretch 4 at a school like Kentucky playing in the SEC. He’ll be Kentucky’s fourth big man behind Amari Williams, Andrew Carr, and Brandon Garrison, though we should expect Otega Oweh to also log some small-ball 4 minutes as he did at Oklahoma.