Roster overhauls are not uncommon in today’s era of men’s college basketball.

This offseason is no different, with around a dozen power-conference schools returning zero or just one player from this past season. It has been a growing trend as the sport has become more reliant on the transfer portal, with salary caps dictating roster construction and teams adding seven to eight players in the spring becoming the new norm.

Last week, we looked at how the Final Four teams — and Duke — have been approaching the offseason. This week, we’re putting the same focus on the three winningest programs in college basketball history: Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. None made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, and each face massive rebuilds heading into next season.

All information as of 9 a.m. ET on April 20

Players leaving: Bill Self faces arguably the biggest rebuild of the three programs featured here.

Potential No. 1 pick Darryn Peterson was gone regardless, but All-Big 12 big man Flory Bidunga‘s decision to enter the portal and head to Louisville was a difficult loss. Starting wings Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White were seniors, and six more players joined Bidunga in the portal. The biggest loss among that group was Bryson Tiller, who started 31 games and looks poised for a breakout season in 2026-27. Making matters worse, Tiller committed to rival Missouri.

Players staying or incoming: The retention list is short. Kohl Rosario, who started the first six games of this past season before seeing his role diminish as the year progressed, is back and still has a high ceiling.

Self has the fifth-best class of incoming freshmen, led by five-star point guard Taylen Kinney. Two more SC Next 100 recruits, Davion Adkins and Trent Perry, and four-star guard Luke Barnett round out the group.

Kansas has also landed two players out of the portal thus far: Utah transfer Keanu Dawes and Toledo transfer Leroy Blyden Jr. Dawes was one of the Big 12’s best rebounders last season, ranking in the top 50 nationally at 8.8 per game. Blyden, a 6-foot-1 point guard, was the MAC Freshman of the Year.

Players in limbo: Freshman big man Paul Mbiya has been an interesting follow. He suddenly played a key role in the NCAA tournament, reports emerged that he planned to enter the portal … and yet, he’s still on the Jayhawks and hasn’t portaled yet.

Work to do: Kansas has a massive amount of work to build a roster that can compete next season. The Jayhawks’ top target is No. 1 recruit Tyran Stokes, who they appeared on track to land until a recent trip to Kentucky cast doubt on their status as the front-runners.

Kansas has hosted a long list of players from the portal, although Terrence Hill Jr. (Tennessee) and DeSean Goode (Miami) have committed elsewhere. Charlotte big man Anton Bonke was on campus last week, as was Utah transfer Terrence Brown, though UNC appears to be the favorite for Brown.

With Blyden committed, Self needs a scorer with size on the wing. Vyctorius Miller (Oklahoma State) is among the players on the Jayhawks’ list for that role. In the frontcourt, Cincinnati transfer Moustapha Thiam — one of the best bigs left in the portal — is among their targets, though he is visiting Michigan this week.

Players leaving: A roller-coaster season that started with the nation’s largest payroll and ended with a second-round loss to Iowa State in the NCAA tournament portended a roster overhaul.

The starting backcourt of Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen is out of eligibility (although Florida is attempting to secure an extra year for Aberdeen), while Jayden Quaintance was expected to declare for the NBA draft. Six more players also entered the transfer portal, including starting guard Collin Chandler and frontcourt mainstays Andrija Jelavic, Mouhamed Dioubate and Brandon Garrison.

Players staying or incoming: Two key contributors are back from last season: starting center Malachi Moreno and rotation wing Kam Williams, who missed most of the second half of the campaign with a broken foot. Moreno has a chance to be one of the best centers in the country next season.

Role player Trent Noah and redshirts Braydon Hawthorne and Reece Potter are also back. And Kentucky’s lone high school commit is four-star guard Mason Williams, son of new assistant coach Mo Williams.

After missing on a few early portal targets such as BYU’s Robert Wright III and Georgia’s Jeremiah Wilkinson, Mark Pope finally landed his 2026-27 backcourt last week with Washington transfer Zoom Diallo and Furman transfer Alex Wilkins. Diallo averaged 15.7 points and 4.5 assists last season for the Huskies, while Wilkins was one of the most electric first-year point guards in the country and boosted his stock with 21 points against UConn in the NCAA tournament.

Players in limbo: Barring a surprise return from Quaintance, Pope isn’t waiting on any stay-or-go decisions.

Work to do: Kentucky still has plenty of targets left on the board, with overall No. 1 recruit Stokes at the top of the list.

Stokes is down to the Wildcats and Jayhawks, with a decision expected to come at any point. Pope could use a statement signing to help the overall vibe in Lexington, and they don’t get much bigger than Stokes. Kansas had the lead entering Stokes’ recent visit to Kentucky; did Pope flip momentum on the trip?

Kentucky needs shooting, and NC State transfer Paul McNeil Jr. is on the short list. Utah transfer Terrence Brown was also a target but visited North Carolina and Kansas and hasn’t rescheduled a visit to Kentucky. Up front, the Wildcats are prioritizing Syracuse transfer Donnie Freeman, one of the best players available. Former USC center Gabe Dynes is expected to visit this week; the 7-foot-5 Dynes would provide interior depth.

Players leaving: With Hubert Davis out and Michael Malone in, extensive roster turnover was inevitable.

Projected top-five pick Caleb Wilson was headed to the NBA regardless, while Seth Trimble is out of eligibility. Still, nine players entered the portal following the coaching change, with Derek Dixon and Luka Bogavac the most notable, although two have since opted to withdraw and return to Chapel Hill to play for Malone.

It’s also worth noting that Carolina had a commitment from top-10 incoming freshman Dylan Mingo until he reopened his recruitment last week.

Players staying or incoming: The lone starter guaranteed to return from last season is Jarin Stevenson, who helped fill Wilson’s shoes after his injury and played well, averaging 10.7 points and 6.4 rebounds over the Tar Heels’ final 10 games. Jaydon Young and Isaiah Denis are returning after initially exploring the portal. And while Mingo opted to decommit, top-25 recruit Maximo Adams kept his commitment to the Tar Heels after the coaching change.

Since the portal opened, Malone added Virginia Tech transfer Neoklis Avdalas. The 6-foot-9 guard was inconsistent for most of his freshman season but generated first-round NBA draft buzz early in the campaign and has an intriguing combination of size and playmaking ability.

Players in limbo: All-ACC big man Henri Veesaar has yet to announce his intentions.

The proven big man could return to Carolina, enter the NBA draft or head into the transfer portal. Veesaar is essentially the linchpin to Malone’s first season who would be in the preseason All-American conversation should he return to college after averaging 17.0 points and 8.7 rebounds last season.

Work to do: There are two priorities for Malone right now.

One, as we just mentioned, is keeping Veesaar. He provides an anchor on the interior and would give the new head coach a player to build around. But given the timing of Veesaar’s pending decision, the lack of legitimate replacements at his position is glaring.

The second focus is a couple of perimeter scorers and playmakers, and the Tar Heels have a few players on their shortlist. Utah transfer Terrence Brown is atop the board; he has visited UNC and Kansas. Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris met with the Carolina staff a couple weekends ago, although he’s also going through the NBA draft process. NC State’s Matt Able and Paul McNeil Jr. have also been linked to the Tar Heels.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has publicly questioned the decision-making at the University of Kentucky, including the seven-figure gig retiring athletic director Mitch Barnhart was recently given.

Beshear’s chastisement, rare for a sitting governor, comes at a turbulent juncture for Kentucky athletics, which is falling behind its peers on the gridiron and the hardwood.

Barnhart, who will step down on June 30, was recently named executive in residence for the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative by Kentucky president Eli Capilouto. The contract for the gig, which will pay Barnhart $1 million per year beginning July 1, does not provide a concrete job description. That has prompted prominent supporters to ask the school to reverse the offer.

“I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky,” Beshear said in a statement Tuesday. “My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.

“I’ve been told that despite previously saying the dean must be approved by UK’s Board of Trustees, the university has shifted and now states approval is not needed. I worry that these actions are related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university. I hope students, faculty, trustees and the community attend this week’s board meetings and ask the tough questions that should be answered.”

Beshear’s criticism also follows the recent firing of football coach Mark Stoops in December after four consecutive sub-.500 seasons. He was replaced by Will Stein, who was the offensive coordinator at Oregon.

It’s also a difficult time for Mark Pope and the men’s basketball program, which is the winningest Division I team in NCAA history but hasn’t reached the Final Four since 2015. Last year, Pope made a run to the Sweet 16 in his first season. But that success didn’t last as his second season was filled with injuries and inconsistent efforts, ending with a 19-point loss to Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA tournament in March — only 48 hours after the team needed Otega Oweh‘s half-court heave at the end of regulation to force overtime in a win over Santa Clara.

Pope will enter his third season under a powerful spotlight after missing on major targets in the portal, including BYU guard Robert Wright III and Syracuse transfer Donnie Freeman, who picked St. John’s and Rick Pitino, Pope’s mentor. While Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class, is still considering Kentucky, the Wildcats have not landed a top-100 prospect in the current recruiting class, according to ESPN.

Hyderabad Kingsmen won the toss and elected to bowl first against Multan Sultans in the 33rd match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11 at Karachi’s National Bank Stadium on Wednesday.

Playing XI

Hyderabad Kingsmen: Maaz Sadaqat, Marnus Labuschagne (c), Usman Khan (wk), Saim Ayub, Kusal Perera, Gleen Maxwell, Irfan Niazi, Hassan Khan, Hunain Shah, Mohammad Ali, and Akif Javed.

Multan Sultans: Sahibzada Farhan, Steve Smith, Ashton Turner (c), Shan Masood, Josh Philippe (wk), Muhammad Nawaz, Arafat Nawaz, Muhammad Imran, Peter Siddle, Muhammad Waseem Jnr, and Muhammad Ismail.

Head-to-head

The upcoming fixture marks only the second meeting between Sultans and Kingsmen, while their maiden face-off saw the 2021 champions emerge victorious by six wickets.

• Matches: 1
• Multan Sultans: 1
• Hyderabad Kingsmen: 0

Form Guide

Multan Sultans and Hyderabad Kingsmen enter the fixture with similar momentum in their favour as the 2021 champions have four victories in their last five completed matches, while the debutants have three triumphs in as many games.

Overall, Sultans have six victories in the ongoing PSL 11 and thus sit second on the points table with 12 points after eight matches, and a victory over Kingsmen would seal their qualification for the playoffs with a match to spare.

Kingsmen, on the other hand, have three triumphs in seven matches, which came consecutively after four successive defeats.

Multan Sultans: W, W, L, W, W (most recent first)

Hyderabad Kingsmen: W, W, W, L, L