Mark Mitchell will be in Mizzou Arena this coming season.
But the star forward will be wearing Wildcat blue.
Mitchell has committed to play for Kentucky out of the transfer portal, with his decision coming shortly after he was granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA in a Louisville courtroom that allowed him to enter the transfer portal and play anywhere he likes in the 2026-27 season.
The 6-foot-9 forward from Kansas City, Kansas, spent two standout seasons with Missouri basketball, helping take the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years and leading the team in scoring both years in the process.
His move to Kentucky took a somewhat complicated path.
While he was eligible to return to college in a since-rescinded ruling out of a Colorado courtroom that granted eligibility to all Class of 2022 athletes seeking a fifth season of eligibility, he only had one option: Return to Mizzou.
The Colorado ruling did not allow him to enter the transfer portal. For that — and, later, to even return to college at all due to another federal court rescinding the Colorado ruling — to happen, he needed a temporary restraining order.
That’s where the Kentucky courtroom came in. The decision from Judge Brian Edwards in a Louisville courtroom on Friday, Aug. 21, allowed Mitchell and nine other athletes the ability to enter the transfer portal and communicate with other teams.
It was obviously significant that Mitchell, despite having no other known ties to the Bluegrass State, joined a lawsuit in Kentucky.
The former McDonald’s All-American who spent two seasons at Duke before transferring to Missouri will now head to another blue blood school for the final chapter of his college career.
A move to Missouri did not appear to be off the table, but a couple of significant roadblocks stood in the way of the Tigers bringing the star back to Columbia.
First: Mizzou had reached its roster limit for the upcoming season. The Tigers have 15 players on scholarship this year, which is the NCAA maximum. To bring Mitchell back, Mizzou would have needed to remove one of those players from the roster.
Second, and perhaps even more significantly: The reported figures on the table for Mitchell to transfer to Kentucky are well into the millions. Missouri has already loaded up on talent that almost certainly will make the Tigers a preseason top-25 team.
Players like Jason Crowe Jr., Tony Bryant, Bryson Tiller, Jamier Jones and more did not come to Columbia for free. Money is not limitless, and Kentucky likely put an offer in front of Mitchell that the Tigers could not match.
Mitchell led Mizzou in scoring, rebounding and assists last season. He helped the Tigers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths and earned all-conference honors both times in the process. In 66 games after transferring from Duke, he scored 1,064 points, or 16.1 points per game.
The forward signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Denver Nuggets after going unselected in the NBA Draft this past June. He appeared in four games at NBA Summer League. Neither an Exhibit 10 contract nor appearing in Summer League games makes Mitchell specifically ineligible to return to college.
It’s worth monitoring a recent memo reportedly sent by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to member institutions, which essentially told teams to operate within NCAA rules and that regulations involving intraconference transfers “remain in effect until fully or individually waived.” Sankey has publicly opposed all moves that could bring players like Mitchell back to college.
Missouri hosts Kentucky on Jan. 9 at Mizzou Arena in a game that, if preseason projections materialize, could pit two of the frontrunners for an SEC title in the 2026-27 season.
Now, it looks like Mitchell will be playing for the opposition.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball forward Mark Mitchell transfers to Kentucky
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