The 6-foot-9 forward from Spain shot 41.3% from deep last season.
With the new landscape of college basketball, there is no time for rest, no offseason, and no form of downtime.
For coaches, it’s a 24/7 commitment if you plan to compete in the transfer portal effectively.
This time last year, Kentucky Wildcats fans got a first-hand glimpse of Mark Pope’s capabilities in building a roster.
In just a few short weeks, Pope assembled a team that would go on to have a monster season of huge wins, including a trip to the Sweet 16.
Now that he’s proven what he can do on short notice, the pressure is on the entire UK coaching staff to crush the portal in year two.
One name that continues to be associated with Kentucky is Alvaro Folgueiras from Robert Morris University.
The 6-foot-9 forward was born in Spain and has been on the Colonials’ roster for the past two years. He will enter the 2025-26 season as a junior, so he could be someone who’s a big contributor for Kentucky across multiple seasons.
Jacob Polacheck of KSR reported that the Kentucky coaching staff met with Folgueiras on Monday via Zoom.
In addition, fellow KSR staff member Ryan Lemond made a bold prediction that Kentucky would land Folgueiras and San Diego State transfer Magoon Gwath this week.
Mind you, Lemond made this prediction before Travis Branham and Joe Tipton logged predictions for Kentucky to land Gwath, so perhaps Kentucky is close to adding Folgueiras as well.
Folgueiras saw a major uptick in production from his freshman to sophomore campaigns. After averaging just 5.3 points while playing 17.5 minutes a game in year one, he’d explode in year two, upping his scoring average to 14.1 points per game while increasing his minutes to nearly 30 per contest.
Folgueiras has a well-rounded game, as he also averaged over nine boards per game while dishing out 3.2 assists from the forward position.
When discussing the Mark Pope offense, the first question that comes to mind is how to evaluate talent in the transfer portal.
Can they shoot?
The short answer here is yes.
Folgueiras had a breakout season from behind the arc, raising his 3-point percentage to 41.3%. He’d nail a total of 45 three balls for the Colonials.
Pope also puts a lot of value in bigs who can pass, and 3.2 assists per game is definitely on the high end for a college forward.
Without question, Folgueiras will be a weapon for whatever team he chooses to play for next season.
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