The best backcourt in all of college basketball? Not so fast, Kentucky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Earlier this summer, Jaland Lowe was listening intently to a question related to Kentucky’s backcourt for the 2025-26 season.

It clearly didn’t take Lowe — a veteran point guard with plenty of experience talking to reporters — long to figure out which way this particular question was going. Before some variation of “How good can this backcourt be?” or “Where does this group rank nationally?” could be asked, the affable 20-year-old interjected with a serious tone in his voice.

“Number one in the country,” Lowe said. “I think we’re the best backcourt in the country, for sure.”

The statement was unequivocal. But was it true?

Obviously, the college basketball season is still a couple of months and change from getting started, so any claims of this sort won’t be settled for a while. But, on paper, Kentucky certainly seems to have a case.

The Herald-Leader reached out to some of the most informed college basketball analysts for their take on the situation.

“Kentucky may well be in the discussion” for the nation’s best backcourt designation, said CBS Sports national writer Matt Norlander.

“They’re in the discussion,” echoed 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham.

“It’s certainly plausible for Kentucky to have the best backcourt in college basketball in 2025-26 …” teased longtime Sporting News national writer Mike DeCourcy.

Before getting to the “buts” that followed those opinions, a rundown of exactly what Mark Pope has assembled in Lexington for the upcoming season:

— Lowe was a third-team All-ACC selection at Pitt as a sophomore, with a game that seems perfectly suited to make a major leap forward in Pope’s offensive system.

— Otega Oweh was Kentucky’s leading scorer last season and is a contender — perhaps the favorite — for SEC preseason player of the year honors going into this one.

— Denzel Aberdeen was a key piece off the bench for the national champion Florida Gators this past season, a senior who can play on or off the ball and will be looking to show more of his game in his final college season.

— Collin Chandler is a former highly touted recruit who showed flashes of potential star power toward the end of last season after barely picking up a basketball for two years while on a Mormon mission trip.

— Jasper Johnson was a five-star prospect in the 2025 class, a possible one-and-done NBA draft pick with legitimate star power, especially as an offensive player.

That’s a pretty good group, made to look even better if wings are allowed into the discussion, bringing Tulane transfer Kam Williams and UK holdover Trent Noah into the “backcourt” mix.

“They could be the best,” DeCourcy reiterated. A “but” followed that statement, too, like so many others in this discussion.

Branham was blunt, his acknowledgment that the Cats might have the nation’s best backcourt followed by another one of those “buts” and then a warning that UK fans wouldn’t like the next thing that came out of his mouth.

“As of right now, I think Louisville has the best backcourt in the country,” he said. “They are stacked in the backcourt. I think they’re going to be a lot of fun to watch.”

Louisville vs. Kentucky

Branham made a convincing case for Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals claiming the nation’s No. 1 group of guards.

The conversation begins with U of L’s projected starting point guard, Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 6 overall player in the 247Sports recruiting rankings for the 2025 class and a potential breakout star for the upcoming season.

“Mikel Brown, we knew he was going to be good — and he’s a perfect fit for their system — but what he just showed at USA Basketball, he’s further along than we were anticipating,” said Branham, who referenced Brown’s performance with the USA U19 team that won a gold medal at the recent FIBA World Cup as further evidence of his impending greatness.

While BYU super recruit AJ Dybantsa won MVP honors for the Americans at that tournament, many who followed the games thought Brown might have had a better case. The 6-foot-3 playmaker averaged 14.9 points, 6.1 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 23.2 minutes per game, shooting 47.6% from 3-point range, leading the team in long-range makes by a wide margin and earning all-tournament team honors.

Johnson was on that team, too, averaging 8.0 points and 1.6 assists in 15.4 minutes, for comparison’s sake.

Brown is expected to play a much larger role at Louisville than Johnson is at Kentucky as a freshman. The Cards will need Brown to be good — perhaps great — right away, while Johnson has plenty of college basketball veterans at his position.

Will U of L’s freshman be up to the task?

“I think he’s going to be a star for them this season, with his ability to play both on and off the ball, create for himself and others,” Branham said. “He’s just so dynamic with his shotmaking, with his playmaking, his creativity with the ball in his hands. And physically, he keeps improving. He’s grown and keeps getting stronger. And he just keeps figuring things out. So he’s going to be an absolute star for them.”

ESPN’s first attempt at a 2026 NBA mock draft had Brown in the No. 5 spot. Louisville hasn’t produced a top-five NBA pick since Pervis Ellison went No. 1 overall in 1989.

Playing next to him in the Louisville backcourt? Three possible perimeter studs.

Ryan Conwell is a 6-4, 215-pound senior who led Xavier in total scoring (16.5 points per game) and shot 41.2% from 3-point range last season.

“An experienced vet that is physically built and ready,” Branham said. “He’s already competed at an extremely high level at Xavier this past year. He can fill it up in a hurry.”

Penciled into a third starting spot is Virginia transfer Isaac McKneely, a 6-4, 188-pound senior who led the Cavaliers in scoring last season and has gone 182 for 422 (43.1%) from deep over the past two years. He was one of only seven high-major players who averaged more than three made 3-pointers per game in 2024-25.

“Isaac McKneely is just a perfect complementary guard alongside all these guys, because of his high IQ, his willingness to play inside of the team concept, and his ability to make shots on the perimeter,” Branham said. “He’s never a guy that needs the ball in his hands, but he can play with the ball in his hands. He can make the right passes. He can create his own shots at times, but he’s a guy that allows others to create for him, as well. So, a perfect complementary piece there.”

And then there’s Adrian Wooley, a 6-5, 180-pound sophomore who played last season at Kennesaw State, averaging 18.8 points per game while shooting 42.2% from long range (with 73 makes) and 51.2% from the field.

Branham said Wooley, who is still 19 years old, should find a similar situation at Louisville to the one that Johnson is walking into at Kentucky: potential star power without ample pressure.

“He has Mikel Brown, Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely all to learn from this year,” Branham said. “And I think he’s going to get some good minutes this year. And it sounds like he has been doing really well already so far this summer — one they’re extremely excited about. I think there are going to be nights he’s going to go off, because of how he can score the basketball.”

In addition to Brown’s lofty recruiting ranking, 247Sports had Wooley at No. 9 in its final transfer portal rankings, followed by Conwell at No. 14 and McKneely at No. 20. No other program had three players in the top 20 of those rankings, and St. John’s was the only other school with two.

“So their backcourt is going to be — frankly, I think it’s the best in the country,” Branham concluded.

Best backcourt in college basketball?

Branham’s case for the Cards is a compelling one, but there are other contenders, too.

“In terms of two-man backcourts, I think Houston, Alabama, Purdue, UConn and Ohio State all will wind up factoring in here,” Norlander said.

Those are good choices.

Houston nearly won the national championship in April, and coach Kelvin Sampson will have yet another NCAA title contender this season, with Milos Uzan and Emmanuel Sharp returning to anchor his backcourt.

Alabama went to the Elite Eight last season with sophomore Aden Holloway and freshman Labaron Philon playing largely supporting roles behind some veterans. Both of those players could be bona fide stars this season.

Purdue has Braden Smith — the early favorite for national player of the year honors — and Fletcher Loyer, a fellow 1,000-point scorer, back for their fourth seasons with the Boilermakers.

UConn fell on relative hard times last season after back-to-back NCAA titles before that, and Danny Hurley’s Huskies look primed to compete for another national title, with coveted transfer point guard Silas Demary Jr. and sharp-shooting junior Solo Ball leading the way. (Another guard, freshman Braylon Mullins, was a five-star recruit and is projected by ESPN as the No. 19 pick in next year’s draft.)

And Ohio State has veteran point guard Bruce Thornton, who sliced and diced his way past Kentucky in a blowout win last December, and John Mobley Jr., who broke out as a freshman and should be even better this season.

In the case of Houston, Alabama, Purdue and Ohio State, all of the aforementioned players were teammates last season. Lowe, of course, will be new to Kentucky, as will Aberdeen and Johnson.

“Production and chemistry seem to get harder to predict with each passing year, thanks to the portal,” Norlander noted, adding that UK lost not only team leader Lamont Butler at the point, but major 3-point threats like Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson.

While this Kentucky team has plenty of perimeter upside, Kam Williams — not projected as a starter by most — led the current Cats with 63 college 3-pointers last season. That makes long-range shooting a major question mark for those looking at UK with an objective eye.

DeCourcy predicted that Oweh would “excel” as a senior and thinks Lowe and Aberdeen will be able to shoulder the on-ball load, as both scorers and facilitators.

“Jasper Johnson is a really talented freshman who can grow into a star-level player with experience,” he continued. “Kentucky has to be pleased with its depth at guard after getting productive play last season out of Trent Noah and Collin Chandler in games that really mattered.

“So they could be the best, but they’ll have to overtake Purdue, for one.”

DeCourcy pointed out that — beyond the two-man attack of Smith and Loyer — Matt Painter’s team will bring back C.J. Cox, who started 23 games as a freshman last season, plus returning contributor Gicarri Harris and top international recruit Omer Mayer, who could push Cox for a starting spot.

Kentucky will host Purdue for an exhibition game Oct. 24 in Rupp Arena.

And DeCourcy threw out a couple of other possibilities that weren’t on Norlander’s list.

“I don’t love Duke’s point guard situation, but I do believe in Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr and Cayden Boozer as talents,” he said. “With Meleek Thomas and Darius Acuff joining a resurgent D.J. Wagner and wings Karter Knox and Billy Richmond, John Calipari’s Arkansas crew might push UK for the honor of best backcourt in the SEC.”

And nobody even mentioned the new two-man backcourt of Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee at Florida, which will likely get top-notch perimeter play again this season in its defense of the NCAA title.

“The point is: There are a lot of contenders for such a designation,” DeCourcy concluded. “It’s great that Jaland believes in his group. If he’s even close to right, it’ll be a great year for UK. In order to fulfill that prediction, though, nearly everyone involved will need to shoot more proficiently from deep.”