TheCatsDomain.Com Message Boards: Guard with extensive ties to UK staff enters transfer portal

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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 06-13-2021, 01:40 PM:

This offseason, Kentucky has already added a pair of Illinois assistants. Could the Wildcats now add a former Illini player as well?

Illinois freshman walk-on guard Edgar Padilla Jr. entered the NCAA transfer portal on Friday, CatsPause.com has confirmed.

Padilla is the son of Edgar Padilla Sr., who was the starting point guard on John Calipari’s 1995-96 UMass team that reached the Final Four before falling to eventual national champion Kentucky at The Meadowlands in New Jersey. Padilla Sr. played for Puerto Rico in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and also played professionally in Puerto Rico, where he was a teammate of Illini assistant Orlando Antigua.

Calipari tabbed Antigua, along with fellow Illinois assistant, Chin Coleman, in early May to replace Tony Barbee, who left to become the head coach at Central Michigan, and Joel Justus, who took the top spot on Bobby Hurley's Arizona State staff.

Padilla Jr. appeared in five games for the Illini as a freshman last season, playing a total of six scoreless minutes. He was also was a member of the Puerto Rican junior national team in 2019 where he averaged 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists during the FIBA U17 Centrobasket Championships in San Juan. The 6-foot-1 guard went to high school at San Ignacio de Loyola in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Including guard Davion Mintz, who has declared for the 2021 NBA Draft but could still return, 12 of the Wildcats' 13 scholarships are spoken for. Kentucky loses senior walk-on Riley Welch but returns forward Brennan Canada and guards Zan Payne and Kareem Watkins.

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