Kentucky Expected to Be Involved With San Francisco SF Tyrone Riley

Kentucky is getting involved with a familiar name this offseason. San Francisco wing Tyrone Riley is expected to garner interest from Kentucky this transfer portal, sources tell KSR.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound small forward averaged 12.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.0 steals per game in 31.8 minutes per game during the 2025-26 season, earning All-WCC honors. He earned 2024-25 WCC All-Freshman honors after averaging 9.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game in 28.2 minutes per night.

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Kentucky’s First Pursuit in 2025

Tyrone Riley made the WCC All-Freshman Team in 2024-25 after averaging 9.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 assists in 28.2 minutes per contest, starting in all 34 games for the Dons. After that season, Riley entered the transfer portal to a serious wave of interest, including Kentucky.

Mark Pope made initial contact in early April, then UK assistant Jason Hart flew out to California to meet with Riley’s father. Despite the interest from Kentucky, Riley eventually withdrew from the portal to return to San Francisco on April 6 — a 10-day process from start to finish.

“It was a very long process for me and my family,” Riley told KSR in June. “It took a lot of talks at night, a lot of seeing the good and bad of programs, seeing what would be the best spot for me. What I eventually did was stay at USF.”

While playing at the 2025 USA Basketball Men’s U19 National Team Training Camp in Colorado Springs, Riley caught up with KSR to talk about that interest from Kentucky. He said Kentucky’s staff got involved in later than most, and their conversations only lasted a couple of days

“We talked for maybe two days. It was a little late from when they realized I jumped into the process, but it was nice talking to Coach Pope,” Riley said. “I talked to him in high school when he was at BYU, so me and him already have a pretty good connection. I just didn’t have enough time to build relationships and get a feel of what the program would look like, the trust to be there, and trust my next year of college there.”