Former Duke Basketball Standout Reverses Course and Heads Back to Missouri

College athletics has taken an interesting turn over the years but the recent five-for-five rule has made some things complicated.

While the rule approves a fifth year for college athletes, many are trying to take advantage of that and return for an extra year. Court rulings in different states allowed players to come back before rulings then shot it down. At this rate, it's hard to predict which of those players will be eligible for these football and basketball seasons.

And that includes former Duke Basketball standout Mark Mitchell.

After two years at Duke, Mitchell transferred to Missouri, where he spent the past two seasons with the Tigers. But he opted to transfer to Kentucky with the new rule in place, and attempted to join a Wildcats roster that was reloading. 

But on Monday, he reversed course.

Mitchell has now decommitted from Kentucky and will instead return to Missouri as a member of the 2026-27 team for the Tigers. The move happened because of SEC rules and the ongoing problems between the conference and the Wildcats on the transfer, as Cats Pause wrote:

Mitchell did not enter the transfer portal during the original window, believing himself to be out of eligibility, and thus, when he was granted a fifth year to play college basketball, was an illegal in-conference transfer.

The SEC, in a new list of guidelines and rules put out, stated that any SEC program that recruited an intraconference athlete that did not enter the portal during the window could face punishments of fines and a suspension for the head coach of up to 50% of the season.

With the issues with transferring, one side or maybe both, felt it was best to just move on and not risk a penalty. It's also made for some awkward times in the sport, mainly for the SEC, where Mitchell will return to Missouri.

Last season, Mitchell was fantastic for the Tigers averaging 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. He shot 54.7 percent fro the field and 38.8 percent from the three-point line. 

As Mark Pope and Kentucky looked to complete their roster, the addition of Mitchell was going to be an important one. Now, they will have to move forward with what they have.