LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky forward Ugonna Onyenso will return for his sophomore season with the Wildcats.

"I'm back and looking forward to chasing my dream of winning a national championship with my brothers!" Onyenso wrote in a statement on his personal Twitter account Wednesday night.

His announcement came exactly a week after multiple reports surfaced stating Onyenso had entered the NCAA transfer portal. At that time, a spokesperson for the men's basketball program told The Courier Journal they could not confirm Onyenso's transfer.

Onyenso was never expected to be a key piece of last season's rotation after reclassifying to enter college a year early. He played sparingly with upperclassmen Oscar Tshiebwe and Lance Ware in front of him at center. A 6-foot-11, 255-pound big man, Onyenso finished the 2022-23 campaign having appeared in 16 games, averaging 6.9 minutes an outing.

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Onyenso could play a far larger role next season. Kentucky coach John Calipari teased the possibility of starting two 7-footers — alluding to Onyenso and incoming freshman Aaron Bradshaw — in 2023-24.

"He (Onyenso) will be one of the best, if not the best, big guys in the country," Calipari said during his March 13 radio show.

Onyenso showed great promise on defense with limited playing time, especially as a shot blocker. He averaged one block per game in 2022-23; extrapolated out, that would be 5.8 blocks per 40 minutes.

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Per Sports-Reference.com, Onyenso's block percentage — a measure estimating the percentage of an opponent's two-point field goal attempts blocked by a player while on the floor — of 15.9 would have been the ninth-best season by a Division I player since the statistic started being tracked in 2009-10 had he played enough to qualify.

Onyenso and Bradshaw are two pieces of next season's front court set in stone.

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Who will join them is still up in the air.

Tshiebwe and freshman Chris Livingston have declared for the draft but could elect to return. Neither Ware nor Daimion Collins have revealed whether they will be back at UK or intend to transfer.

Depending on those decisions, the Wildcats could turn to the transfer portal for additional support.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball news: Ugonna Onyenso enters NCAA transfer portal