Here’s what Kentucky’s basketball roster could look like for next season
The abrupt ending to the college basketball season Thursday due to ongoing concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus means this particular Kentucky team will never play together again.
What’s next for this group of Wildcats? And what will next season’s roster look like?
This edition of UK’s “Who stays and who goes?” offseason will surely play out a bit differently than past years under John Calipari, who has always had multiple underclassmen leave campus early to make way for another group of highly touted recruits.
The cancellation of the NCAA Tournament will lead players with professional aspirations to go ahead and start making those declarations whenever they’re ready. With the NBA’s season currently suspended indefinitely, it’s unclear if the already scheduled dates for the Draft Combine (May 21-24) and the June 3 draft withdrawal deadline for college underclassmen will remain.
The NBA Draft has been scheduled for June 25 in Brooklyn, but that, too, could change.
Calipari made an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Thursday night and said he planned to have individual meetings with each of his players Friday. The future plans for those players will likely be discussed in those meetings, though UK’s coach acknowledged the uncertainty that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the entire basketball landscape.
“Now I’m going to have four or five guys put their name in the draft,” Calipari said. “When is the draft? When is the combine? … Will there even be a draft? That’s my meeting with them tomorrow.”
There’s still much to play out, but there’s also plenty that we already know about next season’s UK team.
Who’s leaving Kentucky?
Graduate transfer Nate Sestina — the only UK scholarship player in his final season of eligibility — will be gone. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in his only season as a Wildcat.
Also expected to leave are freshman guard Tyrese Maxey — a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft — as well as sophomore point guard Ashton Hagans and junior center Nick Richards, two players that came back to Kentucky to improve their draft stock and are currently projected by virtually every major outlet as second-round picks in this year’s draft.
Richards was the team’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, and Maxey and Hagans were third and fourth in team scoring, respectively, with Hagans leading the Cats in assists and steals and Maxey second on the squad in both categories. A return to UK by any of those three players next season would be a surprise.
The most interesting postseason decisions will belong to sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley and sophomore forward EJ Montgomery, two former McDonald’s All-Americans who were role players as Kentucky freshmen.
Quickley emerged as a star this season and ultimately earned Southeastern Conference player of the year honors, leading UK with 16.1 points per game and shooting 42.8 percent from three-point range.
ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony told the Herald-Leader recently that one thing Quickley had not yet done as a college player is prove that he can play point guard — his likely position in the NBA — at a high level. Givony suggested that Quickley could boost his draft stock by returning to Kentucky for another season and that he’d likely have a chance to earn the starting point guard spot while still playing some off the ball as a junior.
But Givony has also moved Quickley to the No. 60 overall spot on ESPN’s list of the top 100 prospects for this year’s draft — which includes a total of 60 picks — and he’s starting to pop up on other prominent mock drafts.
Simply put, Quickley, who turns 21 years old in June, might’ve already played his way into this year’s draft, and it would probably be classified as a surprise if he returns to Lexington for a third season, though the Herald-Leader was told Friday that there’s still a chance he could be back at UK.
Montgomery — a 6-10 forward — averaged 6.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game as a sophomore, occasionally showing flashes of the versatile game that made him a top-10 national recruit early in his high school career.
Givony told the Herald-Leader that he had not heard any chatter surrounding Montgomery from NBA decision-makers, a sign that he would probably not be selected in this year’s draft. Montgomery could still enter his name in the draft, go through the process, and gather information, but Givony said another year (or two) of college basketball would most likely provide the best path to a professional basketball career.
The rest of UK’s players
The only other scholarship players on Kentucky’s roster are all freshmen: Keion Brooks, Johnny Juzang and Dontaie Allen, who missed all of this season as he recovered from knee surgery and would retain that season of eligibility as a redshirt.
There has not been any NBA Draft chatter surrounding any of those players, and it’s almost certain that all three will return to college. If Montgomery were to also return, that could give Kentucky a total of three players with previous experience playing under Calipari, as well as Allen, who was with the team all season and projects as a skilled, versatile scorer once he gets healthy enough to play.
The NCAA’s proposed “immediate transfer” rule — a measure that is expected to pass and go into effect in time for next season — could complicate Kentucky’s roster situation. There have been no overt signs that any of the aforementioned UK players intend to enter the transfer portal, but the possibility can’t be discounted completely. The Wildcats have had five players transfer out of the program over the past four years, in addition to the departure of Kahlil Whitney from this season’s team.
The NCAA’s new rule would allow current players to transfer to another school this offseason and play immediately for their new program in the 2020-21 season, provided the required stipulations are met.
Still, for now, it appears that Allen, Brooks, Juzang, possibly Montgomery (and maybe Quickley) will return to Lexington for next season.
The newest Wildcats
Kentucky has the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class coming in next season, a group of six early signees that features point guard Devin Askew, shooting guards Brandon Boston and Terrence Clarke, wing player Cam’Ron Fletcher, and power forwards Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware.
Boston and Clarke — a pair of 6-6 and 6-7 shooting guards and possible top-five national recruits — are the surest bets in that bunch. They’ll be expected to provide Kentucky with a dual-threat perimeter scoring punch from day one, and both could be NBA lottery picks after next season.
Askew — a 6-3 point guard — is the No. 25 overall player in the 2020 class and an unselfish playmaker who can shoot from the perimeter. He’s not as highly touted as some of Calipari’s previous five-star point guard recruits, and it might take him a bit longer to emerge as the clear leader on the floor for the Wildcats, who would surely benefit by a returning Quickley to shoulder some of that on-ball load and ease the burden that comes with being a freshman point guard at Kentucky.
“I think that would be huge for Askew to have another guy like that,” Givony told the Herald-Leader a couple of weeks ago. “There are some things to like about him with his size and his feel for the game and his shooting ability, but it’s going to be a real transition for him. … I think there will be some ups and downs. And having someone like Quickley there to bring him along, I think would be huge.”
Jackson and Ware — both 6-9 power forwards — should be able to make impacts right away as freshmen, though neither is projected as a one-and-done NBA pick and both are likely to experience some growing pains early on.
Jackson has the reputation as one of the most athletic frontcourt players in high school and one of the best post defenders in the 2020 class. Ware has a versatile offensive game and should be able to guard multiple positions in the frontcourt. Jackson and Ware are No. 28 and No. 31 in the 247Sports composite rankings, respectively.
Fletcher — a highly athletic 6-6 wing with a still-developing skill set — is UK’s lowest ranked signee at No. 46 overall, but he could make an impact next season as an energy guy who hounds opposing offensive players, rebounds well for his size, and fights for 50/50 balls. Rivals.com national analyst Eric Bossi recently told the Herald-Leader that Fletcher could fill the role that Kahlil Whitney was tasked with — but seemingly never fully embraced — midway through this past season.
“I think he’s going to be a role player, a guy who comes in and can provide energy,” Bossi said. “Frankly, what they were kind of hoping to have gotten out of Kahlil Whitney after it became evident that he wasn’t going to be like ‘the man’ as a starter. To use his athleticism and maybe cause some mismatches as a tweener ‘3’-’4’ kind of guy. And I think that, because that’s been his role for a while now, I think maybe he’ll be a little bit more accepting of that.”
Any late recruiting additions?
Five-star forward Greg Brown — a 6-foot-9 prospect from Austin, Texas — is the only player left in the 2020 class with a scholarship offer from Kentucky, but the Cats are generally not seen as favorites in his recruitment. Memphis and Texas have been sharing that status for a while, and Auburn and Michigan are also on Brown’s list.
There are several players in the 2021 class that are expected to reclassify to 2020 — including No. 1-ranked junior Jonathan Kuminga — but Kentucky is also not seen as the favorite, for the time being, in any of those recruitments.
That means that any late additions for next season would more likely come via transfers, and that’s looking more and more like a realistic possibility.
If Quickley leaves — along with Maxey and Hagans — the Cats could try to land a transfer with point guard skills to share the position with Askew, who would otherwise be the team’s only point guard on the roster. (Askew, it should be noted, was originally in the 2021 class, doesn’t turn 18 years old until late July, and will be one of Calipari’s youngest freshmen since he came to Kentucky).
If Richards leaves, which is widely expected, UK would be on the lookout for a physical post player. Even if Montgomery were to return, neither he nor Jackson nor Ware would fit that description, and Calipari has shown in the past that he likes to have such players on his roster.
If a grad transfer — or an immediately eligible player under the proposed NCAA transfer rule — in the mold of Reid Travis or Kerry Blackshear Jr. were available, that player could be a perfect fit for Kentucky’s 2020-21 roster.
The coming days and weeks will provide more clarity on the transfers that might be available for next season. As it stands, the next group of Kentucky Wildcats projects to be talented enough for another preseason top-five national ranking, and the program could be only a decision or two — or an addition or two — away from No. 1 status to start the 2020-21 campaign.
In the meantime, UK’s current players will be making decisions regarding their own futures.
“I met with them as a team on the way back to Lexington and I’ll have individual meetings with them tomorrow so they can figure out what’s next,” Calipari said in a statement released by UK late Thursday night. “We’re still working through all that. Whatever that is for each individual player, we’ll be there every step of the way for them. I’m going to say it again: I’m going to miss coaching this group.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 7:35 AM.
