A 7-footer from the Philippines is UK’s newest basketball target. ‘He’s a big-time prospect.’
In its efforts to bolster next season’s frontcourt, Kentucky is exploring an international option.
Kai Sotto — a 7-foot-2 center from the Philippines — was on UK’s campus for an unofficial visit Monday, marking the next step in a process that could evolve into one of the most-watched recruitments to close out the 2020 cycle.
247Sports national analyst Evan Daniels first reported the plan for Sotto to visit Lexington, and he has seen him play numerous times over the past year and a half. As of Monday morning, the international center — playing this season for The Skill Factory, an Atlanta-based prep team — was not ranked by 247Sports, but that is about to change.
“He’s a big-time prospect,” Daniels told the Herald-Leader. “He’s legit over seven-feet tall and, for his size, has very good mobility, a very good set of hands, and really nice touch around the basket. He’s got some scoring moves in his arsenal. He can step away from the rim and play out of the high post. He can make jump shots all the way out to the high school three-point line. The offensive package is pretty advanced and continues to get better. From a talent standpoint, he’s pretty gifted.”
Sotto averaged 11.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks in 28 minutes per game for the Philippines at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Greece this past summer and put up 16.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game at the FIBA U17 tournament last summer.
Daniels scouted him at both of those events and most recently saw him at last month’s National Prep Showcase, which also featured top-ranked Kentucky signee Terrence Clarke and several other star recruits. Daniels included Sotto on his top performers list from that event.
“He does have a good feel for the game,” he said. “This is a kid with a pretty decorated international career playing in FIBA stuff. He’s been the star on all those Philippines teams. The feel is there. There’s a high basketball IQ. There’s a skill and offensive package that’s really impressive for a 17-year old.”
Daniels said Sotto’s body still has “a ways to go” but has been encouraged by his added weight and strength since first watching him play last summer. He estimated that Sotto has added about 10-12 pounds since then, putting him at around 210 pounds right now.
“The biggest area has been adding weight. That was the biggest concern from the first time I saw him,” Daniels said. “He was extremely thin and physically weak. And added weight has really helped him. For a guy that has aspirations of playing in the NBA, I think coming over to the United States and playing against high-caliber competition has been good for him. It’s a different speed and physicality level, so I think those things will help him.”
Star in the Philippines
Sotto won’t turn 18 years old until May, and he comes from a basketball family.
His father, Ervin Sotto, was a 6-7 center who played professionally for more than a decade in the Philippines, and Kai has already developed quite a following in the country due to his early promise on the court.
His journey to the United States has been chronicled by local media outlets back home, and a marketing team recently launched a professional website — KZsotto.com — to track his status.
“In the Philippines, basketball is almost a religion, and watching my dad grow up playing professional basketball just made me love it more,” Sotto said in a recent Overtime video feature. “I can’t finish a day without playing basketball or watching basketball or just playing video games about basketball. Basketball is part of my life now.”
Sotto’s father told ESPN earlier this year that his son had received several offers to play for European professional teams such as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. He said then that Kai would be traveling to the United States to work on his game with the long-term goal of playing in the NBA, but that college basketball was not in the plans.
That has seemingly changed.
Former Auburn star and assistant coach Chuck Person — one of the coaches arrested two years ago as a result of the federal investigation into corruption and college basketball — has been one of Sotto’s trainers in the United States.
“His basketball development has been tremendous,” Person said in a recent YouTube video. “He’s a willing learner. He wants to be great. And, again, when you’re trying to be great, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. It’s a day-to-day, in-the-moment-type training. And he’s very good at it. He can dribble. He can shoot with range. Great passer, and a great learner of the game. He really understands what it takes to be great.”
Sotto has also spent some time training at the Griffin Elite basketball complex in northern Kentucky in recent months.
Kentucky recruiting interest
UK assistant coach Kenny Payne — the Wildcats’ resident expert on post players — has taken the lead on Sotto’s recruitment as Kentucky continues to look for frontcourt options for next season.
The Cats have already signed a pair of 6-9 power forwards — Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware — but they’re clearly looking for more post players in the 2020 recruiting cycle. Top-10 power forward Greg Brown and four-star center Cliff Omoruyi both have scholarship offers from Kentucky, though Texas is seen by many recruiting analysts as the favorite for Brown, and Omoruyi remains wide open with a college decision still likely months away.
UK is also back in the mix for four-star power forward JT Thor, though the Wildcats have not extended a scholarship offer in his recruitment.
Kentucky will lose graduate transfer Nate Sestina following this season, and the program is clearly planning on the possibility that both junior center Nick Richards and sophomore forward EJ Montgomery could turn professional next year. Neither player is currently projected as an NBA Draft pick in 2020, but both are playing well this season and tested the pro waters after the 2018-19 campaign.
Daniels mentioned Auburn, DePaul, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Southern Cal as some of the other programs showing interest in Sotto, who should have plenty of high-level suitors if he is serious about playing college basketball.
With few instant-impact options remaining among frontcourt players in the 2020 class, Sotto is one of the more intriguing prospects in this cycle.
“I don’t think he’s a project at all. His talent, if he plays college basketball, could certainly be immediately impactful,” Daniels said. “There are a lot of schools calling on him. And I think he’s going to set up some other unofficial visits.”
Next game
Georgia Tech at No. 8 Kentucky
5 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 12:11 PM.
