The 10 most intriguing Kentucky basketball recruiting targets for the new year
The new year begins with the Kentucky Wildcats sitting on the No. 1 recruiting class in college basketball and more good futures to come.
John Calipari already has six signees for the class of 2020 — the highest number of early commitments in his decade-plus tenure with the program — but recruiting analysts are expecting UK to add even more to its group for next season.
The Cats have also put themselves in great position for several top prospects in the class of 2021, and past history would indicate that a few players from that group will be committing to Kentucky during this calendar year.
The 10 recruits listed here aren’t necessarily the Wildcats’ biggest targets going into the new year — though many of them are — but they do represent the most intriguing players on UK’s recruiting radar for the next 12 months.
Paolo Banchero
This list is in alphabetical order, but Banchero’s placement at the top is fitting. In 2019, the Cats took things up a notch by assembling the nation’s No. 1 class and landing their first top-five recruit (Terrence Clarke) in several years. Banchero — a versatile, 6-foot-9 power forward from Seattle — will most certainly end the 2021 cycle as a top-five recruit, and he represents UK’s best chance to land such a prospect from that group.
Hometown Washington — where Banchero’s parents were athletes — currently has 100 percent of the picks on his 247Sports Crystal Ball page, but there’s plenty of buzz that UK might actually be the leader, especially if he leaves the West Coast for college. Landing Banchero — over the likes of Duke, North Carolina and a formidable local option — would be yet another feather in Calipari’s recruiting cap and give UK a major building block for the future.
(It’s worth noting that Banchero has often been mentioned as a reclassification candidate to 2020, but all indications are he will remain in the 2021 class).
Greg Brown
The high-upside, super-athletic 6-9 forward from Austin, Texas, is Kentucky’s highest-ranked target still on the board for the 2020 class — No. 8 nationally, according to the 247Sports composite rankings — but most of the intrigue might be gone from his recruitment.
The narrative going into the season was that Brown would end up at hometown Texas — where his father was once a college football star — if Shaka Smart showed any kind of progress after failing to win an NCAA Tournament game in any of his first four seasons. The Longhorns are currently not even projected to make the NCAA field in 2020 (per ESPN’s Bracketology), but the buzz in recruiting circles lately has been even stronger that Brown will ultimately commit to Texas.
Still, Kentucky would likely be in good shape if things head south in Austin over the next few weeks.
Kennedy Chandler
Chandler announced on Christmas night that he had received a scholarship offer from John Calipari, making him the only point guard in the 2021 class to earn one. Chandler — a 6-1 prospect from Memphis — had previous offers from Duke, North Carolina and home-state Tennessee, among many others, and is considered the No. 1 point guard in his class. He led his Nike team to a Peach Jam title and Calipari has already seen him play multiple times during this young high school season, most recently on Monday in Nashville.
Moussa Diabate
A 6-10 post player from France — now playing for IMG Academy in Florida — Diabate is ranked as the No. 10 overall prospect in the 2021 class, but he turns 18 years old later this month and behind-the-scenes indications are he’s most likely to end up in the 2020 class. If he does indeed play college basketball next season, he’d seem to fit a frontcourt need for the Cats, who could lose all of their inside players off the current team and have only Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware committed at those spots for next season.
The Herald-Leader was told last month that UK has real interest in Diabate and is well aware of the reclassification possibility. He’ll be worth watching in 2020.
Jaden Hardy
Perhaps no recruit in the country — regardless of class — has had a better start to the 2019-20 season than Hardy, who is putting up big numbers in major events on a weekly basis. Two separate games by Hardy this winter have been described by national analysts Evan Daniels and Eric Bossi, respectively, as the best performances they’ve seen this season. The 6-4 junior from Detroit — now living in the Las Vegas area — is clearly the No. 1 shooting guard in the 2021 class, and UK is treating him accordingly. He’s the only recruit at that position with a Kentucky offer, and the Cats even practiced at his high school during their Vegas trip last month. Early indications are that UK could be the team to beat.
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield
Still listed as a 2022 recruit by the major websites, Huntley-Hatfield is being treated like a 2021 prospect by the schools pursuing him, and that list includes Kentucky, which has already extended a scholarship offer and hosted the 6-9 power forward from a visit centered on last weekend’s Louisville game. The IMG Academy (Fla.) player comes from the same hometown as Alex Poythress, has a family tie to that former Wildcat, and told the Herald-Leader in the fall that UK has always been his “dream school.” His AAU team is affiliated with Bobby Maze, a former Tennessee player under Bruce Pearl. That gives Auburn some clout in this recruitment, but Kentucky has a great chance at his commitment. He’ll almost certainly end up in the 2021 class.
Jonathan Kuminga
As the unanimous No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2021 class — and with reclassification rumors continuing to swirl — few prospects will be watched as closely as Kuminga over the next several months. The do-it-all 6-8 forward — originally from the Congo and now playing at Nick Richards’ alma mater in New Jersey — was the first 2021 recruit to land a UK offer (during a trip to Lexington last season), and Calipari has kept close tabs on him ever since.
Kentucky and Duke are on a long list of suitors for Kuminga, who has stayed mum on his recruitment. One expectation among analysts is that he will ultimately reclassify to 2020 — possibly after playing Nike ball this spring and summer — and such a move would make him the most coveted talent in the country. Calipari was scheduled to see Kuminga play in New Jersey on Wednesday night, and the Herald-Leader was told this week that his four most likely college destinations — at this point in the recruitment — are UK, Duke, Louisiana State and Texas Tech, where Kuminga’s brother is currently on the team.
Franck Kepnang
A relatively new name to the UK recruiting radar, Kepnang — a 6-10 center from Cameroon — played just 16.2 minutes per game on the Nike circuit in 2019 but has established himself as a five-star prospect in the 2021 class. Calipari has seen him a couple of times in the past few months, and UK’s interest level could be ramping up as its frontcourt search continues. The Herald-Leader has also been told that Kepnang could end up in either the 2021 or 2020 class. He’ll turn 19 years old in October and is just four days younger than 2020 big man Cliff Omoruyi.
Cliff Omoruyi
The Nigerian big man — now playing for the same New Jersey high school that produced Isaiah Briscoe and Kahlil Whitney — is already off to a hot start to his senior season, tallying a triple-double in a high-profile game over the weekend. Omoruyi — a 6-11 center and the No. 48 player in the 2020 composite rankings — would bring exactly what UK will seemingly lack next season: a physical, punishing force in the low paint. All indications are that he’ll visit Lexington sometime in the next few months, but there is zero clarity on a possible leader in his recruitment, and he doesn’t appear to be anywhere near a college decision.
Kai Sotto
It’s quite possible — perhaps probable — that Sotto never plays college basketball. That question is just part of his intrigue. The 17-year-old 7-2 center from the Philippines has already reached hero status in his home country, which has never produced an NBA player, and he showed up on UK’s campus last month for a recruiting visit, the first such trip since he came to the United States last spring. Later that week, he toured nearby Georgia Tech — he’s currently part of a prep school team based in Atlanta — and hosted DePaul coaches for an in-home visit. Since then, little has been gleaned about his recruitment or how serious he really is about playing college ball.
Rivals.com and 247Sports have yet to give him a numerical ranking in the 2020 class, but analysts have told the Herald-Leader that he’d likely be slotted in the high four-star (perhaps even five-star) territory based on skill and potential. He’ll need to add mobility and stamina — a very common ask of international players when they first come to the States — but he could be a difference-maker next season. And if he does play college ball instead of going directly to the pros? Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans wrote this week that Kentucky could be “out in front” for Sotto’s commitment. That would be an intriguing addition.
Others
The number of recruits to keep an eye on over the next 12 months will extend well beyond that list of 10, and it’s probable that Kentucky will get a commitment or two (or more) in this calendar year from someone not already named here.
Graduate transfer possibilities will become more clear this spring — and UK might need such a player to fill a frontcourt role next season — and other high school and international recruits will emerge as major UK targets. Four-star forward JT Thor remains on Kentucky’s radar for the 2020 class, though he doesn’t yet have a Wildcats’ scholarship offer. Top-10 recruit Makur Maker is still intent on going straight to the NBA Draft, but the 7-footer will still need the league’s approval of that jump. If that doesn’t happen, college could still be an option.
Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Moussa Cisse are top-10 players in the 2021 class that already have UK scholarship offers. Baldwin and Cisse have largely been seen as most likely to end up at Duke and Memphis, respectively, but those destinations aren’t set in stone, and Calipari hasn’t backed off yet.
And then there’s the story line surrounding the 2022 class — already filled with Kentucky targets and featuring young megastar Emoni Bates — and whether that becomes the first group that is permitted to bypass college and go directly to the NBA Draft out of high school.
Get ready for another eventful year in recruiting.
