Can Calipari land two top-five recruits in next cycle? Analyst says UK ‘in a good spot.’
This past fall, five-star shooting guard Terrence Clarke ended Kentucky’s recent skid with top-five basketball recruiting targets by pledging his commitment to the Wildcats, becoming the first player from that tier to do so in five years.
Could the next recruiting cycle provide two such prospects for John Calipari, who made nabbing top-five players a staple of UK basketball in his first few seasons in Lexington?
Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans sees Kentucky as well-positioned for a pair of high school recruits at the very top of the 2021 class rankings, and he’s written multiple times in the past few weeks that the Cats could be considered the team to beat for both players.
The prospects in question are Seattle power forward Paolo Banchero — currently the No. 2 player in the Rivals rankings for 2021 — and Jaden Hardy, the clear-cut top shooting guard in that class.
It’s still early — neither player is thought to be nearing a college commitment — but UK has seemingly jumped to the front of each prospect’s recruitment.
Hardy — a 6-foot-4 star for Coronado High School in Henderson, Nev. — remains the only shooting guard in the 2021 class with a UK scholarship offer, and the Cats have made him a clear priority in recent months. There have been multiple visits from Calipari and UK assistants, and the Wildcats even practiced at Hardy’s high school to start off their two-game trip to Las Vegas last month.
“I think he really likes Kentucky, and I think Kentucky offering him so early in the process (was important). That ‘2’ guard class is not a great one in 2021, and Cal and those guys have prioritized him and pinpointed him as the guy,” Evans told the Herald-Leader. “And it’s always difficult to beat Cal when he pinpoints that guy early on in the process. Unless it’s like a James Wiseman situation, which I don’t see unfolding here.”
Evans noted that local choice UNLV, where Hardy’s brother is currently a junior on the basketball team, would be a player in the UK target’s recruitment. The Hardy family is originally from Detroit, and Evans said Michigan and Michigan State also shouldn’t be counted out, along with UCLA, which has done well recruiting the Vegas area.
“But I think it’s Kentucky and then everyone else for him right now,” Evans said.
Hardy is currently ranked No. 9 overall by Rivals.com, but he’s off to a blistering start to his junior season and seems due for a bump in the rankings.
Evans said his Rivals.com colleague, national analyst Eric Bossi, has been “sky high” on Hardy after watching him play early in the season. Bossi labeled one of Hardy’s games as “the early leader for top performance of the winter” and wrote more recently that the Kentucky target is “knocking on the door” for a top-five national ranking.
He’s clearly the top shooting guard in a 2021 class that’s lacking in dynamic perimeter scorers. Only one other player at that position — Aminu Mohammed — has a five-star designation from Rivals.com, and No. 27-ranked Langston Love is the only other shooting guard in the top 30 overall rankings. Kentucky, so far, is not recruiting either of those players.
“It’s a bad 2021 class (for shooting guards),” Evans said. “I think that’s why Cal and those guys really pinpointed (Hardy) early in the process and saw him as ‘the guy.’ And I think that’s why they’ve really prioritized him and invested so much in his recruitment early on.”
Kentucky and Paolo Banchero
Banchero’s status as a top-five player in the 2021 class is unquestioned.
In fact, he could have the inside track to the No. 1 overall ranking. The current occupant of that spot — fellow UK target Jonathan Kuminga — is widely expected to reclassify to 2020 later this year, and Banchero would be next in line in the Rivals.com rankings.
He hasn’t disappointed so far in his junior season.
“You see him every three, four months and he’s bigger and better,” said Evans, who watched Banchero at the recent City of Palms showcase in Florida. “He’s honestly ready for college tomorrow. I don’t like to put those expectations on a kid, but he could go on a high-major playing floor tomorrow and produce. He’s 6-foot-9, well-sculpted, about 225 (pounds). He has all the intangibles. He can play facing the bucket, with his back to the basket. Great feel for the game. There are not many things he cannot do in the halfcourt setting.”
Calipari has made multiple trips to the West Coast to visit with Banchero and his family in recent months, and UK hosted them for a recruiting visit on Big Blue Madness weekend in October.
Duke and North Carolina are also heavily pursuing him. Hometown Washington — where both of his parents were athletes — will be a factor in his recruitment. Tennessee, Michigan and Gonzaga have also been mentioned as realistic landing spots.
But Evans is currently predicting that Banchero will end up at Kentucky, despite 100 percent of the not-always-reliable Crystal Ball picks going to Washington.
“Will there be pressure to stay home? From what I gather, it’s going to be his decision,” he said. “And I think he’s all about coming eastward and going to a blue blood. But, we’ll see.”
Evans also sees Banchero as the can’t-miss prospect in the 2021 class.
“The way I look at it: in 2019, it was Isaiah Stewart. In ’20, it’s Cade Cunningham. And in ’21, it’s Paolo — when it comes to, if there’s one guy in a class I know is going to make it, it’s Paolo Banchero.”
Reclassification buzz has also followed Banchero, who doesn’t turn 18 years old until November and would thus be a young college freshman if he did make that jump. Evans said he thinks Banchero will ultimately stick in the 2021 class. (The Herald-Leader was also told recently that Hardy, who will turn 18 in July, is not considering reclassification to 2020).
Last week, Evans wrote for Rivals.com that Kentucky and Duke — the mainstays at the top of the recruiting rankings the past few cycles — would continue that trend with the 2020 and 2021 classes, specifically predicting that UK would sign at least two five-star players in November.
There’s a ways to go, but Banchero and Hardy would make for a stellar start to the 2021 class.
“You have the clear-cut No. 1 shooting guard in America. And then you have the best all-around player around the basket in that class,” Evans told the Herald-Leader. “That’s a great foundational two-man class to get it going. I don’t want to get ahead of anything too much here — they’ve got to get one of those guys first. But, they definitely are in a good spot, that’s for sure.”
