Kentucky’s top-ranked basketball target is coming to town. What are the Cats’ chances?
This weekend, Kentucky gets its best shot at the top-ranked basketball prospect left on its 2020 recruiting board.
And it could be a recruitment that’s a bit more open than previously thought.
Greg Brown — a 6-foot-9 forward from Austin, Texas — is ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 7 player nationally in the 2020 class, and he comes to Lexington this weekend for his official visit to UK.
For most of Brown’s time as a highly touted national prospect, the prevailing wisdom in recruiting circles has been that he’d ultimately end up at Texas, the hometown program where his father, also named Greg Brown, had previously been a football standout.
That narrative might be changing as Brown’s decision draws closer.
Rivals.com national analyst Eric Bossi wrote this week that he’s hearing “there really isn’t a favorite” as Brown prepares to arrive in Kentucky for his official visit. Also this week, Bossi’s fellow Rivals national analyst, Corey Evans, changed his Future Cast prediction from Texas to Memphis, another sign that Brown might actually be seriously open to programs other than the Longhorns.
“I think he’s fairly up for grabs,” Bossi told the Herald-Leader. “Of course, any time you have a situation where there’s a school that’s legitimately 15 minutes away from his house and has been building a relationship for a long time — like Texas has — of course they’re going to have some inherent advantages. But, also, you have to wonder, too: ‘Well, why hasn’t he committed yet?’ What more could he possibly need to see from them? And, I think a lot of that has to do with he wants to see how Texas finishes things out (this season), and how things are looking in the long-term there.
“Meanwhile, there are some places that are appealing to him. I think Memphis and Auburn have done really good jobs with him and are right there with him. And now Kentucky’s going to get their shot.”
Texas has competition
Memphis hosted Brown for an official visit last weekend, and he was on Auburn’s campus for a recruiting trip in late November. He’s seen plenty of Texas’ campus — including an official visit in the fall — and he’s planning a final official visit to Michigan next month.
The Longhorns, who have not won an NCAA Tournament game during Shaka Smart’s tenure in Austin, aren’t even projected as a tournament team in 2020, according to ESPN’s latest Bracketology update. Those struggles, along with the effective recruitments being run by Brown’s other finalists, are turning this pursuit into an actual competition.
He’ll be a major part of whichever team he chooses for next season.
Brown’s status in the 2020 class has been remarkably unchanged over the course of the past couple of years. The highly athletic, high-upside forward has been ranked either No. 6 or No. 7 nationally by Rivals.com in every update going back to the end of his sophomore season.
He averaged 30.1 points, 13.5 rebounds and 5.4 blocks per game as a junior and was one of the standouts on the Nike circuit this past summer, playing alongside highly touted recruit and former Kentucky target Cade Cunningham.
Brown’s style also fits one of John Calipari’s most-used basketball buzzwords of late.
“Everybody wants the new era guy of the ‘positionless’ basketball player, right?” Bossi said. “ I think there’s kind of two styles of guys for that — there are the skill guys who can be moved around, and there’s the athletes who can be moved all around. And Greg definitely falls into that versatile athlete category. He’s long. He’s bouncy. He’s sleek in transition. … He can play the ‘3’ or the ‘4,’ is going to block some shots for you, can switch up and down a lineup, defensively, rebounds pretty well.
“He’s just one of those guys that can get out and play fast and do a number of things for you.”
Bossi mentioned Brown’s jump shot and ball handling as areas for improvement, though he noted the 18-year-old has shown a willingness to shoot the ball. He was also listed at just 185 pounds at the USA training camp in October and will need to add some strength before he starts his college career.
Still, as his ranking indicates, Brown is already a team-changing talent.
Brown’s place at Kentucky?
UK has just two frontcourt players committed for next season — 6-9 power forwards Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware — and Bossi sees Brown’s ideal fit as a “4” that can exploit defenses with his quickness and athleticism.
“If you want to go maybe smaller, more athletic — I think the place he probably most naturally slides into is as kind of a small-ball ‘4’ man,” he said. “He might struggle a little bit with lack of strength with other ‘4s,’ but there really aren’t a lot of big, bulky ‘4s’ out there right now. And his athleticism can kind of make up for that, and it keeps him around the rim a little bit more and in better rebounding position. And there’s so many teams now that like to run offense through ‘4s’ up in the high post that a guy who can be mobile and can switch on ball screens and stuff like that is going to be really beneficial at that position.”
With his visits winding down and a college decision next on the to-do list, Brown will be looking more closely for his best fit at the next level. If that destination is genuinely still up in the air, Bossi sees this round of official visits as an important step in Brown’s decision-making process.
This could very well be a crucial weekend in Kentucky’s recruitment of the star forward.
“The majority of these guys don’t watch near as much (college basketball) as fans, analysts, all of us, would like to think they watch,” he said. “What really makes an impression on them is when they’re right there in the flesh, and they’re up close and personal, and they really see it. And it sounds like a lip service thing when these guys talk about ‘fit’ and ‘comfort’ with the guys they’re around, but it really is a big deal for them.
“And, with a place like Kentucky, with so much roster turnover, it’s really just as much about finding comfort with the staff and the people that you’re going to be around on a day-to-day basis: academic support, the managers, the strength and conditioning guys. Because those are the places that are going to remain constant during a player’s career there. Whereas, he might be cool with a couple guys on that visit, but there’s a good chance those guys are going to be gone when he gets there. So, I really think the entire program selling itself is so important for him.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 7:45 AM.
