Kentucky basketball lands grad transfer for next season. He looks like a perfect fit.
Likely in need of one more player for its already formidable backcourt next season, Kentucky seems to have found a perfect fit.
The Wildcats landed a commitment Friday morning from Creighton graduate transfer Davion Mintz, who started all but one game over his final two seasons with the Bluejays before sitting out the entire 2019-20 campaign while battling an ankle injury.
Mintz — a 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior from Charlotte, N.C. — is capable of playing both guard positions, filling a major need for a Kentucky team that has already lost Tyrese Maxey and Ashton Hagans to the NBA Draft — with Immanuel Quickley expected to follow — and Johnny Juzang to the transfer portal.
The Wildcats have three five-star guards coming in with their No. 1-ranked recruiting class for next season — point guard Devin Askew, and shooting guards Brandon Boston and Terrence Clarke — but, if Quickley does indeed stay in the draft, Askew would have been the only scholarship point guard on UK’s 2020-21 roster.
Mintz checks pretty much every box that UK was looking for in another backcourt player.
“And that was my whole reason of going and committing — just because I can visualize the pieces that Coach Joel (Justus) and Coach (John) Calipari were selling to me. It just made sense,” Mintz told the Herald-Leader. “And playing for a guy that’s highly respected — in my mind, there’s no other coach that I’d want to learn from while taking the journey to go to the next level. I think he puts me in the best position to fulfill my dreams”
As a junior, Mintz started all 35 games for a Creighton team that finished in a tie for third place in the Big East and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals. He averaged 9.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 28.8 minutes per game that season, making a total of 43 three-pointers at a 34.7-percent clip. Mintz is a career 35.0-percent three-point shooter with a 1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio and started 79 of 97 games in his three seasons with the Bluejays.
He also has the reputation as a defensive stopper on the perimeter who can handle point guard duties or play off the ball.
That will be important for a UK team high on talent but short on experience. Askew, who doesn’t turn 18 years old until late July, will now have a more seasoned player to team up with at the point, and the Wildcats’ backcourt will have a proven college defender to take some of the pressure off the program’s incoming stars.
Mintz, who turns 22 years old in June, said he looks forward to taking a leadership role on next season’s team and wants to share his experience as a four-year college player with his younger teammates. “Just kind of teach the guys the way and how to persevere through any type of struggles ... Just all around guidance for the younger guys.”
He’s also been studying up on Askew, Boston and Clarke, the trio of five-star recruits in the 2020 class that he’ll be sharing the backcourt with at Kentucky. Mintz thinks it will be an athletic, unselfish and interchangeable group.
“Anyone can get it and go,” he said. “I just think it’ll work, regardless of how Cal puts us together, what his scheme is. I think that everybody will be ready to go. Everyone’s talented. And everyone can make a play.”
Mintz’s path to Kentucky
Mintz appeared primed for a stellar senior season after averaging 13.3 points and a team-high 4.3 assists per game on Creighton’s summer trip to Australia, but he suffered a high ankle sprain during the preseason and it was announced in December that he would redshirt.
Last week, Mintz announced that he would transfer from Creighton and play his final season elsewhere. He is on track to graduate next month and will be eligible to play for the Wildcats right away. He said Kentucky reached out on his second day in the transfer portal, making the Wildcats one of the earliest teams to experess interest.
The UK coaches told him they thought he was a unique fit for next season’s roster, and the conversation built from there. Nothing was promised, but Mintz knows there will be a major opportunity for individual growth and team success on arguably the biggest stage in college basketball.
“In a broad aspect, there aren’t any expectations other than coming in, working hard, earning everything I get,” he said. “Just talking with Cal, there’s extremely good guards coming and a very talented team, so I expect to win games. I expect to go as far as possible.”
ESPN ranks Mintz as the No. 33 available grad transfer this offseason. The Herald-Leader was told that UK vetted other guards who were ranked much higher on such lists but viewed Mintz as uniquely suited to its needs for next season. Not only is he a veteran player that can handle point guard duties and be counted on as a defender, but he’s proven he can excel at a high level of college basketball, unlike many top grad transfers that move “up” after starring for low- and mid-major programs. He also adds some leadership to what will be one of John Calipari’s youngest teams. It’s possible that Keion Brooks will be the only returning scholarship player with any experience playing for Kentucky.
“When UK examined the transfer market, they thought Mintz was exactly what they needed to fit into their backcourt,” 247Sports analyst Evan Daniels told the Herald-Leader. “They have some really good freshmen coming in on the perimeter, and Mintz gives them a different look and some veteran leadership.”
Mintz’s positional flexibility in the backcourt should allow Calipari to play the seasoned transfer and his three incoming guards in several different combinations. The rest of UK’s projected roster for next season includes Brooks and fellow wing player Dontaie Allen — who missed his freshman year with a knee injury — plus four-star wing recruit Cam’Ron Fletcher and power forward recruits Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware, who are both highly touted prospects in the 2020 class.
Sophomore forward EJ Montgomery could still return for a junior season, and the Cats are also looking for another frontcourt player, especially if Montgomery decides to turn pro. Purdue graduate transfer Matt Haarms — a versatile, 7-3 center — emerged this week as the Cats’ top target in the transfer portal, and UK is considered to be one of his most likely landing spots.
“Coach Cal wants to win games, and he wants to do it immediately,” Mintz said. “And that was the basis for our whole conversation. He expects guys to come in, work hard, challenge themselves every day. One thing he specifically told me is that if you don’t love basketball, don’t come here. So the dedication aspect will be there. And I seriously think — with this roster — there’s no limit, there’s no cap to how good we can be.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 10:25 AM.
