Analyst goes inside recruiting rankings, looks at expectations for Kentucky’s No. 1 class
The final 247Sports rankings for the basketball recruiting class of 2020 were released last week, and — despite a few drops for future Wildcats — it’s clear that Kentucky will have another stellar group of prospects coming to town.
One UK signee made a big jump up the list, a few others took a tumble, but the end result added up to John Calipari’s first No. 1 recruiting class — according to the 247 composite rankings — in five years. The Cats had finished No. 2 nationally in each of the past four cycles — last year behind Memphis, and the three previous years behind Duke.
Calipari’s incoming group includes five top-40 players.
“It’s a really good class,” 247Sports national analyst Evan Daniels told the Herald-Leader. “You’ve got a point guard who can really shoot it, two elite perimeter guys who can really score it, and you’ve got two post players that I think are really going to be able to help them inside and bring two different strengths. I think it’s a really good class, and they complemented it well with some experience in (graduate transfer) Davion Mintz. They did a good job of adding some pieces.”
Brandon Boston’s rankings rise
The top player in the Wildcats’ top-ranked class is shooting guard Brandon “BJ” Boston, who was bumped up 11 spots all the way to the No. 5 ranking in the class. The long, athletic 6-foot-6 prospect is the first UK recruit to finish in the top five of 247Sports’ final rankings since Skal Labissiere five years ago.
Labissiere’s ranking was based much more on his long-term potential — and he struggled to live up to that hype in his one year at Kentucky — but Boston has a game that should transition much better to the college level, making him an instant impact player for the Wildcats in 2020.
“I thought he had a really impressive senior season, and he’s a kid with a lot of upside, a lot of natural talent,” Daniels said. “I think he’s always had some of that in him — he’s got good length, good mobility, good athleticism for the position. And he can really score the ball in a variety of ways. I think, from a confidence standpoint, he really started to take off during his senior season.
“Now, he’s not without faults. He can get stronger. I think he can become more consistent. I think he can lay off some of the flair. But there’s a lot of natural talent and a lot of scoring ability there that’s pretty impressive.”
Boston was already a highly touted prospect when he decided to move from the Atlanta area to Los Angeles — and play for star-studded Sierra Canyon School — for his senior season. Something clicked with that change of scenery, and Boston emerged as one of high school basketball’s biggest stars while playing alongside other highly touted recruits — including the sons of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade — with several games on national television, all while traveling to play high-profile opponents across the country.
His natural acclimation to that fishbowl environment should bode well for his future at Kentucky.
“Some guys transfer their senior seasons and it doesn’t work out,” Daniels said. “With BJ Boston — I think he was going to be successful wherever he was, but he certainly seemed to thrive in the mix at Sierra Canyon. And they played a national schedule. And he seemed to really rise to the occasion and really seemed to thrive in the moment, playing for them.”
Terrence Clarke’s rankings fall
Kentucky fans who follow the recruiting rankings have been critical of the placement of one of their star players for next season. Terrence Clarke — a 6-7 shooting guard — came in at No. 9 in the final 247Sports rankings (not long after ESPN placed him No. 9 on its final list).
For a player that was in the discussion for the No. 1 spot in the country not too long ago — and was No. 4 in the 247Sports rankings coming into the year — that seems like quite a drop. Daniels noted that Clarke is still in 247’s top 10, and he also noted that this 2020 class has a lot of talent at the top, compared to past groups.
Boston and his teammate, Stanford signee Ziaire Williams, moved past Clarke, as did North Carolina point guard signee Caleb Love. Arizona State signee Josh Christopher stayed put at No. 7, and Florida State signee Scottie Barnes moved from No. 9 to No. 8. And then came Clarke.
“Honestly, that top group was really a lot of reshuffling,” Daniels said. “I thought Brandon Boston earned a bump. I was impressed with Ziaire Williams and thought he was worthy of a little bump. The rest of that list is more reshuffling. I think highly of Terrence Clarke. He’s a kid who can really score. He brings versatility. You can play him on or off the ball. I think the next step is developing his jump shot and playing with some consistency. But there’s a lot of natural talent there.”
Kentucky is the only school in the country to sign two top-10 recruits in this year’s class, and Boston and Clarke both play the same position. The expectation is that Calipari will start both of them on either side of his point guard, a lineup that could pack quite the perimeter punch.
“I think they fit each other pretty well,” Daniels said. “I think Boston will be more of the shotmaker and scorer, and Terrence will probably be more of the attacker, the driver, the playmaker off the dribble.”
Kentucky’s next point guard
Ashton Hagans, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley are all off to the NBA Draft.
Enter Devin Askew and Davion Mintz, the two players expected to get the bulk of the minutes on the ball at UK next season.
Askew — a 6-3 point guard from California — won’t turn 18 years old until late July and isn’t as highly ranked as many of Calipari’s previous recruits at the position, but he’s an ultra-competitive player who can fill it up from the perimeter. 247Sports ranked him No. 34 overall, a six-spot drop from his previous ranking.
“Devin’s biggest strength is his ability to shoot, so I think he can help open up the floor,” Daniels said. “And he’s obviously going to be relied on to handle the ball quite a bit. With their departures, he’s going to have to come in ready to go. And when you look at the past point guards that Kentucky’s brought in, I would guess that there will be some unfair expectations put on his shoulders.
“He’s a good player. I think he’s ready to contribute. The expectation should be that he can come in and give quality minutes, and play a role, and make jump shots, and help set guys up.”
In other words, don’t expect Askew to be John Wall or Brandon Knight or De’Aaron Fox right off the bat. He might take a little more time to develop, but the presence of potential stars like Boston and Clarke should help ease that transition. So, too, should the addition of Mintz, a 6-3 combo guard who comes to UK as a graduate transfer from Creighton, where he started 79 games over three seasons. A veteran influence on the always-eager-to-improve Askew should be a plus for Calipari’s backcourt.
“It was a good pickup,” Daniels said. “He’s a guy who has played high-major basketball and been through the rigors and can fill a role for them. So I think it was a fine get and will help bring some leadership, a guy who can guard, and a guy who can fill a couple of different roles.”
Jackson and Ware
Four-star power forwards Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware often get lumped together. Before the Cats added a transfer commitment from 7-footer Olivier Sarr last week, Jackson and Ware were the only two true frontcourt players on UK’s projected 2020-21 roster.
They’re both 6-9, and they’ll both be freshman, but their games are pretty different. And they both have some areas for improvement. 247Sports ranked Jackson as the No. 31 player in the class — a rise of two spots — with Ware dropping four spots to No. 40 overall.
“With Isaiah, I think the area to improve is from a skill standpoint,” Daniels said. “He can rim-run, he can block shots, he can rebound. The next step is adding to that offensive package.
“With Lance, I think he’s got some offensive ability and he’s trending in a good direction. I think he needs to develop his body a little further and gain some confidence, but I think there’s some offensive talent there that is going to help him.”
When discussing these two players, in particular, Daniels pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has led to great uncertainty about just when college basketball teams will be permitted to get to campus and start working out together. Under normal circumstances, teams would begin gathering on campus next month. Those early summer sessions have been a great help to Calipari’s always-young squads, but this 2020-21 group — as packed with new players as any in Calipari’s tenure — won’t get as much time together.
“I think fans have to be a little more realistic in terms of: these kids aren’t going to get on campus in the summer,” Daniels said. “And there’s no telling when they’re going to be on campus in the fall.”
Post players often adapt to the next level at a slower pace than guards and wings, so — while Jackson and/or Ware could emerge as stars next season — expectations, at least early on, should be somewhat tempered.
Olivier Sarr’s eligibility
Even if those expectations for Jackson and Ware should be tempered, there might be ample playing time available for both freshmen right off the bat. Are they ready to play quality minutes at a place like Kentucky?
“There’s no guarantee that Sarr will be eligible, so they’re not going to have a choice,” Daniels said.
If Sarr is eligible as a traditional transfer from Wake Forest, he will almost certainly be UK’s starting center — playing 25 to 30 minutes per game — and that would give Jackson and Ware some more time to come along. But there’s no guarantee that Sarr’s transfer waiver will be granted by the NCAA, which has traditionally not allowed for immediate eligibility based on a coaching change alone. New Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes is expected to be supportive of Sarr’s request to play right away, but NCAA rules experts have told the Herald-Leader that might not have much bearing on the case, citing past precedent.
UK is also still in the mix for Evansville transfer DeAndre Williams — a 6-9 forward — but the Herald-Leader has been told that Williams is looking for more of a perimeter role, and he, too, would need a transfer waiver from the NCAA to play next season.
Both Kentucky’s frontcourt outlook — and the rate at which Jackson and Ware will need to progress — ride on Sarr getting that waiver.
“That would be huge, if he’s eligible, because it would give them a really good player in the post that has experience in the ACC,” Daniels said. “Whether he’s going to get eligible or not is up in the air. We haven’t seen the NCAA give eligibility to kids because of a coaching change, but we’re obviously in the middle of a pandemic, and the coach was fired late, so who knows what the NCAA decides. But, obviously, getting him eligible would help those two guys, and it would give Kentucky a guy with some serious talent and a lot of experience in the paint.”
Expectations for Cam’Ron Fletcher
The final member of Kentucky’s signing class in the new 247Sports rankings is Cam’Ron Fletcher, a highly athletic 6-6 wing from St. Louis that ended up at No. 75 on the 247 list. That was a drop of 28 spots from his previous ranking, one of the steepest falls inside the Top 100.
Fletcher will be the first out-of-state recruit since Jemarl Baker to come to UK from outside of the top 50 nationally. In Calipari’s tenure as the Wildcats’ coach, Baker and Charles Matthews — who both ultimately transferred — have been the only American-born players not from Kentucky to sign with the Cats from outside the top 50 of the 247Sports rankings.
Fletcher has a ton of upside, but he projects as a multi-year college player, and he might have trouble finding substantial minutes in year one.
“Cam’Ron has some impressive physical tools,” Daniels said. “He’s a good athlete. He’s got good size. He can score it some. But I do think he’s going to be behind those other freshmen on the perimeter. And he’s going to be behind Keion Brooks. I could see him getting some spot minutes, but I don’t see him as a big minutes guy as a freshman.”
Who’s left in 2020?
It’s still likely that some high-profile players will reclassify from 2021 to 2020 — though UK is not considered the leader for any of those recruits — but there’s not much help to be found among uncommitted prospects currently in the 2020 class.
The only uncommitted prospect remaining in the 247Sports Top 25 is Makur Maker, a versatile 6-11 center who dropped 12 spots to No. 17 overall. Maker would be a big help to Kentucky’s roster next season — especially if Sarr doesn’t get his transfer waiver — but it’s unclear if he’ll play college basketball at all.
Maker is eligible for this year’s NBA Draft, and his mentor, Ed Smith, recently told the Herald-Leader that the draft will be Maker’s preference if it looks like he’ll be selected. Smith listed Kentucky, Auburn, Oregon and UCLA as the schools they’re looking at if he does opt for college, and CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported Sunday that Kentucky and UCLA would be the favorites in that scenario. Rothstein also mentioned Memphis as another possibility.
Smith has said Maker will “exhaust” the draft process before going the college route, however, and the Herald-Leader has been told that Maker, who has been affiliated with several high schools in Arizona, California and Canada over the past few years, would face NCAA scrutiny over his own eligibility if he tries to play college basketball.
Staying in the NBA Draft still appears to be the most likely outcome.
No. 26 recruit Karim Mane — a point guard from Canada — is also uncommitted, but he, too, is eligible for the NBA Draft, and Kentucky is not on his list of college suitors.
The only other uncommitted Top 100 recruit at the time of the new 247 rankings was No. 51 Kai Sotto, a 7-1 center from the Philippines. Sotto took a recruiting visit to Kentucky in December, but it was announced Monday that he will bypass college and take the G League route next season.
Only three other Top 150 recruits remain uncommitted: center Frank Anselem (No. 138), center Vladislav Goldin (No. 140) and small forward Carlos Rosario (No. 150).
Of those, Anselem is the only player that has been linked to Kentucky, but his travel coach, Julius Smith, told the Herald-Leader last week that Anselem had removed UK from his list of options after the Wildcats landed Sarr’s commitment.
Other top classes
In the 247Sports in-house team rankings, Kentucky’s No. 1 class is followed by Duke, North Carolina, Tennessee and Oklahoma State, which has a commitment from 247Sports No. 1-ranked recruit Cade Cunningham, a longtime Kentucky target. After that comes Arizona, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Auburn and Stanford.
The Southeastern Conference has four teams in the top 10 — no other league has more than two — and it also has Louisiana State (No. 11), Alabama (No. 14), Texas A&M (No. 20), and Mississippi State (No. 25) further down the list. That’s eight Top 25 recruiting classes for the SEC. The Atlantic Coast Conference is next on the list with six (including Louisville at No. 19). No other league has more than three in the Top 25.
The 247Sports composite team rankings, which takes the lists of several recruiting services into account, has Kentucky at No. 1, followed by North Carolina, Duke, Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn — that’s five SEC teams in the top seven — with Arizona, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State rounding out the top 10.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 7:14 AM.
