Five-star point guard now on UK’s radar, and he’s a ‘no-brainer Kentucky kind of guy.’
A new name has popped up on Kentucky’s basketball radar as the Wildcats coaching staff continues to navigate these uncertain times on the recruiting trail.
And this emerging UK target is a good one.
“I think Hunter Sallis is unbelievable,” Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans told the Herald-Leader this week. “I think he’s special, man.”
So special that Rivals has Sallis — a 6-foot-5 point guard from Omaha, Neb. — ranked as the No. 11 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class, up more than 30 spots from the beginning of the year. ESPN ranks Sallis at No. 19 nationally. 247Sports pegs him as the nation’s No. 25 rising senior.
The Rivals crew — namely Evans and fellow national analyst Eric Bossi — like where they have him slotted.
“I think we’re ahead of the curve with Hunter,” Evans said.
Kentucky is a bit late to the recruitment, but that might not matter in the end. Sallis doesn’t appear close to a college decision, and his continually evolving game has garnered more and more looks from basketball’s biggest programs.
Unable to go out on the road or welcome high school players to Lexington for campus visits due to the NCAA’s COVID-related ban on recruiting, Kentucky’s coaches have instead been relegated to film study, phone calls and asking around to evaluate prospects in the upcoming classes. They’ve liked what they’ve seen and heard of Sallis, who was about 6 feet tall a couple years ago and has now blossomed into a 6-5 do-it-all playmaker in the backcourt.
“The lazy comparison — but one that’s not entirely wrong — is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,” Evans said. “Just because of his size and his length due to a growth spurt, and his ball skills, and his wiggle. Hunter is definitely more athletic than Shai was. He’s more explosive, has more wiggle to his game. And he might be more of a scorer than Shai was.
“Not many have improved, if any in his class, at such a rate as Hunter Sallis. And he’s a very easygoing, fun-loving, high-character kid. And someone that I think is a no-brainer Kentucky kind of guy.”
UK assistant coach Joel Justus — now the Cats’ lead recruiter on Sallis — also recruited Gilgeous-Alexander to Lexington. That worked out well. Relatively overlooked coming out of high school, Gilgeous-Alexander unexpectedly emerged as the Cats’ starting point guard, finishing the 2017-18 season as the team’s second-leading scorer and topping the squad in assists and steals. He went No. 11 overall in the NBA Draft, and he’s already one of the league’s rising young stars.
Evans said he could envision a similar path for Sallis, especially if he ended up at a place like Kentucky. The Cats currently have scholarship offers out to Jaden Hardy and Kennedy Chandler, the top shooting guard and point guard in the 2021 class, respectively. They’ve also offered class of 2022 guard Skyy Clark, who will continue to be mentioned as a possible 2021 reclassification despite his current plan to stick in the 2022 class.
“And (Sallis) might be the guy where — if you get a Skyy Clark or a Jaden Hardy or a Kennedy Chandler — he might be the least-talked-about guy in that class,” Evans said. “And, meanwhile, in three years, he might be the best pro.”
Sallis’ fit at Kentucky
As a junior this past season, Sallis averaged 22.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game to lead his high school to the Nebraska state title game. He probably would have been one of the standout players this spring and summer, if grassroots basketball had been played.
Evans didn’t mince words when talking about Sallis’ talent level or possible fit at a perennially star-studded program like Kentucky.
“I don’t see a downside, honestly,” he said. “I don’t see an ego. I don’t see any character deterrent. And we’re talking about the kid that we have ranked No. 11 in America. He’s definitely talented enough. And then you throw in the fact that, honestly, he might be the best guard in high school basketball, just from a versatility perspective.”
Evans noted that Chandler is probably the best facilitator in the class but pointed out that — at about 6 feet tall — he isn’t well suited to play off the ball. He said Hardy is clearly the best scoring guard in 2021 but questioned whether he could be a true primary playmaker.
“So is there anyone better than Hunter Sallis when it comes to being a floor-setter, a playmaker, a scorer, an athlete, and, hopefully, a defender? I’m not sure,” Evans said.
Sallis checks all of the boxes in the backcourt, and that makes him an invaluable recruit for a couple of reasons.
It allows the coaches pursuing him to know they’d be getting an instant-impact guard who could slide into multiple positions, making it easier to continue recruiting other star guards. If a program like UK was to land Chandler, it could play Sallis at the ‘2.’ If the Cats got Hardy, they could put Sallis at the point.
And if they got commitments from both of those players, or if Clark reclassifies, or if Devin Askew returns for a second season, another three-guard lineup could be in the works. The possibilities are plentiful with a talent like Sallis. He’s exactly the type of player that a coach like Calipari, who practically builds his roster from scratch every year, tries to find.
“And Hunter is good enough to be that guy who could be the ‘1’ or be the ‘2’ or even be the ‘3’ — with what we saw last season with (Ashton) Hagans, (Tyrese) Maxey and (Immanuel) Quickley,” Evans said. “So that’s why I say that I see no negatives from offering and pursuing Hunter Sallis, if I’m Kentucky.”
Sallis’ school list is still wide-ranging. There are no predictions on his 247Sports Crystal Ball page, and neither of Rivals.com’s national analysts have logged a public pick yet.
Evans said that Creighton and Nebraska — the home-state schools — have done a good job recruiting him, and that he’s also shown serious interest in West Coast powers Gonzaga and Oregon. Louisville is in the mix, too.
When ranking the most likely landing spots for Sallis last month, Bossi listed North Carolina at No. 1 and Kansas at No. 2 — suggesting a blue-blood battle could be in the works for the nation’s No. 11 recruit.
His recruitment remains fluid, and there’s still room for Kentucky — the bluest of blue bloods — to make a move.
“Right now, I think it’s Carolina and Kansas are definitely the two to beat,” Evans said. “I think Carolina is in a good spot. But I definitely know that Kentucky has intrigued him, and that’s without an offer being on the table. So, if an offer gets on the table, I think it could definitely pull Hunter in that direction.”
