Ex-Louisville basketball commitment could end up at Kentucky (and more recruiting notes)
This week didn’t begin on the greatest note for the Louisville men’s basketball program, which received word Sunday that its prized recruit — four-star small forward Bryce Hopkins — had backed out of his commitment to the Cardinals.
Hopkins was the highest-ranked player in what was shaping up as an impressive 2021 class for Coach Chris Mack, and Hopkins told 247Sports that the uncertainty surrounding NCAA sanctions levied against U of L’s program was the basis for his reversal after being committed to the Cards for the past nine months.
As Louisville looks to fill that recruiting void, other major colleges swooped in.
“Bottom line, he can play anywhere in America, and I expect his recruitment to take place at the highest level,” Rivals.com national analyst Eric Bossi wrote this week.
John Calipari apparently agrees. It didn’t take the Kentucky head coach long to reach out to Hopkins’ camp, and the No. 34 overall recruit in the Rivals.com rankings is looking like a legitimate Wildcats’ target moving forward.
The versatile 6-foot-6 prospect with a 7-foot wingspan doesn’t have a UK scholarship offer yet — the Cats are still in the initial stages of his recruitment — but Hopkins sounds like a good fit for Calipari’s style.
“He was kind of an interesting prospect eval, because he had some weight on him, but he could move and has some ball skills,” Rivals national analyst Corey Evans told the Herald-Leader. “He’s really knocked off the baby fat. And now he’s 6-6 or so with those long arms. He’s an athlete, and he’s tough and rugged and physical. He kind of reminds me a little of Keldon Johnson, to that extent — just the physicality, the alpha mentality, the versatility, and the willingness to impact both sides of the floor.”
Hopkins — a Chicago-area standout — averaged 24 points, 10 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game as a junior and had his high school team playing in the state tournament before the postseason was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Evans said he’s still weighing Hopkins’ potential upside as a pro prospect, but there’s no doubt about his ability at the next level.
“From the college end, he’s an immediate contributor at the highest level,” he said.
Hopkins is also unlike anyone Kentucky is recruiting in the 2021 class. The Cats have extended scholarship offers to star guards Kennedy Chandler (who committed to Tennessee on Friday) and Jaden Hardy. They’re pursuing small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., a smooth, perimeter-oriented player. And they’re at the top of the list for versatile power forwards Paolo Banchero and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, the latter a 2022 recruit who could reclassify to 2021.
Hopkins is more of a physical, gritty prospect who can fit into several different scenarios. From UK’s end, it might come down to need. Evans noted that the Cats could return some bigger wings from this season’s team — namely Dontaie Allen and Cam’Ron Fletcher, and possibly even Keion Brooks — and that might make it a little crowded at the position. He said, like this past recruiting cycle, the need for a ‘4’ or ‘5’ player could be greater once the 2021 class shakes out.
“But I think Bryce is another player like Keion Brooks, to where he can play multiple spots,” Evans said. “And with Bryce’s length, he can slide down to that ‘4’ spot and bring a physicality that’s much greater. If Keion Brooks and Bryce Hopkins were enrolling at the same time, I think Bryce would have been an easier option for the ‘4’ than Keion was. And that just comes from a physicality perspective — a strength and muscularity perspective with those guys. But I definitely think that he’s worthy of interest with that dynamic in mind.”
Notre Dame, Oregon and Providence all extended scholarship offers immediately after Hopkins’ decommitment from Louisville, and Evans said that he expects just about the entire Big Ten to be after him. Home-state Illinois and Indiana have already jumped in. Wisconsin was in a good spot before his U of L commitment last fall. Kansas, with its recruiting ties to the Chicago area, will also be a team to watch.
UK fan favorite?
A recent conversation with Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans concerning expectations for incoming UK basketball recruits turned to Devin Askew, the Wildcats’ likely starting point guard for this season.
Often, analysts try to downplay immediate expectations for college freshmen, and that would seem especially true with a player like Askew, who just turned 18 years old a couple of weeks ago and will be thrust into the most important position for the most-watched program in America.
Evans didn’t temper his comments on Kentucky’s youngest player.
“I don’t know why people are underestimating Devin Askew,” he said. “I think Devin Askew is going to be one of the best and most beloved guards to come through Kentucky in years. I think he’s going to be an X-factor down the stretch run that is going to kind of put them over the top, and he could really be the reason why Kentucky plays past the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament.”
The key to a Final Four run? That’s some lofty praise for Askew, who finished the 2020 cycle as the No. 33 overall recruit in the Rivals.com rankings, a cut below the usual spot for Calipari point guard recruits.
Evans has seen the UK freshman as much as any national recruiting expert, however, and he’s correct that Askew’s gritty, team-first approach to the game is likely to catch on with Kentucky fans pretty quickly. Expect a fiery point guard who won’t be afraid to get in opposing players’ faces or dive on the floor for 50/50 balls, even if there are some growing pains along the way.
Skyy Clark and 2021
Speaking of point guards, five-star UK target Skyy Clark has made it clear in recent days that the current plan is for him to stick in the 2022 class despite months of speculation that he will ultimately make the move to 2021, which would allow him to play college ball next season.
Clark — a 6-foot-3, 200-pound playmaker who can play anywhere in the backcourt — is taking the necessary courses to reclassify, however, and that talk of a move to 2021 will continue, no matter what is said about reclassification in the present.
If there’s a major need in UK’s backcourt for the 2021-22 season, don’t be surprised if Clark revisits reclassification in the spring and jumps aboard for next year. Kentucky remains the heavy favorite to land his commitment, no matter when he gets to college.
Oh, and Clark has also made it clear that he prefers not to be identified as a “combo guard,” a descriptor that’s often used for his game simply because he plays both the “1” and the “2” so well.
“I am not a combo guard,” he tweeted this week. “I am a point guard that can score better than most!”
You’ve gotta love the confidence (especially when it’s true).
Future of UK’s frontcourt
Kenny Payne’s departure for the New York Knicks is a major loss for Kentucky basketball.
There’s no way around that.
Payne was seen as one of the nation’s top recruiters, but he also had a well-earned reputation as one of the game’s best developers of big men, counting Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Bam Adebayo and Nick Richards as just a few of his former pupils.
His track record with such players was often a selling point for Kentucky on the recruiting trail. Will the Cats still be able to make that pitch, now that Payne has left the program?
“You try to,” Rivals national analyst Corey Evans told the Herald-Leader. “I mean, we have programs that are selling their past winning success and certain players, and those staffs weren’t even around for those guys. So it’s a much easier sell when it’s Kentucky and the head coach was there. The staff was there, outside of Kenny Payne. So I think you definitely still sell it. You still sell the winning. It might be a little more difficult when answering the question of how is (likely new assistant coach) Bruiser Flint or so-and-so going to do with replacing Kenny (as a coach) — who’s going to deal with the big men, and all of that.
“But you definitely still do sell those physical, tangible accomplishments.”
In good hands
Kenny Payne’s presence will be missed as the UK coaching staff builds relationships with recruits and their families, but the Cats should be in relatively good shape with their current targets.
Payne was not seen as the primary recruiter for any of the players that currently hold UK scholarship offers. Joel Justus is often the assistant coach that makes first contact with recruits, and the unique state of the recruiting landscape — with coaches unable to meet in-person with prospects and their families for the past several months and the foreseeable future — means that most of the Cats’ current targets have been under Justus’ watch. Tony Barbee has also been an instrumental factor in Kentucky’s current recruiting efforts, and John Calipari has taken on a more integral role than usual with guys like Paolo Banchero and Jaden Hardy.
Payne’s reputation as a master teacher of big men could have an impact on Banchero’s recruitment, but it’s not expected to be a big one. Calipari has made the Seattle power forward a major personal target — spending more time with him than just about any recruit in recent years, at this stage in the cycle — and Barbee and Justus both made trips to Seattle to see him before the NCAA’s recruiting shutdown in March.
Look for those two coaches to take on even bigger roles in UK’s recruiting efforts in the coming months.
Recruiting dead period
The NCAA announced Wednesday night that its recruiting dead period has been extended through Sept. 30, but the Herald-Leader has been told that the expectation in college basketball circles is that it will ultimately last through the end of the calendar year, and possibly into 2021.
The current recruiting ban prohibits college coaches from all in-person recruiting, meaning they can neither travel off campus to meet with and evaluate recruits nor can they bring players and their families to town for recruiting visits.
Coaches will continue to use game film and video streams of the few recruiting events that are taking place around the country to evaluate potential targets while getting to know players and their families through video meetings and good old fashioned phone calls.
That’s the new normal for college basketball recruiting, and it’s likely to be that way for at least another few months.
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 7:49 AM.
