Point guard Nolan Hickman becomes Kentucky’s first 2021 basketball commitment
It was a commitment that seemingly came out of nowhere, but point guard Nolan Hickman had actually been on Kentucky’s recruiting radar for quite some time.
Hickman — a 6-foot-2 prospect from Seattle — announced his pledge to the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon, becoming the first player to join the program’s 2021 class. Predictions in UK’s favor didn’t start popping up on the national recruiting websites until Friday night, and there had been no confirmation of a scholarship offer from the Wildcats to Hickman until he revealed his commitment on social media the next day.
Kentucky had been watching, however.
The Cats’ coaching staff saw plenty of Hickman as they scouted top 2021 recruit Paolo Banchero last spring and summer. Banchero, arguably UK’s top target in the class until his commitment to Duke on Thursday night, was Nike league teammates with Hickman, who ended up as the second-leading scorer on their Seattle Rotary squad and finished the summer with a 2.4-1 assist-to-turnover ratio on the highly competitive Nike circuit.
As a high school junior this past season, Hickman averaged 17.3 points, 3.4 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, making 38 percent of his three-point attempts.
UK’s coaches ran into him again during that campaign.
John Calipari and Tony Barbee traveled to Washington state in their continued pursuit of Banchero, and Hickman was playing for the other team. On that night, the point guard poured in 36 points, and his Eastside Catholic squad defeated Banchero and O’Dea High School 85-62. Hickman said later that he didn’t even know the UK coach was in attendance until after the game, but the junior point guard clearly made a lasting impression on Calipari and Barbee.
A few weeks after that game, the NCAA announced a halt to all recruiting-related travel for college coaches because of the coronavirus pandemic. If not for that travel ban, which remains in effect, Hickman might have emerged as a legitimate Kentucky target much sooner.
The Wildcats still zeroed in on him even before their earliest 2021 point guard target, Kennedy Chandler, announced his commitment to Tennessee earlier this month. By the time of Chandler’s announcement, Barbee had already moved on to Hickman, and the Seattle playmaker is now the first member of Kentucky’s 2021 recruiting class.
Rivals.com ranks him as the No. 76 overall player in the 2021 rankings. 247Sports grades him as the No. 30 overall recruit and No. 3 point guard in the class.
Corey Evans, national recruiting analyst at Rivals.com, said Saturday that the site might have Hickman — 6-2 with a 6-8 wingspan — a little under-ranked. Wherever he ends up on such lists, he’ll project as an instant-impact contributor at Kentucky next season.
“He’s only gotten better and better,” Evans told the Herald-Leader. “I love his size. I love his length. I love his physicality that he goes about playing the game. So I just cannot see it not working out for him at Kentucky.”
Starting off Kentucky’s class
Hickman has decided to play his final year of high school at Wasatch Academy (Utah), a prep program that plays a national schedule and has recently been ranked among the best high school basketball programs in the country.
There, he’ll play alongside fellow 6-2 point guard Richard Isaacs — a top player in the 2022 class — and that experience should only help his transition to Kentucky, where he’ll surely team up with a few super-talented backcourt players.
Hickman is a true point guard, but his shooting ability will also allow Kentucky coaches to play him off the ball at times, especially if current freshman Devin Askew returns for a second season or the Cats land another talented lead guard from the 2021 class.
Evans said he expects Hickman to be one of UK’s better freshman shooters in recent years. Though Immanuel Quickley emerged as a deep threat this past season, he shot 34.5 percent — and attempted only 87 threes — as a freshman. UK’s other two point guards this past season — Ashton Hagans and Tyrese Maxey — both shot under 30 percent from deep.
And defense — the aspect of the game Calipari preaches most — won’t be a problem.
“He definitely has a chip on his shoulder,” Evans said. “I think he goes about playing the game that way. And he’s not going to be afraid of the opposing team’s best punch, and he’s willing to guard the opposing team’s best player.”
Kentucky is clearly expanding its target base for the 2021 class.
Before this weekend, only shooting guard Jaden Hardy and small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. — both top-five national prospects — had UK scholarship offers for next season. On Friday night, UK extended offers to five-star point guard Hunter Sallis and four-star small forward Bryce Hopkins, and Hickman’s commitment came less than 24 hours after those developments.
The addition of Hickman should have no impact on UK’s pursuit of Sallis, who is ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 11 overall player in the class and could ultimately be the top point guard nationally from that group. The Herald-Leader was told Saturday evening that he remains a major priority.
North Carolina and Kansas were previously seen as the top suitors for Sallis. Kentucky is now in that tier, too, and Calipari has proven he can make it work with two or three talented point guards on the floor at the same time.
“I’m thinking that they have already discussed a situation with Hunter playing next to other guards,” Evans said. “I don’t think it will play much of a factor. … They really, really, really want Hunter Sallis, and that was with Nolan Hickman in mind. So I still think Kentucky is probably 1 or 1A for Hunter Sallis already.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
