One of Kentucky’s most touted basketball recruits in years is only getting better
One of the most promising sophomores in all of high school basketball is from Kentucky, and he seemingly has all of the ingredients to surpass his already lofty standing in recruiting circles.
Kaleb Glenn — a 6-foot-6 wing at Male High School in Louisville — was recently placed at No. 43 nationally by 247Sports, which posted its first rankings for the class of 2023 last week. To put that achievement in perspective: no other player from a KHSAA-affiliated high school has finished in the top 50 of the 247Sports rankings since Louisville Trinity’s Ray Spalding was No. 26 in the 2015 class.
Glenn could very well get to that level — or beyond — over the next three years.
“This kid, I’m telling you, he’s going to be a top-10, top-20 player in the country,” Male head coach Tim Haworth told the Herald-Leader. “He’s at a different level with his mentality. He’s the best I’ve ever coached at that age, and I’ve coached some good ones. He’s really good.”
Haworth is entering his third season as Male’s coach after taking Hopkinsville to five Sweet Sixteens in eight seasons. He led Male to the 2020 state tournament, and the Bulldogs looked like the favorites to win it all in March before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Sweet Sixteen to be canceled.
Before his career as a high school coach, Haworth played at Murray State and was later a graduate assistant there. His high school teams have been known to play against the best competition possible. In short, he’s been around a lot of elite talent over the past couple of decades, and he says Glenn belongs in that category.
Last season, Glenn averaged 13.4 points and a team-high 10.1 rebounds per game, earning second-team national all-freshman honors from MaxPreps.com. He made 73.9 percent of his shots from the floor, utilizing a rare strength for a player of his age. He took only eight three-point shots in 35 games, but he made four of those.
Haworth said he actually encouraged his star freshman to get in more shots from outside. Most young players would jump at that opportunity. In Glenn’s case, the unselfishness won out on a team that boasted several talented scorers.
“He fit in perfectly. He’s a dog. He’s all about winning,” Haworth said. “So he was willing to do whatever it took to win, whether it was go out and grab 15 rebounds. Whether it was go out and score 25 points one night or get assists the next. He’s not thinking about himself or his stats — he’s just thinking about winning. And it shows in practice and in games.”
Male finished last season with a 31-4 record and a 7th Region title. The Bulldogs lost just twice to in-state teams — Ballard and North Oldham — and they beat both of those schools later in the season, including a second victory over Ballard in the region title game. They went into the state tournament with 16 straight wins but never got to play for the championship in Rupp Arena.
The Bulldogs will have similar expectations this season. They start practice in about three weeks, and plenty of eyes will be on Glenn, who can guard the “1” through “5” spots at the high school level and is expected to play more on the wing as a sophomore.
“His ball handling and shooting have gotten so much better,” Haworth said. “And he’s already a 6-6, 6-7 physical basketball player — he’s built like a grown man. So to be able to work as much as he has in the past six months and transition his game to the wing, it’s a compliment to him.”
Recruiting Kaleb Glenn
It’s worth stressing that any recruitment of Glenn is in the very early stages. He still has three seasons left in high school, remember, and the NCAA’s ongoing recruiting travel ban due to COVID-19 concerns prevented any college coaches from seeing the promising young player in person this summer.
There will be plenty of time for that, but some top schools are still getting a word in early.
Cincinnati, Iowa State and West Virginia have already extended scholarship offers, as have Kentucky State and Georgia Southern. Haworth said he spoke to coaches from Indiana on Monday morning, and he listed Florida State, Oregon and Western Kentucky as other programs that have been in contact.
One of Haworth’s former players at Hopkinsville — 7-3 center Jamarion Sharp — is now ranked as the No. 1 junior-college player in the country, and Haworth has been telling the high-major college coaches who call about Sharp to keep an eye on Glenn, as well.
Glenn’s father, Victor, was a wide receiver at Louisville in the early 2000s, and Haworth said the Cardinals had already been communicating their early interest to the family. Glenn was also a guest at Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness event two years ago. He posted photos of himself with PJ Washington and Immanuel Quickley from the Rupp Arena court and followed the Wildcats as a younger kid growing up.
Haworth isn’t afraid that the early hoopla will negatively affect Glenn’s growing game. He said his father works closely with him and knows what it takes to be a Division I athlete.
“And Kaleb is self-motivated,” he said. “We can sit here as coaches and dads and say, ‘You need to do this, you need to do that.’ But, at the end of the day, the kid has to be self-motivated. And that’s what he is. And I’ve told the colleges that are recruiting him: ‘Hey, he’s one of the most self-motivated kids I’ve ever coached.’”
More scholarship offers from some of the biggest names in college basketball will surely come in the future. Perhaps Kentucky and Louisville will join that list down the line. With plenty of time left to shape his future prospects, however, it sounds like no one will have a built-in advantage.
“Honestly, I think he’s just taking everything in,” Haworth said. “I don’t think he has a favorite.”
