Want more shooters? This basketball recruit can fill it up and is on Kentucky’s radar.
With Kentucky’s basketball team off to its worst start in nearly a century and the Wildcats making just 25 percent of their three-point shots through seven games, those seemingly annual calls to “recruit more shooters” are as loud as ever.
About 160 miles up Interstate 64, the Cats might have found just such a player.
Isaac McKneely — a 6-foot-4 guard from Poca, W.Va. — included Kentucky on his list of eight schools last month. He doesn’t have a scholarship offer from the Wildcats yet, but John Calipari has been in touch, and the UK coaching staff has made it clear they view McKneely as a serious recruiting target moving forward.
He’s the No. 57 overall player in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings — a bit below the normal range of Calipari recruits — but he’s a skilled player who has proven he can play the game and be effective on or off the ball.
“He’s a really skilled combo guard,” 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader. “Some people like him more as a ‘2.’ I prefer him more as a combo, because while he is a great shooter and he can make shots and create his own shot from all three levels, I think he’s very smart. I think he has a very high IQ and feel for the game. And he’s a great passer.
“He’s got good size for the position. He’s got a sturdy frame. He’s not thin, by any means. He’s a plus athlete. He’s a better athlete than some give him credit for. So, just given his skill and IQ, he can impact the game both on and off the ball.”
Poca High School head coach Allen Osborne said that McKneely played the point guard spot as a freshman. He was good at that position, but when another Division I-caliber player moved in, McKneely moved off the ball — a sign of his unselfishness and versatility.
Osborne said his team does a lot of screening off the ball, and McKneely has worked “extremely hard” for the past year and a half on coming off screens, moving without the ball, and reading defenses. Last season, as a sophomore playing a new position, he averaged 22 points per game and made 45 percent of his three-point shots.
“He can create his own shot,” Osborne told the Herald-Leader. “He can elevate over people and shoot, which is really important at the college level. … He comes off of down screens and flare screens and pin downs, and he reads defenses really well. His footwork is improving. He can catch it and shoot it. Like I said, he can elevate. He can take you into the lane off the dribble, pull up and shoot over you.”
Osborne said that Poca has been put in crucial, late-game situations in each of the past two postseasons. Both times, they went to McKneely.
As a freshman in the sectional tournament, McKneely created his own shot off the dribble. He missed the would-be game-winning layup, but it drew the defense away enough to where a teammate cleaned up the miss with a tip-in, and Poca won the game.
Last season, McKneely worked his way off a couple screens to get open and nailed a game-tying three-pointer in crunch time.
“He’s a gamer,” Osborne said. “He wants the ball at the end of the game. And that’s a unique quality for a freshman and sophomore.”
Close to Kentucky
Obviously, McKneely still has two more seasons of high school basketball ahead of him, but he’s clearly taking a meticulous and informed approach to his college recruitment.
His list of eight schools consists of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, Purdue, Virginia and West Virginia. All of those programs have extended early scholarship offers except for blue bloods UK and UNC, and head coaches from both of those schools called to make sure McKneely kept them in mind before trimming his options.
Calipari told Osborne that Kentucky likes what it has seen and heard of McKneely so far, and the coaching staff wants to see him in person before extending a scholarship offer. The current recruiting dead period runs through April 15, and there’s a hope among college coaches that they’ll be permitted to get back on the road and recruit this spring or summer.
“They’re very interested,” Osborne said. “He basically said he’s still recruiting his ’21 class, but they want to stay in touch and make sure that we knew that they were interested.”
That interest is mutual.
“Oh, yeah. You’re talking to Kentucky — that’s the real deal there now,” Osborne said.
McKneely is in no major rush to make a college decision. Osborne said he thinks his star player would like to make a commitment before his senior season — still nearly a year away — and that he’ll definitely want to take some campus visits before concluding his recruitment.
Osborne also noted that UK is the closest school to Poca on McKneely’s list.
Lexington would only be about a two-and-a-half-hour drive, and Poca is less than an hour from the Kentucky state line.
“And that’s really important to his family,” Osborne said. “They’re a really good family — good, close family — and they want to see their kid play. … He’s going to get as much information as he can before he makes a decision. But he’s really excited about Kentucky. We watch a lot of their games on TV.”
A UK basketball fit?
Branham likes what McKneely can do as a point guard, but the recruiting analyst thinks he’d be a better fit at UK off the ball.
“Just because he doesn’t have that great burst you want to see, especially with the guys you get at Kentucky,” he said. “But he’s just really skilled. He’s a great shooter, both off the catch and off the bounce. He can create his own shot. And, again, great passer. He’s a really, really good passer when he’s attacking the rim. He just has a knack for finding teammates. …
“I think he would make a good addition to the roster, just because of his ability to make shots but also to attack off the bounce and facilitate. And he has upside as he matures more and gets older.”
McKneely continues to grow, both physically and on the court.
Osborne said McKneely was about 6-2 and 150 pounds this time last year. Now, he’s 6-4 and 175 pounds. He didn’t get to play much AAU ball over the spring and summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he put in time in the weight room during the offseason. Team activities are not permitted during the current sports shutdown in West Virginia — practices are set to begin Jan. 11 — but McKneely can still be found working out on his own in the Poca High gym.
McKneely’s coach has told him that — if he wants to play at a place like Kentucky — he’s got to work at it every day. That he has to keep his grades up (he clocked in with a 4.0 GPA at midterms) and that he has to continue to build on all aspects of his game. One area of focus has been his defense.
“You get to the level of Kentucky — or anybody else at that level — you have to be able to guard the ball, or you’re not going to play.”
McKneely wants to play. His goal is to get on the court right away as a college freshman. Osborne said, if his junior star keeps going at this rate, he should be in a position to make an immediate impact for a top college program, like Kentucky.
“I think he would do fine. A lot of people have compared him to Tyler Herro. Tyler did OK,” the coach said with a chuckle, before turning serious. “The thing that Isaac brings — he’s really good right now — but he continues to work hard, and he continues to grow, and he continues to develop. And he’s humble and hungry, and he’s never satisfied. And you don’t get at a higher level than Kentucky. So I think he knows that if he’s going to play at that level — whether it’s Kentucky or Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Louisville or wherever — he’s got to be prepared and work. And he’s like that. He knows what’s ahead. He knows he has to be ready.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 7:40 AM.
