No. 1 point guard recruit keeps getting better (and still wants to visit Kentucky)
Hunter Sallis — from the time he entered high school to now — has made quite the transformation.
Then, the freshman guard from Omaha was barely 6 feet tall and “really skinny,” Millard (Neb.) North head coach Tim Cannon said.
“And now he’s 6-5 and less skinny,” Cannon said with a chuckle before listing off all the ways his senior star has improved over the past few years. The growth spurt certainly helped Sallis’ evolution on the court — those guard skills he developed as a smaller player look even better with his 6-5 frame, and he has filled out since his freshman days — but the five-star recruit also never stopped working to get better.
“I’m in my 42nd year of high school coaching, and I’ve never seen a player improve every year in high school as consistently, and that’s including right now,” Cannon told the Herald-Leader. “His scoring average is about the same as last year, but he’s way better in every other area right now.”
And Cannon was quick to follow up that Sallis’ scoring average is just fine. He’s at about 22 points per game through Millard North’s first part of the season. He has managed that total on an 11-0 squad that features multiple Division I-level teammates, and he has scored at that rate despite sitting out the fourth quarter in a few blowouts.
Sallis is shooting at close to 60 percent from the field, and he’s more than willing to spread the ball around and share the spotlight. His blend of skill, versatility, unselfishness and upside has made him one of the top recruits in the 2021 class — and a major target of blue bloods like Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina — but it wasn’t always that way.
His first appearance in the 247Sports composite rankings came just before his sophomore year, when he entered that season ranked No. 79 nationally. By the end of the season, he was ranked No. 59. By the start of his junior year, he was at No. 42. By the end of that season, he was in the top 30. And now, after another summer of development, he’s considered the No. 6 overall player in the 2021 class.
From season to season, he has kept working and kept improving, even after he reached five-star status. His scoring output is about the same, yes, but he’s an even more effective offensive player, as well as a better passer, rebounder and defender, than he was a year ago.
“He’s really a tremendous driver,” Cannon said. “I call him slithery — getting through people — but also explosive. He jumps very well. … And he’s become a lot better with his pull-up jumpers that are really hard to stop. If he gets a 15-foot pull-up jumper, he just jumps so well that it’s hard for anybody to get up there and stop it. He’s been shooting those really well. And he’s really worked hard on his three-pointer, and he’s improved that a lot.”
Though Sallis is often referred to as the top point guard in the 2020 class, he’s not even the primary point guard on his high school team. Old Dominion commitment Jadin Johnson plays that position for Millard North, with Sallis often playing from the wing, where he does plenty of damage as a scorer and a secondary distributor, drawing double teams and finding open teammates.
“His passing is really at a high level right now,” Cannon said.
Sallis is also effective at the other end of the floor.
“I don’t always put him on the best guy the whole game right away, because I just don’t want to burn him out,” his coach said. “But he ends up taking that role — if he doesn’t have him to start with, he ends up taking him during the game. He takes a lot of pride in shutting good players down. And that’s really good to see.”
Sallis and recruiting
Kentucky should be stacked at the point guard position next season, with freshman Devin Askew looking like a possible multi-year college player and instant-impact recruit Nolan Hickman already signed for the 2021 class. UK also has an early commitment for class of 2022 point guard Skyy Clark, who is still considering a reclassification to 2021.
All three of those players, like Sallis, can play on or off the ball. That versatility would give John Calipari the luxury of playing two (or even three) of those players at once, if they all end up at Kentucky next season.
“I think he really can play both at a high level,” Cannon said of his star’s ability to play on and off the ball. “He’s going to fit perfectly for someone. Some teams play the point and the wing a little bit interchangeable. He definitely can do both. And I don’t think he has a huge preference on either.”
UK assistant coach Joel Justus was the Wildcats’ first contact with Sallis’ camp, an inquiry that came several months ago. Cannon said Justus was very complimentary of Sallis’ game and thought he would be a good fit for Calipari’s approach, specifically comparing his style of play and physical frame to former UK star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Kentucky extended a scholarship offer over the summer, and the Wildcats are one of eight schools still in the running for Sallis’ commitment. The top tier of that list — the programs that analysts believe have a real shot to land the star playmaker — includes UK, fellow blue bloods North Carolina and Kansas, hometown Creighton, and top-ranked Gonzaga.
The Zags — currently featuring similarly skilled freshman Jalen Suggs — might have replaced Kentucky as the perceived favorite in recent days. 247Sports analysts Travis Branham and Jerry Meyer both logged predictions in Gonzaga’s favor on Sallis’ Crystal Ball page last month, though some are still publicly picking Kentucky and no one seems to think his commitment is a slam dunk for any school just yet.
The original plan was for Sallis’ recruitment to be finished by now. He was hoping to make a college decision before his senior season, but he also wanted to take some official visits to the top schools on his list. He has taken unofficial visits to several schools, including Kansas and Creighton. So far, Gonzaga has been his only official visit. That happened in late January, a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the NCAA instituting what has become an indefinite “dead period” for recruiting, which means college coaches can’t host high school players for campus visits or go on the road to see those recruits in person.
The dead period also began before Sallis received scholarship offers from Kentucky and North Carolina, two schools he specifically wanted to see before making a decision. So that decision was put on hold.
“It does mean a lot to him,” Cannon said. “He has talked a lot — and his parents have talked a lot — about wanting to be able to make official visits.”
The recruiting dead period is set to expire April 15, though the NCAA has extended it several times since the pandemic began. If it’s extended again, Sallis will almost certainly have to make his college decision without getting to take any more official visits.
Even if that happens, he could still pop up in Lexington.
Over the summer, UK signee Bryce Hopkins and his family — in the same situation then that Sallis is in now — jumped in the car and drove from Chicago to Kentucky for their own campus visit. They weren’t allowed to meet with the basketball staff or tour the program’s facilities while in town, but it did give Hopkins a chance to see UK for himself before making a college choice. He ultimately picked Kentucky.
Cannon said Sallis and his parents almost did the same thing in November, before the early signing period and before the high school season started. They weren’t able to pull that trip off then, but — if it looks like official visits will be a no-go come spring — they might try again.
“His parents have talked about that,” Cannon acknowledged. “When we hit March … I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t take off and visit a few. They wanted to go to Kentucky and Carolina and see the campuses. So they might still do that.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 7:41 AM.
