You can watch several Kentucky basketball recruits on ESPN this weekend. Here’s how.
This holiday weekend marks the usual timing of the Hoophall Classic, a nationally televised, star-studded high school basketball showcase that typically features the best collection of recruiting talent on the scholastic calendar.
There will be no Hoophall Classic this season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Sunday and Monday will still feature several high school games on ESPN networks, and all of them will include Kentucky recruiting targets.
The nationally televised action from the St. James NIBC Invitational in Springfield, Va., begins Sunday night with a battle between Florida prep school giants Montverde Academy and IMG Academy, followed by four consecutive games on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with the finale Monday night featuring Kentucky point guard signee Nolan Hickman.
Here’s who to watch this weekend:
Montverde vs. IMG
Montverde Academy and IMG Academy go into this event as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in all of high school basketball, respectively, according to the latest MaxPreps.com rankings, and they’ll play against each other at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
Both teams feature players who already have UK scholarship offers for 2022.
Jalen Duren (Montverde): Duren — a 6-foot-10 center from Philadelphia — is the No. 2 overall player in the 2022 class and was one of the Wildcats’ earliest targets in the class, landing a Kentucky offer last year. The early buzz says that UK might be the favorite among colleges in his recruitment, though he will be a candidate to jump straight from high school to the pros.
Jaden Bradley (IMG): The 6-3 point guard from the Charlotte area is the most recent recipient of a UK scholarship offer, and there have already been some prominent Crystal Ball predictions in Kentucky’s favor since Bradley received that offer a couple of weeks ago. He’s generally regarded as one of the top 10 players in the 2022 class.
Dariq Whitehead (Montverde): The 6-5 small forward from Newark, N.J., is the No. 7 player in the 2022 class — according to the 247Sports composite rankings — and Kentucky has been in regular contact. UK, Florida State and Memphis are seen as possible top-tier options in the early going of Whitehead’s recruitment.
Jarace Walker (IMG): UK’s coaches have been checking in regularly on Bradley, but they’ve also been asking the IMG Academy coaches about Walker, a 6-8 power forward and the No. 8 player in the 2022 composite rankings.
Monday games
All four of Monday’s games will be on ESPNU.
11 a.m.: Legacy Early College (S.C.) vs. La Lumiere (Ind.)
Vince Iwuchukwu (La Lumiere): The 7-footer transferred from a San Antonio high school to prep powerhouse La Lumiere — the alma mater of Keion Brooks and Isaac Humphries — over the summer, and he’s the No. 28 player in the 2022 rankings. He told 247Sports recently that he’s been in contact with UK and is trying to model his own game after former Wildcats star Bam Adebayo.
1 p.m.: iSchool Academy (Texas) vs. Oak Hill Academy (Va.)
Keyonte George (iSchool): A dynamic 6-4 shooting guard, George is ranked as the top player at that position in the 2022 class, and he’s expected to be a major Kentucky target moving forward, assuming he doesn’t make a jump straight from high school to the professional ranks (which remains a possibility). George jumped to No. 6 overall in this week’s updated Rivals.com rankings.
3 p.m.: IMG Academy (Fla.) vs. Sunrise Academy (Kan.)
Jaden Bradley and Jarace Walker will be back on the court for the second straight day in what should be another major test against Sunrise, which is ranked by MaxPreps as the No. 3 team in all of high school basketball this season. This should be an especially interesting matchup for Bradley, who will get to go up against Sunrise senior Kennedy Chandler, a former UK target and Tennessee signee who is considered one of the best point guards in the 2021 class.
5 p.m.: Montverde Academy (Fla.) vs. Wasatch Academy (Utah)
Jalen Duren and Dariq Whitehead and the rest of No. 1-ranked Montverde’s packed roster return to face Wasatch, which is ranked No. 9 nationally by MaxPreps.
Wasatch’s roster features point guard Nolan Hickman, the first commitment for the Wildcats’ 2021 recruiting class and one of the top playmakers in the country. Hickman — a versatile, 6-3 point guard — has only enhanced his reputation since committing to UK over the summer. In the past few weeks, he’s jumped to No. 30 in the 247Sports rankings and No. 39 in the Rivals.com rankings — moving up at least 10 spots nationally on each list.
Playing alongside Hickman at Wasatch is fellow point guard Richard “Pop Pop” Isaacs, who has scholarship offers from Kansas, Gonzaga, Arizona and several other top programs. He’s the No. 25 recruit in the 2022 class.
