Kentucky ‘very much’ in play for top available shooting guard recruit for next season
Kentucky is still looking for backcourt help for next basketball season, and one of the top shooting guards in the country is still looking for his college destination.
Could it be the perfect match?
UK surely hopes so. Over the weekend, the Wildcats extended a scholarship offer to five-star recruit Trevor Keels, one of the best available players in the class of 2021.
Keels — a 6-foot-5 prospect from the Washington, D.C. area — is in his senior season at Paul VI (Va.), and his all-around game from the perimeter vaulted him to five-star status more than a year ago.
247Sports ranks him as the No. 16 overall player — and No. 2 shooting guard — in the 2021 class.
“He’s a guy that — when you get him on campus — you can immediately plug him in, and he can play and contribute right away,” 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader. “The kid just has a really high IQ and knows how to play the game. The best aspect of his game is shooting the basketball. He can make shots both off the catch and off the bounce, but he’s at his best making shots off the catch. And he’s got range well beyond the three-point line.
“He’s also very skilled. Again, he knows how to play the game. He’s a good passer. He makes good decisions with the basketball in his hands. He is a straight ‘2,’ but the ball doesn’t stick. You swing that ball around the perimeter, and he’s going to find the open man. He’s competitive. He wants to defend. He consistently produces when the lights are the brightest on the high school stage.”
Keels is averaging about 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists per game this season. He’s had multiple triple-doubles, and — one day after landing his UK scholarship offer — he scored 41 points and dished out eight assists in a game against region rival DeMatha (Md.).
His ability to create off the dribble, finish at the basket and make shots from outside is something Kentucky fans have been clamoring for this season, and Branham said Keels’ offensive versatility should translate immediately to the college level.
Physically, he already looks the part of a veteran college guard, playing a strong style at about 210 pounds.
“He’s not a guy like a Julius Randle, in terms of using his strength to just bully guys,” Branham said. “He goes about it in a different way. He just knows how to use his body. It’s not, ‘I’m just going to shoulder you and get to the rim.’ He knows how to get you on his hip, and he’s going to be able to keep you there and then get to where he wants to go on the floor. He’s strong on the defensive end. At the college level, he’ll be able to defend ‘2s’ and ‘3s’ — just because of the IQ. He knows how to use angles. He knows how to use that strength.”
His three-point shooting ability — something Kentucky has been lacking for most of the season — would also be a welcome addition on the next UK team.
“He just has a very high floor as a basketball prospect, with his size, his strength, his IQ, his ability to make shots at a high rate,” Branham said. “His game is something you can just throw into any system. He’s going to figure it out. And he’s going to make shots.”
Kentucky is in the mix
UK might have been late to Keels’ recruitment in terms of the timing of a scholarship offer, but it’s become clear over the past few days that the D.C. standout is someone who the Wildcats’ coaching staff has been watching for quite some time.
Keels, it turns out, has been on Kentucky’s radar for a while, but the Wildcats extended a few scholarship offers to other 2021 guards earlier in the process. UK landed a commitment from point guard Nolan Hickman over the summer, and the Cats had offers out to five-star guards Jaden Hardy and Hunter Sallis — both top-10 national recruits — prior to that.
At that time, it looked like Kentucky would land at least one of those players — or maybe even both — but, now, the Wildcats don’t appear to be favorites for either.
Hickman, of course, will be on next season’s team. Devin Askew and Dontaie Allen are also expected to return, and graduate transfer Davion Mintz acknowledged Tuesday that he would consider a return for one more college season after this one.
Brandon Boston and Terrence Clarke are still expected to enter the NBA Draft, however, and UK’s offseasons have been filled with unexpected departures in recent years. Kentucky’s coaches — through their ongoing pursuit of Hardy and Sallis, as well as the recent offer to Keels — are clearly planning as if they’ll need to add at least one more guard.
The competition for Keels’ commitment will be stiff.
Prior to the Kentucky offer, he was down to three schools — Duke, Villanova and Virginia — and he has acknowledged in interviews over the past few months that he’s having an incredibly difficult time narrowing it down from there.
Branham said this week that — before the UK offer — most of the buzz surrounding Keels’ recruitment centered on Villanova and Duke. There was no recent “Crystal Ball” activity to speak of until Wednesday, when 247Sports national analyst Eric Bossi logged a pick in favor of Duke, though he acknowledged it was a low-confidence pick and noted that Kentucky would have a chance at his commitment.
Branham said that this one has been tough to handicap. UK’s emergence is likely to only make it tougher.
“Right now, I think it’s a very tight race. And that’s including Kentucky,” Branham said. “I do think Kentucky is very much involved at his point. Now, when it comes to a decision, he’s wanting to wait until later in the spring. He wants to see how these rosters pan out. He’s wanting to, hopefully, take some visits, if he can. And get some face-to-face time with some of these staffs, and see the campuses.
“But the most important thing is seeing how these rosters pan out. Who’s going to have a place for him? And where can he go and plug in right away and have a good opportunity at playing?”
If Keels sticks to that timetable, it will give Kentucky even more of an opportunity to make up some ground in his recruitment. (And others in recruiting circles have told the Herald-Leader that UK does indeed have a legitimate shot to land Keels’ commitment).
Wherever he ends up, expect Keels to be an instant impact player.
“He’s going to give you a lot of reasons to keep him on the floor. He’s that type of guy,” Branham said. “Because he just knows how to figure it out, and he knows how to play the game.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 7:49 AM.
