Kentucky’s trio of five-star perimeter targets set decision dates. Will any pick UK?
Kentucky now knows when the three five-star guards on its recruiting radar for next season will announce their recruiting commitments.
Will any of those perimeter prospects pick the Wildcats?
Virginia standout Trevor Keels — a 6-foot-5 shooting guard — became the latest undecided recruit in the 2021 class to finalize his timetable Sunday night, announcing that he will reveal his college decision April 4.
Keels is the No. 20 overall player in the 2021 class, according to the 247Sports composite ranking, and he has narrowed his recruitment to four schools: Duke, Kentucky, Villanova and Virginia, with UK extending a scholarship offer just last month to join the other three finalists.
MaxPreps.com named Keels the Virginia player of the year after he averaged 28.7 points, 9.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 3.8 steals per game with six triple-doubles. He was named a McDonald’s All-American late last month.
The reveal of Keels’ decision date follows similar announcements from five-star combo guards Jaden Hardy and Hunter Sallis, who will also make their next basketball plans known in the coming weeks.
Sallis — a 6-5 prospect from Omaha — will be first off the board with a March 26 announcement. He still has eight schools on his list, including Gonzaga, Kentucky and North Carolina. He’s also the No. 6 overall player in the 2021 class.
Hardy — a 6-4 prospect from the Las Vegas area — said recently that he intends to announce his future basketball plans sometime in April. (He has not set an exact decision date). Hardy is the No. 2 overall recruit in the class and the first guard from 2021 to land a UK scholarship offer.
So, the good news for Kentucky is that the Cats should know what each of these players will do without any of their decisions dragging late into the spring.
The bad news for UK: none of the three appear to be leaning toward coming to Lexington.
Sallis is still considered likely to pick Gonzaga, which enters this week’s NCAA Tournament undefeated and was the only school that was able to host Sallis for an official visit prior to the NCAA recruiting dead period that went into effect last March.
Though Keels was long seen as a Duke lean, Villanova might be the new leader in his recruitment. Either way, the consensus in recruiting circles is that Kentucky is likely behind those two programs in the race for his commitment.
And while Hardy says he is still considering the college route, the expectation is that he will announce he’s skipping college and jumping straight to the professional ranks, with the G League being the most likely landing spot. (For what it’s worth, the first big G League announcement last year — the signing of Jalen Green — came on April 16).
Kentucky is clearly looking for more backcourt help for next season.
The Cats have signed four-star point guard Nolan Hickman and expect Devin Askew and Dontaie Allen to return, as well as the possibility that Davion Mintz could be back for another year. They’ll want to add at least one more instant-impact guard to that group, however.
Unless something changes in the next few weeks, it doesn’t look like it’ll be a five-star player from the 2021 class.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 10:58 AM.
