Star basketball recruit Trevor Keels picks Duke. What does that mean for Kentucky?
Trevor Keels — the five-star shooting guard who Kentucky started recruiting late in his senior season — announced his commitment to Duke on Friday afternoon.
Keels is one of the top perimeter players in the 2021 class and had narrowed his recruitment to Duke, Villanova and Virginia months ago. UK jumped into that recruitment with a scholarship offer in February, but the longstanding ties to the Blue Devils surely had an impact on his final decision.
Duke, which extended a scholarship offer to Keels early in his junior season, was seen as a possible frontrunner for much of the past year. Last month, several recruiting analysts — including some Duke insiders — switched their predictions to Villanova, but all of those picks had since gone back in the Blue Devils’ direction.
247Sports ranks Keels — a 6-foot-5 prospect from the Washington, D.C. area — as the No. 16 overall player in the 2021 class, and he’s the No. 20 prospect in the national composite rankings for that group, making him one of the top available players among high school seniors.
Keels averaged 28.7 points, 9.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 3.8 steals per game this past season, while logging six triple-doubles for Paul VI (Va.), which was ranked as one of the top 25 high school teams in the country. He was named a McDonald’s All-American last month.
“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.
Keels is only the third member of Duke’s recruiting class for next season, but it’s a star-studded group that should be among the best in the country. The other two Blue Devils signees are former Kentucky target Paolo Banchero (the No. 3 player in the 2021 class) and small forward AJ Griffin (the No. 7 overall player in the class).
The addition of Keels will push Duke’s class to No. 3 in the 247Sports team rankings and move Kentucky’s three-player recruiting class to No. 5 on that list.
Impact on Kentucky basketball
Keels, a highly touted perimeter scorer with a strong, college-ready frame, would have been a great addition to Kentucky’s backcourt for next season, and it’s no surprise that the Wildcats would pursue him after it became clear they were likely going to miss out on fellow five-star guards Jaden Hardy and Hunter Sallis.
However, the need to add Keels was lessened to a large degree with the commitment of Davidson graduate transfer Kellan Grady this week. Grady is a proven perimeter scorer (2,002 points over the past four years) and three-point shooter (38.2 percent this past season) at the college level, and he should have no problem transitioning his game from Davidson to Kentucky next season.
The Wildcats will also have incoming point guard Nolan Hickman, along with the expected return of freshman guards Dontaie Allen and Devin Askew, plus the possible return of graduate transfer Davion Mintz, who was the leading scorer and three-point shooter for Kentucky this past season.
If Mintz comes back — and there seems to be a good chance of that happening — he would join Grady to form an incredibly experienced backcourt tandem that would give John Calipari ample opportunity to play three-guard lineups next season.
Whether Mintz returns or not, the focus on Kentucky’s end — if the Cats add any other backcourt players this offseason — appears to be at the point guard position, where UK’s coaches are continuing to monitor the NCAA transfer portal for any potential veteran fits in that area. As of Friday, more than 1,100 players had already entered the portal, and that number is expected to increase by several hundred more in the coming weeks.
Class of 2021 shooting guard Tamar “Scoop” Bates, who decommitted from Texas this week and was recruited by Jai Lucas in the past, also remains a possible addition.
