Star point guard recruit Nolan Hickman is no longer committed to play for Kentucky
Kentucky has lost its only point guard recruit for next season.
Nolan Hickman — the first UK commitment for the 2021 recruiting class — backed out of that commitment this week, his high school coach confirmed to the Herald-Leader on Friday afternoon.
Hickman originally committed to the Wildcats in August, and he’s risen in the national recruiting rankings since that time. Once considered to be a back-end Top 100 recruit in the 2021 class, Hickman is now a consensus top-30 player nationally. He is the No. 29 overall player in the 2021 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
He was also the only point guard on Kentucky’s projected roster for next season.
Devin Askew, who started much of this past season at point guard as a freshman, announced this spring that he would transfer to Texas after just a year with the program. Graduate transfer Davion Mintz, who played some at the point this past season, has not yet revealed whether he will return to Kentucky for one more season of college basketball or pursue a professional career.
Incoming shooting guard transfer Kellan Grady and sophomore shooting guard Dontaie Allen are also expected to be on UK’s 2021-22 roster, though no official announcement on Allen’s status has been made by the program.
The Wildcats went 9-16 last season.
Kentucky was already expected to add another point guard this spring, even before Hickman’s decision to back out of his commitment. Two names at the top of that list have been Minnesota point guard Marcus Carr, a proven college playmaker, and five-star point guard recruit TyTy Washington, the top available player at the position in the 2021 class. Other talented point guards have also been linked to Kentucky in recent weeks, and it now seems possible that the Cats could add two additional players at that spot before next season begins.
Hickman signed a national letter of intent in the fall, and he has been released from that agreement, according to UK. He becomes only the second player since John Calipari took over Kentucky’s program in 2009 to back out of a UK commitment. The other was DJ Jeffries, who eventually joined his former AAU coach, Penny Hardaway, in Memphis’ No. 1-ranked class two years ago.
Wasatch Academy (Utah) head coach Paul Peterson told the Herald-Leader that Hickman informed him of his decision Thursday night. The news became public Friday afternoon.
Hickman’s primary recruiter at Kentucky had been former assistant coach Tony Barbee, who last week was introduced as the head coach at Central Michigan. The NCAA’s yearlong dead period related to COVID-19 has also prevented recruits from being able to take campus visits. Hickman had not set foot on UK’s campus at the time of his commitment last summer, and his first trip to Lexington was going to be when he arrived for classes in June.
Not long after Hickman’s commitment, Barbee was moved to an off-court coaching role amid changes within Kentucky’s coaching staff.
“One of the reasonings that I know for sure is that the coach who recruited him hard (Barbee) took a head coaching job,” Peterson told the Herald-Leader. “I think that one hit him pretty hard.”
Hickman averaged 16.0 points, 3.3 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game as a senior, earning McDonald’s All-American honors and leading Wasatch to a top-10 national ranking and a spot in the Geico Nationals, the de facto national tournament for high school basketball. He was known as an above-average three-point shooter and projected as an instant-impact freshman — one who could play on or off the ball — at Kentucky next season.
He’s now expected to be one of the most highly coveted recruits to close this 2021 cycle, especially with several national programs still looking for help at point guard. There have also been rumblings in recruiting circles that the G League would be interested in Hickman for its developmental program next season.
“I don’t know what he’ll do next,” Peterson said. “Whoever gets him is getting a steal, for sure.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 3:42 PM.
