A busy (and important) stretch for Kentucky basketball recruiting starts right now
Following 15 months without a single on-campus recruiting visit, the Kentucky basketball coaching staff is preparing for a hectic few weeks that should see several of the Wildcats’ top targets come to Lexington.
The busy June itinerary starts this weekend with the arrival of five-star point guard Skyy Clark, who will be in town for an official visit — his first on-campus recruiting trip since his commitment to UK last fall. Clark — a top prospect in the 2022 class — was actually one of Kentucky’s final visiting recruits in early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic led to an NCAA-mandated stoppage of such visits across the country.
That travel ban was lifted June 1, and UK’s campus will be a busy place for the nation’s top basketball prospects in the coming months.
Obviously, John Calipari’s coaching staff looks a lot different now than it did when Kentucky last hosted recruiting visits. Then, the three primary assistants were Kenny Payne, Tony Barbee and Joel Justus. Now, those three positions are held by Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman and Jai Lucas (with Bruiser Flint also new to the staff since March 2020).
Calipari and his new group of coaches will have their work cut out for them. The list of prospects expected in town this month is packed with star power, but there also seems to be a sense in recruiting circles that most of these players are currently leaning elsewhere in their recruitments.
It is, however, a great sign for Kentucky that so many star players have decided to make Lexington one of their first recruiting stops after being unable to visit colleges for more than a year.
Clark — the No. 15 overall player in the new Rivals.com rankings for the rising senior class — is the Cats’ only commitment for 2022. For him, this weekend’s visit will be an opportunity to get to know the new coaches and get reacquainted with Calipari and the UK campus.
For the others, it’ll be a chance for Calipari and his staff to pitch their vision for the future of Kentucky basketball, in person, for the first time.
As of now, five major 2022 recruits — in addition to Clark — are scheduled to be in Lexington before the end of the month.
Jalen Duren
Though Emoni Bates, who is expected to turn pro out of high school, has long been seen as the best prospect in the 2022 class, Jalen Duren seems to be staking his claim to that ranking. Rivals.com recently moved Duren past Bates and into the No. 1 spot, and other recruiting services could follow in the near future.
Duren — a 6-foot-10 center from Philadelphia — has confirmed an official visit to Kentucky for the end of the month, but it’s going to be tough for UK to come out on top in this recruitment. Duren is also set to visit Memphis and Miami this month, though Michigan is being touted as Kentucky’s top college competition for Duren’s commitment. The bigger obstacle here will be convincing Duren to play college ball at all. He has said in the past that a college program would have to “wow” him during the recruiting process in order to turn down professional opportunities, and — going into this summer — it certainly appears as if the pro route is the leader in his recruitment.
It could help UK’s case that Duren will play his final high school season alongside Skyy Clark, who announced a transfer to Montverde (Fla.) Academy last month. Duren led Montverde to a national championship — and national junior of the year honors — this past season.
Keyonte George
The No. 1 shooting guard in the country cut his list to five schools a few weeks ago, and it looks like he’ll get to visit most of those colleges in June.
Keyonte George — No. 5 nationally in the new Rivals rankings for 2022 — took an official visit to Texas this past weekend, and the 6-5 super scorer is scheduled for similar trips to Kentucky, Baylor and Oklahoma State later in the month. Kansas, the other school on his list, is scheduled to host the Texas native in September. (The UK visit is tentatively set to begin June 21).
George averaged 23.2 points per game as a junior and has been lighting up the grassroots circuit with his Adidas-affiliated team this spring. He’s the type of dynamic perimeter scoring threat that Calipari is always looking for, but this might be another recruitment where UK is playing from behind.
Texas has emerged in recent weeks as a lukewarm leader. Just this week, Rivals.com analyst Rob Cassidy said the Longhorns are “still the team to beat here,” and it’s important to note that the professional route is expected to linger throughout George’s recruitment. “Truth be told, toppling UT in the race to land George will be an uphill battle,” Cassidy wrote.
Dereck Lively
Certainly one of the most-buzzed-about basketball recruits in the country this spring, Pennsylvania standout Dereck Lively is making good on his vast potential and starting to be recognized as a definite five-star prospect.
Rivals.com now ranks Lively — a 7-footer who plays for a prep school near Philadelphia — as the No. 14 overall player nationally for the 2022 class, and his recruitment is turning into a major blue-blood battle. He has three official visits set for June: North Carolina this weekend, Kentucky on June 20, and Duke the week after that.
UNC extended a scholarship offer earlier this year and Duke did the same a few days ago. A Kentucky offer seems like a formality at this point, with the Cats clearly making Lively — the type of long, athletic, defensively adept post player that Calipari has had ample success with over the years — one of their top priorities in the 2022 class.
Lively’s recruitment seems much more wide open than some others on this list. There are currently zero predictions on either his 247Sports Crystal Ball or Rivals.com Future Cast pages.
Chris Livingston
One of the most explosive players in the 2022 class, Chris Livingston averaged 31.1 points, 15.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 4.7 steals and 4.0 steals per game as a junior, and he’s the No. 4 overall player in Rivals.com’s latest rankings.
Livingston — a 6-6 small forward from Akron, Ohio — has some Kentucky ties, and he’ll be on UK’s campus for an official visit next weekend. He’s also planned an official visit to Kansas for this weekend, though Memphis is a program that’s being talked about a lot in recruiting circles. Livingston is yet another player that is expected to strongly consider the professional route straight out of high school.
Brandon Miller
The final weekend of June will feature an official visit from five-star small forward Brandon Miller, a Nashville-area standout who jumped seven spots to the No. 10 overall position in the latest Rivals.com rankings.
Miller took his first official visit to Auburn last week, visited Tennessee earlier this week, and he’s a major recruiting target for most of the programs in the Southeastern Conference. He’s been relatively quiet off the court, but Kentucky is making him a top priority, and he’s one of the players in this 2022 class that is often mentioned as a legitimate possibility for the Wildcats.
The 6-7 prospect averaged 23.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.6 blocks per game — and shot well from three-point range — as a junior, and he’s one of the more intriguing prospects in the country, especially if he fills out physically and develops more strength on the court.
“The upside is there in spades, and you can see it.” Rivals.com’s Rob Cassidy told the Herald-Leader. “He has the touch around the basket to finish, but it’s going to be about how much muscle he’s able to add to see how effective he’s going to be down there. I think that’s going to determine what he becomes. Because he does have that length. He can step out and shoot it. He handles the ball well, and he’s underrated as a passer. I think that’s the last piece of his game — being able to muscle up and score on the inside.”
Miller is not expected to even release a top-10 list of college options until August.
Other Kentucky recruits
Clark, Duren, George, Lively, Livingston and Miller might ultimately not be the only top 2022 recruits to visit Lexington this month, and — even if they are — campus trips will pick back up again after the July evaluation periods, with August kicking off another popular stretch for official visits.
Several of Kentucky’s other 2022 priorities are expected to be in town then.
Five-star point guard Jaden Bradley will visit UK in the fall, his father told the Herald-Leader, following official visits this month to Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Alabama. Rivals.com ranks Bradley as the No. 18 player in the 2022 class.
Five-star shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe — the No. 11 player in the new Rivals rankings — was asked by UK to visit alongside Clark this weekend, but his travel coach and mentor told the Herald-Leader that they’re taking more of a deliberate approach to recruiting this summer and would visit at a later time. Kentucky seems to be in a good spot with the Canadian standout.
Five-star point guard Dior Johnson — the No. 7 player nationally, according to Rivals — is actually set to make his recruiting announcement June 25, though he has not revealed any official visit plans for this month. Kentucky is on the California standout’s list of finalists, along with Oregon, Washington and the NBL (a professional league based in Australia). Johnson has long been seen as a possible preps-to-pros player, and that will likely remain an option even if he announces for a college later this month.
There are several other top recruits on Kentucky’s 2022 radar, and that list is expected to grow after UK’s coaches get a look at more players from this class during the three live evaluation periods that will take place next month, the first such recruiting opportunities for college coaches since the COVID-19 shutdown in March of last year.
