One of Kentucky’s brightest basketball stars gets first offer from a former UK coach
It didn’t take long for rising Lexington Catholic basketball star John McCrear to land his first Division I scholarship offer once the new recruiting contact period opened Tuesday.
That offer came from a familiar source.
McCrear — a 6-foot-8 power forward — announced on Twitter early Tuesday morning that he had received an offer from Arizona State. Of course, former UK assistant coach Joel Justus left the Wildcats this spring to take the top assistant job at Arizona State — under head coach Bobby Hurley — and McCrear tagged Justus in his tweet.
That post came at 12:46 a.m., less than an hour after college coaches were permitted to make direct contact with recruits from the class of 2023 for the first time. McCrear, who moved from Michigan to Lexington in January, is emerging as one of the top players in that group, and the 2023 class is shaping up as one of Kentucky’s most talented in years.
There’s a major UK connection to McCrear, as well.
He’s the nephew of Kentucky football recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, who has been helping McCrear navigate his budding basketball career and the early stages of his recruitment.
The initial stages of that recruiting process have included some early interest from UK.
The Wildcats hosted McCrear for an unofficial visit this past weekend, and Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua was McCrear’s main contact for that visit. Antigua and Marrow were both assistant coaches within the Kentucky athletics department at the same time from 2012 to 2014, and Marrow reached out to former UK assistant Kenny Payne when trying to find the right high school fit for McCrear earlier this year.
McCrear averaged just 5.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for LexCath during the 2020-21 season, but he wasn’t able to join the varsity team until February and was then acclimating to a new squad that was already ranked among the best in Kentucky and viewed as a favorite to win the state tournament.
With a full offseason ahead of him — including the ability to work out with his LexCath teammates this month — McCrear will go into the 2021-22 season with lofty expectations.
“He’s an unbelievable athlete,” Lexington Catholic Coach Brandon Salsman told the Herald-Leader in February. “I’ve been at Catholic for 30 years, and I don’t think I’ve seen his match of athleticism. He’s got unbelievable length and an unbelievable basketball IQ. He picks up things very quickly.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 10:07 AM.
