Major Kentucky basketball targets rocket up the new national recruiting rankings
The new basketball recruiting rankings for the class of 2022 are out, and some of the players that have emerged as Kentucky’s biggest targets from that group also happened to be among the biggest risers on the list.
247Sports started its 2022 update by moving Jalen Duren past Emoni Bates at the top of the rankings, effectively flipping the two prospects that have long occupied the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. Duren, a major Kentucky target, also moved to No. 1 in the recent Rivals.com update.
However, it’s looking more and more like Duren will reclassify to 2021 and play either college or pro basketball this coming season. UK, Memphis and Miami are viewed as the top three college options, and no final decision is expected for at least another month.
Bates has also been the subject of reclassification chatter, and he is widely expected to jump straight to the professional ranks, whenever he leaves high school.
If Duren does indeed reclassify, and Bates follows him to 2021 — or goes straight to the pros — that would make the new No. 3 recruit in the 2022 rankings the top college prospect in the class.
And that player is now Dereck Lively II, who jumped a whopping 39 spots in this latest update.
Lively — a versatile, mobile 7-footer from Pennsylvania — landed scholarship offers from Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke over the past few months and has visited all three of those schools over the past few weeks. He’s also considering Florida State, Michigan, Penn State and Southern Cal, though the blue bloods appear to have the upper hand in this recruitment.
UK target Keyonte George — a 6-4 shooting guard from Texas — moved up eight spots to the No. 5 ranking, but the home-state Longhorns look like the favorite in his recruitment. Fellow UK target Chris Livingston — a 6-6 wing from Akron, Ohio — stayed put at No. 6 overall.
The next major mover was Ontario native Shaedon Sharpe — a super-athletic shooting guard, now playing for a high school in Arizona — and a major UK recruiting target who visited Lexington this month. Sharpe jumped 38 spots to the No. 8 overall position.
Five-star point guard Skyy Clark — the only Kentucky commitment so far for the 2022 class — dropped three spots to No. 15 overall.
UK has also extended scholarship offers to IMG Academy (Fla.) point guard Jaden Bradley, who fell 10 spots to No. 24 overall, and Nashville-area forward Brandon Miller, who dropped 15 spots to No. 26 on the 247Sports list.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 12:04 PM.
