Kentucky basketball’s next big visitor could be a ‘dynamic’ scorer for the Wildcats
There are few perimeter players in the class of 2022 who can match what Nick Smith Jr. brings to the basketball court from an offensive perspective. He proved that again this summer.
Smith — a 6-foot-4 combo guard from North Little Rock, Ark. — led his Brad Beal Elite squad to the championship game of the Peach Jam finals, scoring 31 points there to nearly knock off the star-studded Team Final, which featured top recruits Jalen Duren and Dereck Lively II.
For the 15-game Nike schedule, Smith averaged 17.6 points and shot 37.5 percent from three-point range. This followed a high school season in which he averaged 25 points per game and earned Arkansas state player of the honors as a junior.
The same day as that Peach Jam title game — and after seeing him play in person several times over the previous two weeks — Kentucky extended a scholarship offer. Later on this week, Smith will be on UK’s campus for his official visit, the latest five-star guard to show up in Lexington over the past few days.
Smith’s play over the summer led to a huge jump — from No. 39 to No. 16 nationally — in the Rivals.com rankings, which were posted last week. 247Sports hasn’t updated its 2022 list to reflect the summer circuit results, but that website already had Smith ranked as the No. 17 overall player in the country.
“I loved what I saw from Nick this summer,” 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader. “We’ve been high on Nick for quite a while now, and I think people got to see a good reason for that down at Peach Jam. He’s a dynamic, three-level scorer who is really competitive. He brings great energy on both ends of the floor. And he’s developed his point guard skill set over the past year and has really become more of a true combo guard that can play on and off the ball and not just be a scorer. He’s got good vision and passing ability. And coupled with his aggressiveness and ability as a scorer, he puts a lot of pressure on the defense. And it really creates scoring opportunities for his teammates.”
That offensive versatility and tenacity as a competitor is what led UK Coach John Calipari, who had already been keeping a close eye on Smith, to go ahead and pull the trigger on a scholarship offer as the Wildcats continue to look for more backcourt help for the 2022-23 season.
Kentucky also extended an offer to fellow five-star combo guard Cason Wallace on the same weekend, and the two recruitments have been inextricably linked in the eyes of many UK fans ever since.
The Wildcats already have a commitment from five-star point guard Skyy Clark. A commitment from five-star shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe — the new No. 1 player in the Rivals rankings — is expected to be announced sometime in the next week or two. It’s clear Calipari wants at least one more instant-impact guard in his 2022 class, and the popular narrative says it will ultimately be either Wallace or Smith.
Linking those two players even further is the timing of their visits, with Wallace spending last weekend on UK’s campus and Smith scheduled to be in town this weekend. (Sharpe also took an official visit to Kentucky this week).
“They’re definitely different,” Branham said of Smith and Wallace. “But they do both impact the game on both ends of the court at a high level.”
Wallace — also a 6-4 combo guard — is accomplished as a scorer and passer but is more renowned for his defensive ability, with Branham calling him perhaps the best on-ball defender in the 2022 class.
“Nick, he’s more wired to score — he has a better scoring skill set,” Branham said, adding that the Arkansas native can damage a defense with his creativity on the ball or by playing off the ball, getting open for shots by coming around screens and pin-downs.
“He was outstanding this summer, and he only continued to help his case as a five-star prospect and one of the top players in the class,” he said.
Recruiting Nick Smith Jr.
Smith’s recruitment is a little more difficult to handicap than the pair of star guards who came to town before him over the past few days.
At this point, it would be a shock if Sharpe ended up anywhere other than Kentucky. Wallace, meanwhile, has already narrowed his list to just three options: UK, Tennessee and Texas.
Smith has a much more open list. Technically, his options currently include Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Kansas, Memphis, Oklahoma and Arkansas Pine-Bluff, an HBCU that hosted him for an unofficial visit last month.
Branham said he would classify the leaders as Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas and Kentucky, throwing in Oklahoma as a school that might also have a shot. That’s still a relatively wide-open recruitment, and Smith is planning to take official visits to Arkansas and Oklahoma on the two weekends immediately following his UK trip.
Some good news for the colleges recruiting him: Smith said this week that he was no longer considering the professional route out of high school, a notable development since one of his former AAU coaches has moved into a role with the Overtime Elite operation. Smith had also been looking at the possibility of jumping to the NBL in Australia, while the G League would likely have been an option, too, if he wanted to go straight to the pros.
Just which college ultimately lands his commitment is still to be determined. Alabama had been mentioned as a possible leader coming out of the summer, but there has not yet been a single prediction on Smith’s 247Sports Crystal Ball page, proof of the uncertainty in recruiting circles.
For Kentucky, it might be a matter of which star guard — Smith or Wallace? — is ready to make a commitment first. Branham said he didn’t necessarily think Smith would shy away from the competition if Wallace were to commit first, but he did say he thinks it’s unlikely that Kentucky will be able to land both of those players. And he acknowledged that Wallace seems to be the more likely of the two, at this moment, to ultimately end up in Lexington.
Smith, however, is looking for the best fit for his basketball future. And UK is still an intriguing option.
“Whether you have Cason Wallace and Shaedon Sharpe and Skyy Clark already on the roster, that won’t necessarily determine where he lands. He’s one of those kids who loves a good challenge,” Branham said. “And Kentucky has had guys like Devin Booker come off the bench and still make it as a lottery pick. So I don’t think — based on my conversations with the Smith family, and based on what Nick has publicly said — that will determine their future.
“It’s all going to be based on fit. So, there is a chance that they could do it. But, to me, I would say that it’s unlikely.”
