Where Shaedon Sharpe, Reed Sheppard and more Kentucky targets landed in new rankings
ESPN posted an overhaul of its basketball recruiting rankings for the next three classes Wednesday morning, and a player who’s likely to be a future Kentucky Wildcat now holds the No. 1 spot in the country.
Shaedon Sharpe — a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Ontario, now playing for a high school team in Arizona — ascended to the No. 1 ranking on ESPN’s new list for 2022, following the reclassification of Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren to 2021. Bates and Duren were long seen as the top two prospects in the 2022 class before moving up a grade this summer. Both have committed to Memphis for the 2021-22 season.
Sharpe is now ranked No. 1 by ESPN, Rivals.com and the upstart recruiting site On3.com, with 247Sports yet to update its rankings following the summer grassroots circuit. Sharpe has been on Kentucky’s campus this week — his second official visit to UK in the past three months — and he will announce a college decision Sept. 7.
Kentucky is seen as a heavy favorite to land Sharpe, an addition that would obviously be a major recruiting coup for John Calipari and his revamped coaching staff.
Right behind Sharpe at No. 2 in the new ESPN rankings is Dereck Lively II, who visited Kentucky in June and is expected to make a college decision this fall. Lively and Sharpe have been the top two targets on the Wildcats’ recruiting radar for months now, and the national rankings are starting to back that up. While Lively — a 7-2 center from Pennsylvania — still has seven schools on his list, his recruitment is expected to come down to Kentucky and Duke.
The next three players in ESPN’s 2022 rankings are all committed: No. 3 Keyonte George (Baylor), No. 4 Amari Bailey (UCLA) and No. 5 Dariq Whitehead (Duke).
At No. 6 is Arkansas combo guard Nick Smith Jr., who will take an official visit to Kentucky this coming weekend. 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that he sees Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn and UK as the most likely choices for Smith.
At No. 8 is North Carolina point guard Jaden Bradley, who last week trimmed his list of college options to five: Kentucky, Alabama, Arizona, Florida State and Gonzaga.
Next at No. 9 is Texas combo guard Cason Wallace, who is considering UK along with Tennessee and Texas. Wallace was in Lexington for an official visit this past weekend, and there’s a growing sense of confidence around the UK program that he will commit to the Cats this fall.
Other players with Kentucky scholarship offers in the new 2022 rankings include star wing Chris Livingston (No. 12), forward Brandon Miller (No. 13) and center Adem Bona (No. 17).
Kentucky’s only 2022 commitment so far — five-star point guard Skyy Clark — is No. 16 nationally in ESPN’s updated rankings for the class.
Class of 2023 rankings
Major Kentucky target DJ Wagner remains the No. 1 player in the ESPN rankings for 2023, the same position he holds on the 247Sports and Rivals.com lists. The star point guard from New Jersey has been considered the top player in the class for as long as the national sites have been ranking 2023 prospects.
Wagner is the son of former Calipari player Dajuan Wagner and the grandson of Louisville great Milt Wagner, who was once on Calipari’s staff at Memphis. The 16-year-old prospect obviously has deep ties to the Kentucky coach, and it’s assumed that — if he bypasses pro options to play college basketball — he will ultimately commit to the Wildcats.
Denver-area center Baye Fall is No. 2 in the new rankings, and he was prominently mentioned as a Kentucky target over the summer.
Chicago small forward JJ Taylor, who already has a UK scholarship offer and was a major recruiting target of new Wildcats assistant Chin Coleman at his previous coaching stop, Illinois, is now ranked No. 4 in the 2023 class by ESPN.
The only other recruit in the 2023 rankings with a Kentucky scholarship offer so far is North Laurel guard Reed Sheppard, who was finally inserted into the ESPN rankings at the No. 38 spot. Rivals.com recently bumped Sheppard up to the No. 21 position. 247Sports has Sheppard ranked No. 62 in his class, but the Herald-Leader has been told that he will be making a move up from that spot when those rankings are updated in the near future.
Class of 2024 rankings
Kentucky has not yet extended any scholarship offers to the 2024 class. Those players have three years of high school remaining, but they’re already been ranked on ESPN’s site.
New Jersey small forward Naasir Cunningham holds the No. 1 spot, followed by Baltimore forward Derik Queen, Dallas shooting guard Tre Johnson, California small forward Isaiah Elohim and Atlanta-area small forward Jahki Howard.
Cunningham already has offers from Louisiana State, Maryland, Texas Tech and several other major programs.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 10:42 AM.
