This week is likely to provide a turning point for the future of Kentucky basketball
Two major events that should shape the future of the Kentucky men’s basketball program will come this week in what is likely to be a milestone recruiting period for the Wildcats.
On Tuesday night, UK is widely expected to land a commitment from five-star shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe, who earned a Kentucky scholarship offer late last year and has since emerged as the consensus No. 1 recruit in the 2022 class.
Sharpe — a 6-foot-5 prospect from Ontario, now playing for Dream City Christian, a prep school in Arizona — technically goes into Tuesday’s planned announcement with a final five of Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma State and the G League.
At this point in the process, it would be a major shock if Sharpe picked anywhere other than UK, which hosted him last week for his second official visit of the summer to Lexington and has made him a top recruiting priority for the past several months. Sharpe was also on UK’s campus in June for his only official visit of the pre-July period, and he revealed his announcement date right after wrapping up last week’s visit.
Arizona also hosted Sharpe for an official visit last weekend, and the G League has extended an offer expected to reach seven figures, though both are seen as long shots to land his commitment. Sharpe has not visited Kansas or Oklahoma State.
Recruiting analysts and talent scouts have been singing his praises all summer. Following a string of standout performances on the Nike circuit in July, he has risen to the No. 1 overall spot in the Rivals.com, ESPN, HoopSeen.com and On3.com rankings for the 2022 class. 247Sports has not yet updated its 2022 rankings, but Sharpe is expected to be in the conversation for the No. 1 position there, as well.
Sharpe’s commitment to Kentucky would be an obvious coup for John Calipari, who has continued to land top-ranked recruiting classes throughout his tenure at UK but has repeatedly missed on some of the Wildcats’ biggest targets in recent years.
The last UK signee to be ranked No. 1 nationally by any major recruiting service was class of 2015 standout Skal Labissiere, who struggled relative to expectations in his one year at Kentucky. Sharpe is viewed by recruiting analysts as a much more college-ready player than Labissiere, who achieved such high rankings partly due to his perceived long-term upside.
Before that, Calipari managed to land John Wall in the 2009 class — his first year at Kentucky — Anthony Davis in the class of 2011, and Nerlens Noel in the class of 2012. All three of those players were ranked No. 1 nationally by at least one major recruiting service.
Sharpe is expected to announce his commitment at 7 p.m. Tuesday. If he does indeed pick Kentucky, he will be eligible to officially sign with the Wildcats starting Nov. 10.
New recruiting period begins
A relative return to recruiting normalcy is scheduled to occur later this week.
The fall recruiting period for college basketball is set to begin Thursday morning, when coaches will be permitted to travel for off-campus visits with high school prospects and their families. This point on the calendar is always an important one for college coaches and their recruiting targets, perhaps this year more than any other previously.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, off-campus recruiting was not permitted starting in March of 2020. While college coaches were allowed to get back on the recruiting trail starting June 1 of this year, those trips were confined to in-person evaluations only. Coaches could watch recruits play in competitive events, but they could not visit with those players and their families during their summer travels.
And with college coaches almost entirely focused on players from the 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes at the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March, relatively few 2022 recruits have ever met with coaches in their homes and high schools. Those players were sophomores at the time the NCAA enacted its recruiting travel ban, and top UK targets like Shaedon Sharpe, Dereck Lively II and Cason Wallace weren’t even on the Wildcats’ recruiting radar at that time.
Obviously, a lot has changed with Kentucky’s basketball program since coaches were last permitted to go inside recruits’ homes for visits.
Then, Calipari’s group of assistant coaches included Kenny Payne, Tony Barbee and Joel Justus, all of whom have since departed UK’s program.
This week, the Wildcats will deploy their new recruiting team — Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman and Jai Lucas — to meet with recruits and see them in their high school gyms.
This is the time of year when Calipari usually hops in a private jet and shows up in a dozen cities over a one-week period, meeting with multiple recruits and their families per day as he criss-crosses the country.
It will be interesting to see which prospects the UK coach — and his new band of assistants — prioritize in the coming days.
This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
