Kentucky has a commitment from No. 1 basketball recruit Shaedon Sharpe. Who’s next?
On Tuesday night, five-star basketball prospect Shaedon Sharpe — the consensus No. 1 national recruit in the 2022 class — publicly announced his commitment to Kentucky.
The addition of Sharpe is obviously a major one for the future of the UK program, the type of recruiting victory that John Calipari made commonplace in his first few seasons in Lexington but had become much more rare in recent years.
This commitment is cause for celebration among UK fans, but Calipari and the Kentucky coaching staff aren’t anywhere close to finished with this 2022 class.
Sharpe — a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Ontario — joins five-star point guard Skyy Clark as the second member of Kentucky’s recruiting class, and more elite prospects are expected to join that group in the near future.
Here’s a look at who could be next for the Wildcats.
Dereck Lively II
For the past few months, Lively and Sharpe have been linked together as Kentucky’s 1 and 1A targets for the 2022 class. Now that Sharpe is committed — and even though other super-talented prospects remain high on Kentucky’s list — it’s Lively’s recruitment that holds the most intrigue.
While Sharpe has established himself as the No. 1 backcourt player in the 2022 class, Lively is emerging as the group’s top frontcourt talent. The skilled, versatile 7-2 center from Pennsylvania is ranked No. 1 overall by 247Sports, No. 2 overall by ESPN, HoopSeen.com and On3.com, and No. 3 overall by Rivals.com.
The buzz in recruiting circles remains the same as a few weeks ago — that the battle for Lively could very well come down to Kentucky and Duke, another recruiting slugfest between the two blue-bloods. Both hosted Lively for official visits this summer, and no clear favorite has yet emerged for his commitment.
Lively’s mother was effusive in her praise for Calipari, the UK program, and the city of Lexington in an interview with the Herald-Leader not long after their official visit in June, and it won’t be a surprise at all if Lively ends up a Wildcat, though Kentucky fans will likely need to be patient here. Lively isn’t expected to make a college decision until November, which means he could be the last of the big names on this list to reveal his commitment.
Cason Wallace
It appears the backcourt juggling act that Calipari and his new group of assistant coaches have been involved in over the past few months is going to pay off big time.
It’s always difficult to successfully recruit multiple elite players at the same or similar positions. In this case, Kentucky seems to have found a perfect formula of elite talent and unselfishness.
Obviously, Clark and Sharpe are already committed to the Wildcats’ 2022 class. UK is also expected to return some talented perimeter players from the current team. For a recruit like Wallace, who is ranked top 10 nationally by Rivals.com, ESPN and On3, that might seem like too crowded a backcourt to get involved with when he could probably be a can’t-miss star at other top programs.
Instead, all signs are pointing to Wallace becoming a Kentucky Wildcat.
The buzz in that direction skyrocketed following his official visit to Lexington late last month, and it’s only intensified in recent days, with several analysts from Rivals.com and 247Sports making public predictions in Kentucky’s favor.
Wallace — a 6-4 combo guard from Richardson, Texas — is also taking official visits to Tennessee and Texas, but there would have to be a major turnaround at this point for him not to end up in UK’s class. He is scheduled to make a college announcement Nov. 7, but a public commitment could come before that date.
Chris Livingston
One of the biggest names in the 2022 class has also had one of the most wild-card recruitments in the cycle.
Livingston — a 6-6 wing from Akron, Ohio — has long been ranked among the top players in this group, due to his unique blend of scoring ability, strength and athleticism, a combination that, when he’s on his game, makes him nearly impossible to stop at the high school level.
For most of his recruitment, the expectation was that Livingston would go straight to the pros, skipping college basketball altogether. Even when the NCAA allowed name, image and likeness reforms this summer, there was a sense in recruiting circles that he still might jump straight to a pro opportunity, with the G League seen as a top option.
Now, college looks like a much more realistic possibility.
This could be a tricky recruitment.
For the past week or so, the Herald-Leader has been told that Kentucky should be seen as the favorite to land Livingston’s commitment. That’s quite the switch from just a few weeks ago, when Memphis was viewed as the top college option and the pro route was still a major possibility.
The ever-changing nature of this recruitment makes it difficult to be too confident in any prediction at this point. There have been rumblings out of Memphis that the Tigers are no longer even in pursuit, but it’s hard to believe Penny Hardaway wouldn’t take one last shot at Livingston if there’s an opening of any kind. And even if/when Livingston announces a college decision, the pro route shouldn’t be discounted until he actually shows up on a school’s campus.
So, there could be some more twists and turns here.
All that said: yes, Kentucky is the current favorite for Livingston, who plans to announce his recruiting decision Oct. 15, his 18th birthday. There’s a chance he could reveal his commitment before that date, however, and such a move would probably bring good news for Kentucky. (247Sports analyst Travis Branham logged a pro-UK Crystal Ball pick Tuesday).
Livingston is headed to Oak Hill Academy (Va.) for his senior season, and even though he took a bit of a tumble in the latest national rankings — down to No. 8 on Rivals and No. 12 on ESPN — he should still be looked at as a player with potential No. 1 talent.
Other recruiting possibilities?
The list of others to watch for Kentucky’s 2022 class is quite thin at the moment. That’s testament to the quality of aforementioned talent on the Wildcats’ radar, along with the level of confidence that UK appears to have with these recruitments.
With Sharpe now committed, if Kentucky can land two of Lively, Livingston and Wallace, it would make for three top-10 national recruits. UK hasn’t done that since getting commitments from Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk in the 2016 cycle.
And if the Cats can get all three of those recruits to join Clark and Sharpe — a real possibility at this point — it would be just the second time in 14 total recruiting cycles at Kentucky that Calipari secures four top-10 national prospects. The other was the 2013 class that featured a record six McDonald’s All-Americans.
The only other three 2022 recruits with a Kentucky offer at this point are five-star big man Adem Bona and five-star guards Jaden Bradley and Nick Smith Jr.
Landing Wallace would probably take UK out of the running for the two guards. Smith canceled his official visit to Kentucky this past weekend amid a growing sense in recruiting circles that Wallace was very likely UK bound. He has said he is no longer considering the Cats.
Bradley has UK in his final five, but he’s made official visit plans to each of the other four finalists, with nothing on the schedule yet for Lexington.
Bona — a near-7-footer from Nigeria, now living in California — is an interesting case. He had clearly been coveting a UK scholarship offer, which he earned this summer, and the Wildcats have long been seen as possible favorites. There are some in recruiting circles who have told the Herald-Leader that Kentucky could land both Lively and Bona, while others have said it’s going to be an either/or scenario.
Lively is clearly Kentucky’s top frontcourt target, so it’s unclear how that will work with Bona, who is still expected to visit Lexington next month. UK has also been tied to former Syracuse commitment Kamari Lands — a 6-8 forward — but don’t expect anything to come of that.
The new fall recruiting period begins Thursday, and that window will allow Calipari and his assistant coaches to do in-home and in-school visits with recruits. It’s possible a surprise target or two could come up as a result of those trips, though it’s clear that Lively, Livingston and Wallace sit atop Kentucky’s recruiting board as Calipari eyes a superclass for 2022.
