Kentucky extends scholarship offer to the No. 2 basketball recruit in the country
Five-star basketball recruit Kwame Evans Jr. has added Kentucky to his long list of scholarship offers.
Evans — a 6-foot-9, 200-pound forward from Baltimore — earned his UK offer Saturday night while on an official visit to Lexington. The trip was the first official visit of Evans’ recruitment, and he’s the latest player from the 2023 class to receive an early offer from the Cats.
National recruiting expert Andrew Slater was first to report that Evans had picked up the UK offer.
Kentucky has now hosted every top-five player in the 2023 composite rankings for an official visit this fall, and all five of those recruits — Evans, point guard DJ Wagner, and small forwards Mackenzie Mgbako, Mookie Cook and JJ Taylor — now have scholarship offers from UK.
Evans is the No. 2 overall player in the class, according to the 247Sports rankings. His sophomore season of high school was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he showed enough promise on the grassroots circuit this past summer to secure his spot near the top of the national lists for 2023. No major recruiting service has him ranked lower than No. 4.
“He has a really high ceiling,” 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader earlier this week. “If he makes the proper jumps and he really hones in on his development process, he’s a kid with tremendous two-way upside — a shotmaker with some playmaking potential, and a versatile defender.
“He has great size, length and athleticism, so he’s one of those guys that — if he really develops — defends all five positions. So he has a tremendous amount of potential.”
Evans already has scholarship offers from Auburn, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Memphis, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee and several other major programs. He’s expected to take the second official visit of his recruitment to Duke later this month, and the Blue Devils, who are pursuing several of the same players that Kentucky is in this 2023 cycle, could also extend an offer on that trip.
There are no predictions on Evans’ 247Sports Crystal Ball page, though a Rivals.com analyst did put in a pro-Oregon pick on his FutureCast page late last month.
Evans has transferred to defending national champion Montverde Academy (Fla.) for his junior season of high school. He is the son of former George Washington star Kwame Evans, who accompanied his son on this weekend’s visit to Kentucky.
