No. 1 basketball recruit Shaedon Sharpe will enroll at Kentucky for this season
The top-ranked player in the Kentucky basketball recruiting class of 2022 will be on campus sooner than originally expected.
Shaedon Sharpe — a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from London, Ontario — has decided to graduate early from high school and join the Wildcats at the semester break, he announced Tuesday.
Sharpe’s decision to start his college career early is no surprise. His grassroots coach and basketball mentor, Dwayne Washington, told the Herald-Leader last month that Sharpe was contemplating such a move, and it’s been expected for weeks now that the star recruit would indeed enroll early at Kentucky.
Washington said that Sharpe, who dominated the Nike EYBL circuit this past summer on his way to the No. 1 overall ranking in the 2022 class, found no new challenges at the start of this high school season. Instead, he was looking to prepare himself for the 2022-23 college season by training and practicing with Kentucky’s players.
Sharpe averaged 22.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 36.4 percent from three-point range during Nike play over the summer. Following those performances, he was elevated to the No. 1 ranking in the 2022 class by Rivals.com, 247Sports and ESPN. He committed to Kentucky in September.
Washington has made it clear that Sharpe will be coming to Lexington this winter as a practice player only for the second semester, which he will use to better prepare himself for the start of his college basketball playing career in the 2022-23 season. Sharpe’s mentor said the 18-year-old does not want to be a distraction to the current team.
“That will allow him to get a head start,” Washington said of an extra semester of college training. “… It’s a unique opportunity to be in. And he doesn’t want to take away from Kentucky, because they have a great season and a chance to (make an NCAA Tournament run) this year. We don’t want to affect that.”
There have been fears in UK fan circles that Sharpe might try to go pro next year, following up that second semester of college enrollment with an early declaration for the NBA Draft.
Washington adamantly pushed back against that narrative in an interview with the Herald-Leader a couple of weeks ago. For one, NBA Draft rules are somewhat ambiguous as they relate to Sharpe’s case. A literal reading of the draft eligibility requirements would indicate that Sharpe won’t even be allowed to enter the 2022 NBA Draft — despite graduating early — and Washington said he didn’t think his star player would be eligible for entry in 2022.
Sharpe would meet the age requirement — he turns 19 next year — but a second stipulation for early enrollment states that “at least one NBA season (must have) elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school.” Since the current NBA season started before Sharpe’s graduation, it’s unlikely the league would consider him to be an early entry candidate for 2022.
And though Sharpe is from Canada, he is not classified as an international prospect — a group of players with different draft eligibility rules — since he’s lived in the United States for the past two years.
Washington said any 2022 draft talk is irrelevant anyway.
“He will not be going to the NBA Draft,” Washington said. “That’s not even something to talk about.”
Instead of using early enrollment as an avenue to early entry to the NBA, Washington said Sharpe is merely trying to get a head start on his college career and better position himself to make an instant impact on the 2022-23 season. Washington also coached and mentored former UK guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who used a take-your-time approach to development and has emerged as one of the best young players in the NBA.
Sharpe will officially sign with Kentucky on Wednesday and should join the current team in the coming weeks.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 11:35 AM.
