Updates on Chris Livingston, Bronny James and other Kentucky recruits of interest
Future Kentucky basketball player Chris Livingston’s summer move to Oak Hill Academy meant a major step up in competition this season, and his senior year journey continued last weekend with an appearance at the Hoophall West showcase in Phoenix.
Livingston — a 6-foot-7 wing from Akron, Ohio — averaged 17.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and made 15 of 21 shots over two games at the star-studded event. He also continued to show that a game that’s long been predicated on power is adding some layers of finesse as his college career nears.
“He’s getting better, and he’s getting more well-rounded,” Rivals.com national analyst Rob Cassidy told the Herald-Leader. “He’s always kind of been a bully — like a big presence on the inside. He dunks everything, attacks the rim. But the skill is coming now. He made a couple of interesting pull-up threes that I’ve never seen him make. He’s not a blow-you-away shooter by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s a wrinkle to his game now to where you do have to respect it.”
Playing in Ohio high school circles, Livingston had always been able to use his elite power and athleticism to brute his way past defenders. He put up ridiculous numbers last season — 31.1 points, 15.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 4.7 steals and 4.0 blocked shots per game — but was looking for a new challenge to end his prep career.
Oak Hill has already played several games against top-10 national competition this season, and it’s apparent that Livingston’s bruising style is translating against bigger, better opponents, even while he continues to hone his perimeter skills.
“His big thing is always going to be attacking the rim,” Cassidy said. “He rebounds on the offensive end incredibly. And he plays through contact. Dudes just kind of seem to bounce off of him. He’s aggressive, and he does not lack for confidence, that’s for sure.”
That playing style has some projecting that Livingston could thrive as a small-ball-type “4” at Kentucky next season, especially since he’ll be joining a team expected to have a super backcourt consisting of five-star recruits Skyy Clark, Cason Wallace, Shaedon Sharpe and whoever returns from the current team. Livingston’s strength, athleticism and rebounding ability could make him a versatile threat alongside a three-guard lineup, a combination that John Calipari could take advantage of at various points next season.
Whether that would be the best fit for Livingston’s skill set remains to be seen.
“I think he could,” Cassidy said of playing the “4” spot. “I think it would limit him, though, because he does handle the ball pretty darn well for a forward. He played a little point forward. He brings the ball up sometimes. I like him at the ‘3,’ but he can play the ‘4,’ because he is physical. His length might be an issue against some of the elite ‘4s’ out there, but if they need him there, that’s a spot that he could play, for sure.”
Bronny James update
The national recruiting websites have been tracking LeBron James Jr. since middle school. John Calipari, according to past reports, extended a scholarship offer when he was just a toddler. The son of the greatest NBA player of his generation is now 17 and a high school junior at Sierra Canyon (Calif.), and the intrigue over his possible college recruitment is as hot as ever.
Bronny James — as he’s primarily known — is currently ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 34 prospect in the 2023 class, though his standing has dropped some over the past year or so. When players for his class were first ranked, James was viewed as a five-star recruit. Now, 247Sports has him at No. 52 overall and ESPN ranks him 49th in the junior class.
That still puts him among the elite of his age group, but the hoopla surrounding the 6-2ish guard — for obvious reasons — exceeds what even a No. 1 national recruit would normally receive.
“It’s unfair to the kid, because everybody wants to compare him to dad, and that’s not fair,” Rivals.com national analyst Rob Cassidy said. “Obviously, nobody’s LeBron James.”
James was among the top names at the Hoophall West event last weekend, and he put in a pretty good showing of himself. “The kid is getting better. He’s definitely a Top 100 college prospect,” Cassidy said.
He’s just not quite at the level that many want or expect him to be. And that’s OK.
Cassidy said James has been shooting the ball “really well” and is becoming a good defender. The analyst would like to see the young prospect get stronger and learn to attack the rim better, add some wrinkles to his offensive game other than shooting.
“I don’t think he finishes around the rim as well as you’d like him to right now, but he is young,” Cassidy said. “And I think he’s come a long way in the six months since I saw him last. I think he’s going to be a good college player.”
Where (and if) he ends up playing college basketball remains mostly a mystery.
James, who turned 17 in October, has not done media interviews related to his recruitment, and there’s a tight bubble around any information regarding that aspect of his basketball life. Kentucky has often been linked to James as a possible suitor, but those ties appear to be tenuous at best, based primarily on early projections that he would be a top-10 national recruit and his father’s past congeniality toward Calipari and the UK program.
With no firsthand information to process, recruiting analysts are having to rely on chatter among coaches to figure out who’s actually recruiting the NBA superstar’s son. Cassidy said the four schools that have come up recently in those conversations are Duke, Ohio State, Tennessee and Texas.
The Blue Devils have also been linked to Bronny from an early age, and that team has much stronger ties to LeBron through his relationship with Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is retiring at the end of the season but is still expected to be a visible figure around the program.
For now, it’s all still speculation.
Cassidy said James projects as a point guard at the next level, if he can continue to hone the skills that go along with playing that position against high-major competition. That development will continue in the brightest spotlight imaginable for a high school basketball player.
“I don’t know if he’s there yet,” Cassidy said. “He’s getting a little bit better when it comes to handling the ball. He could give you some minutes at the ‘1’ now. But the player that they want him to become — that everybody thinks he could become — is going to be at the ‘1.’ And he’s never really shown that he can play point guard for a long stretch against a high-level team. …
“Who knows? He still has two years. I never thought he would become this good of a shooter. So he is developing. And I think he could be a really good college basketball player somewhere.”
Another 2023 target
Omaha Biliew — a 6-8 power forward — was one of the first names to pop up as a possible recruiting option for Kentucky in the 2023 class a couple of years ago, but there hadn’t been a whole lot in recent months to indicate that the Wildcats were seriously pursuing him.
It sounds like the interest is still there.
ProspectiveInsight.com, which offers terrific analysis and in-depth interviews with star recruits, reported this week that Biliew — the No. 7 junior in the 247Sports composite rankings — has been hearing the most from Kentucky, Nebraska, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas.
UK assistant coach Chin Coleman visited Biliew toward the beginning of the fall recruiting period in September, and he’ll be one to keep an eye on as the 2023 cycle heats up over the next few months. Kentucky has already extended scholarship offers to the top five players in the 2023 composite rankings, as well as No. 16 junior Justin Edwards and No. 22-ranked Reed Sheppard, who committed to the Cats last month.
Nearly all of the players on UK’s 2023 offer list so far are guards or wings, so it’s logical that the Wildcats will start zeroing in on some post players. Biliew, who is now playing a national schedule for Link Prep (Mo.), averaged 10.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game as a sophomore in Iowa last season.
Reed Sheppard update
Speaking of Reed Sheppard, the lone commitment for Kentucky’s 2023 class was back in action Friday night at one of the state’s premier high school basketball events — the King of the Bluegrass tournament at Fairdale High School in Louisville.
Sheppard had 15 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds, five blocks and five steals in North Laurel’s 72-56 victory over Eastern High in the tourney opener. The Jaguars will next face North Oldham on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
These are the first games away from home this season for North Laurel, which is off to a 5-1 start. The KoB championship game is set for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and the complete bracket and other info can be found at www.kingofthebluegrass.com/2021.
Sheppard was averaging 22.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game this season coming into the weekend event.
After the King of the Bluegrass, the Jaguars will be at Lexington Catholic’s annual post-Christmas event — the Traditional Bank Holiday Classic, which begins Dec. 26. North Laurel will play Louisville Trinity at 7 p.m. on the opening night of that showcase.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
