Explaining the latest rankings ups and downs of top Kentucky basketball recruits
READ MORE
Game day: No. 6 Kentucky 71, LSU 66
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU in Rupp Arena.
Expand All
Earlier this month, the team of basketball recruiting analysts at Rivals.com shuffled their rankings for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 classes.
The update was a mixed bag for Kentucky.
Future UK players Cason Wallace and Reed Sheppard saw a bounce in their national rankings, while fellow Wildcats commitments Chris Livingston and Skyy Clark dropped down the 2022 list. Meanwhile, there was a big change atop the 2023 rankings, with longtime No. 1 recruit DJ Wagner losing his spot to another player who has been mentioned as a possible UK target.
Rivals.com national analyst Rob Cassidy talked to the Herald-Leader this week about all of those rankings and how each player is perceived on the national stage as the end of the high school season nears.
Cason Wallace
It’s always difficult to muster much positive movement in the rankings once a prospect reaches top-10 level, but Kentucky signee Cason Wallace has managed to pull it off.
Wallace — a 6-foot-4 guard from Richardson, Texas — jumped from No. 10 to No. 5 overall in the Rivals.com rankings. He’s led his Richardson High team to a 30-1 record and the No. 2 ranking nationally this season, and the recruiting analysts have been impressed with both his play and his leadership abilities during this run.
Cassidy said that the Rivals team is trying to project players’ NBA abilities, and Wallace is simply looking like one of the most complete guards in the country, noting the future Wildcat’s length, facilitating prowess and athleticism, not to mention his reputation as a take-charge offensive player and arguably the nation’s best perimeter defender.
The national analyst noted that Baylor signee Keyonte George — ranked No. 6 by Rivals — might be the better player at the moment, but he thinks Wallace has more upside to go along with a game that’s also college-ready.
If Shaedon Sharpe leaves Kentucky for the NBA Draft this offseason, Wallace might be counted on to be the top guard on the Wildcats’ squad for the 2022-23 campaign.
“I think he can be the guy on that team,” Cassidy said. “I don’t think he has quite the talent that Shaedon has, so it’s going to be a step back, obviously, from what they would’ve gotten with Sharpe, if he doesn’t hang around. But when you’re talking about a guy that’s the No. 1 player in the country, anybody is going to be kind of a step back. I think Cason is still a dude that can be the guy in the backcourt on a team that wants to win a national championship.”
Chris Livingston
An up-and-down senior season after his transfer to Oak Hill Academy (Va.) led UK signee Chris Livingston to drop from No. 8 to No. 10 overall in the Rivals.com rankings.
On some nights, the super-athletic, 6-6 wing looks like the possible No. 1 prospect in the class. On other nights, he might not look like a five-star recruit at all.
“Sometimes he shows up and looks great and he shows off the athleticism. And when he’s really going, he’s dominating the glass and he’s got that motor going,” Cassidy said. “And there are times when it’s almost like he takes possessions off. Sometimes the jumper isn’t falling. Sometimes he’s not finishing real well around the rim.
“It’s just going to be a battle with consistency with him. Because we’ve all seen it in flashes, and that’s why he’s still ranked as high as he is. Because he is the kind of guy that — if he gets straightened out at the college level and learns that he has to give the effort that he gives in his best games every single time he takes the floor — I think he’s got a pretty high upside. But he can be a little bit aloof, and we’ve seen that some this year. So we slid him a couple of spots.”
Livingston dropped all the way to No. 19 overall in the recent On3.com rankings update. Cassidy acknowledged the lack of consistent results this season, but he said he was hesitant to knock Livingston too far down the list due to his overwhelming upside.
“I don’t ever want to under-rank a kid with that kind of potential,” he said. “When they realize that the effort has to be there at the college level, they’re able to kind of level out and become more consistent.”
Skyy Clark
The biggest dropper among UK recruits was point guard Skyy Clark, who fell from No. 21 to No. 35 overall. Clark returned to the court last month after missing most of the summer and the first part of the high school season with a torn ACL.
While he was out, other players were able to take advantage of increased exposure to pass him up in the rankings. Cassidy also said that Clark hasn’t looked to be in the best shape since his return, adding that he’s made some questionable decisions with the ball and lacks the quickness he had before his knee injury. He said those physical setbacks are understandable coming off such a serious injury so soon, but analysts clearly want to see more from Clark, who dropped to No. 26 on the 247Sports list and No. 44 in the On3.com rankings.
“I still think he’s probably an impact player in college basketball,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know if there are going to be guys in front of him at Kentucky or what. It’s really just going to depend on how well he heals from that injury. If he looks like the player that he looked like he could become pre-injury, then everything will be fine. If not, as he is right now, he’s going to have to work to get better if he wants to make an impact at Kentucky.”
Reed Sheppard
Around this time last year, none of the major recruiting outlets even had Reed Sheppard ranked as a top 100 national prospect. Now, he’s a consensus five-star player.
Sheppard — a 6-3 combo guard at North Laurel High School — continued his rise up the Rivals.com list, going from No. 21 to No. 17 nationally in the 2023 class. The 17-year-old has continued to show off his all-around game over the past several months, and analysts are taking notice.
“I think everybody kind of had Reed pigeonholed,” Cassidy said. “Because when you’re such a good shooter, like he is, everybody kind of wants to pigeonhole you as a specialist. He’s not going to wow you with athleticism — not even like his dad or anything like that — but he’s a little bit more athletic and better with the ball in his hands than people want to give him credit for. He can create for himself. He can go both ways. I thought he looked real nice finishing at the rim this year, in the times I saw him. …
“This kid is not only one of the top shooters in the country, but he can also do a lot of other things on the offensive end. And then he has the size to defend. He can defend multiple positions.”
Sheppard averaged 25.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game during the regular season while leading North Laurel to a 23-5 record and favorite status in the upcoming 13th Region Tournament. He also shot 38.0 percent from three-point range despite being the focal point of opposing defenses and facing constant double- and triple-teams. Sheppard shot 89.3 percent from the free throw line during the season.
DJ Wagner
Ever since there have been rankings for the 2023 class, DJ Wagner has held the No. 1 spot.
In this last update, however, the 6-2 combo guard was dropped to No. 3 overall.
Cassidy said Wagner needs to work on his consistency moving forward, bringing up a specific example of a less-than-stellar game from one of the season’s major showcases, a day on which the 16-year-old phenom wasn’t hitting his shots and clearly became frustrated with his performance.
“I always say, ‘You can’t be No. 1 if sometimes you play like No. 100.’ Everybody has bad games, but No. 1 is No. 1,” Cassidy said. “He’s obviously still an elite prospect.”
Recapturing that No. 1 ranking will likely require more consistency as a three-point shooter, better shot selection, and just an all-around polishing of his skill set. Cassidy said Wagner can force the issue sometimes, probably because he’s always been the best player on the court.
“He’s just going to have to become a more disciplined player, I think,” he said. “But you can rank this kid high, because his floor is so high. DJ isn’t going to be a bust. DJ is going to play in the NBA. It’s just a question of how high up he’s going to go.”
For Wagner’s entire high school basketball career, all eyes have been on him.
“When you’re No. 1, everybody’s watching every game,” Cassidy said. “When you’re 10 or 15, people are watching you, but the spotlight is different. I don’t seek out every game film of the No. 15 player in the country, but if DJ is playing, I try to see it. So we do nitpick No. 1. It comes with the territory.”
Kentucky remains the major college favorite for Wagner, who is the son of former John Calipari star Dajuan Wagner and the grandson of Louisville great Milt Wagner, who once worked for Calipari at Memphis. The professional route is also an option, but all the recent buzz still has Lexington as Wagner’s most likely landing spot.
GG Jackson
Taking over Wagner’s spot at the top of the 2023 rankings is South Carolina forward GG Jackson, who moved from No. 10 in the junior class to No. 1 overall.
The 6-9, 200-pound prospect from Columbia has wowed analysts over the past few months with his versatile game.
“The kid handles the ball incredibly well for his size,” Cassidy said. “He can create his own shot. He has a nice little pull-up jumper. He’s as long as you’d ever want to be, and he defends. There aren’t a lot of holes in his game. … He’s a freak athlete. The ball-handling is great. He can bring the ball up the floor at his size. If you need him to play minutes at the point, he could probably do that. He has a really interesting skill set.”
Jackson recently wrapped up an official visit to hometown South Carolina, which joins Duke and North Carolina in his top three. Cassidy said his best prediction is UNC, but nothing is set in stone here. “You never know,” he said. “It’s hard to bet against Duke right now. They seem to get everybody they want.”
Top Kentucky assistant Orlando Antigua has been in contact, according to Jackson, but there’s been no news of a Wildcats scholarship offer, and it seems time might be running out.
Jackson has said that he’d like to make a college decision in the next few weeks, and he’s already taken official visits to Duke, North Carolina and South Carolina, so UK might be sitting this one out.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
