Kentucky is taking an interesting approach to the basketball recruiting class of 2024
Talking about his family’s approach to basketball recruitments, Kevin Knox Sr. offered up an interesting perspective.
He called it “The Knox Rule,” and it basically boils down to this: “If there’s no offer, we can’t talk about you at the table.”
The Knox family knows its way around the world of college sports. Knox Sr. was a football star and national champion at Florida State before becoming an NFL Draft pick. His wife, Michelle, played volleyball for the Seminoles. Their oldest son, Kevin, was one of the top basketball recruits in the 2017 class before developing into a lottery pick after one season at Kentucky. Younger brother Kobe Knox was a high school basketball star and will make his debut for Grand Canyon this season. And, now, youngest brother Karter Knox is a five-star prospect, too.
So, the Knoxes are well-versed in the recruiting process, a big part of which is the scholarship offer.
“It’s just like a job interview,” Knox Sr. said. “If you went on a job interview, and when the guy stands up, he says, ‘Hey look, I’d like to offer you this job. Here’s the parameters.’ You say you’re going to talk to your family about it. You go back home, you talk to your wife, your mom, your dad, whoever.
“If you stand up and he doesn’t offer you a job, are you going back and spending time talking about that? There’s no offer.”
Knox Sr. said he relayed that perspective to Kentucky Coach John Calipari back when the Wildcats — and just about everyone else — wanted Kevin to play for their program.
Calipari, who in the past has been notoriously deliberate when it comes to handing out UK scholarship offers — often the last of the major programs to do so — said he understood but explained that, “This is what we do,” at Kentucky.
“OK. No talk at the table,” Knox Sr. said with a laugh, recalling the conversation that took place several years ago. “We’ll continue to talk about Duke. We’ll continue to talk about North Carolina.”
Obviously, things worked out here. Kentucky did extend a scholarship offer — about four months after Duke and North Carolina had — and Knox ultimately chose the Wildcats, starred for a season, and went on to the NBA Draft. By all accounts, it was a great experience.
“They’re family,” Knox Sr. said a couple of weeks ago. “They took care of my son, Kevin. I love Cal.”
He also pointed out, however, that youngest son Karter’s recruitment would be a separate thing, and — much as the family loves Kentucky — the latest five-star Knox wants to “be his own person” on the basketball court. And that “Knox Rule” is still a thing.
“At the end of the day, other coaches are reaching out,” Knox Sr. said. “And we will talk about it, and go from there.”
They can now talk about Kentucky at the kitchen table, at least. Karter Knox was one of four recruits from the 2024 class to land a UK scholarship offer Wednesday, the first day that NCAA rules allow college coaches to directly contact players in the rising junior class.
The Kentucky offer was a momentous occasion for the Knox family. And the rate at which Calipari doled out scholarship offers across the 2024 class on that first day of contact could be a sign of new things to come for his Wildcats’ program.
A change in recruiting?
Not everyone takes the same “no family talks until an offer comes” approach as the one Knox Sr. described, but it’s a pretty universal feeling that a scholarship offer boosts a program’s standing in those important recruiting conversations between star players and their inner circles.
And Calipari has a reputation in recruiting circles of being slow — sometimes, too slow — to pull the trigger on a scholarship offer. Many times, it doesn’t matter. Players who really want to be at UK will often wait around for the Wildcats’ coach. Other times, it’s rubbed a seemingly deserving player — or, more often, his family — the wrong way. And that can and has put the Cats at an early disadvantage in some high-profile recruitments.
Most recently, following COVID-19 restrictions that banned college visits and off-campus recruiting for more than a year, Calipari has been even more meticulous in his offer process. For the vast majority of UK’s top targets in the 2023 class, for instance, the UK coach waited until a player and his family made it to Lexington for an official visit to extend the offer.
But, even in the pre-2020 cycles before that, Kentucky’s coaches would often wait to see a recruit several times, in person, and often host an official visit before an offer would come.
That’s what made Wednesday’s development so eye-opening.
Knox is a special case. Calipari obviously has a history with the family, and the player — ranked No. 10 nationally in the 2024 class — actually did visit UK as a recruit for Big Blue Madness last fall. So, it wasn’t a big surprise that he would get a relatively early scholarship offer.
Calipari also extended offers Wednesday to Ian Jackson, Tre Johnson and Isaiah Elohim, however, and — while those players are ranked No. 2, 3 and 4 in the class, respectively — none of them has yet taken a recruiting visit to Lexington.
A convenient comparison: five-star 2023 forward Ron Holland, long one of the top prospects in that class, wrapped up his official visit to Kentucky on the same day, finally earning a UK scholarship offer that had been expected for months.
Holland’s case isn’t unique. For pretty much every other five-star player the Cats have targeted in the 2023 class, Calipari has waited until they were on campus to extend the UK offer. For these top 2024 prospects, however, he seems to be making major moves earlier in the process.
In all, Kentucky’s coaches were in contact with more than a dozen 2024 recruits throughout the day Wednesday.
Top 2024 recruits
The four recruits who earned Kentucky scholarship offers Wednesday are among the very best players in the rising junior class.
Jackson — a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Bronx, N.Y. — has been lighting up the Adidas circuit this spring, and he’s establishing himself as one of the best backcourt scorers in the country. Following the high school season, MaxPreps.com named him the national sophomore of the year. There has been persistent recruiting buzz in recent weeks that Jackson, who turns 18 years old next February, might reclassify to 2023, a move that would obviously amp up the urgency of his pursuit. Longtime analyst Andrew Slater — as trusted a voice as there is in national recruiting circles — did report Wednesday that Jackson will stick in the 2024 class.
Johnson — a 6-5 shooting guard from Texas — is another elite scorer who excels as a perimeter shooter and put up 37 points in front of Calipari during the high school season. (The UK coach was at that game to see Cason Wallace, the top-ranked recruit of the Cats’ 2022 class).
Elohim — a 6-5 shooting guard from California — is yet another sensational backcourt scorer who does his best work in the midrange and at the rim. He’s a strong, versatile player who is starting to get some buzz as a possible No. 1 recruit in the class.
Meanwhile, Knox — a 6-6ish wing from Tampa — is a versatile offensive prospect, a capable rebounder, and a player who projects to be a little more gritty and defensive-minded than his older brother was at Kentucky.
One 2024 star who surprisingly didn’t get a call from the Cats on Wednesday was Naas Cunningham, who’s ranked No. 1 in the class by 247Sports, ESPN, Rivals.com and On3.com. The 6-7 wing from New Jersey is transferring to the Overtime Elite league to close out his high school years. That move might give Kentucky’s coaches pause, but it’s important to note that Cunningham is not taking a salary from the professional league so he can keep his college eligibility intact. It’s also worth noting that his Overtime move hasn’t stopped other schools from recruiting him. The 17-year-old has early offers from Duke, Kansas, UCLA and several more major programs, with additional offers rolling in Wednesday.
Cunningham’s father confirmed to the Herald-Leader on Thursday that the family had not yet received any interest from Kentucky’s coaches.
That curious lack of contact notwithstanding, UK is clearly taking a much more ambitious approach to the offer process with this 2024 class.
The next few weeks and months will show whether Wednesday’s flurry of activity was a one-time thing or a true change of recruiting tactics for Calipari. If it’s the latter, it’ll be a switch that should be well-received by players and their families. And one likely to put Kentucky more at the forefront of those important recruiting conversations at an earlier stage in the process.
