Star basketball recruit VJ Edgecombe makes college commitment. Did he pick UK basketball?
Despite making up some serious ground in the recruitment of top class of 2024 college basketball prospect VJ Edgecombe, John Calipari and Kentucky weren’t able to seal the deal with his commitment.
On Sunday night, Edgecombe — a five-star prospect whose meteoric rise up the recruiting ratings has him ranked as the No. 5 overall recruit in the 2024 class by the 247Sports Composite — announced his commitment to Baylor.
Edgecombe announced his college choice at the Spalding Hoophall Classic, a prestigious showcase event featuring the top prep basketball players and teams in the country, that’s held annually at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Edgecombe, who plays high school basketball for Long Island Lutheran (LuHi) on Long Island in New York state, picked Baylor from a small group of final college options that also included Duke and Kentucky.
This represents the second straight year a commitment at Hoophall hasn’t gone Kentucky’s way.
Last year, shooting guard Ian Jackson committed to North Carolina over Kentucky at the event.
A 6-foot-5, 180-pound shooting guard, Edgecombe is originally from The Bahamas and came to the United States as a ninth grader.
The 18-year-old Edgecombe has excelled in several high-level basketball environments: He plays travel basketball on the Adidas 3 Stripe Select Basketball (3SSB) circuit, and his high school (LuHi) is part of the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC).
Prior to Sunday night’s announcement, Edgecombe already played in one game at this year’s Hoophall with LuHi.
Edgecombe had 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks in a loss to Christopher Columbus (Florida) on Saturday.
“He’s great off the bounce. he can probably continue to work on his attack off the bounce and shiftiness in that regard,” Long Island Lutheran head coach John Buck told the Herald-Leader. “But just repping out the shot, making it super, super consistent. He’s a great shooter already... He’s a really solid overall guy, so it’s just continuing to build holistically.”
Kentucky basketball misses out on VJ Edgecombe
While the Wildcats ultimately missed out on having Edgecombe join what is already a five-player recruiting class for next season, Calipari had to work some of his usual magic on the recruiting trail to even get UK to this point.
Edgecombe released a top-10 list of post-high school playing options in July, and that list didn’t include the Wildcats.
Florida, Baylor, Duke, Alabama, St. John’s, Miami, Florida State, UConn, Michigan and the NBA’s G League Ignite program comprised that top-10 list for Edgecombe. Kentucky didn’t even offer Edgecombe a scholarship until the middle of September.
But that’s when Calipari and the Kentucky coaching staff put on the full-court press in Edgecombe’s recruitment.
This included an official visit that Edgecombe took to Kentucky in late October. Also on campus for the Wildcats that weekend on an official recruiting visit was center Jayden Quaintance, who later committed to and signed with the Wildcats in November.
In late November, Calipari and UK associate coach Orlando Antigua watched Edgecombe and his LuHi team play in the commonwealth at the Marshall County Hoopfest.
By late December, Kentucky had officially clawed its way into Edgecombe’s final list of three schools under consideration, along with Baylor and Duke.
Edgecombe’s choice of Baylor as his college destination will prevent Kentucky from securing the top-ranked recruiting class in 2024.
Following a 2023 recruiting class that ranked as the best in the country, the 247Sports Composite currently ranks UK’s five-player group (guards Boogie Fland and Travis Perry, wing Billy Richmond and centers Somto Cyril and Quaintance) as the second-best recruiting class this year.
Duke occupies the top spot.
Since 2011, Duke and Kentucky have been mainstays at the top of the annual 247Sports team recruiting rankings.
In this span, UK finished with the top-ranked recruiting class on six occasions (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2020 and 2023). Duke has topped this list five times (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022), and the Blue Devils will claim the 2024 crown as well.
What will VJ Edgecombe bring to Baylor following commitment?
Edgecombe has enjoyed a quick and stunning rise atop the recruiting rankings thanks to several standout traits.
A scorer at the rim, in the mid-range and from behind the 3-point line, Edgecombe has good body control paired with the athletic ability to get into the painted area.
He also recently displayed an improved passing ability while playing with LuHi at the prestigious City of Palms Classic in December in Florida. LuHi made the finals of that event, defeating several top schools like Westminster Academy (Florida), Don Bosco Prep (New Jersey) and Link Academy (Missouri) along the way.
Something also clearly evident with Edgecombe is his leaping ability: Fast-break dunks punctuated by an Edgecombe slam are always a highlight of LuHi games.
“A lot of times it’s the defense into offense and the rebounding and getting him out into transition,” Buck said. “That’s really when we are going well and he’s going well.”
A high-level defensive competitor, Edgecombe has a strong motor on that end of the court and can use his athleticism to block shots, grab rebounds and more.
“His rebounding, his ability to hunt down 50-50 balls, get deflections, play out in space is something that I think he does at a really high level,” Buck said. “Especially maybe compared to a lot of the scorers out there. (Edgecombe) plays that other side of the ball at such a high level. Usually, that helps him go even if in the halfcourt defense (opponents) are keying in on him.”
Last season, he led the NIBC in scoring. This season, it’s his defense and passing that have shown development.
While the current evidence suggests Edgecombe could have thrived in Calipari’s new-look, free-flowing offensive system at UK, the Wildcats have plenty of pieces already in place to continue the good vibes from this year’s freshman-heavy team with the five newcomers set to arrive in Lexington next season.
According to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI) — which combines the rankings from the nation’s top recruiting services into one single metric — Kentucky has commitments from the players ranked No. 7 (Quaintance), No. 20 (Fland), No. 29 (Richmond), No. 53 (Cyril) and No. 81 (Perry) in the 2024 recruiting group.
Quaintance isn’t eligible for the NBA draft until 2026, which suggests he could be a two-year player at UK.
Four of these five players — Cyril, Fland, Perry and Quaintance — have signed their national letters of intent to become Wildcats.
Richmond, the latest commit who pledged in late December to join the Wildcats, will get the chance to sign his paperwork starting in April.
This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 8:10 PM.
