New favorite replacing Kentucky for top-ranked point guard recruit Hunter Sallis?
There’s a new Crystal Ball projection in for five-star point guard Hunter Sallis, and it’s not good news for Kentucky.
247Sports analyst Travis Branham logged a pick in favor of Gonzaga on Sallis’ Crystal Ball page Tuesday morning. Branham has been correct on all 58 of his predictions for the class of 2021 (though it is possible to change Crystal Ball picks throughout the process).
Sallis — a 6-foot-5 prospect from Omaha, Neb. — is the No. 6 overall player in the 2021 class and the only remaining point guard on UK’s radar for that class. The Wildcats could return current freshman Devin Askew for a sophomore season, and they’ve already signed four-star point guard Nolan Hickman for next season. UK also has an early commitment from five-star point guard Skyy Clark, a class of 2022 recruit who is leaving open the possibility of reclassification to 2021. UK is also still recruiting combo guard Jaden Hardy — the No. 3 player in the new 247Sports rankings — though Hardy is also looking closely at jumping straight to the pros after high school.
Still, the Cats were seen as a slight favorite for Sallis, who recently narrowed his recruiting list to eight schools: Kentucky, Creighton, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon and UCLA.
247Sports national basketball director Eric Bossi, a longtime analyst at Rivals.com, predicted Sallis to Kentucky in October, his first Crystal Ball projection with 247Sports. National recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer made the same prediction a few days later.
Bossi did tell the Herald-Leader recently that he didn’t think Kentucky was anything close to a “lock” for Sallis, specifically mentioning UNC and Gonzaga as other top-tier possibilities. “I think Gonzaga is a sneaky one to watch in there,” Bossi said.
There’s been added speculation that the stellar play this season from five-star point guard Jalen Suggs, a similarly skilled freshman at Gonzaga, would only help the program’s chances with Sallis, who took the only official visit of his recruitment there in January. Suggs is averaging 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game — hitting 55 percent of his three-point shots — and has been one of the nation’s best players this season while helping to lead No. 1-ranked Gonzaga.
Sallis has hopes of taking official visits to Kentucky and North Carolina, but he’s been unable to make those trips due to the recruiting dead period related to COVID-19, currently set to expire April 15, though that period has been extended by the NCAA multiple times in the past.
There is no exact timetable for Sallis’ college decision.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 10:20 AM.
