More Kentucky basketball recruiting links: Another top recruit goes pro over college
Five-star prospect Jazian Gortman became the latest promising basketball recruit to skip the traditional college path for the professional route with his announcement Wednesday morning that he will join the upstart Overtime Elite league.
Gortman — a 6-foot-1 point guard from South Carolina — was not being pursued by Kentucky, but he is an elite recruit in the 2022 class, placed No. 8 in the 247Sports composite rankings for that group. He had scholarship offers from Texas, Florida State, Maryland, Illinois and several other major colleges, and more top offers were likely coming in the next few months if he had been serious about playing college basketball.
Instead, he’ll join Overtime Elite, which has now signed 14 total players for this coming season. Gortman is the fifth American five-star prospect to join the league, which will reportedly pay him $650,000 for what would be his senior season of high school.
Top Kentucky basketball recruiting links:
New player page: Bio info, video, rankings for UK target Adem Bona
UK is reaching out early to recruit who led Nike 15U circuit in scoring
Big questions for next Rivals ranking update: Who’s No. 1 in 2022 class?
Kentucky target Nick Smith Jr. breaks down his remaining options
Southern Cal landed a commitment from a top 20 recruit Wednesday
Q&A: Get to know Shaedon Sharpe, one of UK’s top targets for 2022
247Sports analyst predicts top recruit Emoni Bates will pick Memphis
2022 mock draft from USA Today has only one UK player in first round
Shaedon Sharpe or Dereck Lively could move to No. 1 in Rivals rankings
2022 star Chris Livingston talks about the current state of his recruitment
Memphis officially announces the signing of star recruit Jalen Duren
New basketball superpower prep school pops up in Branson, Missouri
UK target Omaha Biliew will be among the players at new prep school
Elite 2022 big man Adem Bona will take recruiting visit to UK on Aug. 28
Class of 2022 guard Nick Smith Jr. will take official visit to UK in early Sept.
National: Kansas landed a commitment from a five-star recruit on Tuesday
Top Kentucky target Shaedon Sharpe plans to make a late-August decision
UK is a 3 seed, Memphis is a 4 seed in latest 2022 Bracketology from ESPN
Seth Greenberg says UK will be fine without Kofi Cockburn and Jalen Duren
In-state star Kaleb Glenn will visit Louisville for a major September event
The latest from Ja’Kobe Walter, an early Kentucky target in the 2023 class
Oregon lands a commitment from the No. 15 overall player in the 2022 class
More recruiting links: Jalen Duren & Keyonte George make their decisions
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 9:29 AM.
