You are living through Kentucky basketball’s international era
What will go down in University of Kentucky men’s basketball history as the one-and-done era has had an interesting sub-theme.
You are also living through the time when Wildcats basketball went international.
The announcement Wednesday by now-former Wake Forest big man Olivier Sarr that he intends to transfer to UK is the continuation of a trend.
If the senior-to-be is granted a transfer waiver by the NCAA and plays for UK in 2020-21, the Toulouse, France, native will be the 10th foreign-born player to play for Kentucky since the John Calipari coaching era began.
Before Calipari arrived in 2009-10, UK had had only five non-U.S.-born players all time. Rick Pitino signed the first, Toronto, Canada’s Jamaal Magloire, in 1996.
Now, if Sarr plays for Kentucky in 2020-21, it will be the sixth straight season that UK has had at least one player born somewhere other than the United States on its roster.
The 7-foot Sarr would be only the second European to ever play for Kentucky. Lukasz Obrzut (Gliwice, Poland) scored 196 career points and claimed 135 rebounds playing for Tubby Smith from 2003-07.
Calipari’s emphasis on players from other countries accelerated with the 2015 recruiting class.
Until then, Cal had only one player — backup big man Eloy Vargas (Moca, Dominican Republic) — born outside the United States while at Kentucky.
However, in 2015 (think the Malik Newman class), UK had an uncharacteristic number of recruiting misses on its most-coveted domestic prospects.
That partially explained why Kentucky added five international players for the 2015-16 season: guards Mychal Mulder (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) and Jamal Murray (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada); and big men Skal Labissiere (Port-au-Prince, Haiti); Isaac Humphries (Sydney, Australia); and Tai Wynyard (Auckland, New Zealand).
Under Calipari, Canada has supplied UK with three players: Mulder, Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Hamilton, Ontario).
The Caribbean has also sent Kentucky three Wildcats: Vargas, Labissiere and Nick Richards (Kingston, Jamaica).
Australia/Oceania has given Kentucky two players — Humphries and Wynyard..
Wenyen Gabriel (Khartoum, Sudan) began his life in Africa.
Sarr would be the Cal era’s first European.
Most of the international players who have worn Kentucky blue and white in recent seasons were playing basketball in the United States before coming to UK.
Vargas and Mulder transferred to Kentucky from American junior colleges.
Labissiere, Humphries, Gabriel, Gilgeous-Alexander and Richards all played in the U.S. in high school/prep school before arriving in Lexington.
The best international player so far to play for Kentucky under Calipari is a choice between Canadians.
In Murray’s one-and-done season, the shooting guard averaged 20 points and was an Associated Press Third-Team All-American.
Two years later, Gilgeous-Alexander displayed a stout all-around game (14.4 ppg, 4.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists) and earned SEC Tournament MVP honors.
The best story produced by a player not born in the United States under Calipari was authored by Richards.
After two nondescript seasons at Kentucky, the 6-11 center turned in a stellar junior year (14 ppg, 7.8 rpg) in the aborted 2019-20 season.
All-time, the most significant international player to play for UK remains Magloire.
In a different era, the center played all four years at Kentucky and left as a thousand-point scorer (1,064), having played in two Final Fours (1997 and ‘98) and earned a national championship ring (1998).
Like Magloire, the other international players to play for Kentucky before Calipari were all front-court players: Jules Camara (Dakar, Senegal); Sheray Thomas (Montreal, Canada); Orbzut; and Bernard Cote (St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada).
Kentucky would have had at least two more all-time international players if not for circumstances. Joe B. Hall-era recruit Gunther Behnke (Leverkusen, Germany) left UK after one week in 1984 due to homesickness.
Class of 2010 prospect Enes Kanter (Istanbul, Turkey) came to UK but never got to play after being declared ineligible by the NCAA due to receiving financial benefits while playing for Turkish club team Fenerbahce.
If he gets a transfer waiver from the NCAA, Sarr would seem an ideal replacement for Richards — who joined Kentucky’s other four starters off last season’s SEC regular-season championship team by entering his name in the NBA Draft.
As a junior this past season playing for the subsequently deposed Danny Manning, Sarr’s points-rebounds stat line at Wake Forest was similar to what Richards put up for UK.
Sarr averaged 13.7 points and 9.0 rpg. However, he did not shoot as accurately (52.7 percent vs. 64.4 percent) nor block as many shots (35 to 66) as Richards.
Over the final five games of the 2019-20 Wake Forest season, Sarr played like an emerging star. He averaged 20.2 points and 10.8 boards while making 64.5 percent of his shots during that stretch — which included a double-overtime upset of Duke.
If you’ve wondered, Sarr had 16 points and six rebounds for Wake in a 10-point road loss at Louisville on Feb. 5.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the world’s reaction to it serves to impede the international presence in American college hoops.
What we do know is that, if the NCAA lets Sarr play in 2020-21, he will add a new French flavor to Kentucky basketball.
Chants of “Allons-y Grand Bleu” in Rupp Arena would be fun.
