kentucky wildcats just sign a world talent star from
Kentucky wildcats just sign a world talent star from
With John Calipari gone, what will Kentucky’s program see like for the 2024-25 season?
LEXINGTON, Ky. — For the primary time in 15 a long time, a unused time of Kentucky ball is on the skyline.
John Calipari reported his acquiescence Tuesday — and he’s anticipated to be formally reported as the modern head coach at Arkansas — and UK games executive Mitch Barnhart is presently entrusted with finding his substitution.
That look isn’t anticipated to final long, but it’ll be at slightest weeks — and likely months — until the Wildcats’ list for the 2024-25 season is finalized. Whoever Barnhart enlists to ended up the new men’s ball coach at Kentucky will nearly certainly need to piece together the larger part of the following list from scratch, with most of Calipari’s star-studded selecting course likely to see somewhere else and the prospects of the current Wildcats as of now in address some time recently his takeoff.
Here’s a see at Kentucky’s conceivable outcomes for the 2024-25 program.
Reed Sheppard
The player who will be at the best of close to every Kentucky fan’s intellect within the coming weeks, Reed Sheppard has been named the national first year recruit of the year by a few major organizations after a shocking star turn in his to begin with season with his home-state school. Sheppard offered a full-throated defense of Calipari taking after UK’s upset misfortune to Oakland within the to begin with circular of the NCAA Competition final month, but his profound and self-evident ties to the Wildcats’ program cruel that the Corridor of Notoriety coach’s departure is impossible to adversely influence the 6-foot-3 guard’s decision-making handle with respect to a conceivable return to Lexington.
That said, it still sounds like Sheppard coming back would be a long shot. He’s right now anticipated as a lottery choose in this year’s NBA draft, a status that would ensure him millions of dollars over the following few seasons and put him a year closer to an even-more-lucrative moment contract within the alliance.
In the event that Sheppard returns, it would be nearly simply out of his adore for the UK program and his crave to form a more profound run within the NCAA Competition in Year 2. But his draft stock might moreover drop amid a sophomore season in college, and — with the 2024-25 program in add up to flux — it won’t be clear for a whereas whether or not the following Wildcats’ group will be well-positioned to reasonably challenge for a Last Four in 2025.
Rob Dillingham
First year recruit protect Rob Dillingham pronounced for the NBA draft Tuesday evening. Dillingham is moreover anticipated as an NBA lottery choose, positioned by ESPN as the No. 4 by and large prospect this year, the beat college ball player behind as it were UConn center Donovan Clingan, who made a difference lead the Huskies to the national title Monday night. Dillingham’s choice to enter the NBA draft was the foremost self-evident of the 10 UK players with remaining qualification, and he would have put his title within the draft pool and kept it there regardless of who was in charge of the Kentucky program for the 2024-25 season.
Justin Edwards
One of the as it were Kentucky players to as of now report his plans, Justin Edwards uncovered final week that he was pronouncing for the NBA draft. Anticipated as a possible first-round choose — he’s No. 30 on ESPN’s latest list of the beat draft prospects — Edwards did not unequivocally say whether he was leaving open the alternative to return to school in his declaration final week, but he’s broadly anticipated to keep his title within the 2024 draft pool and start his professional career following season.
D.J. Wagner
Until the weekend, there was a real plausibility that D.J. Wagner would return to Kentucky for a moment season. The chances of that happening are presently all but gone. The abrogating reason that Wagner — the child of previous Memphis star Dajuan Wagner — came to UK within the to begin with put was the nearness of Calipari, who coached his father in college and remained near to the family within the more than two decades since that one-and-done season. D.J. Wagner is still fair 18 a long time ancient, and — with an uncertain status for this year’s NBA draft — might have come back to school to assist create his aptitudes amid one more season of college ball. It wouldn’t be a stun in case he still taken after that college way, going along with Calipari to Arkansas. It would be a stun in case he finished up back in Lexington following season.
Adou Thiero
Like Wagner, sophomore forward Adou Thiero is the son of a former Calipari player. His father, Almamy Thiero, played for the coach at Memphis, too. Adou Thiero was an under-the-radar high school player from Calipari’s hometown of Pittsburgh, and the pre-existing ties gave Kentucky a leg up on the recruiting competition when Thiero hit a growth spurt and broke out toward the end of his senior year. He emerged in his second season as a key player for the Wildcats, but he was the first to make an announcement regarding his plans this offseason.
Less than 48 hours after it was confirmed that Calipari would return to UK, Thiero’s name hit the transfer portal. He later clarified that he was also entering the NBA draft while leaving open the option to return to college, specifically saying that he could be back in Lexington for a third season. Even with Calipari gone, it’s not a total stretch to imagine Thiero back at UK for the 2024-25 campaign, but it would have to be the right fit with the new coach, and dozens of schools have already reached out to the high-upside 19-year-old, so the Wildcats will have an uphill battle to get him back.
Ugonna Onyenso
Other than Thiero, the only sophomore among the 10 players on this list is Ugonna Onyenso, the 19-year-old center from Nigeria who joined UK’s program just before the start of the 2022-23 school year. Onyenso emerged as a defensive stopper for the Wildcats after playing sparingly as a freshman. Before the news of Calipari’s departure, it was presumed behind the scenes that Onyenso would be leaving Kentucky following this season, either for the transfer portal or the NBA draft, where he’s No. 46 on ESPN’s list of the best available prospects, which would put him in the middle of the second round. It would be a surprise to see him back in Lexington next season, no matter who the coach ends up being.
Zvonimir Ivisic
Zvonimir Ivisic, who captured the imagination of UK fans before he even arrived in the United States and then delivered one of the most memorable debuts in Kentucky basketball history, expressed an openness to returning to Lexington after the NCAA Tournament loss to Oakland, and he’s not widely projected as a surefire NBA draft pick this year. (No. 64 on the ESPN list.) If Calipari had stayed, the chances of an Ivisic return would have been greater. With the coach who brought him to college basketball gone, he, too, seems like a long shot to be back. Ivisic has already entered the NBA draft twice and removed his name both times, so if he applies for early entry again this offseason, he will lose the remaining three seasons of college eligibility. He has until April 27 to make that decision.
Aaron Bradshaw
Once viewed as the possible No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 recruiting class, Aaron Bradshaw got off to a late start to his freshman season due to a foot injury and ultimately ended up playing the least of UK’s trio of 7-footers down the stretch. He announced Monday that he was entering both the transfer portal and the NBA draft, and — even if he stays in college basketball — he is not expected to return to Kentucky.
Jordan Burks
A late addition to the Kentucky recruiting class of 2023, Jordan Burks flashed plenty of potential while playing out of position early in his freshman season, but when UK’s trio of 7-footers finally returned to the court, his role was diminished. He is expected to enter his name in the transfer portal and look for a fresh start, though no announcement has been made yet.
Joey Hart
Playing just 10 minutes over seven games this season, freshman guard Joey Hart — another late addition to the 2023 recruiting class — was clearly not viewed by John Calipari to be a serious option for playing time on the 2023-24 squad. He entered the transfer portal Monday.
Kentucky’s recruits
John Calipari had commitments from six recruits for next season, a group that featured four consensus five-star prospects and added up to make the No. 2-ranked recruiting class in the 2024 cycle (behind only Duke’s star-studded incoming class).
Don’t expect this Kentucky class to hold.
Only four of UK’s commitments had already signed with the school: point guards Boogie Fland and Travis Perry, and frontcourt players Jayden Quaintance and Somto Cyril. The other two — shooting guard Billy Richmond and small forward Karter Knox — had made non-binding verbal commitments but wouldn’t have been eligible to officially sign with the Cats until next week.
That distinction doesn’t really matter, however, as it’s common practice for a school to let incoming recruits out of their national letters of intent in the event of a coaching change. (And Kentucky has allowed prospects to back out of such binding commitments in recent years with a simple request.) So, who stays? Most likely, not very many of these players.
Perry is a Lyon County native, Kentucky’s all-time high school scoring leader, the state’s reigning Mr. Basketball and a newly crowned Sweet Sixteen champion. Though he and his family have had high praise for Calipari in the past, he almost certainly would have ended up at UK no matter who was coaching the team, and he’s expected to remain with the program.
After that, it gets iffy.
Knox has already backed off his commitment, doing so once it became clear that Calipari would not be in Lexington for the 2024-25 season.
Quaintance is the Cats’ top-rated recruit — No. 8 in the 247Sports rankings — and he’s a unique case in that he won’t be eligible for the NBA draft until 2026 due to his age, meaning he could be a two-year Kentucky player with one-and-done talent. There has been some positive buzz already this week regarding the possibility of Quaintance sticking with the program, but his father posted on X his full support for Calipari in the aftermath of the Oakland loss, amid speculation that the coach’s job might be in jeopardy.
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We def riding with the enormous puppy until the wheels drop off,” Haminn Quaintance said within the post final month, three days some time recently Mitch Barnhart affirmed that Calipari would be back for a 16th season. It’s conceivable he may adhere with the Cats, in spite of the fact that he might effortlessly take after Calipari to Arkansas or go somewhere else. Missouri was the moment choice when he committed to the Cats.
The other players in UK’s course are more likely to see at other alternatives this spring.
Richmond is the child of another former Calipari player, which family tie driven him to connect Kentucky’s lesson. A unused coach might have a shot at holding onto Fland and/or Cyril, but it shouldn’t be considered likely that either of those players will conclusion up in Lexington.
So who’s cleared out at UK?
Where does that take off Kentucky? With exceptionally few players for the 2024-25 season.
Travis Perry appears the surest one to stay with the program through this transition, and whereas keeping Jayden Quaintance within the crease and coaxing some of current players back to campus would be a marvelous begin for the another head coach, it’s fair as likely — maybe more likely — that Perry could end up being the as it were holdover from the already anticipated 2024-25 list.
Clearly, that would take off the modern fellow in a genuine tie.
The great news for Kentucky is that the exchange entrance will make it a part less demanding to construct a group from scratch than would have been conceivable indeed a handful of a long time back. And the exchange handle would too make it easier for the new coach — expecting it’s somebody as of now in college ball — to bring some talented players from his previous school beside him.
For illustration, take Baylor’s Scott Drew, the candidate at the best of numerous of the Kentucky coaching hot sheets.
Baylor has the nation’s No. 6 selecting course, so — within the occasion that he is enlisted at UK — a few of those prospects seem take after to Lexington, similar to a few of the Wildcats’ current commitments might go with Calipari to Fayetteville.
Drew has moreover appeared his capacity to unbelievably move the exchange entrance in later a long time, which ability to distinguish and effectively enlist more seasoned players ought to as it were be made a difference along by the assets available at Kentucky.
Make no botch, whoever leads the Wildcats’ program into the long run will have an opportunity to construct a highly competitive program right off the bat. But it’ll take a few deft dealings within the portal and bounty of great good fortune along the way.
And be arranged to memorize parcels of new names and faces for the 2024-25 season. But fans of the program that John Calipari has been running for the past 15 a long time are as of now utilized to that.
