Blue bloods lining up for star 7-footer, and Kentucky is about to get its best shot

This time last year, Pennsylvania basketball standout Dereck Lively II was ranked in the back end of the top 50 nationally, a promising prospect with plenty of upside but not necessarily considered to be one of the can’t-miss players in his 2022 class.

Now, there might not be a more “blue-blood” recruitment in the country.

This month, Lively took his first official visit, a trip to Chapel Hill for some time on North Carolina’s campus. This weekend, he’s scheduled to arrive in Lexington for his UK official visit. A few days after that trip ends, Lively is due in Durham for an official visit to Duke.

It doesn’t get much more blue-blood than that.

The highly athletic big man — listed at right around 7 feet tall — was the No. 40 overall recruit in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, going into his junior season at Westtown School (Pa.) late last year. His play over the course of the winter raised eyebrows among recruiting analysts, and the continued growth he’s shown this spring has led to a re-evaluation of his talent.

In the recent update to the Rivals.com rankings for the 2022 class, Lively was among the nation’s biggest risers — moving up 31 spots to the No. 14 overall position.

Lively has been playing his travel ball with Team Final, a squad that also features the best big man in high school basketball — No. 1-ranked junior Jalen Duren — and recently added small forward Emoni Bates, long touted as the best prospect in the country, regardless of class.

Still, Lively has found ways to make a major impact on the court.

“He moves incredibly well for a player of his size,” Rivals.com national analyst Rob Cassidy told the Herald-Leader. “Seven-footers are not supposed to move like that. He’s a freak athlete. He changes almost every shot. Even when he’s not scoring — and he usually is — he impacts the game so, so well, from passing to the defense end. The shots that he doesn’t block, he changes. Having him in the game versus out of the game is day and night for that Team Final team. Just because he gives them another shot-changer down low.”

Team Final, which also features other nationally ranked recruits, has become the “it” team of the grassroots circuit this spring, and the program is considered a favorite to win next month’s high-profile Nike Peach Jam tournament.

Obviously, wherever Lively ends up for college, he’s going to be surrounded by other highly talented players with NBA dreams. So far this spring, he’s proven he can play within such a program and still make an impact, even when his game is off or he’s not the No. 1 option.

“You’re not always going to have your best offensive game,” Cassidy said. “And I’m partial to guys that can still take over a game, even when they’re not shooting the ball very well. And he’s one of those guys. He comes with the length. He does a lot of other things other than score. Even though he has developed some really good back-to-the basket post moves over the last year. And he’s just become more of a versatile, well-rounded guy, and that was reflected in the rankings bump we gave him.”

Cassidy added that he didn’t necessarily think Lively was finished rising in the Rivals.com rankings.

There’s still plenty of potential for growth with the 7-footer. He’s skinny, but Cassidy noted that Lively looks to have a frame that would be capable of adding muscle. As he gets stronger, he should become even more of an effective defender, interior scorer and rebounder.

Lively shoots the ball well for a player of his size, but that’s an area of potential growth for just about any player his age, and he looks like a prospect who might be able to stretch the floor offensively even more by the time he gets to college.

Some Kentucky fans who closely follow the recruiting trail have mentioned Willie Cauley-Stein as a possible point of comparison. Cassidy agreed that there are similarities in the two players’ games, adding that Lively might actually be a little taller and longer than the former UK center, who ultimately earned national defensive player of the year honors as a junior and ended up an NBA lottery pick.

Lively isn’t quite there yet, obviously, but he’s on the right track.

And the past success that John Calipari and his Kentucky coaching staff have had with similarly sized and skilled post players will surely be a major selling point on this weekend’s visit and the continued communication that UK has with Lively in the coming months.

Though there are other teams in pursuit of his commitment — including Penn State, where his mother, Kathy Drysdale, was a star basketball player and now works in the athletics department — Lively’s recruitment seems to be shaping up as a battle of the blue bloods. UNC extended a scholarship offer late in his junior season. This month, he became the first player to land a Duke offer from coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer. Now, it’ll be Kentucky’s turn.

And the recruiting world is still waiting for a favorite to emerge.

“I think he’s pretty wide open for now,” Cassidy said. “I would expect the lure of the blue bloods to be big. And I would expect him to land at a higher-profile program. I just don’t know which one.”

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