John Calipari hasn’t brought many 3-star recruits to UK. Now, three are on the same team.

One of the end results from Kentucky men’s basketball’s distinct roster construction for the 2023-24 season is the presence of a trio of three-star recruits on the same team.

Sophomore guard Adou Thiero, freshman small forward Jordan Burks and freshman shooting guard Joey Hart were all rated as three-star prospects by the 247Sports Composite, which averages the ratings of the major recruiting services..

Their presence represents a first for a John Calipari-coached Kentucky team: This will be the most three-star high school recruits on one of his UK squads.

Following the summer additions of Burks and Hart, let’s take a look at Calipari’s history of bringing three-star high school recruits to Lexington, and what those recruits have been able to do as Kentucky Wildcats.

All recruiting information is from the 247Sports Composite.

Information exists from the 2003 recruiting class onward, which covers the last 21 Kentucky recruiting classes.

Three-star recruits a rarity for John Calipari

During the Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie eras, Kentucky signing three-star recruits was commonplace. Calipari retained one of those prospects, senior guard Ramon Harris, on his first Kentucky team.

But starting with Calipari’s first recruiting class in 2009 (he was hired as UK’s head coach in late March of that year), the number of three-star high school recruits sharply declined.

Starting with the 2009 class, only five three-star recruits (6.25%) have arrived at Kentucky out of 80 total true freshman players (including both Enes Freedom, formerly known as Enes Kanter, and Shaedon Sharpe, each of whom never played for UK).

For 12 of John Calipari’s recruiting classes at Kentucky, the Wildcats brought in zero three-star high school recruits.

Note that this data doesn’t include players who transferred to UK after spending time at a previous college basketball stop. This excludes the likes of Eloy Vargas (a class of 2008 recruit who began his college career at Florida before then going to junior college), Davion Mintz (a class of 2016 recruit who began at Creighton) and Olivier Sarr (a class of 2017 recruit who began at Wake Forest).

From 2009 through 2021, only two three-star high school recruits came to UK: in-state standouts Dominique Hawkins (Madison Central) and Derek Willis (Bullitt East), both as part of an eight-player 2013 recruiting class.

After those two players finished their UK careers at the end of the 2016-17 season, Calipari didn’t roster another three-star freshman until last season.

Kentucky now has trio of three-stars

After eight offseasons without a three-star high school recruit, Thiero signed with Kentucky last spring after a breakout high school senior season in Pennsylvania, near where Calipari grew up. Two more three-star pledges followed this offseason with Burks and Hart joining the Cats as part of Calipari’s late scramble to fill out Kentucky’s roster.

This means next season’s UK team will be the first in more than a decade — and the first with Calipari as head coach — to feature at least three players who signed with Kentucky as three-star high school recruits.

Given this, what is the mold for success for a three-star recruit at Kentucky, and specifically under Calipari?

For Hawkins and Willis, it certainly helped that both players spent four full seasons in Lexington and each played more than 100 games in a UK uniform to earn themselves lofty places in the statistical history of UK men’s basketball.

Hawkins, who averaged 11.8 minutes in 121 career games, ranks fourth in UK history in defensive box plus/minus (4.0) and eighth in steal percentage (1.9).

Willis — despite having significant defensive limitations — averaged 15.0 minutes in 103 career games and is third in Kentucky history in defensive rebound percentage (19.2), third in defensive box plus/minus (4.3), fourth in overall box plus/minus (9.7) and 10th in steal percentage (1.8). All statistics are via Sports Reference.

Obviously, sticking around long-term would also help Burks, Hart and Thiero become better basketball players and contribute more to winning at Kentucky.

But as far as immediate impact goes for next season, 247Sports national basketball analyst Travis Branham stressed the importance of defense, specifically when speaking to the Herald-Leader about Burks.

“For a guy like him to get on the court — just knowing how Cal operates — he’s going to have to buy into the defensive end,” Branham said.

On Friday, during Calipari’s first press conference since the end of Kentucky’s 2022-23 season in March, the Herald-Leader asked UK’s coach about what realistic expectations and roles should be for Burks and Hart this season.

“Really too early to tell,” Calipari said straightaway, before eventually circling back to the three-star freshmen. “(Burks is) going to do fine. Joey will do fine. They may be on a different path, we don’t know yet. They may step up, and you know I’m going to play the best people.”

Even for the most highly coveted of Kentucky recruits who have been brought to Lexington by Calipari — like consensus five-star guard Tyrese Maxey (2019) — the value of playing on the platform Kentucky provides can open doors that otherwise might not be available.

“I always think it’s a good idea to play (at Kentucky),” Maxey told the Herald-Leader last summer. “It’ll put you on a stage which you could find the people that you need to be in front of to make your dreams come true.”

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