Kentucky basketball’s only 2024 commit is trying to bring more top recruits to UK

Kentucky men’s basketball’s lone commit in the 2024 recruiting class appears to be doing his part to help bring more top talent to Lexington.

Somto Cyril — a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center who is ranked as a four-star recruit by the 247Sports Composite — pledged in June to join the UK men’s basketball program, becoming UK’s first and so far only commit in the 2024 recruiting group.

Nobody has yet followed in the footsteps of Cyril, a defensive force who is gearing up for his second season with the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program.

But, Cyril has been lobbying one player in particular at Overtime Elite to come join him in Lexington next year.

That player in question?

Five-star wing Karter Knox, a 6-foot-6, 211-pound prospect with deep UK ties who joined the Overtime Elite program over the summer.

Knox — whose older brother Kevin was a one-and-done player at Kentucky and a 2018 NBA Draft lottery pick — told the Herald-Leader this month that Cyril has made it a point to try and lobby him toward selecting the Wildcats.

“He just tells me ‘Kentucky’s the one.’ Every time I give him a pass in practice, he’ll dunk it and say, ‘Hey, that could be us next year,’” Knox said prior to the Overtime Elite Fall Combine, which took place in front of dozens of college coaches and professional scouts.

“We’ll start laughing and stuff. (Cyril is) a good guy.”

For his part, Cyril downplayed his recruiting tactics.

“So far no, I don’t tell them what to do,” Cyril said when asked if he’s recruiting other players to UK. “I let them do what’s best for them. Everybody has different goals. ... I feel like commitment to college comes from within. ... You just have to do what’s best for you.”

In the case of Knox, it seems that Kentucky is both a likely and logical option to be his college selection.

In May, Knox released a list of his eight potential post-high school basketball pathways: Auburn, Arkansas, Florida State, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, South Florida and the NBA’s G-League Ignite program made the cut.

The two schools that have attracted the most attention from that group of finalists are UK and U of L.

Kentucky’s John Calipari helped mold Kevin Knox into a top-10 NBA Draft pick. Louisville’s Kenny Payne was UK’s associate head coach when Kevin was in school, and later worked with Kevin as an assistant coach with the NBA’s New York Knicks.

But Karter continues to insist his recruitment remains open beyond those two commonwealth programs.

While Knox doesn’t have a timetable to either make his college commitment or to trim his list of options further, he does plan to take several recruiting visits this fall to the likes of Kentucky, Louisville and South Florida, among potentially other schools.

Knox has already been on official visits to both UK and U of L.

Another Knox brother, Kobe, transferred this offseason to South Florida from Grand Canyon University.

Following the Overtime Elite Fall Combine, Karter and his father, Kevin Knox Sr., were speaking on the OTE Arena court with new South Florida men’s basketball head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim.

That meeting was briefly interrupted by a greeting from UK men’s basketball associate coach Orlando Antigua, who was in Atlanta to watch Cyril, Knox and other UK recruits in action.

Antigua also is the main point of contact between Cyril and Kentucky.

“I feel like it’s a really good thing we have going on,” Cyril said of his post-commitment relationship with UK.

Cyril, Knox to play on same Overtime Elite team this season

While the 2023-24 Overtime Elite season hasn’t yet started, there’s a good chance the recruiting dialogue between Cyril and Knox will continue in the coming months.

Both players will spend the upcoming Overtime Elite season playing for the same team, Rod Wave Elite (RWE).

The head coach of RWE will be Corey Frazier, who previously served as a pro-skills trainer with Overtime Elite and was also the head coach for Overtime Elite’s entry in The Basketball Tournament last summer.

Cyril made history by being the first amateur to play in that event.

Frazier also holds his own piece of history with Kentucky: As a guard at Saint Louis, Frazier played against the Wildcats in the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

“His athleticism shows, his defensive ability shows, but now we get to take our time and help get him ready for Kentucky,” Frazier said this summer about Cyril’s progression at Overtime Elite. “... I don’t want to get a call from Cal saying ‘Hey, he’s not ready.’ He’ll be ready.”

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