Kentucky wants more guards for next season. These are now the most likely options.
The revolving door of college basketball transfers continues to turn, and some of the top remaining recruits in the 2021 class are getting closer to their final decisions.
Amid it all, Kentucky is still in search of backcourt help for next season, and the Wildcats have no shortage of talented options to fill those perimeter needs.
With Davion Mintz — the Cats’ leading scorer and three-point shooter this past season — still on the fence regarding a possible return to Lexington for one more year, Kentucky’s backcourt situation remains unsettled. Four-star point guard Nolan Hickman has signed for next season, and UK has already added a commitment from Davidson transfer Kellan Grady, a high-scoring shooting guard with four years of college experience. Dontaie Allen is expected back for his sophomore season, though no official announcement has been made by UK on his status.
Other than that, it’s uncertainty in the backcourt. If Mintz does come back, John Calipari is still likely to add at least one guard to the 2021-22 roster, preferably one who can run the point. If Mintz leaves, look for the Cats to bring in at least two more perimeter players.
The latest look at the top candidates:
CJ Fredrick
CJ Fredrick — the former Covington Catholic standout and state tournament MVP — was being talked about in college basketball circles as a possible Kentucky transfer even while this past season was still being played, so it was not much of a surprise when his name popped up this week as an addition to the NCAA transfer portal.
Fredrick — a 6-foot-3, 195-pound guard — sat out his first year at Iowa as a redshirt before starting all 52 games he appeared in for the Hawkeyes over the past two seasons. He did miss four games this past season and six games the season before that due to injury, but he has been a reliable player for two good Iowa teams, including a squad that earned a No. 2 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky did not recruit Fredrick, who is actually a Cincinnati native, out of high school, but the Wildcats have been strongly linked to him as a possible transfer destination for months. He averaged 7.5 points per game as a sophomore while playing alongside national player of the year Luka Garza, and Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said after the team’s NCAA Tournament loss that Fredrick, who had foot surgery last summer, had been playing through a plantar fasciitis injury for much of this past season.
Fredrick has been a tremendous three-point shooter, going 83-for-178 from deep (46.6 percent) over his first two college seasons. He would be a great addition to Kentucky’s backcourt, especially in the event that Mintz doesn’t return for next season.
There is not yet a list of transfer options out there for Fredrick, but given the buzz surrounding him and UK over the past few months, the Wildcats have to be seen as a serious option.
TyTy Washington
As promised, star point guard recruit TyTy Washington cut his recruitment to six finalists over the weekend. Kentucky will now vie with Arizona, Baylor, Kansas, Louisiana State and Oregon for his commitment, and a decision is expected to come no later than early May (and perhaps as early as the next week or two).
Washington — a 6-3 prospect from Arizona — was named a First Team All-American by MaxPreps.com after averaging 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists per game this past season. He is likely to be graded as a five-star recruit once the 2021 class rankings are finalized later this spring.
Adding Washington to a 2021 class that already includes Hickman would give Calipari double the chance of a freshman point guard panning out as an immediate-impact starter, something UK should be extra cautious about following Devin Askew’s struggles this past season.
Hickman and Washington are both projected to be instant-impact point guards at the college level, and — if both players do indeed pan out as standout playmakers from the beginning of next season — there is enough versatility in their games to where they could play at the same time.
No national analysts have logged a prediction in favor of any school on Washington’s 247Sports Crystal Ball page yet, though there has been positive momentum in UK’s recruitment of the star point guard in recent days.
Adding Fredrick and Washington this spring appears to be one of the more plausible scenarios for how Kentucky’s offseason might end up.
Marcus Carr
ESPN ranks Marcus Carr — a 6-2 point guard who played the last two seasons at Minnesota — as its No. 1 overall transfer this offseason, regardless of position.
Carr would be a major Kentucky target if he opts to return to college basketball, but that remains an “if” for now, and no decision on that front is expected anytime soon. He is still exploring his NBA Draft opportunities, and — with the Draft Combine not scheduled until late June and the withdrawal deadline set for July 7 — the college-or-pro decision is one that could drag on for quite some time.
Kentucky could certainly use a veteran, proven college point guard like Carr — even if Mintz does return — but the Cats can’t put all of their recruiting eggs in that basket, if a final decision is indeed several weeks away. UK is expected to be one of the schools on Carr’s short list — which will include only three or four programs — if he does return to college.
That is, if Kentucky is still in need of a point guard by the time Carr is ready to decide.
Adam Miller
Don’t forget about Illinois freshman Adam Miller, who was a highly touted recruit in the 2020 class and emerged as a starter for an Illini team that earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this past season.
Miller — a 6-3, 180-pound guard from Peoria, Ill. — entered the transfer portal this month, and Kentucky was one of the first schools to establish contact. His numbers this past season weren’t eye-popping — 8.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game — but he was playing on a loaded Illinois team and logged 25.5 minutes per game as a freshman. He also made 52 of 153 three-point attempts, hitting at a 34.0-percent clip.
A standout on the USA Basketball camp circuit and a star high school player, Miller possesses the athleticism and defensive potential that Calipari often looks for in his perimeter recruits. And while his assist numbers were low this past season, Miller does have facilitating skills and should be able to play with the ball in his hands.
ESPN ranks him as the No. 5 overall transfer this offseason, 15 spots ahead of former UK target Justin Powell, who has committed to Tennessee.
One more wrinkle to this recruitment: there has been increased talk around Lexington in recent days that former UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua — now an assistant at Illinois — could be a potential addition to the Wildcats’ staff if there’s an opening this offseason. That would obviously have its own long-term recruiting implications, but, in the short term, it could have an impact on Miller’s destination, as well.
Other names on UK’s radar
▪ Class of 2021 shooting guard recruit Tamar “Scoop” Bates — a former Texas commitment with ties to UK assistant coach Jai Lucas — committed to Indiana on Monday after being briefly linked to the Wildcats a few weeks ago.
▪ Five-star recruit Jaden Hardy — the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2021 class — has not yet announced his plans for next season, but it’s still expected that he will join the G League’s developmental program. If Hardy — a 6-5 combo guard — does play college ball, 247Sports analyst Travis Branham wrote Monday that UCLA might have surpassed UK as the most likely option.
▪ Texas Tech shooting guard Mac McClung (No. 11 on ESPN’s list of the top transfers) and Oklahoma point guard De’Vion Harmon (No. 14 on that list) are both in the transfer portal and have been linked to Kentucky, but, as of now, they don’t seem to be as serious targets as some others on the Wildcats’ radar.
▪ The NCAA transfer portal now includes more than 1,400 players, with hundreds more likely to join in the coming weeks. Hardy and Washington are the only uncommitted guards in the top 40 of the 2021 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
Chet Holmgren — the nation’s No. 1 basketball recruit — has committed to Gonzaga
Former Kentucky high school star is new transfer option and on UK’s recruiting radar
Star point guard TyTy Washington nears a college decision. Kentucky makes final cut.
SEC basketball winning the NCAA transfer war this offseason. And it’s not even close.
