On Wednesday, May 17th, some interesting recruiting news came as Cameron and Cayden Boozer both received offers to Kentucky.
According to all high school rankings, Cameron is ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025; meanwhile Cayden is ranked 27th nationally and as the No. 5 best overall shooting guard from the class according to 247Sports
Although Kentucky has offered, Duke is the heavy favorite to land the twins due to their father, Carlos Boozer, playing basketball at Duke. Interestingly, Cameron is named after Duke’s Cameroon Indoor Stadium. With that said, more schools are throwing their hats into the ring, including in-state rival, North Carolina along with Florida, Michigan, and others.
Advertisement
While the twins are ultimately expected to play at Duke, Kentucky and John Calipari don’t typically throw their hats into the ring unless they believe there is at least a shot. With growing interest between Duke and another 2025 prospect, Cooper Flagg, that may leave a crack for a team to try to steal the Boozer twins.
No official visit has been announced for the twins to visit Kentucky, but with UK’s offer, they will hope to get the twins on campus. As of now, the twins are rising juniors and although the Class of 2025 commitments aren’t for a while away it is good for Kentucky to gauge their interest early.
With less than two weeks until Big Blue Madness, the start of the Kentucky basketball season is just around the corner. Ahead of a season with a lot of pressure, John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcat staff were busy on the recruiting trail in New York to start the week.
The day started off with taking a visit to see 2024 combo guard Boogie Fland. This being the fourth in-person visit to Fland over the last three weeks, it is clear that he is a top priority for the Cats and that is reciprocated as Fland listed the Wildcats in his top three last week along with the Alabama Crimson Tide and Indiana Hoosiers. Fland is expected to make a decision in the early signing period, which begins on November 8th.
With that said, coverage of Fland’s recruitment has been well-reported, but while in New York, Calipari paid a visit to two more top recruits, VJ Edgecombe and Alier Maluk who both play for Long Island Lutheran (NY).
Advertisement
VJ Edgecombe
Edgecombe is one of the fastest-rising prospects in the 2024 class. As of March this year, he was ranked outside of the Top 100, fast forward to now and he is a consensus top 10 prospect and considered to be the No. 2 shooting guard in the class. When you see his explosive athleticism, catch-and-shoot ability, and natural basketball instincts it is easy to see why.
Watching closely for a while, the Wildcats extended an offer last month, a month and a half after Edgecombe trimmed his list to ten. While late to the party, Kentucky is not giving up and joins the likes of Alabama, Duke, St. Johns, and G-League Ignite among others in pursuit of the talented guard.
Alier Maluk
Early this summer Alier Maluk was considered a top-25 prospect, but following the grassroots season Maluk dropped in the rankings to just inside the top 50. That said, that isn’t stopping the Wildcats from still showing interest as they have since he was 15 years old, and for good reason, Maluk is one of the most intriguing big men in the class.
At 6-foot-10, 180 pounds, Maluk is a dynamic two-way prospect and can be looked at as a “modern” big man. Well-known for his shot-blocking and rim-running ability, Maluk is also capable of shooting off the catch and the dribble. That said, his handle needs some development as he hopes to continue to develop as a stretch-four. That said, height and skill run in the family as Maluk is the cousin of 7-foot-2 center Bol Bol, who currently plays in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns.
Advertisement
It should be noted that Kentucky has yet to extend an offer to Maluk, who currently holds offers from Florida, Ohio State, and Oregon among others.
One of the top players in the class, top-ranked guard Boogie Fland has begun taking his visits, and is still taking time with his recruitment, but John Calipari and Kentucky are making a hard push to get the star guard locked up.
Fresh off of a visit to Kentucky a few weeks ago, Fland also had an in-home visit conducted by John Calipari last week after Kentucky watched him at Archbishop Stepinac in New York. On Monday, Calipari and Orlando Antigua paid him another visit. Kentucky is making sure he knows that he is the top priority among guards in the class of 2024.
Along with his visit to Lexington, Fland recently visited Alabama. The two schools are part of Fland’s final three schools along with Indiana as he nears closer to a decision.
Advertisement
Fland is known to be one of the more elite scorers in the class with an ability to score from all three levels, and Kentucky is making him a top priority. Four visits in three weeks show that the staff really likes him and are looking to close the deal.
Take a look at this mic’d up highlight video of the potential future Wildcat to get to know him and his game.
When Ivisic originally committed to UK on August 1st, there was plenty of excitement around the program for the 7-foot Croatian to be a key piece on this year’s team.
Ever since then though, it’s only gone downhill as every single day we are hearing less good things about Ivisic’s situation. This is reportedly because of an English equivalency exam, so he still has not been accepted into the university’s admissions.
While the optimism was still he would end up on the team, a lot of the believer’s hopes took a big hit when 247Sports national recruiting analyst Travis Branham had an appearance on KSR’s Sources Say podcast.
Advertisement
Branham had a tough quote saying, “To be honest, I’m not banking on him being on this roster next year. I think it’s a very longshot bet”. Hearing this from a person as connected to recruiting as Branham is very concerning.
He goes on to talk about how it’s not very cut and dry on why he wouldn’t end up at Kentucky calling it a “Hail Mary” that Kentucky would have to connect on to even get the Croatian admitted to Kentucky.
Ivisic is projected as a potential first-rounder in the 2024 NBA draft and averaged 11.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks for Croatia at the FIBA U20 European Championships in Greece in July.
The 7-footer’s skills would be a big help to this year’s Kentucky basketball team with the injury of Aaron Bradshaw this offseason, the depth in the frontcourt is much needed for the Wildcats right now.
Advertisement
If they are unable to figure out this situation and get him in a Kentucky jersey this upcoming season, it will be a huge mistake by UK admissions.