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BB Recruiting

Kentucky Lost Out on Five-Star Recruit, for Two Commits That Will Never Play

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Photo By Dan Fritz

Kentucky Wildcat fans have become familiar with Skyy Clark and Shaedon Sharpe over the past year. Being two highly rated commits for the 2023 class, the Big Blue Nation was understandably excited.

Clark, at the time of his commitment to Kentucky, was ranked in the top 10 of some recruiting services and considered to be one of the best point guards in the country. However, he tore his ACL in July of 2021, and upon his return has never quite looked like the same player and has dropped outside the top 30 in most rankings. This resulted in a mutual decommitment back in March between UK and Clark, and he has since committed to play for Illinois.

The No. 1 recruit of the 2023 class before reclassifying, Sharpe became Kentucky’s first top-5 recruit since Bam Adebayo in 2016. Sharpe made the decision to enroll early, coming to Kentucky for the 2022 spring semester. However, as announced on Thursday, Sharpe has entered his name in the NBA Draft and unless on the minuscule chance he is ruled ineligible, he will keep his name in.

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What do these two players have in common? They will never play a minute of basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats and they pushed away a top-five recruit.

Have you heard of Nick Smith? Well, get familiar because we will see him in conference play this season.

Smith is a consensus top-10 player in the 2023 class, and he wanted to come to Kentucky. With Clark and Sharpe it did not appear that there were any roster spots available, leading him to commit to his home state school of Arkansas.

One of the best shooting guards in the class, Travis Branham describes Smith as an offensive threat that Kentucky could greatly use.

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“Nick Smith is one of the best scorers in the country with a very confident and aggressive approach to the game. His foot never comes off the gas and he gets after it on both ends of the floor. He’s got size, length, athleticism and can fill it up from all three levels and does an excellent job for a high schooler at getting to the free-throw line. He’s got range on his jumper off the catch and bounce, he has floaters, he defends and is excellent in the open floor.”

It’s a shame that of the three players, none will play for Kentucky. In hindsight, if John Calipari and staff had a redo, Smith would be a Wildcat.

With that said, there are two diaper-dandy freshmen coming in that shouldn’t be overlooked, Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston.

https://youtu.be/Ew6ooY88ed4

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BB Recruiting

Kentucky Has Contacted Nation’s Leading Scorer, Four-Star Transfer Jaron Pierre Who Is “Definitely” Interested in the Cats

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Jacksonville State transfer Jaron Pierre has been contacted by Kentucky.
Jacksonville State Athletics

There are more than a thousand players in the transfer portal, meaning names are flying left and right. As of April 1st, Kentucky has one commitment in Kam Williams (Tulane), and is projected to land top 25 transfer Magoon Gwath (San Diego State).

That said, the Kentucky staff has been in contact with more than a dozen players, and there is another notable player to add to that list.

KY Insider can report that Kentucky has contacted Jaron Pierre from Jacksonville State. Pierre is currently a four-star transfer prospect and ranked as the 34th ranked prospect in 247Sports‘ transfer portal rankings.

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At Jacksonville State last season, Pierre scored more points than anyone else in college basketball (777 points), averaging 21.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists while shooting 38.2% from 3-point range (9.0 attempts per game). He scored 30 points or more in six games, and only had one game where he did not score in double digits. His impressive play earned him Conference USA Player of the Year honors.

Pierre also had prior stops at Southern Miss and Wichita State, where he spent two years at each school, and will be going into his sixth season of college basketball. Pierre has also declared for the NBA Draft, but is not currently projected on any mock drafts.

While still early in his recruitment, Pierre tells KY Insider that he is “definitely” interested in Kentucky, but no Zoom meeting or visit has been scheduled.

“I love it Big Blue Nation,” Pierre said of the Kentucky program. He also really liked what Mark Pope was able to do in his first season in Lexington. “He was able to pick up right where it left off.”

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The level of competition is always a question when evaluating a mid-major talent, but Pierre’s athleticism jumps off the page and a 38.2% clip from three on nine attempts per game is nothing to slight at.

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BB Recruiting

Kentucky Receives First Transfer Commitment From Top 25 Prospect, “Not Many People Get Opportunities Like This”

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Kentucky transfer Kam Williams prepares to shoot.

While all the attention is on Kentucky’s matchup with Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen, the transfer portal officially opened on Monday and the staff has been hard at work.

Already tossing a wide net, reaching out to nearly a dozen guys in the past few days, the Cats have reeled in their first commitment from Top 25 ranked (247Sports), four-star transfer Kam Williams from Tulane.

With a 6-8, 190-pound frame, Williams has good size. What caught the staff’s eye is his ELITE shooting ability, shooting better than 41 percent this past season and that includes 17 threes made beyond 25 feet. He excels best in catch-and-shoot situations, where he ranks in the 94th percentile.

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Williams received interest from many schools in addition to Kentucky, such as Florida, Louisville, and St. John’s among others. Why did Williams commit to Kentucky so quickly?

“Not many people get opportunities like this, so I wanted to pull the trigger fast,” Williams told ESPN. “More people are waiting to fill that spot, so I had to take advantage.”

“My dream is to play in the NBA. Kentucky’s culture and background shows that they care about their players, especially developing them into the best players they can be.”

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Kentucky Named a Finalist for Five Star, Top 5 NBA Prospect Nate Ament

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2025 top five prospect Nate Ament on his visit to Kentucky.
UK Athletics

Mark Pope has received three top-35 commitments in his first high school recruiting class, including two high 4-star commits in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.

However, his first top-10 prospect still eludes him after missing out on Caleb Wilson last month… at least for now.

Over the last few weeks, Pope and his staff have focused heavily on top-five prospect Nate Ament.

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Ament, the second-ranked power forward in the 2025 class, cut his list down to five schools earlier this week: Duke, Louisville, Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Kentucky Wildcats.

The 6-foot-9 prospect has visited each of them except Arkansas over the last five months, with a decision expected in the next month or so. Where does each program stand?

According to Joe Tipton of On3, Louisville and Duke have “positioned themselves” the best in this recruitment, giving Pat Kesley and the Cardinals a slight lead. However, there is still time, and one thing that could shake things up the most is NIL, reported to be one of Ament’s biggest priorities.

Elsewhere at On3, Jamie Shaw did his own update, where he said this could be down to a Kentucky vs. Louisville battle.

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“Speaking with sources at this point in time it does sound like there is a split room around Nate Ament with Duke, Louisville, and Kentucky. With the intel I am currently getting, I would not be surprised to see this ultimately come down to a Kentucky and Louisville battle,” Shaw wrote, later adding that a decision could come in the next few weeks.

Ament is fresh off a visit to Kentucky, where he saw Rupp Arena at its best as the Wildcats completed the season sweep of Tennessee. That being his most recent visit, along with Pope visiting for Ament’s Senior night, the hope is it made a lasting impact, but will it be enough?

Time will tell, but the Cats are a legitimate contender to land Ament.

Be sure to read Shaw’s update here.

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Also posted on A Sea of Blue.

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