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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 Earns Commitment From European Big Andrija Jelavic

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ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic

Earlier today, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats received the commitment from Andrija Jelavic, a 6-foot-11 big from Croatia.

As first reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Jelavic is one of the most highly regarded European prospects that is taking his talent to the NCAA.

Soon to be 21 years old, Jelavic averaged 10.8 points per game on 60% shooting from the field to go along with 7.4 rebounds per game for Mega Superbet, the same club that NBA Champion and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic played for.

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As a shock to most, who were expecting Pope’s next commit to be a guard of some sorts, international players can now sign lucrative NIL deals. Kentucky, along with several of the elite colleges, are now in the European market. 

Jelavic, with shades of current European big men, can do just about everything on the court. He can shoot, dribble, pass, finish at the rim, etc. With a very relevant comparison, Jelavic plays almost perfectly in the replacement role of Andrew Carr. 

His commitment now makes him the fifth member of Pope’s additions this offseason, joining Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance. 

With a 7’2” wingspan, joining an already impressive Kentucky frontcourt, it’s safe to say for certain that this new team will not lack in that department. 

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Next year’s roster was loaded with talent already, but now with the addition of Jelavic, lots of questions are arising: Who will start? How many more players is Pope going to add? What will happen with the walk-ons? 

There’s plenty to think about for Pope and his staff before the season starts, but like he said back when he introduced himself to Big Blue Nation, “We’re here to win banners.” He’s going to make the moves he thinks will do just that for the Wildcats. 

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Four-Star Guard Acaden Lewis Suddenly Decommits from Kentucky

Amidst a recent wave of positive recruiting news for Kentucky, the surprising decommitment of Acaden Lewis is an unfortunate wrench.

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2025 four-star point guard prospect Acaden Lewis has decommited from Kentucky.
UK Athletics

In a shocking, late at night turn of events, four-star freshman Acaden Lewis has decommitted from Kentucky.

Lewis, a 6’3” point guard out of Washington, D.C. first committed to the blue and white in November of last year, following an in-person visit with Mark Pope in his hometown.

Since then, he’s made multiple appearances in Rupp Arena, been featured in photo shoots with his fellow incoming recruits, and spoken on multiple occasions about his excitement to join the team for the 2025-26’ season.

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To say this development is surprising would be a serious understatement.

Lewis released a statement following the announcement, “This was an incredibly difficult decision, but I have to do what’s best for my future,” he said. “Thank you to Coach Pope and the whole Kentucky staff for all they’ve done for me so far.”

While the loss of Lewis is certainly disappointing, there is still much to look forward to next season for Kentucky, who maintain one of the highest rated transfer classes in the nation – and it likely isn’t finished.

To that point, if any reason can be derived immediately for Lewis’ decommitment, it may be found in the same place that Mark Pope and staff will be going to look for answers: the transfer portal.

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Top 10 Transfer Prospect, Former Wildcat Recruit Jayden Quaintance Commits to Kentucky

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2024 five-star big man Jayden Quaintance has commmitted to play basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats
UK Athletics

Two days into the week and two booms for the Kentucky Wildcats as Jayden Quaintance announced his commitment to Kentucky on Tuesday morning.

If the Quaintance name sounds familiar, it should. He was originally committed to play for the Cats out of high school last season as a five-star recruit. While he was interested in staying at Kentucky following John Calipari’s departure, even meeting with Mark Pope, he elected to play for Arizona State.

In his one season with the Sun Devils, Quaintance averaged 9.4 PPG, 7.9 RPG, and 2.6 BPG, and earned Big 12 All-Freshman and All-Defensive honors.

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The one concern for Quaintance is that he had surgery to repair a torn ACL, which could keep him out for the entire offseason and potentially into the season. That said, the expectation for a return is September, and at just 17 years old, there is so much untapped potential.

Get to know the newest Wildcat commit!

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