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Kentucky and Louisville Battling for 2024 Five-Star Recruit, Karter Knox

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Five-star wing, Karter Knox remains a top-20 prospect in the class of 2024. He just finished his junior season at Tampa Catholic (Fla.) where he and his team fell just short of a state championship.

Knox is ranked as the No. 15 prospect via 247Sports. He stands 6-foot-6 with a college-ready build. His older brother, Kevin Knox, currently plays in the NBA and previously played at Kentucky for a single season in 2017-18.

In a recent interview with 247Sports, Karter discussed his recruitment and his development as a player.

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In the interview, Knox tells of how this high school season and his experience with USA basketball have helped him grow as a leader.

“I became more of a leader, learned to talk more and a lot of that is thanks to the work I’ve done with USA Basketball and them teaching me to get out of my comfort zone and be more of a leader.”

“Skill wise I’ve definitely improved on my ball handling,” Knox told 247Sports. “During the season coach had me dribbling the ball up the court and I’m definitely better at playmaking and coming off the pick and roll and stuff. I really want to work on guarding more positions and being more of a pest. They say offense sells the tickets and defense wins championships so I want to be a two-way, all-around player.”

The two in-state rivals, Kentucky and Louisville, remain at the forefront as favorites to land Knox. He has strong connections to both programs.

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On Kentucky, Knox says, “It was crazy. I went for Big Blue Madness so the fans were going crazy. Everybody was trying to get me to go there talking to me “Karter come here, Karter go here” type stuff. They have a great coaching staff. The players over there were great and they loved each other like brothers so it was really good. Coach [John] Calipari loves me and he treats me like family. He’s known me since I was 12 years old so he’s almost more like an uncle.”

When asked about Louisville, Knox said, “Coach [Kenny] Payne, I’ve known him a long time. Ever since Kevin was being recruited I’ve been around him so since I was like 12 years old. He really helped my big brother get to the NBA. You know he snapped on him when he needed to, got him out of his comfort zone and he’s like another uncle to me. What stood out on the visit was the coaching. They are a really great coaching staff. They weren’t as good as a team in the first year but I’m worried about the future. That first season is in the past, I’m not worried about that.”

Due to his strong connections to Kentucky and Louisville, some programs have hesitated in their recruitment of Knox. Even though he does have strong established connections to the two programs, Knox has made it clear that he is very open to other programs. At this time, Knox is just “waiting for a phone call from them.”

Currently, Knox says that he has not made a top list of schools yet and is in no rush to make a decision.

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“I want this to be my decision,” Knox explains. “I want a school to have good coaching and I’d really like them to have good fans. A strong fanbase and coaching staff, that’s really all I want.”

BB Recruiting

2024 5-Star Wing Karter Knox Commits To Kentucky

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2024 five-star prospect, Karter Knox commits to the Kentucky Wildcats.
Adam Hagy | Overtime Elite

Over the weekend, Kentucky not only got a Top 5 road win against Tennessee, or be featured in Drake’s concert at Rupp Arena, but they also received a 2024 commitment from a five-star recruit.

Karter Knox, a top-20 player in the 2024 class, and brother of former Wildcat Kevin Knox, announced his commitment to Kentucky on Saturday. Karter committed to Kentucky over South Florida, Louisville, and a return to Overtime Elite, with the latter two being seen as the most likely destination until nearly the very end.

Why Kentucky? “Coach Calipari has sent a lot of people to the league and I want to be a pro,” Knox said after his commitment. “He told me he’s going to make me a pro. I’m ready to hoop and win a national championship.”

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Knox joins five-star prospects Jayden Quaintance, Boogie Fland, and Somto Cyril, and four-stars Travis Perry and Billy Richmond in Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class. Together, Kentucky’s class now ranks 2nd in the nation, behind Duke.

Don’t think that Knox will be Kentucky’s last take in the class as there are murmurs of 2024 decomitmments and 2025 reclassifications including Darryn Peterson, Jasper Johnson, and most recently, Joson Sanon.

Scouting Report

Per 247Sports’ Adam Finkelstein.

Karter Knox is a true three-range scorer on the wing. He’s not quite as big as advertised, but he compensates with long arms, a naturally strong build, soft hands, good timing in a variety of different circumstances, and a versatile skill-set.

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While he’s a shooting threat from three with a soft natural ball and compact release, and even capable of making some threes on the move, he’s proven to be most efficient inside the arc to this point in his career.

He has very good perimeter footwork, can attack to either side off the dribble without wasting much motion, and plays through contact while doing so. He is a consistent pull-up threat in the mid-range area and showing an increased willingness to punish smaller defenders in the post. He’s shown flashes of passing ability and unselfishness, and is also a quality rebounder on the wing.

Defensively, he’s not the most laterally quick, but has enough size and length to be effective. The key is being consistently locked in though as he has times, particularly with his high school team, where he’s shown less sense of urgency on that end of the floor.

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2025 No. 1 Point Guard Darius Acuff Updates Recruitment, Talks About Kentucky Wanting Him to Be A Leader

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Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Darius Acuff, the No. 9 player and No. 1 point guard in the 2025 class, is one of Kentucky’s biggest recruiting targets in the class. While he has yet to drop a top list, Kentucky is believed to be in a really good position.

With his recruitment about to ramp up this spring, Acuff spoke with On3 to update his recruitment and discuss the two official visits he took last fall, one of which was to Kentucky for Big Blue Madness.

“It was lit down there,” he told On3. “I went down for Big Blue Madness. They’re a great school and have put a lot of players in the league. I’ve been doing my research on all the schools and I’ve seen all the guards they’ve had. They play my style of play and let their guards make plays. Their facilities were big and they definitely showed a lot of love when I was there. It was a great school.”

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During another interview with 247Sports, Acuff provided some insight into what the staff talked about during his visit.

“On the visit they told me to watch DJ Wagner and see how he talks and his leadership as the point guard of the team,” Acuff said. “They’d want to play my game if I were to go there, get to the next level and be a leader. Most of our conversations was about being a leader 24/7 because the team will go how you go.”

Kentucky recruiting Acuff as a leader suggests that the staff envisions him to be a key piece for the 2025 class, leading the team as the point guard.

Acuff’s lone other visit was to his home state school of Michigan, but he is looking to take more over the coming weeks and months, to Kansas (March 5th), Texas, Houston, Georgia Tech, and others.

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What is Acuff looking for in a school? “I’m going to be looking for a program and a coach that is going to let me do me and let me rock out,” he says. “I want to play with a coach who is going to teach me right from wrong and be there to support me. I’ve thought some about the pro stuff, I want to go to college though. Yeah, college for sure.”

John Calipari will let a player “rock out” if they prove themself to be good enough, just look at Rob Dillingham this season. That said, a proven three-level scorer, Acuff put up the fourth-highest point average in Nike’s EYBL last season.

For Kentucky, this is a positive update and certainly a recruitment to watch.

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Kentucky Expressing Interest In 2025 Kiyan Anthony, Son of Former NBA Star Carmelo Anthony

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Kentucky is showing interest in Kiyan Anthony, the son of former NBA star Carmelo Anthony.
Nike EYBL/Team Melo

Kentucky has been expressing interest in the son of former NBA star Carmelo Anthony, Kiyan Anthony. While he has the nation’s attention partly due to his father’s name, he is a top-40 player in the class of 2025.

Anthony played in the Marshall County Hoopfest in December, where the Kentucky staff was in attendance to check out 2024 Top-5 prospect VJ Edgecombe, who has since committed to Baylor. While there, they were impressed enough to reach out to Kiyan, who recently spoke with On3 to discuss his new Kentucky interests among other topics.

“I recently started to talk to Kentucky because they’ve been at our games and practices because of my teammate, VJ (Edgecombe). So I guess they were really impressed in practice and stuff,” Anthony said. He spoke with the Kentucky staff after his game in Marshall County, he said.

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He had some pretty good praise for Kentucky when he talked about his thoughts on the program. “I feel like Kentucky is top-tier when it comes to getting people to the league and just winning,” Anthony said. “Coach Cal, he’s not going to show any mercy. He really pushes his players to the max. Some people aren’t built for it, but I feel like the ones that are, they really take that next step and get to the league or get where they need to go.”

It needs to be noted that Kentucky has yet to extend an offer, but Anthony says, “The coaches over there are texting me, telling me to keep working. When they come to practice they say how I’m getting a lot better and they have their eyes on me.”

John Calipari has never been keen on the extra stuff that comes with having the son of a former NBA star (i.e. Bronny James) on his team, but could Kiyan be an exception? Time will tell, but at this moment it doesn’t seem likely.

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