Dereck Lively II’s interesting Calipari connection (and more UK recruiting notes)
There was a revelation of sorts during five-star recruit Dereck Lively II’s official visit to Kentucky last month.
It turns out, Lively’s mother, Kathy Drysdale, and UK Coach John Calipari used to be co-workers.
Drysdale is a former star basketball player at Penn State and currently works in the athletics department there as a marketing director. Before she returned to her alma mater, she was employed by the Philadelphia 76ers for 13 years, spending much of that time as director of game operations.
During one of those seasons, Calipari was an assistant coach on the Sixers bench.
Drysdale pointed that out during Lively’s official visit in June.
“No kidding?!” Calipari responded, according to Drysdale.
Their paths wouldn’t have crossed much over Calipari’s short stay in Philadelphia, other than a quick hello on the court before games. It was the season after Calipari was fired by the New Jersey Nets and a year before he returned to college, taking the top job at Memphis, but Drysdale said the UK coach fondly recalled his stint with the Sixers and reminisced about others who worked in the organization at the time, asking her the current status of the folks they both knew.
Fast forward a little more than two decades, and they were sitting in the same room in Lexington, with Calipari trying to recruit Drysdale’s son, who could end up as the No. 1 player in the 2022 class.
“It was pretty cool,” she said. “Small world, I’m telling you.”
As for Lively’s official visit, it sounds like the trip couldn’t have gone much better.
“I mean, let’s be honest — how do you not like it?” she told the Herald-Leader this week. “It was an amazing visit. The coaches were fantastic. The players were wonderful. And just kind of getting to understand a little bit more about the behind the scenes of Kentucky basketball — it’s kind of funny, because I have more of a basketball mind. And talking a little bit back and forth between Coach Calipari and myself was a lot of fun from a basketball standpoint.
“You have to be a fan a little bit. But then, at the same time, you have to be the mother and ask the questions and dive a little bit more into the program itself. Just overall, it’s a really cool program. It’s a great university. Lexington is beautiful. Everything was really good about it.”
Lively — a highly versatile, 7-foot-2 center — also took official visits to Duke and North Carolina in June, as well as an unofficial visit to Penn State. His list of seven finalists also includes Florida State, Michigan and Southern Cal.
247Sports now ranks Lively as the No. 3 overall recruit in the 2022 class, though his stellar summer — including helping Team Final win the Peach Jam title — has some recruiting observers touting him as perhaps the best long-term prospect in his class, which, for now, includes established high school stars Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren, both of whom could reclassify to 2021.
Drysdale said her son would take the month of August off and try to have a few weeks of a relatively normal summer with his friends before heading back to Westtown School (Pa.) for his senior year.
There is no specific timetable for Lively’s college decision, but it sounds like Kentucky did its best to position itself well in his recruitment.
“Definitely blown away. I mean, it’s Kentucky basketball. I don’t know how you could have anything bad to say about a program that’s established and has had the success that it’s had in the past,” Drysdale said. “It’s very humbling, that’s for sure. Dereck and I were both very humbled by the visit. All I’d say is — it’s Kentucky basketball, how could you go wrong with something like that.”
Waiting on Jalen Duren
The watch for Jalen Duren’s college announcement goes into the weekend with no clear timetable and a recruitment that remains relatively difficult to handicap.
The 6-10 center — ranked No. 1 in the class of 2022 — is still expected to reclassify to 2021, and he should be making an announcement on his next basketball destination any day now. The college finalists are Kentucky, Memphis and Miami, with the G League still on the list of possibilities. There are still zero Crystal Ball predictions on his 247Sports page, though Memphis and Miami have emerged as possible favorites in recent days.
As the college basketball world waits for Duren, he continues to earn accolades at the high school level. Earlier this week, Duren was named the most valuable player of the Peach Jam after helping lead Team Final to the Nike championship Sunday evening.
In the Peach Jam portion of the schedule, Duren averaged 13.1 points, 8.5 rebounds. 2.8 blocks and 2.3 assists per game, going for 17 points and 10 boards in the title game.
Brandon Miller — another major UK target — received top defensive player honors at Peach Jam, averaging 2.0 steals and 2.3 blocks per game while leading his team to a spot in the championship game. Miller is a long, versatile 6-9 forward from the Nashville area, and he took an official visit to Kentucky in June.
2023 recruit to watch
DJ Wagner — the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2023 class and a major Kentucky target — got most of the attention on the Nike circuit in July, but one of his New Jersey Scholars teammates might have outplayed him.
It was Mackenzie Mgbako — not Wagner — who earned top underclassman honors at Peach Jam, proving his status as a versatile scorer and defender. Mgbako, who will be a junior at Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.) this season, is the No. 6 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
The 6-8 small forward went into Peach Jam with early scholarship offers from Duke, UCLA, Georgetown, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and several other top programs. It will be interesting to see who else jumps into his recruitment.
Wagner, who earned top underclassman honors during the Nike regular season the week before Peach Jam, is the son of former John Calipari recruit Dajuan Wagner and the grandson of Louisville legend Milt Wagner, who also has close ties to the Kentucky coach.
New offers and predictions
Since the start of the July evaluation periods, Kentucky has extended new scholarship offers to four players: Kyle Filipowski, Nick Smith Jr. and Cason Wallace from the 2022 class, and Reed Sheppard from the 2023 class.
So far, those offers haven’t done much to move the needle with the 2022 recruits, from a public predictions standpoint.
There have been no new predictions from national analysts on the 247Sports Crystal Ball or Rivals.com FutureCast pages for any of those rising seniors since the UK offers came through last week.
That shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the offers didn’t resonate with their recipients. On the contrary, UK appears to be in pretty good shape with both Wallace and Smith, though the Wildcats might be able to take only one of those five-star guards, with point guard Skyy Clark already committed for the 2022 class and five-star shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe likely to do the same in the next few weeks. At this stage, it seems like a good bet that UK will add one of either Smith or Wallace, two of the star perimeter players on the Nike circuit this month.
Wallace’s recruitment will come down to Kentucky and Tennessee, while Smith’s recruitment seems to be a bit more open. Wallace is expected to make a decision in the fall, and Smith could also have an early college announcement.
Filipowski was seen before Peach Jam as a major Duke lean, and he committed to the Blue Devils on Thursday, 10 days after receiving the UK offer and before taking the opportunity to visit Kentucky.
Sheppard, the other July recipient of a UK offer, has picked up several predictions in favor of the Wildcats on his recruiting pages this month. The North Laurel standout still has two more years of high school ahead of him, and there is no timetable for his college decision.
Top 100 Camp
The third and final July evaluation period wrapped up last weekend, but college coaches are getting a bonus scouting opportunity this week. The NCAA allowed coaches to attend the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Orlando, Fla., from Wednesday through Friday, and the event features plenty of UK recruiting targets.
The Top 100 roster features Jaden Bradley, Nick Smith Jr. and Cason Wallace — all 2022 prospects with Kentucky scholarship offers. There are several additional players that have been on the Wildcats’ recruiting radar, such as 2022 center Adem Bona and 2023 center Baye Fall, two players to watch for future UK offers.
John Calipari has not been in attendance at the Top 100 Camp this week, but each college is allowed four coaches on the recruiting trail at one time, so Bruiser Flint has joined Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman and Jai Lucas in Orlando.
2021-22 recruiting periods
The NCAA released its recruiting calendar for the 2021-22 school year this week.
From Aug. 1-5, recruits will be permitted to go on official visits to college campuses. After a brief “dead period” of Aug. 6-15, such visits will again be permitted up until the second week of November, which is typically the window for the early signing period.
Kentucky hosted several top players in June, and the Wildcats should be expected to have several additional prospects on campus this fall, with additional commitments to their 2022 class probably starting in August.
Another important date on the recruiting calendar: Sept. 9 — that’s when college coaches will be allowed to return to the recruiting trail for in-home and in-school visits. It will be the first time coaches will be permitted to make such trips since March 2020, when the NCAA halted all recruiting travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keyonte George Crystal Ball
Five-star shooting guard Keyonte George will announce his college decision next weekend.
George — the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings — won’t be picking Kentucky. He named UK as one of his five finalists, but that was the only school on the list that didn’t get an official visit this summer.
It sounds like he won’t be picking Texas either.
For the past several months, the Longhorns have been viewed as major favorites for George, a standout player from Lewisville, Texas. On Wednesday morning, 247Sports analyst Travis Branham logged a Crystal Ball pick in favor of the Baylor Bears. By the end of the day, several other analysts had done the same, both on George’s Crystal Ball page and his Rivals.com FutureCast page.
It appears more good news could be coming for the defending national champs.
What’s next for Jalen Duren, Shaedon Sharpe and other Kentucky basketball recruits?
Five-star guard Cason Wallace lands Kentucky basketball scholarship offer
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Thoughts on Reed Sheppard’s big week, and other Kentucky basketball recruiting notes
Reed Sheppard and his parents react to Kentucky offer. ‘It’s something very special.’
The rise of Dereck Lively II, who might be 2022’s best college basketball prospect
Top-5 recruit has Kentucky ties, but will he ever actually play college basketball?
