A pair of 2024 Kentucky basketball recruits have now decommitted after John Calipari’s exit

The recruiting dominoes have begun to fall for Kentucky basketball following the exit of longtime head coach John Calipari.

The 65-year-old Calipari announced via a video on social media Tuesday afternoon that he would be stepping away from the UK basketball program after coaching the Wildcats for 15 seasons.

On Wednesday morning, Calipari was officially announced as the next head coach at Arkansas. By Wednesday night, Calipari had been introduced to Arkansas fans in Fayetteville.

Known as an elite recruiter throughout his time in Lexington, Calipari had a six-player recruiting class in place for next season at Kentucky.

Those players were guards Boogie Fland and Travis Perry, small forwards Karter Knox and Billy Richmond and centers Somto Cyril and Jayden Quaintance. Fland, Perry, Cyril and Quaintance all signed their national letters of intent to play at UK.

Knox and Richmond only had verbal commitments to attend Kentucky.

But following Calipari’s departure, that recruiting class (which ranked second in the country, behind only Duke) is no longer in place.

On Monday, small forward Karter Knox — a younger brother of former UK one-and-done star Kevin Knox — reopened his recruitment.

On Wednesday, center Jayden Quaintance — the highest-ranked recruit who had pledged to come to Kentucky — reopened his recruitment and asked out of his national letter of intent with UK.

Also on Wednesday, center Somto Cyril reopened his recruitment and asked out of his paperwork with the Wildcats.

This means UK has now lost commitments from two of the three recruits who were named McDonald’s All-Americans, and three of the six recruits overall.

It’s widely expected that most, if not all, of these six players will explore other basketball pathways with Calipari no longer in the fold at Kentucky.

Calipari — whose recruiting prowess over the last 15 seasons at UK included bringing in 75 four- or five-star recruits — was known for his “one-and-done” model which often sent players to the NBA draft after just one college season.

Kentucky’s new coach would still have the chance to re-recruit Cyril, Knox and Quaintance back to Lexington.

Karter Knox was set to continue a family legacy at UK

Currently ranked as the No. 19 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, the Knox family holds deep ties to John Calipari and Kentucky after Kevin Knox’s one-and-done season in Lexington.

Knox was UK’s most recent commit after he pledged to become a Wildcat last month, just a few hours after UK won at Tennessee in the final game of the regular season. This was Calipari’s final victory with the Wildcats.

Knox picked UK from a final list of options that also included Louisville, South Florida and another season at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite (OTE) program, where Knox spent his final high school season.

“Coach Calipari, he’s sent a lot of people to the league, and I want to be a pro. He told me he’s gonna make me a pro,” Knox said during his commitment announcement. “So I’m ready to hoop and win a national championship.”

A 6-foot-6, 226-pound prospect, Knox is known for his offensive shot making and scoring ability. Considered a three-level scorer by recruiting analysts, Knox spent this past season at OTE focused on defense and other aspects of his game.

“He can definitely shoot it … Karter is in transition and he’s learning who he is as a basketball player,” Corey Frazier, Knox’s head coach at OTE, told the Herald-Leader in December. “Finding his strengths and his weaknesses: When your shot is not going, how can we help you evolve to be a different type of player.”

Knox took an official visit to UK in January and was in attendance for Kentucky’s home win over Georgia, a high-scoring affair that featured the debut of freshman center Zvonimir Ivisic and a celebration of UK’s 1984 Final Four squad.

“Coach Cal is a good coach. Probably one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. He coached my brother, Kevin, and got him prepared for the league,” Knox told the Herald-Leader and other reporters following that visit.

During the 2023-24 OTE regular season, Knox averaged more than 23 points and five rebounds per contest. He also recently impressed during the McDonald’s All-American Game in Houston.

Knox was one of three Kentucky commits, along with Fland and Quaintance, to be named a Burger Boy this year.

Jayden Quaintance was to be a generational prospect at Kentucky

Currently ranked as the No. 8 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, Quaintance was clearly the prospect with the most upside in Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting group.

A 6-foot-9 center, Quaintance committed to UK in November over Missouri, the only other finalist in his recruitment.

Originally from Ohio, Quaintance closed his prep basketball career at Word of God Christian Academy. The Raleigh, North Carolina, school also produced UK one-and-done star John Wall.

Quaintance is viewed as a modern-day big man with the ability to stretch the floor and create and initiate offense from the perimeter, while also boasting intimidating size.

He reclassified from the 2025 to the 2024 recruiting group last summer and isn’t eligible for the NBA draft until the 2026 edition, which means that he was set to be a two-year college pickup for Kentucky.

A skilled big with an outside-in offensive approach, Quaintance was set to bring versatility to the UK lineup as someone who could play the 4 or the 5 based on the roster around him.

Quaintance is 16 and won’t turn 17 until July.

His decommitment comes just a few weeks after his father, Haminn, posted on social media “we def riding with the big dog until the wheels fall off,” in response to Calipari’s coaching status at UK.

Calipari’s recruiting success at UK was unmatched. The game changed, but that never did.

Somto Cyril, Kentucky’s first commitment in the 2024 class, is reopening his recruitment

Cal the Hogs: Former Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari is introduced at Arkansas