The Kentucky Wildcats watched several recruits cut UK from their list last week, or pick a school. That’s why it’s time for an updated big board heading into the fall.
Note: Each player's’ ranking is based on 247 Sports Composite, which measures all of the recruiting rankings.
Guards
- Immanuel Quickley (5 star, 9th overall) John Carroll School (Bel Air, MD) - HOLDS OFFER
- Quentin Grimes (5-star, 18th overall) College Park (The Woodlands, TX) - HOLDS OFFER
- Romeo Langford (5-star, 5th overall) New Albany (New Albany, IN) - HOLDS OFFER
- Darius Garland (5-star, 8th overall) Brentwood Academy (Brentwood, TN) - HOLDS OFFER
- Keldon Johnson (5-star, 15th overall) Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, VA) - HOLDS OFFER
The big update with the guards is Keldon Johnson’s surprise offer during his surprise visit. This gave the Cats a huge lead in predictions for the 5-star guard, now giving them two highly likely commits in this group. Immanuel Quickley is still highly likely to be a Wildcat as well.
Not much else has changed on the guard front; Grimes is still expected to go to Kansas, Romeo Langford still seems to be between Louisville, Kansas and Indiana, and Darius Garland’s is predicted to pick Vanderbilt or Duke.
Forwards
- R.J. Barrett (5-star, 1st overall) Montverde Academy (Montverde, FL) - HOLDS OFFER
- Bol Bol (5-star, 3rd overall) Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) - HOLDS OFFER
- Zion Williamson (5-star, 2nd overall) Spartanburg Day School (Spartanburg, SC) - HOLDS OFFER
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Marvin Bagley (5-star, 1st overall) Sierra Canyon (Tempe, AZ) -HOLDS OFFER -
Cameron Reddish (5-star, 4th overall) Westtown School (Norristown, PA)- HOLDS OFFER - Simisola Shittu (5-star, 7th overall) Vermont Academy (Saxtons River, VT)
Louis King (5 star) Hudson Catholic (Jersey City, NJ)Naz Reid (5-star, 11th overall) Roselle Catholic (Roselle, NJ)Emmitt Williams (5-star, 20th overall) IMG Academy (Lehigh Acres, FL)
Bagley moved to the 2017 class and committed to Duke, so he’s no longer relevant to the 2018 big board.
We all thought Louis King would get an offer, and he wanted one. But it never came, and he’s since cut the Cats from his list.
That’s also true of Emmitt Williams, who cut UK from his list last week.
UK is still very much in the mix for Williamson, and they’re still fighting for Barrett. Shittu has yet to get an offer, but UK’s still the favorite for him on his Crystal Ball. Once he gets the offer, it’ll be even more likely that UK lands him.
While the Cats made the final cut for Reddish, he ultimately picked Duke.
Centers
- Moses Brown (5-star, 12th overall) Archbishop Molloy (Jamaica, NY)
David McCormack (4-star, 41st overall) Norfolk Academy (Norfolk, VA)- Bryan Penn-Johnson (4-star, 83rd overall) Wasatch High School (Heber City, UT)
Neither Brown nor McCormack has received an offer from UK, and neither are likely to pick the Cats, even if that offer comes. McCormack actually cut UK last week. John Calipari seems confident that he’ll be deep enough with bigs that he can slide someone over to that five spot in 2018.
As for Bryan Penn-Johnson, he’s someone UK has shown some interest in, though it’s hard to see an offer coming.
If you missed anything from our big board 1.0, you can check it out here.