Kentucky Basketball Recruiting: More good vibes with Zion Williamson, Bol Bol, Keldon Johnson

With the early signing period approaching fast, the Kentucky Wildcats remain in great shape with several of their top targets.

ESPN Insider Jeff Borzello released an updated list of predictions for Big Blue Madness weekend (he also praised Big Blue Madness: “There's usually no bigger official visit weekend in basketball than Kentucky's Big Blue Madness”). He gave predictions for some of the top recruits that attended Madness and stayed for official visits.

The event’s headline recruit is five-star forward Zion Williamson, who Borzello predicts will pick Kentucky. He gave a confidence level of 60 percent, and listed Clemson, Duke, Kansas, UCLA and South Carolina as others in the mix.

That’s a prediction BBN will love to see, but the prediction for five-star forward Bol Bol doesn’t go the same way. Borzello predicted Bol to pick Oregon, with a confidence level of 52 percent. He listed Kentucky as the only other school in the mix.

Borzello also offered up a prediction for five-star point guard Darius Garland, picking Vanderbilt with a confidence level of 55 percent. He also has Indiana, Kentucky and UCLA in the mix. There hasn’t been much of an expectation for Kentucky to land Garland at any recent point.

You can read the rest of the Insider article here, with predictions on other top recruits visiting around the country this weekend.

Elsewhere, KSR’s Matt Jones offered up some positive recruiting buzz of his own. Not only does he think UK is in great shape with Zion, but Jones thinks UK will add as many as five players in the 2018 class, and he thinks it could be a monster five-man class:

Zion Williamson and Bol Bol both made their visit and from talking to a couple of sources after, I would put Kentucky now as leading with both. This has probably been the case with Zion for a bit, but with the issues at Arizona and the reconnection with Calipari and his staff, I now think Bol is likely to be a part of the final class as well. In addition, I can confirm the speculation online today that Keldon Johnson has become a definitive UK lean and could end up as a commitment in the very near future.

Whew. A class of Zion, Bol, Quickley, Johnson and Quentin Grimes would easily be the No. 1 class in 2018, not to mention one of UK’s better hauls under John Calipari. Four of those recruits are top-10 prospects in at least one major recruiting service, and Grimes is sitting at No. 11 at Rivals and No. 13 at ESPN.

Be sure to read Matt’s full post, which has some great insight on the current basketball Cats.