Jaden McDaniels and Scottie Barnes update their recruitment and UK interest

Recently, the recruiting for the Kentucky Wildcats hasn’t been up to the standards we are accustomed to, but coach Cal and his staff are still in the hunt for top guys.

Jaden McDaniels, a 6-11 power forward from Federal Way (WA), is the No. 5 overall player in the 2019 class and is the top power forward.

McDaniels is down to 5 schools, including Kentucky, San Diego State, Texas, UCLA, and Washington. He has also taken official visits to all those schools.

Eric Bossi of Rivals caught up to the five-star forward to discuss his recruitment and try to see where he is at on making his final decision.

He asked McDaniels first about his recruitment as a whole.

“It’s going good. Having good relationships with coaches and just talking to coaches every day and they check up on me”

”All the visits, they went pretty good. I had a good time on all of them. Everybody treated me well. It was just a good experience to be in different states that I hadn’t been before and just seeing different places”

Bossi also asked him about each individual visit to see what stood out to him, and here is what he had to say about Kentucky.

“Just the way they practice, you can’t really explain it. Coach (John) Calipari told me it was up-tempo and it was”

However, we shouldn’t expect a decision from McDaniels anytime soon, as he is just focusing on his senior season in high school.

“I’m really just focused on basketball, I don’t really think about recruiting at all. When I have time, I’ll think about it but right now I’m only really worried about the season”

You can read Eric Bossi’s full article here.

Also in the recruiting world, Corey Evans of Rivals caught up with 2020 small forward Scottie Barnes to discuss where he is currently in his recruitment.

The 6-8 SF from Fort Lauderdale, FL is the number 3 overall player and the number 1 SF in the 2020 class.

Although it is still early on in Barnes’ recruitment, he is currently in talks with Alabama, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Florida State, Oregon, Ohio State, and Miami.

Evans asked Barnes about the schools on his list, and here is what he said about Kentucky.

“They text my dad a lot. They don’t really text me a lot since I don’t respond to text messages a lot. Whenever they first came to my school to talk to me, they said that they saw something really special in me and how I could develop at their program and be a major key for them. They love the way that I play on defense and that I like to win. They know that I would bring that leadership to their team.”

Barnes has only taken two official visits to Florida State and Oregon, and he is nowhere near making a decision. However, when it comes time for him to decide, seeing him put on a Kentucky hat would be an excellent pickup for coach Cal in the 2020 class.

You can read Corey Evans’ full article here.