UK Basketball Recruiting: Evan Daniels picking Wildcats for D.J. Jeffries

The Kentucky Wildcats are poised to land their first pledge in 2019 in the form of D.J. Jeffries.

247 Sports recruiting guru Evan Daniels just logged a UK pick on Jeffries’ Crystal Ball page, which has 100 percent of the picks going for UK. Daniels is arguably the best in the business, and when he logs his pick in a recruitment, it’s usually a done deal.

That would be great news for UK, who’s been in a bit of a recruiting funk as of late. They had a nice start to the 2018 class with Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson and Immanuel Quickley, but they’ve also missed on Cam Reddish, R.J. Barrett, Bol Bol and Quentin Grimes.

UK also doesn’t have a pledge from a 2019 recruit just yet, but Jeffries, a five-star power forward, could be changing that tonight when he announces his decision at 8 pm EST between UK, Alabama and Mississippi State.

While his recruiting ranking has dropped recently, Jeffries was at one point a top-five recruit in the Class of 2019. He’s now ranked 17th by ESPN, 27th by 247 Sports and 47th by Rivals.

If John Calipari has already offered him and is willing to take a pledge from Jeffries right now, I’d say he’s probably closer to that No. 17 ranking. March has been far too early for UK to take commitments from recruits in the next year’s class under Calipari. He likes to cast a wide net and wait until the summer or even fall before letting recruits commit, so Jeffries committing now speaks to how much UK likes him.

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