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UK’s chances with Scottie Barnes appear to be fading more and more as the days go by.
The No. 5 overall recruit at 247 Sports was someone the Wildcats were in the mix for early on his recruitment. He was one of the first 2020 recruits to be offered by John Calipari.
However, Barnes has previously said Oregon was his dream school growing up, and the Ducks appear to be the favorites in this recruitment, while UK doesn’t seem like a real contender at all anymore.
Back in May, KSR reported that UK was already falling out of the mix for Barnes.
“He’s not gonna be at UK,” one source told KSR. “I don’t think he’s even that serious about them.”
It would appear things haven’t gotten any better between UK and the five-star wing, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander:
Just spoke to top-10 2020 prospect Scottie Barnes, who specified these five schools when I asked who he was most strongly involved with right now: Oregon, Kansas, Ohio State, Miami and Florida State.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) July 11, 2019
Barnes is coming off playing for USAB last week and still looks plenty fresh.
Barnes has since said he’s still interested in all eight of the schools on his list, which includes UK and Duke. But the Blue Devils just got top-10 wing Jalen Johnson, so that may have taken them out of the running for Barnes.
As for the Wildcats, they’re firmly in the mix for another top-10 wing in BJ Boston, so perhaps John Calipari is putting all of his chips in the Boston basket.
Regardless of what the case may be, it continues to look like Barnes is highly unlikely to end up in Lexington.
If you’ve been following recruiting recently, you’d know how Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma State have gotten a lot of attention recently due to the school hiring Cade’s brother, which seems to have locked this one up for the Cowboys.
A similar situation is occurring in the 2021 class with Jonathan Kuminga, whose brother recently committed to play for Texas Tech. The No. 1 overall player in his class was the first 2021 recruit UK offered and were seemingly a major factor in his recruitment.
However, it sounds like UK is cooling on him, according to KSR’s Jack Pilgrim.
2021 top-three prospect Jonathan Kuminga said he has talked to Terrence Clarke about forming a dream team of sorts in college. Doesn’t believe he’ll reclassify to 2020. Also added that Kentucky’s contact has died down a bit, though he’s still interested in the Cats.
— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) July 11, 2019
Terrence Clarke is another 2021 recruit who UK is in the mix for, but he’s actually considering a move into 2020, while it appears Kuminga is sticking to 2021.
Either way, it sounds like UK may be trending elsewhere since Kuminga could end up like Cade and land where his brother is for college.
It’s unfortunate that UK is trending away from two of the best players in all of high school hoops, but Calipari has proven he can build contenders with recruits outside the top 10 of recruiting rankings, and there are still plenty of other elite recruits will on the board.
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