Jaden Hardy opens up about recruitment

Needless to say, everything is off schedule. The NBA Playoffs and NBA Draft are up in the air. College sports are cancelled. Even the recruiting calendar has been shut down for now. But that does not mean the conversation stops with top recruits.

The No. 6 player in the 2021 class, Jaden Hardy, was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Nevada recently. That is a great honor coming out of his junior season where he averaged 30.4 points per game to go with 9.1 rebounds and 8.4 assists.

After his dominant performance this year, what is his plan for choosing his college destination? He sat down with Corey Evans of Rivals recently to talk about just that.

Hardy says that he is being recruited the hardest by the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, UCLA Bruins, Oregon Ducks, Kansas Jayhawks, Memphis Tigers, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Michigan Wolverines, and Kentucky Wildcats. While he has not taken any official visits of yet, he has identified Michigan, Arizona, Arizona State, and Kentucky as likely destinations.

He also will likely take visits with his brother, Amauri Hardy, on his transfer recruitment tour. How much of an impact will his brother’s recruitment have on Jaden?

“I am not even sure how that is going to work out,” Hardy told Evans. “I think I am just going to wait and see how he does at his school and then just go from there.”

Jaden has the benefit of being able to see how his brother’s experience plays out, as he has plenty of time to make his decision. And as he told Evans, he seems to be in no hurry ta all.

“I don’t think that I am going to commit early,” Hardy said. “I think that I will make my decision after my high school season or sometime around then. Maybe around next March or a little earlier than that. I just have to see who is all going to be at the school and who ends up leaving.”

Hardy also spoke about what could draw him to each school, specifically those he mentioned visiting. As Kentucky has been seen as the favorite by some to land Hardy (and maybe even his brother), he had great things to say about John Calipari and the program.

“They are known for getting guys to the league and Coach Cal, he pushes you and he just wants the best for his players,” Hardy said of Kentucky. “All of the coaches there take time to develop you and whenever you go there, you’re going to develop and be pushed to be an NBA prospect.”

All-in-all, Hardy is obviously keeping his recruitment close to the chest. But if his brother picks a school of interest to Jaden, his experience there will obviously be a big factor on whether or not Jaden will truly consider that school. Could Kentucky end up with both Hardy boys? Watch Amauri’s recruitment closely and you just might see where Jaden will end up.