Skyy Clark’s father talks loss of Joel Justus; UK gets prediction for Cason Wallace

On Thursday, news broke that Kentucky Wildcats assistant coach Joel Justus would be taking the head assistant position under Bobby Hurley at Arizona State.

The significance of this is that Justus was the lead recruiter for 2022 guard Skyy Clark.

It goes without saying that some people were worried this move could lead to Clark reopening his recruitment.

However, Ben Roberts of the Herald-Leader spoke with Clark’s father, Kenny Clark, about the departure of Justus and what that means for his son.

There were no hard feelings for the Clark family, and it appears that Kentucky fans have no reason to worry that this change will lead to Clark reopening his recruitment.

“We’re going to miss him. We had developed a great relationship with him, and that relationship will still be solid. But our plans don’t change,” Clark stated.

As for his commitment to Kentucky, Clark added that there shouldn’t be any speculation on whether Clark will stay committed to the Cats.

“We aren’t making any changes,” he added, also noting that Clark will still be staying in the 2022 class.

Kenny Clark also noted that their family has a strong relationship with John Calipari as well, but he didn’t diminish the strong ties to Justus.

“It bothers us that he’s gone. You can’t just let that relationship go overnight. But Skyy does have a really good relationship with Coach Cal. And BBN.”

This sounds like good news for Kentucky and their standing with Clark now that the coach who was the main recruiter is no longer on the staff.

If Clark were to ultimately reopen his recruitment, you have to think the North Carolina Tar Heels will be a major player. They were viewed as Kentucky’s biggest competition for Clark before his decision.

However, things will be different there now that Roy Williams has retired. So if Clark does reopen his recruitment, it’s too early to tell who the biggest competitors will be.

Coincidentally or not, right after Justus officially left Lexington, CatsPause reporter Chris Fisher logged a crystal ball prediction in favor of Kentucky for 2022 guard Cason Wallace. It was the first prediction at 247 Sports for Wallace, who was previously projected to Baylor last August by Rivals reporter Travis Graf.

A 6-4, 180-pound guard out of Richardson (TX), Wallace already holds scholarship offers from the Texas Longhorns, Arizona Wildcats, Tennessee Volunteers, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Oklahoma Sooners, and Texas Tech Raiders, among others.

Wallace is ranked No. 16 at 247 Sports, No. 19 on Rivals and No. 14 at ESPN. For comparison, Clark is ranked No. 12, No. 8 and No. 13 in those respective rankings.

There hasn’t been much buzz recently with Kentucky and Class of 2022 guards, partly due to already having Clark locked up. John Calipari obviously will try to land multiple guards, so perhaps Wallace could be the next one.

To this point, 2022 guard Jaden Bradley has been hyped up the most as the likeliest 2022 guard to join Clark in Lexington. But because Justus had such a big hand in recruiting Clark and Bradley, things may be dramatically shifting in those recruitments.

For what it’s worth, Clark is classified as a point guard by Rivals and ESPN, while 247 has him as a combo guard, the same distinction they have for Wallace, who is a point guard at ESPN and shooting guard at Rivals.

Be sure to read Ben Roberts’ full piece for more on Skyy Clark.

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