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With AAU season starting to get underway, Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari is hitting the road looking to land some of the top talent in the class of 2023.
His first stop will be Orlando, Florida as the Nike EYBL season kicks off.
According to Jake Weingarten, Cal will be in attendance to watch Kwame “KJ” Evans Jr. Also in attendance to watch Evans will be Bruce Pearl (Auburn Tigers) and Dana Altman (Oregon Ducks).
Kentucky’s John Calipari, Oregon’s Dana Altman, and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl will watch arguably 2023’s top-rated prospect in Kwame Evans Jr. this evening, he told @Stockrisers.
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) April 8, 2022
Evans Jr. plays at 7:45 this evening. Visits Oregon later this month
Just a few days back, Evans cut his list to five schools, which features Kentucky, Auburn, Oregon, Indiana, and UCLA. He took an official visit to Lexington back in November. He has a visit planned for late April to check out Oregon.
At 6-foot-10, Evans is a 5-star recruit and is considered the No. 2 prospect in the country, according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings.
With Calipari making the stop to watch Evans, it is fair to assume the Cats stand a solid chance in this recruitment. Seems to be some time before a commitment would happen, but still Coach Cal has gotten Kentucky in a good place.
Another name to watch in the class of 2023 is Justin Edwards.
A 5-star prospect out of Imhotep Charter in Philadelphia, Edwards has been on Kentucky’s radar for just over a year now after an impressive AAU season last year.
Edwards received his offer on a visit to campus last November, and Kentucky is on the list of teams he is most interested in.
His high school coach, Andre Noble, spoke with KSR earlier this week, and he gave a group of schools that are standing out to the talented forward. Those are Penn State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Auburn, UCONN, and Villanova.
Noble also spoke about what kind of player Edwards is.
“I think the biggest thing for Justin is comfort,” Noble said of Edwards. “He’s not a jump-around kid at all. I would bet against the (transfer) portal with Justin Edwards. We get on Justin, and we coach him up pretty hard, between both programs that he plays for, here and Team Final.
“In this day and age, when you do that with kids that are talented, they’re off to their third or fourth location, and Justin is just a high-character kid. From being a high-character kid he embraces coaching, and he knows it comes from love.”
With Orlando Antigua as his primary recruiter, it will be intriguing to see if he can keep the Cats involved until the very end.
Edwards is currently the No. 16 overall player in the class according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings.
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