Julian Phillips has interest from Kentucky, his favorite school growing up

New day, new transfer target for the Kentucky Wildcats.

This time, it’s Tennessee Volunteers forward Julian Phillips, who is currently testing the NBA Draft waters while also in the transfer portal.

According to 247 Sports’ Travis Branham, Kentucky is among the many schools that have reached out to Phillips.

Formerly a five-star recruit in the class of 2022, the 6-foot-8 Phillips averaged 8.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 41.1% from the field and 23.9% from deep. His numbers looked better prior to a hip flexor injury suffered in February, which led to him being sidelined for several weeks in February. He shot just 11/29 from the field (37.9%) and 1/9 from deep (11%) after returning from said injury.

This isn’t the first time Phillips and Kentucky have been mentioned in the same sentence. Back in 2020, during an interview with Evan Daniels, Phillips admitted that Kentucky was his favorite school growing up.

“Yeah, I don’t really have a preferred school that I would go to because I’m really open to any recruiting, but my favorite basketball team growing up was Kentucky for college,” Phillips said.

“I just like how they play and some of the players that came through their program. They put a lot of players in the NBA, and ultimately my goal is to get to the NBA, so I think coach Calipari and their staff do a good job of that.”

Perhaps that’s part of why Rivals’ Rob Cassidy said Kentucky is one of the schools “worth monitoring closely.”

As of now, Phillips is prioritizing being in the NBA next season, but if he ends up returning to college, Kentucky appears to be a significant player.

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