Anthony
Neither Cole Anthony nor Vernon Carey is still on Kentucky’s recruiting radar for the class of 2019, but those two players remain top-five national prospects and should have major impacts on college basketball next season.
That means there’s still quite a bit of national interest in where they will end up at the next level. Over the weekend, a couple of national analysts logged new Crystal Ball predictions for both players.
Edwards
When five-star shooting guard Anthony Edwards revealed last week that he was moving from the class of 2020 to the class of 2019, a list of five schools was attached to his recruitment: Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina.
247Sports national analyst Evan Daniels reported Tuesday night that three more schools have been added — Duke, Kansas and UCLA — and Edwards will enter the winter focused on those eight schools. Daniels also rescinded his recent Crystal Ball prediction in favor of Florida State, a sign that this recruitment might be a little more open than previously thought.
CJ Walker
National recruiting expert Andrew Slater logged a Crystal Ball pick in favor of Kentucky for four-star power forward CJ Walker on Thursday morning, a day after the class of 2019 prospect announced he was ready to make his college decision.
Walker — a 6-9 player at Oak Ridge High School in Florida — revealed Wednesday that he will announce his college decision on Nov. 21, the final day of the early signing period. The twist here is that Walker has long been down to three schools — Louisiana State, Miami and Oregon — and those were the only three programs included in his video previewing the college announcement Wednesday.
McDaniels
Five-star forward Jaden McDaniels has been perhaps the most tight-lipped top basketball prospect in the 2019 class when it comes to recruiting. This weekend, he’ll stay close to home for an official visit to Washington.
McDaniels — a 6-foot-10 player from Seattle — took an official visit to San Diego State, where his older brother is currently a star player, earlier this month. The Washington trip will be the second official visit of his recruitment.
Robinson
247Sports national analyst Steve Wiltfong has logged a new Crystal Ball prediction in favor of Nebraska for Western Hills football star Wandale Robinson.
Robinson — a 5-foot-9, do-it-all offensive prospect in the class of 2019 — is arguably Kentucky’s top remaining target in that class and has been on UK’s campus for several recruiting visits. He’s also taken official visits to each of his five other finalists: Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Purdue.
Stewart
After a brief flurry of pro-UK predictions surrounding his official visit to Lexington late last month, five-star center Isaiah Stewart’s 247Sports Crystal Ball page is in a bit of disarray.
National analyst Evan Daniels changed his pick on Stewart from Kentucky to “foggy” last week, and some other recruiting analysts who had been predicting Kentucky followed that lead.
Two more picks from national analysts came in Tuesday morning, and they went in different directions. First, 247Sports national analyst Jerry Meyer logged a prediction for Michigan State. And then, 247Sports national analyst Brian Snow, who is listed as the “lead expert” on Stewart’s player page, logged a prediction in favor of Washington.
Basketball recruiting analyst Dain Ervin is currently ranked as the No. 1 prognosticator for prospects in the class of 2019, and he’s predicting quite the haul for Kentucky in the class of 2020.
His latest prediction, made Sunday morning, is that the Cats will ultimately land five-star point guard Sharife Cooper, who recently visited Lexington and picked up a UK scholarship offer on that trip.
Aidan Igiehon
Louisville now holds 100 percent of the Crystal Ball predictions on the page of Aidan Igiehon, a top-50 post player in the class of 2019.
Igiehon — a native of Ireland who now plays for a high school in New York — recently narrowed his list of schools to U of L, Kentucky, Oregon and St. John’s. He’s already taken official visits to Louisville and Oregon, and he postponed a trip to St. John’s that was scheduled for his weekend.
The recruitment of five-star center Oscar Tshiebwe is reaching its final stages, and the Congo native will be at West Virginia this weekend for his fourth and final official visit.
Tshiebwe — a 6-foot-9, 250-pound prospect now living in Pennsylvania — has narrowed his list to West Virginia, Kentucky, Baylor and Illinois, and he’s already taken official visits to the latter three schools in recent weeks. 247Sports ranks him as the No. 19 overall player in the 2019 class.
McDaniels
A few notes from this week …
* Rivals.com national analyst Corey Evans reported Wednesday that five-star forward Jaden McDaniels is expected to take the first official visit of his recruitment next weekend to San Diego State, where his older brother, Jalen, is currently a standout player. McDaniels — a 6-foot-10 prospect from Seattle — is the No. 4 overall player in the 2019 class and is also considering Kentucky, Texas, UCLA and Washington. His recruitment is considered wide open at this time.
