Photo - Jeff Houchin
You have to appreciate how relentless Kentucky coach John Calipari continues to approach recruiting.
The same week he lost Tyler Herro and Keldon Johnson to the NBA and Jemarl Baker via transfer (and after PJ Washington had already declared for the NBA), Calipari was back at work on his 2020 recruiting.
He offered California’s Johnny Juzang — who could reclassify to the 2019 recruiting class. Juzang can play shooting guard — like Baker — and also the small forward position. Calipari scheduled his visit with Juzang the same day Baker officially announced his transfer and he could be a long-range shooter that UK will need in any season whether he reclassifies or not to the 2019 class.
Juzang has scholarship offers from UCLA, Virginia, Kansas and Southern Cal and became the 11th player in the 2020 recruiting class to get a scholarship offer from Calipari.
While he was in California, Calipari also met with Jalen Green, the No. 2 recruit in the 2020 class. He’s a 6-5 guard who got his UK offer before his junior season started and has offers from schools such as Villanova, Florida State, Oregon and Kansas but many have Memphis as the team to beat for Green.
One note here is that Green plans to play his senior season at Prolific Prep — a team that normally plays in showcase events in Kentucky each season. Prolific Prep played in both the Marshall County Hoopfest and McCracken County Mustang Madness last season.
Calipari has also reached out to a potential non-graduate transfer in 6-10 Nevada freshman Jordan Brown. He was a 2018 McDonald’s All-American but played only sparingly at Nevada as a freshman (3.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 10.1 minutes per game) despite being a five-star recruit who was ranked among the nation’s top 10 recruits. His coach, Eric Musselman, also left Nevada to become the head coach at Arkansas.
Brown has not officially committed to making a transfer but his father told Evan Daniels fo 247Sports that Arizona, Baylor, Ohio State, Oregon, California, Miami and Pitt have already reached out to him along with Kentucky.
