Shaedon Sharpe (Arizona Compass Photo)
Shaedon Sharpe is going to do just what he had been expected to do — graduate from Dream City Christian (Ariz.) in December and join the University of Kentucky basketball program in January.
The 6-5 shooting guard is the top-ranked player in the 2022 recruiting class and verbally committed to UK several months ago. However, since then he’s decided his best option to improve his play is to enroll at UK early, practice with the team a semester but not play, and then play the 2022-23 season for UK.
“I’m going to enroll in January,” Sharpe told Sports Illustrated’s Jason Jordan Tuesday. “I’m going to report down there after Christmas. I won’t play this season though. I’m going to redshirt. I just want to get a head start on college basketball and train with older, bigger, stronger, and better players.”
It’s a move his high school coach, Kyle Weaver, certainly understood to help Sharpe’s long-range goal of playing in the NBA. He will also be 19 years old in May and he’s shown already what he can do against high school talent. Now he’ll get to test himself daily against older, better players at UK.
“I never cared about being No. 1 (in the recruiting rankings) or anything like that,” Sharpe told Jordan. “I just worked hard and that came, but my goals have always been about the NBA and being the best player that I can be at that level. That’s it.
“It just makes more sense to me to go play where I can elevate my game the most. This is something I came up with, and when I told the coaches they were all in.’
Why not? What were John Calipari and his staff going to do? No way would UK tell Sharpe no that won’t work and risk losing him to another school.
Sharpe, a fifth-year senior at Dream City, was dominant at the Nike EYBL and Peach Jam last summer. He averaged 25.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game as a junior while shooting 45 percent from 3-point range.
Travis Branham, national basketball analyst for 247Sports, says it is not unusual for a Canadian player to reclassify like Sharpe is doing.
“It actually has been something they had been juggling around for a few months,” Branham said recently on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports. “He’s proved to be the top guy in his class and took a massive jump from junior season to senior year. He is gifted and ready to make the jump. His skill set is very advanced. He could play right away (at UK) from a talent perspective.
“However, to me, it is very difficult for a player to come in now with the team already practicing since the summer and play catch up. Adjusting to the speed of play is not an easy task. He would have missed half a season and then SEC play would be starting. People are already in rhythm.”
Sharpe told Jordan he would do whatever the team needed when asked if he might play this season but emphasized he would definitely play at UK in the 2022-23 season.
YahooSports’ basketball writer Krysten Peek says there are still questions about Sharpe’s NBA draft eligibility and whether he could put his name into the 2022 draft — where he would be expected to be a top-five pick.
Because he turns 19 in May, he would meet the NBA draft age requirement but it will be up to the NBA whether or not it honors his graduation date of December 2021 or considers him one year removed from high school since he’s a fifth-year student, according to Peek.
One Response
This will give Sharpe time to get acclimated to college academics and college life as well as playing college basketball. He needs to bulk up a little and get in the best playing condition he can attain and maintain. Work on his shooting when he is tired, including foul shots; use practice time to become a lockdown defender and a fast break leading rebounder. He could become our version of Duke’s Keels. That’s expecting a lot, but Sharpe can be that kind of play with this kind of headstart. Hopefully, Big O will stay another year and then we can be the kind of team next year that Duke is this year.
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