Keshad Johnson will take his defense and leadership to Arizona. (San Diego State Athletics Photo)
Kentucky basketball sure hit the jackpot with its 2023 recruiting class, easily considered the best in the nation.
However, Kentucky basketball certainly has had a bad last month or so.
Sahvir Wheeler (Washington), Daimion Collins, CJ Fredrick (Cincinnati) and Lance Ware (Villanova) all left via the transfer portal. Freshmen Chris Livingston and Cason Wallace put their names into the NBA draft as did senior Oscar Tshiebwe. No one thought Wallace — a likely lottery pick — would be back but there was optimism that Tshiebwe and/or Livingston might but that is seeming more unlikely every day.
If that’s not enough, Kentucky seemed to go all in on Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson. Most thought UK was leading for him. Instead, he picked Kansas.
Kentucky went all-in on San Diego State transfer Keshad Johnson and again seemed set to get a commitment from him. Instead, he verbally committed to Arizona Saturday. Even though the 6-7 forward averaged just 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, he was a team captain and had played over 100 college games. He was a defensive whiz. Bottom line, he could have been the perfect play to take over Livingston’s role and also the perfect player to mentor UK’s talented freshmen.
“Keshad brings a lot of experience and versatility to our team from the start,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said in a statement on Instagram. “He scored 14 points in the national championship game last season and was able to impact the game at both ends of the floor, something that is extremely valuable to any team.
“His leadership and commitment to the team contribute to winning at a high level. We couldn’t be more excited that Keshad and his family are part of our family.”
Johnson’s AAU coach told us on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk that playing style was important to Johnson and that he wanted to play for a team he felt could get him back to the national title game.
Apparently he thinks Arizona — which has added four transfers — gives him a better chance to do that than Kentucky does.
8 Responses
Not your most objective article….
Please explain Blue Boy
Cal only wants to use 7 players, that’s about what he has. Everyone knows this. Everyone also knows that Cal shows a lot of favoritism toward certain players, so why would any decent player want to come in? His favoritism is so bad, that when someone is injured he usually doesn’t have anyone else with enough experience that they can be counted on to be valuable in a big game. Over the past few years, look how many players have had to play injured with no time for rest and recovery and no one to give them rest during the games. Look at how things played out with Wheeler this past year. Don’t know if it was Cal or Wheeler or both, but he could have given some valuable rest minutes to Wallace down the stretch who was playing hurt.
Exactly what is not objective about this report?
There are still players testing the NBA that will be eligible to transfer. It’s all speculation right now about how things are going to end up. It will work out.
Not really sure how many of those are out there Jimmy
the stage is being set for another 20 loss season with an early exit in March. The excuses will begin in late October, and never end. Then in April to May, the hope for next season will begin anew.
This is the script for Calipari, and he knows it by heart.
10 loss not 20 loss. Sorry for the typo but who knows it may have been a true Freudian Slip!!!!!