On Wednesday morning, Kentucky Basketball received a commitment from 5-star center Cherif Millogo. Almost immediately after, Kentucky lined up a visit for AJ Williams to get to Lexington this weekend, but that will no longer be happening, according to Jack Pilgrim of KSR.
Kentucky canceled the upcoming visit for Williams, officially pulling Kentucky’s name out of the race. Pilgrim also reported that Mark Pope and Kentucky have also officially backed out of the Adan Diggs race. With Diggs officially announcing
his commitment date, we can now cross Kentucky off the list as a possibility.
What could this mean? Well, it could certainly mean the Pope thought the prices got too high and didn’t think Kentucky needed to continue fighting for the price being asked. It could also mean that Kentucky has its sights set on other prospects. CJ Rosser is essentially the only other player this staff has pursued in the 2027 class who remains uncommitted and has interest from the Wildcats staff.
Two 2028 recruits that Kentucky is all in on are still available as potential reclass candidates, Yann Kamagate and Benji Bourret. Kamagate plays with and lives with Millogo, Kentucky’s recent 2027 pledge. He also has connections with Alfred Aboya, who was recently added to the Kentucky staff. Bourret recently visited Kentucky and remains an option who hasn’t completely ruled out reclassifying.
Overall, the 2027 class has two commitments in Millogo and Ryan Hampton, but there isn’t necessarily a need to go get a loaded class outside of those two pledges. With the NCAA’s newest 5-for-5 model, and with the class of some of Kentucky’s current players, this team may be heavy with retention next season.
Milan Momcilovic, Mason Williams, Alex Wilkins, Zoom Diallo, Kam Williams, Braydon Hawthorne, Ousmane N’Diaye, Justin McBride, Trent Noah, Zyon Hawthorne, Jerone Morton, and Reece Potter could all return. Malachi Moreno could too, but the assumption and hope is that he is a high draft pick in the 2027 NBA Draft.
It’s not necessarily over, but with Kentucky pulling out of the Williams and Diggs recruitments, we may be waiting a while before we have to keep an eye on a commitment.
