Image Credit: Shaedon Sharpe's Twitter
Queue the "Who Wants To Be Next Video", as Shaedon Sharpe is officially coming down to Lexington! While most of the Big Blue Nation has been penciling in this commitment for a couple of months now, it is nice to see that new recruiting rivals Penny Hardaway of Memphis and Rod Strickland of G League Ignite were not able to steal him away at the last second.
Shaedon ranks 1st in his class according to ON3, Rivals, and ESPN, and 4th according to 247Sports' composite rankings. If he ends up in the #1 spot, he would be Calipari's first #1 overall ranked recruit since Skal Labissiere in 2015. Shaedon joins consensus 5 star recruit, Skyy Clark in Kentucky's 2022 recruiting class. Many insiders are predicting that this could be a "super class". These two commitments can be joined by consensus 5 star recruits Dereck Lively, Chris Livingston, Cason Wallace, and Adem Bona, as a majority of the "Crystal Ball" and "Future Cast" predictions fall in the Cats favor.
A lot of expectations were put onto Coach John Calipari this offseason in terms of recruiting. For one, he is coming off a 9-16 season, by far his worst since arriving in Lexington. He also swung and missed on top recruits Jaden Hardy and Jalen Duren in this past recruiting class to the previously mentioned G League and Memphis, respectively. Lastly, Cal also reloaded the coaching staff by adding Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman from the University of Illinois. These high expectations have so far been more than exceeded now that Shaedon is officially a Cat.
Shaedon, being the #1 overall recruit, will play a huge role in the new era of Kentucky Basketball. With the new NIL (name, image, likeness) rule being put in place, the best player in the country will have countless opportunities to cash in playing for one of college basketball's biggest brands. He will have the opportunity to sign unprecedented endorsement deals, potentially the biggest we have seen in college basketball history.
However, that is all secondary to the impact Shaedon will have on the court. A diverse skill set highlighted by elite scoring will remind a lot of the Big Blue Nation of past greats like Jamal Murray and Malik Monk. He cannot get here soon enough!