Hunter Dickinson says Kentucky recruitment is 'contingent' on Oscar Tshiebwe's NBA Draft decision

Things have gotten a bit messy when it comes to roster construction at the moment at Kentucky. It’s a first-world problem to have two of college basketball’s best bigs wanting to have a spot in your program. However, Hunter Dickinson made it very clear that, when it comes to him and Oscar Tshiebwe, it’s going to be one or the other for the Wildcats.

Dickinson shared his thoughts on potentially transferring to Lexington, and how Tshiebwe’s status impacts that decision, on the ‘Roundball Podcast’ he does in affiliation with Barstool Sports. He said that it’s something that’s directly related to his interest in coming and that, in a private discussion with John Calipari, he now feels he has the information he needs to at least make the visit to UK that many reported earlier today.

“We talked about that situation occurring. We talked about that situation, obviously, because it’s, like, that’s big. That’s very contingent on even if I was, like, interested in them,” Dickinson said. “That’s why I wanted to meet with them to talk about that. That has a lot to do with me being interested in them at all.”

“We talked about that. I don’t really want to say what we said. I don’t want to say what (Tshiebwe) is doing because that’s his business,” said Dickinson. “But, obviously, whatever we talked about was good enough for me to take the visit. So that’s news right there.

Nothing about these comments necessarily comes as a surprise. Both Dickinson and Tshiebwe have been the anchor for their respective frontcourts over the last few seasons. If Tshiebwe is still at Kentucky, there’s no room for the No. 1 player in the transfer portal down low. That goes the same way for Tshiebwe if Dickinson chooses Kentucky before he decides whether to officially turn pro.

Considering the timing of it all, there’s now a running clock on both decisions. It has since split the bluegrass on what they’d prefer for next year’s team.

Do they go all in on Dickinson now assuming Tshiebwe is out the door? And they potentially earn the highly-coveted commitment from a player that has averaged 17.2 points and 8.4 rebounds over three seasons at Michigan? Or, instead, does UK’s staff let him walk and try to get the former National Player of the Year back considering what he has done for them on and off the court over his two seasons as a Wildcat?

There’s seemingly no right answer at this point of their process. Still, with how the time is running, this should be an interesting next few days on Kentucky’s campus with Dickinson set to arrive at the start of next week.