"'24 is looking good, '25 is looking even better." John Calipari optimistic about Kentucky's recruiting efforts

Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari is about to debut his top-ranked recruiting class to the college basketball world. The Wildcats officially begin the 2023-24 regular season on Nov. 6 against New Mexico State, where Calipari will unveil his bevy of four- and five-star freshmen (or most of them, at least), many projected as 2024 NBA Draft picks.

But what about the future? Calipari finally got back to his roots last year by going after (and landing) the best of the best at the high school level. It had been a few years since he pulled that off. So far, he has just one Wildcat committed, class of 2024 four-star center Somto Cyril. With Calipari entering year 14 as head coach at UK, it’s fair to wonder how much longer he’ll stick around and how much further down the road he’ll search for future ‘Cats.

That being said, there are plenty of high-profile recruits on the board with mutual interest in Kentucky. Calipari doesn’t seem worried that he won’t be able to land a handful or two of them, either.

During Wednesday’s annual SEC Media Days in Birmingham, AL, Calipari was asked about the impact of new assistant coach Chuck Martin. After praising Martin for his coaching acumen and how they worked well with each other during their Memphis days, Calipari slipped in how Martin has already helped with Kentucky’s recruiting efforts.

“He’s going to be tremendous for us. Already had an impact on our recruiting. ’24 is looking good, ’25 is looking even better,” Calipari said, referring to the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes.

"'24 is looking good, '25 is looking even better," John Calipari says about UK's recruiting now with Chuck Martin on board.

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) October 18, 2023

Calipari mentioned the bit on recruiting out of the blue, too. That wasn’t by accident.

Kentucky has brought in loads of top-ranked prospects over the last month, headlined by a massive list of visitors at last week’s Big Blue Madness. It’s not slowing down either — next weekend, the Wildcats will host five-star ’24 center Jayden Quaintance. These efforts have yet to pay off in the form of commitments, but that could change in the very near future.

It could change as soon as Friday afternoon when five-star ’24 point guard Boogie Fland is set to announce his college decision, choosing between a trio of UK, Indiana, and Alabama. But even if Fland goes elsewhere, Kentucky is in good shape with several of the country’s most talented high schoolers.

Among the class of 2024 targets, Calipari is going hard after the likes of five-star wing Karter Knox, four-star wing Billy Richmond, four-star center Patrick Ngongba, and could even bring in four-star in-state point guard Travis Perry if he elects to go all in on the Lyon County product. Looking ahead to the class of 2025, that’s where the real talent stands out — where Kentucky’s chances to land them go from “looking good” to “looking even better”.

The ’25 class is considered by many to be among the most talent-rich in years. Calipari already managed to sneak the elite Boozer twins of Cameron and Cayden onto campus in September for official visits. For Big Blue Madness, he brought in the likes of five-star shooting guard Darryn Peterson, five-star power forward Caleb Wilson, five-star point guard Darius Acuff, four-star combo guard Jasper Johnson, and four-star center Malachi Moreno. Kentucky is believed to be either the frontrunner or among the early leaders in all of the above recruitments.

We’ll have to wait and see how these recruiting classes ultimately play out, but Calipari must have something up his sleeve if he’s going out of his way to bring it up.

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