Nolan Hickman is used to avoiding the limelight, but he's prepared to embrace it at Kentucky

When you come to Kentucky, avoiding the limelight is a wasted effort.

The 2020-21 Men’s Basketball season proved that to be true more than any other stretch in program history. A 9-16 record was punctuated with an early exit in the SEC Tournament and zero postseason bids. Even taking into account all the uncertainty the last 12 months have presented, it was an unacceptable run by all measures. Kentucky, a school that has consistently been in the limelight for winning, was now the center of attention for all its shortcomings–and there were plenty of them.

Perhaps the most significant was the lack of superstar talent. B.J. Boston and Terrence Clarke were expected to fill that void but didn’t pan out how many had envisioned. Veteran transfers Olivier Sarr and Davion Mintz filled their roles quite nicely, although they aren’t viewed as potential lottery picks. Isaiah Jackson, the lone prospect with legitimate first-round NBA Draft potential, was everything but a go-to player on offense. They did not have a no-mercy type point guard such as a John Wall or De’Aaron Fox. Under the spotlight of playing at Kentucky, that issue was magnified.

In reality, Kentucky hasn’t hit on a John Wall or De’Aaron Fox type of point guard since the latter helped lead the ‘Cats to the Elite Eight back in 2017. According to 247Sports, among the top-20 John Calipari-era recruits, only three of them came from the class of 2017 to the class of 2021: Boston, Clark, and E.J. Montgomery, who hailed from the class of 2018. The other 17 all range from the class of 2009 to 2016. New routes that lead to an early entrance into professional hoops have surely hindered UK’s chances of snagging the “best of the best” players, although they have missed out on more than a handful of them over the last few years.

That being said, there has oftentimes been a diamond hiding in the rough. For instance, Jackson, Tyler Herro, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Willie Cauley-Stein were all four-star recruits who managed to avoid some of the national spotlight before coming to the big stage that is Kentucky and then thriving at a high-level. With the way the transfer portal has been reconfigured and with more professional options sprouting up, the times of landing a class consisting of four or five of the nation’s top 15 high school seniors are long gone. If the coaching staff goes after a lower-rated recruit, they’ll have to be 100 percent confident he’s being undervalued. The risk of misevaluation is all the more relevant after what just happened.

Oddly enough, UK might have that diamond on the way right now, and they can thank the lack of in-person recruiting for helping that happen. But it’s going to be up to the player to prove the experts wrong.

Nolan Hickman, a 6-foot-2 point guard from Seattle who plays high school ball down at Wasatch Academy in Utah, is one of three players currently part of Kentucky’s class of 2021 recruiting group. He’s actually the lowest-rated of the three, per 247 Sports Composite Score, coming in at No. 31 in the country (the same rank that Gilgeous-Alexander came to Kentucky with) while fellow commits Daimion Collins (No. 11) and Bryce Hopkins (No. 27) have a bit more recognition. But for Hickman, his national ranking might as well be irrelevant.

According to those closest to him, Hickman has never put value in chasing fame or a top 10 ranking. He was never raised to think that way. His family has surrounded him with a humbling, lowkey style of life that suits them perfectly. When listening to his father speak, you can quickly understand why Hickman was able to receive an offer from Kentucky–and even commit to the ‘Cats–before anyone outside of his circle could even so much as hear a whisper of a rumor.

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“It’s a product of our environment,” Nolan Hickman’s dad, who is also named Nolan, told KSR about staying out of the spotlight. “He’s just taken to it. My motto to him, in basketball terms, the right people are going to see your game. Don’t worry about the limelight. If they like your game or the right coach sees you, you will be seen by the masses due to those that like your game. That’s always been my pitch, and he understood it.”

Not many people even know that Hickman’s father has the same name as his son, something the elder Hickman gets a kick out of when meeting new people. Mr. Hickman doesn’t use any form of social media, either. The two don’t even differentiate each other by adding the Junior or Senior title to their names–they are both Nolan Hickman.

“He was always like ‘You know what dad you’re right,” Mr. Hickman said about conversations he’s had with his son. “I don’t wanna try to look cool or try to score 50 every time out because that’s what everyone else is doing. I just want to have fun and get assists and see my teammates and be happy. As long as we always win the game, which is what really matters, I just want to be consistent in that.’ And I was like okay I like that. I’ll back you on that.

“Things that make us happy, don’t make everyone else happy, and Nolan is the same way.”

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Growing up, the younger Hickman was never given anything. Preparation has always been at the forefront of his mindset and a buzzword that sticks in his family’s mind, especially his father’s. It’s all he and his son have been doing since the latter was a high school freshman. The younger Hickman moved to Utah from his home in Seattle for his final year of high school to help prepare for life in college. He’s already been in contact with both Collins and Hopkins as he looks to create a rapport with them early in the process.

“We just prepare for every level,” Hickman’s father said to KSR. “We like to call it ‘leveling up’. When you get to a level–okay I’m preparing to be a sophomore in college, not a freshman. When he was in eighth grade, we were planning to be a sophomore in high school. When he was a sophomore we said let’s play like seniors. What are the best seniors in the nation doing?

“As soon as he got to Wasatch I said let’s treat this senior year like you’re walking into Kentucky. Let’s treat this big stage, playing all these national teams, let’s prepare like we’re playing at Kentucky every night. So then when you’re at Kentucky you’re not shaken or stirred, you’re ready to play. You’re walking in like a sophomore.”

Hickman’s head coach at Wasatch Academy, Paul Peterson, has seen the art of the Hickman’s preparation firsthand. With how this past season went for Kentucky, it’s more crucial than ever to be well-prepared months out from arriving in Lexington. One losing season at Kentucky is bad enough, but two in a row is simply unheard of and something the fanbase would not tolerate.

“More preparation. Be ready,” Peterson told KSR about the advice he gives the younger Hickman. “We all know Coach Cal keeps it real and guys are going to be on the fence this year, whether Kentucky wants them back. That’s going to open some things up and you need to be ready for this opportunity. The way the season went this year, they aren’t going to mess around. If you think Kentucky is going to have two bad seasons in a row you’re out of your mind. You need to be college-ready right now. All that high school stuff needs to go out of the window immediately. Because Coach Cal is not gonna have that after this kind of season.”

Judging by the comments Calipari has made in recent days, he doesn’t expect it either. He was grieving yet confident and hopeful about the changes he would make after some time to self-evaluate. There is plenty of pressure on Calipari to produce wins, and just as much on the 2021-22 roster to help facilitate them. But at the same time, it’s even more difficult to imagine that Kentucky doesn’t bounce back next season as opposed to having another single-digit number in the win column.

“History is kind of in our favor,” Mr. Hickman added “They haven’t done it twice [back-to-back losing seasons].”

Calipari’s brutally honest comments from earlier this week are part of his overall appeal, even if these happened to come under such strenuous circumstances. When he’s out on the recruiting trail, the same mentality holds true–Calipari isn’t going to promise you anything, but he will give you the opportunity to work for it. To the Hickman family, that’s exactly what they were looking for.

“Nolan hasn’t been given anything,” Mr. Hickman said about his son. “I think it’s a reflection of going to where you need to be more than anything. He understood that ‘I just want to be somewhere where they want me and nothing is given.’ Because nothing has been given to him. Rankings haven’t been given to him, him working as hard as he’s working on his craft, none of that has been given. He’s a worker.”

Calipari told the young point guard from the jump that he wasn’t guaranteed anything and that’s even more true now. With backcourt players such as Devin Askew and Dontaie Allen already set to return, plus the possibility of others coming back and the potential additions from the transfer portal, it could be a packed house at the guard position heading into the new season. Hickman, however, brings a whole different stable of skillsets to the table, particularly in areas that Kentucky desperately missed a season ago.

He’s proficient in the pick-and-roll and would talk about Kentucky games with his dad regularly throughout the season about how he could implement himself into the offense. Hickman knows how to break down a defense, penetrate the paint, and find the open man, whether they’re plopped right underneath the rim or standing patiently in the corner. Kentucky didn’t have that kind of attacking (and controlled) mindset from the 2019-20 batch of point guards.

During this past season, according to Hoop-Math, Kentucky ranked among the bottom 100 programs (out of 347 total schools) among Divison I teams in terms of percentage of shots at the rim (30.7 percent, 304th) and the percentage of shots assisted at the rim (36.8 percent, 254th).

“We’ve actually Zoomed and watched a few games when he’s had some free time,” Mr. Hickman said. “Some he would be able to watch and he’d call me like ‘Dad did you see that play?’ or ‘I think we could have used more pick and roll sets.’ There’s been things like that. Nolan is really good out of the pick and roll so he tries to implement it. He thinks he can get bigs that don’t really shoot it well, or even small forwards, create mismatches with pick and rolls. He thinks he could help more pick and roll scenarios with the team. He constantly brings it up.”

Mr. Hickman loves to refer to his son as a “point guard’s point guard”, essentially meaning that he’s at his best with the ball in his hands and looking to make a play. But the younger Hickman is also an excellent shooter, on or off the ball. He doesn’t necessarily need the ball at all times to be effective. During his junior season of high school at Eastside Catholic, it was calculated that he made 50 percent of his 3-point attempts when he shot after receiving the secondary pass, also known as the “hockey assist”. He has yet to shoot under 38 percent from distance during his high school career.

Hickman and his father have discussed the potentially crowded backcourt at Kentucky and how the need to play off the ball is another aspect of his game they need to ensure is well-prepared. With Wasatch set to compete in the GEICO High School National Tournament running from March 31-April 3, Hickman will have another chance to prepare himself for Kentucky by going up against the best high school teams in the country.

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Off the court, Hickman started “The GiveBack Foundation“, which is an organization he officially created himself at the beginning of 2021. To summarize, the three goals of his foundation are to reach out to the surrounding communities, equip them with life skills, and help prepare them to thrive in the future. Every Saturday for roughly six weeks during the cold months of winter, The GiveBack Foundation hosted a Coat Drive to help clothe the less fortunate.

Of course, he uses basketball as the medium to help facilitate that help. He’s also held a couple of camps over the years in his hometown of Seattle. The only time Hickman seems to entertain any sense of the spotlight is when he’s helping others.

“He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met,” Coach Peterson said about Hickman. “He genuinely cares about other people. He’s always checking up on other people. He’s just a good person, that’s the best way to put it. You don’t find too many kids of his caliber that actually care about other people, but he does.”

Hickman is far from just a basketball player. The impact he can make in his communities now is preparation to do even bigger things in the future–possibly in Lexington once he arrives this summer.

“It’s a testament to him starting a foundation and him just being warm and fun-loving,” Mr. Hickman said. “It’s just who he is. I like to talk and be around people, but Nolan likes to take care of people. Make sure everybody is having a good time and everybody is taken care of. He’ll give the shirt off his back whether it’s a teammate or somebody just that he knows who’s less fortunate. It’s just naturally who he is.”