Pair of KY prospects headline espnW's 2025 HoopGurlz recruiting rankings
The Bluegrass State is the current home to two of the most talented high school sophomores in the entire country — and they were both in Lexington over the weekend.
On Monday, the folks over at espnW updated its high school basketball player rankings for the classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025. While the senior and junior classes didn’t feature anyone from the state of Kentucky, the sophomore group sure did. 5-11 G ZaKiyah Johnson (Sacred Heart Academy) and 6-2 F Leach Macy (Mercy Academy) both cracked the class of 2025’s Terrific 25.
Johnson is considered a five-star and the No. 2 overall prospect in the class while Macy is a four-star and ranked No. 17.
The pair of in-state stars were in attendance at Rupp Arena (along with dozens of other Kentucky targets) on Friday for the program’s annual Big Blue Madness event. It was the second consecutive season they’ve made the trip for BBM. Johnson and Macy were previously AAU teammates for Kentucky Premier before Johnson made the switch to a West Virginia-based program over the summer.
Johnson is the more heralded of the two. She is one of just four ’25 prospects to earn a five-star rating by espnW and is coming off a state championship season in 2021-22 with Sacred Heart. Johnson averaged 17.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game across 39 outings for the 36-3 Valkyries, earning the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year award along the way.
She already holds offers from the likes of Notre Dame, Louisville, Kansas State, Oregon, Tennessee, Arizona, West Virginia, Miami (FL), Florida, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, and, of course, Kentucky. Johnson earned her scholarship opportunity from the ‘Cats in July 2020, her third from a Divison I program.
As for Macy, she’s also coming off an impressive freshman year. Mercy finished 23-9 on the season but fell to Bullitt East (which lost to Sacred Heart in the 2022 title game) in the 6th Region Championship. Macy was the team’s star, averaging 20.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game across 32 total outings. She shot over 62 percent from the floor and was also a 31.5 percent 3-point shooter.
Kentucky and head coach Kyra Elzy actually don’t have any future commitments as of right now — considering she brought in six rookies from the 2022 class, the program has plenty of youthful prospects. But Johnson and Macy are both going to be critical pieces for the future of the program, and it’ll be up to Elzy to keep them close to home.
There’s one other notable recruit we should mention, too. Among espnW’s best 2024 recruits, the No. 1 spot is being held down by 5-foot-6 PG Jaloni Cambridge out of Ensworth (TN) High School. Why is that important? Because she’s the younger sister of current Kentucky freshman Kennedy Cambridge, who also came out of Ensworth. Kentucky is heavily interested in reuniting the sisters once again in Lexington.
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