Playing at Oak Hill is preparing Chris Livingston for Kentucky

Widely considered one of the premier high school basketball programs in the country, Oak Hill Academy is no stranger to producing some of the all-time greats. Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Jerry Stackhouse are just a few household names to have suited up for Oak Hill over the years. On the Kentucky front, the likes of Doron Lamb, Keldon Johnson, Rajon Rondo, Ron Mercer, Cliff Hawkins, and Jules Camara all came to Lexington via the prestigious Virginia-based prep school.

Go ahead and add class of 2022 five-star wing Chris Livingston into that mix of Wildcats. The incoming Kentucky commit is considered the No. 10 ranked senior in the country, according to the On3 Consensus, and elected to play his final year of high school ball at Oak Hill. A native of Akron, OH, he previously played for the local school Buchtel, but ultimately decided he would be best served spending his final season before college playing alongside and against some of the nation’s best.

Oak Hill’s legendary head coach Steve Smith, who earned degrees at both Asbury and Eastern Kentucky University before going into coaching, has a hand in the development of multiple Hall of Famers. He’s coached over 30 McDonald’s All-Americans and over a dozen first-round NBA Draft picks. Livingston will actually be Smith’s final player to earn the McDonald’s All-American title, as Smith intends to retire at the conclusion of this season.

Livingston is currently in Chicago as he prepares for Tuesday’s 2022 McDonald’s All-American Game. He spoke with the media on Monday where he discussed the impact Coach Smith and the Oak Hill Academy program have had on him since his decision to transfer. Oak Hill’s roster is loaded with a half-dozen future Divison I players, including five-star class of 2023 point guard Caleb Foster and four-star class of 2022 combo guard Judah Mintz.

“It helps me take a load off offensively,” Livingston said about how Oak Hill has helped his game. “Being at the school I was before I had to do a lot more to impact winning but now I can do other stuff. I can scale back a little bit playing with high-level players, playing with a seven-footer, that helps a lot. It’s something you’ve always got to get used to as you reach the next level.

“Playing with better players can always be beneficial, but you never want to blend in or waver your game but you always want to be able to play with good players and not be selfish but cohesive. So that’s what I learned how to do. Feel like I did a good job at it.”

At Buchtel, Livingston was expected to do more than what should have been asked of one individual. He was still able to build himself into a five-star recruit despite that, but the move to Oak Hill led to him fine-tuning smaller aspects of his game. Additionally, the competition level has risen significantly. Oak Hill participates in the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC), a brand new high school conference that features eight of the nation’s most talented programs with plenty of games featured on ESPN.

Playing alongside and against so much talent in high school will surely help him when he arrives in Lexington, where he’ll once again be surrounded by four- and five-star talents. When Livingston does get to Kentucky, head coach John Calipari already has an idea of how he wants to utilize the versatile 6-foot-7 wing.

“Being a wing, playing off the ball a lot,” Livingston said of what Calipari expects his role to be at Kentucky. “Being a guard and forward, being a versatile role. He showed me a lot of film on (Hamidou) Diallo when he was at Kentucky. Devin Booker, how he came off screens and got into catch and shoot situations, things like that. Just being an athlete while also being a knockdown shooter off the ball. And of course, you got to play defense. High school, college, or the next level after that, so that’s a given. That’s just the role that he explained to me.”

Livingston is adamant that he would have worked his way to being a McDonald’s All-American regardless of whether or not he transferred from Buchtel, but the positives of playing at Oak Hill have far outweighed any negatives. In order to be the best, you have to compete against the best.

The move to Oak Hill sure did pay off, too. Livingston will participate in Tuesday’s McDonald’s All-American Game as a member of the East Team. He’ll go up against future Kentucky teammate and fellow five-star prospect Cason Wallace, who will suit up for the West Team. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EST on ESPN.