BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
The KHSAA period is upon us, but the sports world keeps turning. If you haven’t heard, Kentucky basketball signed the No. 2 ranked point guard Robert Dillingham for the 2023 class. He will be playing with Reed Sheppard, the son of former Wildcat Jeff Sheppard.
Reed played at the high school last year against the Martin County Cards and Brady Dingess. The guy can absolutely ball. He’s a knock-down shooter and a sound defensive player. Dillingham is a freak athlete and can create shots around the rim. They’ll provide the right kind of balance for modern-day basketball.
The only guard he is ranked behind is DJ Wagner, a possible UK commit. We were looking to be No. 1 in the running until Louisville hired his grandfather.
But Wagner’s father was a star player for John Calipari at the beginning of his Memphis tenure and has remained close to Cal. Wagner’s stepbrother, Kareem Watkins, is also a walk-on for UK basketball.
If we can pull both recruits to UK, we’ll once again be in the running for a title. One thing is for certain: Cal is looking for scorers. He also offered a 2024 recruit, Travis Perry from Lyon County, who is on track to pass King Kelly Coleman for the state scoring record.
Now if we can only get Cal to adjust his playing system. When Cal came to UK, the dribble drive was innovative, and it changed college basketball. But it’s changing again, and he’s been reluctant to adapt.
Cal will live or die by a certain few players. We saw Keion Brooks have the longest leash of anyone. Jacob Toppin was the better player who made fewer mistakes. Brooks almost single-handedly lost games for us. I would hold my breath any time he put the ball on the floor in the paint.
I have mixed feelings about Brooks leaving for his senior year. On the one hand, I will be glad to see Toppin take his minutes with Lance Ware cleaning up. On the other hand, I would have liked to have seen him improve and stay with us.
He was insanely long and athletic, but his basketball IQ was as high as a second-grader. You can’t teach height and long arms. But how many more mistakes would he have been allowed before seeing the bench again this year?
Brooks leaving didn’t make sense on his end. He played a lot of minutes and started the majority of games. His high numbers don’t paint a picture of how he actually performed on the court. He made bad decisions and hurt us in end-of-game situations.
That one guy, whose name I don’t want to mention anymore, was drafted seventh in the NBA Draft. It’s a toss-up of how his pro career turns out. But his Kentucky career is non-existent and he has burned bridges with the Kentucky basketball program.
Tyty Washington was a steal for Houston. Injuries plagued him, but he’s a combo guard that can create off the dribble. He has a great attitude and after Quickley and Maxey have burnt up the floor in the NBA, teams will regret passing on him.
Until next week, that’s all folks.