With the recruiting period picking up, it’s no secret that two former Wildcats have their own sons in the recruitment picture.
Both Darin Minniefield (Dirk Minniefield’s son) and Zeke Chapman (Rex Chapman’s son) have been trying their hardest to make an impact on the national recruiting stage, albeit a difficult attempt at best.
Neither is ranked nationally, with Minniefield only entering the ninth grade and Chapman entering his senior season while playing in Arizona.
The big question however, is can these youngsters become the next father-son duo to play for Kentucky?
Minniefield and Chapman wouldn’t be the first, as Eddie Sutton mentored his own son Sean during his tenure as Wildcats coach back in the 80s, to go along with Tubby and Saul Smith during the 90s-00s as the prototypical father-son duo you rarely see in any sport.
Asked whether Darin would like to follow in his father’s footsteps, he said “I wanted to set my own goals, be something else, be something different, not just being Dirk’s son, but being Darin Minniefield.”
With a ways to go before ever having to make a decision, Darin has Kentucky, UConn, and Texas in mind as his college choices down the road.
Zeke, a widely talented senior, is much closer to making a decision on where his college career will take him, but it doesn’t appear that Kentucky will come knocking. Several other teams like Washington, South Florida, Arkansas, and Stanford are taking a look at the 6’1” point guard and could offer him a chance in due time.
Much like UK fans everywhere, Zeke still marvels at his father’s athletic ability saying “He definitely jumped better than I do; he was really great to watch. I’ve watched all his high school games. It was really cool.”
One thing is certain though and that is son’s of former players are out there, ready to make an impact of their own rather than following in their father’s footsteps. Minniefield and Chapman are just two of the many out there these days.
In the end, it is still tough to gauge whether Kentucky head coach John Calipari has any interest in bringing the two prospects on board. As said earlier, Minniefield is far from becoming a college player making it extremely difficult to ‘guess’ as to whether he’ll even make it as a college player. Zeke is clearly more polished, but has a couple of years on Darin. Chapman is more developed at this stage in his life and has the potential to make a D-1 roster going into next year. Only time will tell at this point.
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