The Kentucky basketball program has an open scholarship for the upcoming 2024-25 season but have been cautious about using it unless it's a perfect situation.
When it was expected that Mark Pope would hold on to that scholarship, the staff reached out to a talented four-star guard who was considering reclassifying into the 2024 class. The Cats were one of the programs to initially reach out to Illinois de-commit, Jeremiah Fears.
Fears, who announced he was re-opening his recruitment a few weeks ago, had programs like Kentucky, Southern Cal, Arizona State and Oklahoma reach out. So, is Kentucky a real option?
Well, according to On3.com reporter and insider Joe Tipton, Kentucky isn't expected to pursue the four-star and top-35 prospect guard.
Kentucky currently has a handful of guards -- young and old. And Fears would likely want a role immediately, something Mark Pope couldn't confidently promise.
The Wildcats have upperclassmen like Kerr Kriisa and Lamont Butler to go along with Jaxson Robinson. Then, Travis Perry and Collin Chandler arrived in the 2024 recruiting class as two players expected to play a major role in the coming years.
Fears was part of the U18 USA Basketball roster that won Gold at the FIBA AmeriCup earlier this month. He averaged 6.5 points and 3.0 assists per game. Pope was in attendence for some of the games.
So, it appears Kentucky -- which started summer workouts a few weeks ago, will stick with its current roster unless something drastic changes in the coming weeks.