Leader for ex-Kentucky commit Skyy Clark emerges before final pick

A major favorite has emerged in the race to land Montverde (Fla.) Academy four-star guard and former Kentucky Wildcat commit Skyy Clark in the hours ahead of his final decision.

According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, Illinois has a 93.2% chance of landing Clark. The Illini are the clear frontrunner for Clark’s commitment that will be revealed at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPNU.

The On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.

And it’s an expert prediction that has propelled the Illini to a place where they’re the overwhelming favorite in the hours before his final pick is revealed.

On3 National Basketball Recruiting Analyst Jamie Shaw logged a prediction for Illinois with 75% confidence. That along, with other data, point toward the Illini landing the four-star guard.

“This was immediately where all the attention turned after Clark de-committed,” Shaw said. “Clark has a long-standing relationship with assistant coach Tim Anderson, who previously recruited Clark while at DePaul. With Alfonso Plummer and Trent Frazier exhausting their college eligibility and Andre Curbelo transferring, there will be playing time available for a point guard in the 2022 class.”

Skyy Clark will pick between 6 teams

On3 National Basketball Recruiting Analyst Joe Tipton reported earlier Clark’s final six schools are Illinois, Louisville, Tennessee, USC, Maryland and Washington.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard backed off his pledge to Kentucky in March. He broke down his decision to decommit from the program in an exclusive interview with KSR.

“It was a lot of thinking and a lot of praying, but it has nothing to do with anything Coach Cal, the assistant coaches, or anything UK did,” Clark said. “They’ve been nothing but supportive through this whole process. I just had a lot of time to sit around and think. Since watching the team and the way the roster is looking for next season, I haven’t really seen a fit for myself.”

Skyy Clark is ranked as the No. 32 player in the country, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Clark currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $203,000. The On3 NIL Valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time. Clark also ranks No. 59 in On3 NIL 100. The On3 NIL 100 is the first of its kind and the defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by market valuation.