Isaiah Stewart set to visit Kentucky this weekend

by:TJ Walker09/24/18

We said to be on the lookout for an Isaiah Stewart official visit and it’s happening sooner than we imagined.

The No. 5 player in the country will travel to Lexington this weekend for an official visit. Stewart’s recruitment has been unique. Stewart cut Kentucky in the spring when he cut his list to 10. The 6-foot-9, 245-pound center was down to Duke, Villanova, Michigan State, Indiana, Washington and Syracuse before allowing Kentucky to work back into his recruitment.

Kentucky visited Stewart earlier this month and things have been hot and heavy ever since. It’s impressive that John Calipari was able to even get an in-home visit with Stewart but let alone an official visit within the same month of restarting the recruitment.

He will be on campus the same weekend as fellow five-star center Oscar Tshiebwe. Tshiebwe is relatively new to UK’s recruiting efforts and picked up an offer from the Cats last weekend. WVU and UK are considered Tshiebwe’s leaders.

UK is going to need bodies on the frontcourt for the 2019-2020 season and while there are currently zero commitments for fours or fives, the Cats seem to be holding the cards.

James Wiseman, Vernon Carey and Matthew Hurt are considered Kentucky’s top targets, or at least the players they’ve been recruiting the longest, but UK has been recruiting Stewart and Tshiebwe as hard as anyone this month.

The Cats are also players for Zeke Nnaji (Matthew Hurt’s AAU teammate, who’s been offered) and Aidan Igiehon (who hasn’t been offered).

It’s still not clear how the frontcourt will shakeout, but it’s time to seriously consider Stewart as a viable option. He spoke with Rivals’ Clint Jackson about Kentucky’s pitch.

“They jumped in late but I made the decision to listen to Coach Cal (Calipari) and Coach Payne. I mean why not? Look at what they’ve done,” Stewart said.

“… I mean every school can get guys to the next level,” he said. “But they’ve really shown that they can do it every single year. They can help me expand my game and work with me on those things and the things that I need to get better at.”

Read the entire article on Stewart’s interest in UK right here.

KSR was told that Stewart is handling his recruitment professionally. He’s looking at the schools that will help him achieve his dream of getting to the NBA and making sure he can compete once he reaches the league. He doesn’t appear to care about who’s recruited him the longest or will be swayed emotionally. This is all good news for UK.

The Cats will need at least three frontcourt players in 2019 and four would be even better. The plan is to sign at least two frontcourt players in the fall.

Expect Stewart to receive an “official” offer from UK this weekend, and I’m starting to think Stewart may very well be part of UK’s 2019 class.

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