Kentucky trending with five-star forward Daimion Collins

Photo: 247Sports/Collin Kennedy

Kentucky is trending for yet another five-star basketball prospect.

Today, UK picked up four consecutive Crystal Ball picks over at 247Sports and one FutureCast at Rivals for 2021 five-star forward Daimion Collins.

Among the notable picks? National experts Eric Bossi and Brian Snow, among other Oklahoma and Texas insiders.

As for Snow specifically, he wrote an excerpt on Collins in a national recruiting notebook post, noting that Kentucky has picked up significant momentum in the 6-foot-10 forward’s recruitment.

“Now, behind the scenes a lot of the talk is centered around Kentucky,” Snow wrote. “The Wildcats entered the mix when [Jai] Lucas was named to a position on staff, and since then the rest of the coaching staff has taken over the recruitment of Collins.

“Multiple sources have indicated to me that they feel Kentucky is going to get this done with Collins, and that people assuming he will just stay close to home and go to Oklahoma are misguided.”

Collins, considered the No. 19 prospect in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and listed as high as No. 10 overall in the Rivals rankings, cut his list down to the following five earlier this month: Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Texas Tech.

The Kentucky buzz is certainly a promising sign, as the five-star forward is contemplating a commitment during the early signing period, which begins in November.

“I was going to wait to see if we would be able to take visits, but after I heard that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, I figured it was time for me to sit down and start thinking about a commitment more,” Collins told KSR earlier this month. “Yeah we’re thinking about committing [in the early signing period] a little bit, but we’re not for sure yet.”

As for Kentucky’s pitch, Collins says John Calipari and the UK coaching staff are comparing him to Anthony Davis, who just won his first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers a few weeks ago.

“Coach Cal tells me he’d use me how he used Anthony Davis,” Collins told KSR. “He said I remind him a lot of Anthony and that I’d be able to do a lot of the things he’s doing now. When I come there, the development, he says he’ll be able to develop me.

All of the success former Kentucky players had in the NBA’s Orlando bubble this summer and into the fall? Collins noticed.

“That shows me how Coach Cal can develop players and get them to where they need to be, to go to the next level,” Collins said. “It’s been pretty good to be able to see them on TV because it lets me know what I need to know.”

Four-star point guard Nolan Hickman is Kentucky’s lone commitment in the class of 2021, with UK also extending offers to Collins, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Jaden Hardy, Hunter Sallis, Moussa Diabate, Bryce Hopkins and Brandin Podziemski.

UK also picked up its first 2022 commitment Thursday evening when five-star guard Skyy Clark chose the Wildcats over North Carolina, Memphis and UCLA.

While we wait for Kentucky’s next commitment, check out some of Collins’ most recent highlights: