KSR Today: Peach Jam Championship Sunday

On3 imageby:Zack Geoghegan•07/24/22•

ZGeogheganKSR

Good morning, folks! Today is the Peach Jam finale. A full week of the top competition that grassroots basketball has to offer concludes with a handful of championship games on Sunday spread across all age groups. We’ve also got a football commitment from Saturday to talk about along with another incredible run from Abby Steiner. Let’s dive right in.

Peach Jam Championship Sunday

KSR’s Jack Pilgrim is in North Augusta, SC for the championship day of the 2022 Nike Peach Jam Invitational. Only two 17U games are scheduled for today, with the true championship set for 3:30 p.m. EST between Team Takeover and Mokan Elite. Between those two teams, only one player is considered a Kentucky target as of right now: 7-foot-2 ’24 center John Bol, who plays up a year in age for Mokan Elite.

The day’s first game is set for 11:00 a.m. EST between ProSkills and Drive Nation, which will decide the consolation bracket champion. There aren’t any true UK targets in that contest, but if you decide to tune in (all games are available for live stream here), make sure to check out ’24 four-star wing Liam McNeeley. The 6-foot-8 rising junior has been turning heads all week and could be in the consideration for a fifth star down the road.

Pilgrim has been absolutely destroying it with the recruiting coverage the last couple of days (while I’ve admittedly been away on a bachelor party trip), so why don’t you refresh yourself with all of the top prospects he’s been interviewing and watching?

Nasir Addison commits to KENTUCKY

The biggest news of the day came out of New Jersey on Saturday when three-star ’23 ATH Nasir Addison made his commitment to the Kentucky Wildcats. The 6-foot-2 two-way player out of Irvington High School is considered the No. 1260 prospect in the country and chose UK over the likes of Florida State, Michigan State, and Ole Miss.

The Wildcats are now up to 13 commitments in the class of 2023 with six different states represented. An emerging trend has been developing as the program is getting into the Mid-Atlantic region landing offensive lineman Austin Ramsey out of Philadelphia (Pa.) Roman Catholic and now Addison from New Jersey. Both defensive coordinator Brad White and wide receivers coach Scott Woodward are working the territory for the Wildcats. Three-star offensive tackle Naquil Betrand is another player from the area that Kentucky is working on and a name to keep an eye on over the next week.

Kentucky now has four defensive prospects in the class, and three are in the secondary. Lexington (Ky.) Frederick Douglass product Ty Bryant is likely headed to safety while both Addison and four-star prospect Avery Stuart will get a shot to play cornerback for position coach Chris Collins.

Check out Adam Luckett’s Film Room breakdown of Addison’s game through the link here.

The Wildcats might not be done in July yet, either.

On Wednesday, four-star cornerback Ja’Keem Jackson is scheduled to announce his decision. Kentucky is a finalist, but Florida should be considered the favorite at this moment. Next weekend, Betrand is deciding and this may end up being a rare head-to-head battle between the Wildcats and Syracuse on the recruiting trail as the coaching staff looks to record a third commitment from the Mid-Atlantic.

Abby Steiner’s first World title

(Now former) Kentucky track and field superstar Abby Steiner earned her first World Athletics title on Saturday night as the second leg of the Team USA 4x100m, which won the race in 41.14 and upset the Jamaicans with the fifth fastest time in world history and fastest on American soil. Steiner ran a 9.86 split, the fastest among Team USA athletes, and tied for third fastest in the race. 

That 4x100m marked Steiner’s 56th race over seven months, including silver at the NCAA Championships in the 4x100m with UKTF. 

Volunteer Coach Christian Coleman earned 4x100m silver with Team USA as the first leg. Collectively, the team ran 37.55. 

All three UKTF-affiliated athletes in the 100m hurdles qualified for semifinals on Saturday, with Jasmine Camacho-Quinn running the top time of the three (12.52Q), followed by Keni Harrison with the fifth fastest time of the heats (12.60Q) and Devynne Charlton in seventh (12.69Q).  

The three Tokyo 2020 finalists in the event, in which Camacho-Quinn won gold and Harrison silver, run in the semifinal at 8:10 p.m. ET and the final at 10 p.m. on Sunday, the final day of competition. 

Olympian Dwight St. Hillaire will run in the men’s 4x400m final for Trinidad & Tobago after they qualified with a time of 3:02.75q. The event begins at 10:35 p.m. 

Kentucky adds Mississippi State transfer Londyn Craft to roster

Kentucky is not yet done adding players to the roster from the transfer portal. In the latest update of the 2022 roster, the Wildcats have added a surprise SEC transfer.

First reported by Rivals’ Justin Rowland, Kentucky has now made it official. Mississippi State transfer Londyn Craft will spend his final season of college eligibility in Lexington as a walk-on.

The class of 2017 signee is a New Mexico native who played at IMG (Fla.) Academy. Craft (6-0, 200) would then head to Mississippi State to walk on for head coach Dan Mullen. During his five seasons in Starkville, the defensive back would play for three head coaches and defensive coordinators.

GG Jackson switches commitment to South Carolina

Arguably the top prospect from the entire ’23 class, five-star forward GG Jackson announced his commitment to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, a little over a week after he became the first North Carolina de-commit in recent memory. Just as noteworthy is his reclassifying to the class of 2022, which will allow him to join USC this summer.

Below is more on the recruitment and how it all went down, via On3’s Jamie Shaw.

The 6-foot-8, 210-pound power forward originally committed to North Carolina on April 27, when he chose Hubert Davis and Co. over Duke, Auburn, Georgetown, the G-League, and South Carolina. 

This commitment is not the first time Jackson pledged to come to South Carolina as part of the 2022 class. Before Jackson eventually announced for UNC, he told South Carolina’s staff and administration he would be coming to play for the Gamecocks. That was until their men’s head basketball coach, Frank Martin, was fired. 

After parting ways with Martin, Jackson became locked in with UNC. Hubert Davis and the Tarheels’ season got off to a chippy start, but they managed to turn things around, making a run all the way to the NCAA national championship game. 

After further consideration, Jackson returns back to his original plan and becomes a Gamecock, a part of Lamont Paris’ first recruiting class. 

Jamie Shaw

That’s all I’ve got for you all this morning. We’ll have plenty more Peach Jam coverage coming throughout the day and coming week. Enjoy your Sunday.

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2024-04-17