Marquise Davis visited Tennessee twice last year, and he has already been planning for weeks to return to Knoxville on an official visit in June. But he made the trip again to attend the Vols’ practice Tuesday morning and spend time with new running backs coach De’Rail Sims.
Kentucky remains “heavily involved” with Stanford transfer Andrej Stojakovic, according to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello.
The former McDonald’s All-American and son of 3-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic took an official visit to California last weekend. Michigan, North Carolina, Creighton, Washington, USC, and Louisville are also in the mix.
Stojakovic, who is ranked as the No. 50 overall transfer in the portal by 247Sports, averaged 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 40.9% from the field and 33.7% from 3-point range while playing 32 games for the Cardinal with 10 starts as a freshman this season.
He was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Dec. 18 following a Dec. 17 performance that saw him score 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3, with four rebounds and two assists in a win over Idaho. The 6-foot-7 wing scored a season-high 20 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists in a 99-68 home win over USC.
Stojakovic entered the transfer portal on March 18 after the firing of Jerod Haase after eight seasons as head coach.
Coming out of Jesuit High School in Carmichael, Calif., Stojackovic was ranked No. 19 overall in the 2023 class by 247Sports. He also held a scholarship offer from Kentucky coming out of high school.
Under new head coach Mark Pope, Kentucky has been extremely active in the transfer portal after losing all 13 of the scholarship players on its 2023-24 roster to graduation, the portal, or the NBA Draft following the departure of John Calipari earlier this month, already adding Drexel transfer and three-time Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year Amari Williams., who is ranked as a top-65 transfer in the portal by 247Sports.
Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney, the No. 14 overall transfer in the portal, is scheduled to visit Kentucky this weekend and Utah State forward and top-5 transfer Great Osobor will take an official visit to UK next week.
Since being hired on April 12, Pope has hired top Baylor assistant Alvin Brooks III, former NBA G League Ignite head coach and USC assistant Jason Hart, long-time confidant Cody Fueger, who will follow Pope from BYU as well as former Nevada, Georgia, and California head coach Mark Fox as associate coach.
“He did a really good job of building his staff and now it’s go-time on the recruiting trail. Now that that’s done, he can really sink his teeth into the recruiting,” 247Sports national recruiting analyst Travis Branham told CatsPause.com. “They’ve been casting their net already so now they’ll be able to pinpoint targets and set up visits and they’re very much in the process of doing that.”
The Wildcats have also landed former 2022 4-star BYU signee Collin Chandler while Kentucky Mr. Basketball and state’s all-time leading scorer Travis Perry reaffirmed his commitment to Pope and UK Monday night.
