It’s no secret in basketball recruiting circles that Kentucky needs another big man for next season.
Could the Cats have found their man in a 6-foot-9 center from Nigeria who recently moved into the class of 2020?
On Thursday — a few hours after prized Purdue graduate transfer Matt Haarms, a 7-3 center, committed to BYU over Kentucky — four-star high school recruit Frank Anselem was publicly linked to UK as a possibility for next season.
In reality, Anselem had already been on Kentucky’s radar for several days.
Julius Smith, who coached Anselem with the Georgia Stars Nike league program and is helping guide the promising prospect through the recruiting process, told the Herald-Leader that UK’s coaching staff spent last weekend watching game film and reached out earlier in the week. At the time, it looked like Kentucky’s frontcourt might be too full for another addition. That obviously wasn’t the case.
“We were told two days ago that they weren’t going to get Haarms — that he was going to go to BYU — so I think that’s when Frank started to take Kentucky seriously,” Smith said Thursday.
Haarms’ decision leaves UK with just two true post players — 6-9 power forward recruits Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware — and plenty of opportunities for another frontcourt player to make an immediate impact.
Anselem is a tantalizing prospect. He played this past season at Prolific Prep — the California powerhouse that featured G League commitment Jalen Green and other top recruits — and announced recently that he would be moving from the class of 2021 to 2020 in order to play college basketball next season. He has previous scholarship offers from Kansas, Arizona, Southern Cal, Arkansas and a host of other high-major programs.
He’s now the No. 85 overall prospect in the 2020 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, and arguably the most talented uncommitted center in that group who is actually considering the college route. Smith said that UK’s coaches were enamored with his game.
“They watched film of him all weekend as a staff, and they liked him a lot,” Smith said. “They like the things that he can do, in terms of next year’s roster and how he can help. They think he’s a pro, like the other schools recruiting him.
“Frank probably needs two years, maybe three, in college. He’s a great kid. Incredibly athletic. Really advanced defensively. More raw offensively. He’s 6-9 — 6-9 and a half — and has a 7-foot-5 wingspan. So his wingspan is incredible. He’s incredibly bouncy, and he runs like a guard. I think, defensively, he has all the tools right there to be a pro down the line. He just has a lot of work to do offensively.”
Path to 2020 class
Smith said that Anselem, who came to the United States from Nigeria in 2016, is in just his fifth year of playing basketball, and they know he still has a long way to go before he can think seriously about a pro career.
He came to America as a ninth-grader, but his host family at the time put him in the eighth grade alongside their stepson when he started school here, Smith said, so the move to 2020 is actually placing him back in his correct class. Anselem will turn 19 years old in September, and he started loading up on NCAA core classes early in his high school career in anticipation of such a move, so there will be no further academic hurdles to clear in order to play in college.
This past season at Prolific Prep — playing a national schedule against elite competition — led to a spike in development. Anselem can now hit jumpers — even step out on the perimeter — but still needs to work on his ball handling and hand-eye coordination in the post. His offensive game is coming along, and he’s already a difference-maker as a post defender who can guard multiple positions. “He can switch and guard everything from point guards to centers,” Smith said. “He can switch on a guy on the perimeter, and you’ll be 100 percent fine, because he knows how to move his feet, he’s incredibly quick, and, like I said, with that 7-foot-5 wingspan, that helps him out, too.”
Kentucky fans spent two years wondering if Nick Richards, another foreign player who picked up basketball at a relatively late age, would ever fully click on the court. This past season, Richards developed into one of the best big men in college basketball.
Smith said Anselem could have a similar trajectory. He just needs to get more comfortable playing at a high level, and that should come with time.
“His best days are far, far ahead of him,” he said. “He hasn’t come anywhere close to even scratching the surface for his potential. But he works really hard. He’s a great kid, 3.9 student. He doesn’t shy from competition. He’s been a winner, and guys love being around him, love playing with him.
“He’s just one of those super likable, fun, energetic kids. And he has a lot of room to grow. And that’s what’s so exciting. And if a school is willing to be patient and give him a year or two, he’ll be something really special.”
Anselem at Kentucky?
He might not bring the experience of someone like Haarms or play the bruising style that UK’s 2020-21 roster appears to be lacking, but Anselem, who weighs in at 205 to 210 pounds, could certainly fill a need on next season’s team as another impact rim-protector and rebounder.
Smith stressed that he’s not looking for any promises, other than a fair shot to see the floor.
“It’s the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, and it’s Kentucky,” he acknowledged. “I think his expectations are that he wants to go to a place where he can develop. He doesn’t expect to be a one-and-done, nor is he looking for a starting spot. People have put that misnomer out there that he has to start as a freshman, which is the furthest thing from the truth. … He just expects to come into a place where it’s going to be fair — where he has a chance to compete and play. And he wants to win.
“I just think, at Kentucky, he sees a chance (to contribute) with their current roster.”
Anselem had actually given a silent commitment to Louisiana State on Dec. 31, Smith said, but when he didn’t make things official with the Tigers right away during this month’s signing period — and LSU took a commitment from 6-11 center Josh Gray, with a possible commitment from class of 2021 five-star (and 2020 reclassification candidate) Moussa Cisse coming soon — Anselem opened things back up. At first, Alabama and Georgia were the only others on his list. Now, it’s wide open.
Smith said the UK coaches told him that they actually started liking Anselem’s game a few months ago, but — like many other programs — they had heard he was going to LSU, so they didn’t bother recruiting him.
“The phone’s been ringing non-stop ever since he put out the tweet that he was reopening his recruitment,” Smith said.
He added that they hoped to have his list narrowed to a more manageable group of schools — three to five — by the end of this weekend, and that Kentucky would almost certainly be on that list if they do indeed trim their options. A college decision could come in the next couple of weeks.
UK assistant coach Joel Justus has been handling most of the recruitment so far, and Kenny Payne — the program’s post-player specialist — has also chipped in. Smith and Anselem are well aware of Payne’s track record with frontcourt players. They’re also being helped along in the process by Georgia-based grassroots coach Chris Williams, who coached Ashton Hagans in AAU ball and would have helped coach Anselem if there had been a spring season this year. Even Hagans, who is off to the NBA Draft after two years in Lexington, has put in a good word.
“Ashton loves Kentucky, loves the coaching staff, loves the development,” Smith said. “Ashton has spoken to Frank and told Frank that it’s a great place that he’ll go and develop. It’s just high pressure, high stress, and you have to be mentally prepared for that.”
Anselem’s social media accounts have been “blowing up” with messages from UK fans ever since the Cats were linked to his recruitment, Smith said, calling it a “passionate fan base” that pays close attention and knows it needs a center desperately for next season.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky coaching staff sees great promise in Anselem’s long-term future.
“He’s a freak athlete,” Smith said. “They watched film, and he’s just so long and bouncy. And they just kind of imagine — you know, with the right development — the things he could do six months from now versus today. … It’s hard to see ‘Kentucky’ and not have that spike your interest.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 7:18 AM.
