Kentucky gets first national Crystal Ball pick for star point guard TyTy Washington

The first Crystal Ball prediction from a national recruiting presence is in for five-star point guard TyTy Washington, and it’s in favor of Kentucky.

247Sports analyst Travis Branham logged a pick for UK on Washington’s Crystal Ball page Thursday morning. Branham covers recruiting nationally for 247Sports, and he placed a confidence level of “7 out of 10” on his prediction for Washington. At the time, the only other pick on Washington’s Crystal Ball page was a prediction two weeks ago from an Arizona insider in favor of that program.

UK and Arizona have emerged in recent days as the perceived leaders for Washington, who is also considering Baylor, Kansas, Louisiana State and Oregon. The Arizona native is scheduled to reveal his college decision May 15, though it’s now possible an announcement could come before that.

Kentucky could benefit from the additions of Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman to the coaching staff, moves that were announced Thursday morning. Both have the reputation as top recruiters, and Coleman built a great relationship with Washington as his primary recruiter at Illinois.

Washington — a 6-foot-3 point prospect — was named a First Team All-American by MaxPreps.com following a senior season in which he averaged 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists per game and led Arizona Compass Prep to the national high school semifinals. He was rated as the No. 16 overall player in the 2021 class in the final 247Sports rankings released this week.

His commitment to Kentucky would be a major addition for the Wildcats, who lost a commitment from four-star point guard recruit Nolan Hickman last week and currently have zero point guards on their projected roster for the 2021-22 season.

The Cats are expected to have three talented shooting guards — returning sophomore Dontaie Allen, along with incoming transfers CJ Fredrick and Kellan Grady — and UK could still get Davion Mintz back for next season to complement a roster with plenty of frontcourt talent.

Point guard is clearly the biggest need, and Washington is currently Kentucky’s biggest target at the position. By the end of the day Thursday, several other analysts had joined Branham in logging pro-UK predictions on Washington’s Crystal Ball page.