This is topic Homesickness, coaching changes paved way for Nolan Hickman Jr.’s decommitment in forum UK / NCAA Basketball at TheCatsDomain.Com Message Boards.
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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 05-02-2021, 08:35 PM:
No, Kentucky doesn’t have numerous home run signings in the works at the point guard position, a string of moves designed to load up the depth chart and ultimately push 2021 signee Nolan Hickman Jr. out the door. No, John Calipari didn’t cut ties with the five-star guard after the coaching departures of Tony Barbee and Joel Justus, Hickman’s two lead recruiters. The senior guard standout decommitted from Kentucky on Friday for several key reasons, none as complicated as you may think.
On the surface level, yes, Barbee’s move to Central Michigan to take over as the program’s head coach hurt, just as it did when Justus signed on to become Bobby Hurley’s top assistant at Arizona State. Barbee was Hickman’s lead recruiter, and Justus was right in the thick of things during the heat of his recruitment, as well.
“The connection with Tony Barbee, the rapport he developed with the coaching staff, that definitely had something to do with it,” Hickman’s father, Nolan Hickman Sr., told KSR on Friday. “We love the entire staff, with Calipari as well, but with Tony being his lead recruiter and not being there, and then Joel (Justus) being his second recruiter, it just made things rough.”
When you dig below the surface, though, homesickness was a key factor – and maybe even the most significant – in Hickman’s decision to decommit from the program after committing just over eight months ago. Spending the past year at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah – nearly 1,000 miles away from his hometown of Kent, Washington – Hickman rarely got to see family, friends, classmates, and even teammates at times due to COVID-19.
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