Cade, Paolo, Zion, Barrett, Reddish, Wiggins, Jaylen Brown, Bagler, Carter, Chandler. I can keep going if you want.
Different stories behind each guy:
Wiggins for the Adidas Signing Bonus and All Star Circuit ended the likelihood of UK with him not connecting with UK signees. $2.5M signing bonus from Adidas is hard to pass up.
Cade would've been Kentucky but we all know the brother at Oklahoma State angle.
Zion was not going to UK and at no point did Cats ever "lose him". Only thing you could link to Kentucky would be his comments he'd end up where Immanuel Quickley went, but never had any UK buzz/feel around it aside from those comments made during an Italy trip of Adidas players. Kids say things like that all the time--and look at Chandler/Banchero as proof how often it happens. Now you want to notice the common theme in breaking up the package deal, that seems obvious. lol
RJ Barrett was one I had several members here get upset when I reported he would not be a Cat and had eliminated him shortly after his official visit. Got word from friend and it was best for both parties. People really got angry about that, but like I said, if I hear something, I pass it on and that was 100% true. He was a Duke lean.
Cam Reddish and Wendell Carter were never considering anything but a Duke leans.
Kennedy Chandler was recruited by UK more for his connection with Paolo Banchero. They land Sallis, it's an upgrade and win for UK. I think Sallis is a better '21 guard prospect. Chandler is a fine player, but this isn't one I'd place as a huge L. Unless.......
You choose to connect it to Paolo Banchero's decision today. Again, I never had a great feel for this recruitment and didn't hear much about it. I know that I never felt Tennessee was leading and felt UK was in better position at this time a year ago then now, but him selecting Duke stings for certain because there's not a lot of talented bigs out there. Duke is likely landing Patrick Baldwin Jr in addition to AJ Griffin so the #1 class is pretty well locked up for them in '21. If Baldwin Jr didn't select Duke it would be stunning to me.
Jaylen Brown was directed to Cal by Shareef Abdur Rahim--who also attended Wheeler HS in Marietta, GA and went to Cal. He was an Agent at the time and this was how they got him to go there instead of UK-which proved to be a big blow as he was missing piece on that '16 team, the '15 class.
Bagley Jr wasn't going to be a Cat--a lot of ties to Durham family wise and it was more of an Arizona/Duke battle with Nike wanting him eligible--once he left Ayton's school it was obvious he wasn't going to end up at Arizona.
UK took an L today, but this one doesn't hurt as badly as knowing you had Wiseman, Cunningham locked up only for circumstances to change late in the recruitment (Penny/Brother). Or guys like Dante/Cisse being directed elsewhere without them having any say in the matter.