Kentucky was on a list of possible programs who could be recruiting USC’s Desmond Claude following the latest news regarding him in the NCAA Transfer Portal. However, a pair of insiders have since refuted that.
On3’s Joe Tipton tweeted the latest regarding Claude, per sources, and any possible involvement with him by Kentucky on Monday evening. He posted that UK “isn’t expected” to be recruiting Claude in response to similar notes by KSR’s Jacob Polachecktonight.
“Kentucky isn’t expected to be involved in the recruitment of USC transfer Desmond Claude, sources tell @On3sports,” Tipton posted. “As Polacheck writes here, I don’t expect anything materialize between Claude and UK.”
Several reports came out on Monday regarding Claude’s recruitment in the portal. Florida was projecting as a favorite coming off his visit to Gainesville to end last week. However, Florida as well as North Carolinaare both apparently out of his recruitment or at least aren’t as involved as they previously were. With that, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello released a list of teams that Claude has heard from since including Kentucky as well as Gonzaga, Duke, Virginia, and Ole Miss.
Claude is one of the top available players remaining in the NCAA Transfer Portal after entering on the final day of the cycle. He, per the latest update to On3’s Industry Rankingof 2025’s Top Transfer Portal Players, rates at No. 24 overall as the No. 8 PG, which makes him the sixth-best player and second-best point guard still uncommitted to this point
