No way was Jayden Quaintance going to pass up a second chance to play basketball at the University of Kentucky.

The 6-foot-10 Quaintance planned to play at Kentucky for coach John Calipari, but instead ended up at Arizona State for the 2024-25 season after Calipari left UK for Arkansas.

“We always liked Kentucky,” said Haminn Quaintance, Jayden’s father. “We were always hoping it might work out so they would recruit him again.”

That didn’t happen when Mark Pope got the UK job after Calipari left, but when Quaintance put his name into the transfer portal one of the first coaches to reach out was Pope.

“Jayden is a 17-year-old phenom who is as explosive as he is skilled, and he is just scratching the surface of what he’s going to become in this game,” Pope said. “He’s an incredibly bright kid who is already postering anyone in Big Blue Nation in a game of chess and he and his family couldn’t be more excited to finally get to wear the blue and white.”

Obviously, Kentucky was not the only school to reach out but Kentucky had one edge. Signee Jasper Johnson, a Kentucky native, and Quaintance played on the same AAU team and kept a good relationship.

“They set (Nike) EYBL on fire. They like each other and competing with each other,” Haminn Quaintance said. “Jasper talked to the (UK) coaching staff about Jayden. They were talking and that did definitely influence the decision (about coming to UK).

“We were locked into Kentucky before the Cal thing happened. We felt a part of it. Jayden always loved UK. We just wanted to be there and they wanted us to be there. We didn’t have to do another visit.”

Quaintance averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game last season when he shot 52.5% from the field. He was named to the Big 12 Conference All-Freshman and All-Defensive teams. He started all 24 games and averaged 29.7 minutes per contest. His 63 blocks combined with 27 steals made Quaintance the only player in the country to reach a combined 90 blocks and steals in fewer than 25 games last season.

He was also the youngest player in college basketball last season and only two players on this year’s McDonald’s All-American Team were younger than Quaintance.

The family didn’t want to “drag out” a decision because Haminn Quaintance thought that might only make the choice more confusing.

“It was already so hard with the Auburn situation. I was impressed with Kentucky. So was he. Kentucky already felt like home. I didn’t want to have a school like (national champion) Florida call or another school that I might really like calls,” Haminn Quaintance said. “It’s just too much and too many hard decisions. When you already have a school you like, you do not need another one complicating the decision because my phone was on fire. There was just no need to drag it out.”

Despite the numbers Jayden Quaintance had at Arizona State, his father never felt the system was the best fit for his son.

“It was guard ball. He could dominate at times, but the system just did not utilize his playmaking ability,” Haminn Quaintance said. “They just didn’t have an emphasis on getting the ball in the post even when we had mismatches. He’s up to about 250 (pounds) or so now. He looks big, but to me he is still slim and can get bigger.

“I feel like what Pope does is made for him. I know what he can do and he’ll have a chance to grow his game at Kentucky. I saw Kentucky play some last year. They are one of my favorite teams and I would get an alert (on my phone) when they played. When Pope called, I knew exactly what he was talking about with his team. He plays his bigs similar to how I played. Pope likes his passing ability and ball handling. He likes he can guard one through five.”

Quaintance is already being projected as a top-10 pick in the 2026 NBA draft even though he suffered a knee injury in February and had surgery on March 19 to repair his torn ACL.

“If everything goes as planned, being ready when the season starts is the goal. I really think that is going to happen,” Quaintance’s father said. “He is attacking rehab. We expect to be back in time for the start of the season. Jayden will do the work to make sure that happens.”

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For as long as he can remember, Kentucky quarterback commit DJ Hunter of Knoxville, Tennessee, has had a football in his hand and grew into loving football.

His father, Deveyon, started his collegiate career at Eastern Kentucky before later transferring to two other schools.

“We tried basketball and a little bit of tee-ball, but they just were not football,” the 6-1, 190-pound Hunter said. “Dad realized when I was about 6 that I had a chance to be pretty good. I could always throw the ball pretty far.”

Hunter, a sophomore, estimates he can comfortably throw the ball 60 yards now. He’s considered a dual-threat quarterback, but says he is more on the “passing side” of the pass-run quarterback.

“The UK coaches came out to school to see me in early January. They wanted to see me and they offered (a scholarship), which surprised me a little bit. From then on they really recruited me hard,” Hunter said. “I already had other offers. My first offer came last summer from Virginia Tech.”

Hunter thought it was easy to tell that Kentucky offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan was “really interested” in him quickly in the recruiting process.

“He told me I was the top guy on their (recruiting) board and I felt he was the coach that could get me to the next level,” Hunter said. “He is a good person and I just like him. I just felt Kentucky was the right place for me.”

Hunter and his father had talks last summer about committing early once the right offer came along. When the Kentucky offer came in January, that’s when the Hunters got serious about possibly committing even though he’s just a sophomore.

“My father has always been able to push me to make me better. He has been very hard on me at times,” Hunter said. “He always asks me if going to the next level is what I want and when I say yes, then he tells me what I need to do to make that happen.”

He played his freshman season in Mississippi before the family moved to Knoxville, where he played for Bearden High School last season. He completed 76 of 142 passes for 1,431 yards and nine scores and ran for three scores in eight games before a knee injury ended his season.

“I tore my ACL in November and am rehabbing now,” Hunter said. “I had surgery on Jan. 4. I have already been back working out in the weight room and I will be fully cleared for fall camp in late July.”

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New Kentucky volleyball assistant coach Amaya Tillman earned All-American honors playing for Louisville and helped the Cardinals reach the Final Four her senior season. Since Tillman was from Kansas, she knew former UK star Madison Lilley, a Kansas native who led UK to the 2020 national championship and was named the nation’s best player.

“I played against Madison a lot, and we actually played for the same club but not on the same team, but for the same club since she was a couple years older than me,” Tillman said. “I played against her in practice when our teams would scrimmage.

“I always looked up to the way she played and how competitive of a player she was. We were never super close, but she was always someone that I could look up to, especially being in the Kansas City area.”

Tillman followed Lilley’s All-American career at Kentucky, but never seriously considered playing at Kentucky. She didn’t even visit UK during her recruiting process even though UK coach Craig Skinner “definitely” reached out to her.

“I went on a bunch of visits. Louisville wasn’t even one of my last visits. It’s the only ACC school I visited. I thought I was going to go to Kansas. I wanted to commit there when I was younger,” Tillman said.

Instead, when Nebraska assistant coach Dani Busboom Kelly became the new head coach at Louisville, she did visit Louisville and liked it more than she anticipated.

“I still didn’t want to go to an ACC school, but that conference wasn’t like it is now,” Tillman said. “She told me it was a hidden gem and I did really like it, so I went there and it was definitely the right decision for me but now I am very, very happy to be at Kentucky.”

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Kentucky associate coach Vince Marrow still remembers the call the UK football coaching staff got encouraging them to consider recruiting quarterback Zach Calzada, who started his college football career at Texas A&M in 2019 for three years, spent the next season at Auburn and the last two years played at Incarnate Word.

Calzada has completed 731 of 1,163 passes for 8,707 yards and 73 touchdowns with 28 interceptions in his collegiate career. He has also rushed 179 times for 381 yards and 11 scores. He’s also 23-9 as a starting college quarterback.

That led to head coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and other UK coaches watching film of Calzada.

“We really liked this kid. You start doing more research on him. He was a big-time kid coming out of high school who went to A&M and won four or five SEC games as a redshirt freshman. He’s a very mature guy and we really liked him,” Marrow said.

“He’s a big kid, but he can also move. That’s what I love about him. He just had the command and understanding that it takes to be a leader.”

Marrow also likes what redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley offers.

“I really like Cutter. Cutter is a big dude too. I was looking at him the other day and how he has grown,” Marrow said. “He’s a big dude and it is going to be interesting. We have two good freshmen (Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward) that we brought in at quarterback, but I really like what we got with Cutter and Zach.”

Marrow likes Calzada’s physical and mental toughness.

“It says a lot when you drop down a level to play,” Marrow said. “Then they come back hungry to show what they can do when they get a second chance. That’s why I think Zach is really gonna surprise a lot of people.”

Hamdan knows Calzada’s athleticism will continue to surprise many who have not seen him play regularly.

“Naturally, he’s got a big arm. For him, it’s going to be the accuracy and taking a little bit off of it at times to throw a catchable ball,” Hamdan said. “He’s a big, strong, physical kid. He likes making big plays. It’s always going to come down to decision-making and accuracy, and that’s what we’re striving for him to do.”

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Quote of the Week: “Her dad’s side of the family is from Lexington. Her dad went to Henry Clay (high school). Her grandmother lives in the Chevy Chase area. She has a lot of relatives in Lexington,” Dayna McGrath Gilvin on her daughter, Josie Gilvin, transferring from Western Kentucky to play basketball at Kentucky.

Quote of the Week 2: “He is a special young man who is a perfect fit for the way we play. He is a ballhandling, decision-making, physical, competitor. He can play and guard all five positions and has a presence as a point forward, which makes him uniquely suited to play for us,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope, on Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate.

Quote of the Week 3: “I feel like I’ve gotten better with my assignments, especially blocking and just making plays outside on the perimeter and getting my depth on certain routes and just making big plays. I’ve been able to make some big plays. Been able to prove that I can definitely be a big-time guy. I feel like that’s definitely what I came here for,” freshman receiver DJ Miller, on how spring practice helped him.