2024 McDonald’s All-American Game guide: What to watch for from future Kentucky players

For all the questions that still surround what will become of the 2024-25 Kentucky men’s basketball roster, this much is known: A trio of McDonald’s All-Americans are set to become Wildcats next season.

Guard Boogie Fland, small forward Karter Knox and center Jayden Quaintance have all been named Burger Boys this year, and are set to play in front of a national audience this week ahead of their arrival at Kentucky.

All three players will take part in Tuesday night’s McDonald’s All-American Game at the Toyota Center in Houston.

With three McDonald’s All-American selections, Kentucky has the most Burger Boys of any school in the nation.

The McDonald’s All-American girls game (which doesn’t have any Kentucky connections in it) will be at 6:30 p.m. and broadcast on ESPN2, with the boys game immediately following on ESPN at 9 p.m.

Last year’s highly competitive game featured four members of Kentucky’s freshman class this season: Aaron Bradshaw, Justin Edwards, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner, who took home MVP honors.

It also happened to be the event where Bradshaw suffered a foot injury that eventually necessitated a medical procedure, which threw a wrench in Bradshaw’s offseason development and kept him from making his UK basketball debut until early December.

Head coach John Calipari will certainly be hoping for a clean bill of health for Fland, Knox and Quaintance on Tuesday night: They represent half of Kentucky’s incoming six-player freshman class for next season.

Fland and Quaintance will both be on the East team for Tuesday night’s game, while Knox is on the West team.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of Tuesday night’s McDonald’s All-American Game featuring the three future Wildcats.

Fland and Quaintance have both already signed their national letters of intent to come to Kentucky. Guard Travis Perry and center Somto Cyril have also signed their national letters of intent.

Knox (who committed to Kentucky in March) and wing Billy Richmond (who committed to Kentucky in December) are expected to sign their national letters of intent later this spring. The spring signing period begins April 17.

Each UK basketball McDonald’s All-American brings distinct skills

Something distinct about this year’s group of McDonald’s All-Americans for Kentucky is that each of them plays a different position and brings significantly different skills to the court.

Fland, a 6-foot-2 guard from just outside New York City, is a three-level scorer who can make shots from long range and is an active defender.

As just the second player to commit to Kentucky in this 2024 recruiting class, Fland (who committed to UK over Alabama and Indiana in October) helped set the table for what became another highly regarded group of freshmen for Calipari.

Fland is also not shrinking from the expectations that will be placed on UK next season after another quick NCAA Tournament exit last month.

“There’s always pressure coming into a new situation, but we all definitely feel it after how this season ended,” Fland told Yahoo Sports this week. “We have to go in there with the mindset that we’re not freshmen. The big thing for us is we need to make it about the team’s success first. We all want to reach that next level and make the NBA. The key is to not skip steps and really buy into what Coach Cal says and do whatever is necessary to win.”

Knox, a 6-6 small forward out of the Overtime Elite (OTE) program in Atlanta, is a high-volume scorer who has spent his final prep season at OTE working to improve his shot selection and defensive motor.

Knox is a younger brother of Kevin Knox, the former UK one-and-done star and NBA draft lottery pick. Kevin Knox was also a McDonald’s All-American in 2017 prior to his lone season in Lexington.

Quaintance, a 6-9 big man from the same North Carolina school that produced UK one-and-done star John Wall, may prove to be the player with the most upside from this year’s crop of UK freshmen. He’s a modern basketball big with the versatility to play on the perimeter and create.

Quaintance is 16 years old and won’t turn 17 until July, and he isn’t eligible for the NBA draft until the 2026 edition. This sets up for Quaintance to be a two-year player at UK.

It also sets up for history to be made Tuesday, with Quaintance set to become the youngest McDonald’s All American in the game’s history (since 1977).

Kentucky basketball continues to dominate in All-American recruiting

Say what you will about the on-court results, but it can’t be disputed that Calipari continues to excel when it comes to recruiting the most talented players out of the high school ranks.

With Fland, Knox and Quaintance all among the 24 boys McDonald’s All-Americans this year, Calipari has continued his run of recruiting success at UK.

Since John Calipari took over the UK men’s basketball program in 2009, Kentucky has now landed 47 McDonald’s All-Americans out of high school. This is the most of any school in the country during this period. Overall, since the game began in 1977, Kentucky has landed 79 McDonald’s All-Americans.

The high points of Calipari’s tenure as UK head coach have been shaped by players who were named Burger Boys. Kentucky’s 2012 national title team featured six players who were named McDonald’s All-Americans as high schoolers: Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer, and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb. In 2013, Calipari brought six McDonald’s All-Americans to Lexington (Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Julius Randle, James Young).

Of course, the 2023-24 Kentucky team — one of the most exciting UK teams in modern history, but also a group that failed to win a single postseason game — featured four Burger Boys who played in this game last year.

Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class, which is led by the additions of Fland, Knox and Quaintance, is ranked second in the nation according to the 247Sports team rankings, behind only Duke.

Kentucky is one of five schools with multiple McDonald’s All-American selections this year: The others are Alabama, Duke, North Carolina and Rutgers.

MCDONALD’S ALL-AMERICAN BOYS ROSTER

East team: Jalil Bethea (Miami, Fla.), John Bol (Ole Miss), Isaiah Evans (Duke), Cooper Flagg (Duke), Boogie Fland (Kentucky), Ian Jackson (North Carolina), Liam McNeeley (uncommitted), Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn), Drake Powell (North Carolina), Jayden Quaintance (Kentucky), Derik Queen (Maryland), Bryson Tucker (Indiana).

West team: Ace Bailey (Rutgers), Flory Bidunga (Kansas), Carter Bryant (Arizona), Zoom Diallo (Washington), VJ Edgecombe (Baylor), Donavan Freeman (Syracuse), Dylan Harper (Rutgers), Tre Johnson (Texas), Karter Knox (Kentucky), Trent Perry (Southern California), Derrion Reid (Alabama), Aiden Sherrell (Alabama).

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