Justin Edwards is off to a slow start at Kentucky. What comes next for the star recruit?
Five games into Justin Edwards’ college career, the results haven’t been befitting the expectations that preceded his Kentucky basketball arrival.
Edwards came to campus ranked as high as No. 1 on some 2024 NBA draft boards. He had spent the previous year or so firmly in the discussion for the No. 1 recruiting ranking in his class. A 6-foot-8 wing with an ability to shoot, drive and defend, Edwards was seemingly exactly what NBA teams would be looking for after the college basketball season was finished.
And he still is. It just hasn’t come as quickly as some surely hoped it would.
“I learned a lot,” Edwards said Wednesday of his first five games at Kentucky.
It’s not that Edwards has been playing poorly. He’s averaging 10.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. He’s made 63% of his 2-point shots. He’s come up with some big plays in key moments. That all sounds pretty good for a college freshman. But — relative to the sky-high expectations attached to his name — the 19-year-old hasn’t yet shown what he’s fully capable of doing on the court with any kind of consistency. And in this world where expectations need to be realized immediately, falling short — even after just five games — leads to questions.
John Calipari and his coaching staff have made it clear, however, that there are no questions on their end. “He’s learning,” Calipari said while talking about Edwards after UK defeated Saint Joseph’s in overtime Monday, and that’s a process that will continue to play out all season long.
Like freshman teammate D.J. Wagner — another projected NBA lottery pick off to a relatively slow start — Edwards is still navigating his way through a brand-new basketball terrain.
The reality hit him quickly.
Edwards knew the next level was going to be faster and more physical. People had told him that. But until he was in the action himself, he couldn’t really understand. He compared the transition to the first time he played against older players on the Nike EYBL circuit — the premier basketball league at the grassroots level.
“When I played up in the EYBL, I’m like, ‘Dang, it’s fast as hell,’” he said of that experience.
Long proud of his defense — and praised for it by scouts and recruiting analysts — Edwards found a different caliber of opponent waiting for him in college. The stuff he could get away with in high school doesn’t fly up here. If his guy beat him back then, the athletic, 6-8 Edwards could recover.
“I would just go block the shot,” he said.
That’s no longer the case.
“If you get lazy, they’re gonna score,” Edwards said. “So you gotta be locked in the whole (possession) when you’re on defense.”
He added that he felt like he started off poorly as a college defender because he had to get used to that speed and shiftiness. He had to make more complex reads on top of it, fight through screens and keep track of multiple actions throughout a single possession.
Edwards feels like he’s already improved.
Calipari has also challenged the freshman to do other things around the court that might be able to move him past his (relative) offensive struggles. Crash the boards. Sprint to balls. Cut to the basket. Make plays that have nothing to do with scoring. And don’t get down on yourself.
That’s been another common theme with Calipari when talking about both Edwards and Wagner, two players that the UK coach says want to succeed so deeply that they can often be their own worst enemy. Calipari said after the Blue-White Game last month that he walked out on the court to meet Edwards after a run of missed shots. The message then is the message now.
“You keep shooting,” Calipari told him. “You have to mentally work your way through that. That’s being professional. You miss some — what’s your mindset? Stinkin’ thinkin’? Or can you overcome it?”
That night, Calipari said, the freshman overcame it. And he and his coaching staff clearly have no worries that Edwards will fail to live up to everyone’s expectations. Ask the head coach or an assistant if they’re concerned by the “slow” start, and you get not only a quick no but a look of almost confusion. It’s too early to worry. And that’s exactly what they’re telling Edwards off the court.
“They believe in me, and that it’s all going to come together,” he said. “That’s what Coach Cal’s been telling me. Just keep working.”
Edwards on the attack
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Edwards has started out this way.
He was billed as perhaps the highest-floor recruit in the 2023 class, but he’s also always been seen as such a “team guy” that he doesn’t allow himself to take over games in the way everyone knows he can. The prospect who was No. 1 on a lot of preseason NBA draft boards is No. 5 in shot attempts on his own team. Calipari has been trying to get Edwards to unleash more of that talent in a more direct way since he arrived on campus.
“He wants me to change the way I play,” Edwards told the Herald-Leader right before the season began. “He wants me to be more of an attacker. Probably my whole high school career, I would let the game come to me. He’s just making me be more assertive and being more aggressive toward the rim.”
It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s possible it doesn’t happen all season, especially with Edwards’ unselfish nature and the type of talent he has around him at UK.
“I think some kids just have that natural killer (instinct) in them, like a D.J. Wagner. And I would say Rob (Dillingham) has a little natural killer to him, too,” said 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham. “There’s others who just don’t. And I wouldn’t say Justin doesn’t have it, since he’s a bit of a jack of all trades. He can do some of everything where he can go out and get you 20 when needed, but he’s more naturally wired to just fill in the gaps and complement the talent around him.”
That can still be a winning combination for the Cats this season. Other guys have shown they can score, and Edwards will undoubtedly have big offensive games, too. The process Calipari often speaks of with young players of this potential doesn’t just hinge on one or two aspects of the game but the entire approach. Edwards is being groomed to be an NBA player with staying power. Becoming more of an offensive threat is just part of that.
Nearly every time Calipari talks at length about Edwards, it’s through the lens of preparing him for the next level, from his play on the court to his preparation two hours before the ball is tipped.
“The day of the game … your preparation has to be unbelievable — excellent, because you are playing to play great. Not just to play,” Calipari said Monday night. “So he’s learning. He had a great shootaround and he had a great warm-up and it led to the game he had.”
Edwards scored 12 points in 28 minutes — and did that while taking just six shots — in the win over Saint Joseph’s that night. It was far from a star turn, but it was a step in the right direction.
Maybe the breakout comes Friday night against Marshall, a traditionally fast-paced team that ranks among the highest-tempo squads in the country. When Edwards spoke to reporters Wednesday, the UK players hadn’t yet seen film of the Thundering Herd, and the freshman seemed dubious that they’d try to play a style like that against this Kentucky team that relishes in the run and gun. He smiled at the possibility of such a game.
Or maybe Edwards doesn’t blossom into a star for another week or another month or sometime else down the line. Five games in, there’s no ticking clock on that kind of progress.
UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua talked to the Herald-Leader in the preseason about the staff trying to get Edwards to attack more, step up the assertiveness, especially offensively. Antigua has coached enough future NBA draft picks to know it doesn’t always happen overnight, even with the guys at the very top of those lists. And he said Edwards wasn’t alone on this team in needing to take that kind of leap in his game. It’s not as easy as flipping a switch.
“I think — for all of them — it’s finding that balance and that rhythm of when to and when not to,” he said. “And that’s kind of the process when you’re playing in space. Being respectful of your teammates. And understanding when it is your time to attack and go make a play.”
Antigua went on to say that fellow freshman Reed Sheppard — who has been lauded for his situational awareness — was having the exact same issue at that time. He said Sheppard was “overpassing” at times, when the situation called for him to go make the play himself.
“And so they’re all trying to figure that out. And that’s exciting. Because when they get it …”
Antigua paused, smiled big and snapped his fingers. “You know.”
Friday
Marshall at No. 16 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Marshall 2-2, Kentucky 4-1
Series: Kentucky leads 12-0
Last meeting: Kentucky won 82-54 on Dec. 22, 2012, in Lexington
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