Kentucky men’s basketball making recruiting progress with Boozer twins, Darryn Peterson

The Kentucky men’s basketball program may only have one commit currently in the class of 2024, but the Wildcats are already making significant inroads with top prospects in the class of 2025.

Over the weekend, three top players in the 2025 recruiting group showed positive signs regarding their college recruitment by UK, including two players taking an official visit to come see the Wildcats.

Cameron, Cayden Boozer take official visits to UK

The most headline-worthy UK recruiting news came Friday afternoon with a report by Travis Branham of 247Sports that Cameron and Cayden Boozer were taking an official visit to Kentucky over the weekend.

Cameron and Cayden are the twin sons of former Duke college basketball star and NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, and have already built their own basketball legacies.

Cameron is a 6-foot-9 power forward, a consensus five-star prospect and the No. 1 ranked player in the 2025 recruiting class, per 247Sports.

Cayden is a 6-foot-3 point guard and the No. 17 ranked player in the 2025 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

Both Boozer twins play high school basketball at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami and on the Nike EYBL circuit with Nightrydas Elite.

While Cameron and Cayden have official visits scheduled in early November at Florida, this weekend’s trip to Lexington marked the first official visits of their recruitments. UK offered scholarships to both Cameron and Cayden in May.

Over the summer, the Herald-Leader watched both players in action at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam event, which also serves as a major hub of recruiting activity for college coaches.

Obviously, strong ties already exist between the Boozer family and Duke: Carlos was a three-year player at Duke and won the 2001 NCAA championship with the Blue Devils.

Additionally, hometown Miami is expected to be a major player in the recruitment of Cameron and Cayden, who each have a lengthy list of scholarship offers from top college programs.

Darryn Peterson includes Kentucky in list of top schools

While the Boozer twins were on their official visits to Kentucky, another top class of 2025 prospect made news by including the Wildcats in a list of his top college options.

Darryn Peterson — a 6-foot-5 shooting guard who is ranked as the No. 2 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class (behind Cameron Boozer) — released his top-16 list of college choices.

While this is a large list even by modern-day recruiting standards, UK made the cut, along with the following schools: Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and UCLA.

Peterson occupies a distinct place among Kentucky men’s basketball recruits: He was the first player in the class of 2025 to earn a scholarship offer from the Wildcats when one was extended to him in August 2022.

Originally from Ohio, Peterson’s father, Darryl, played at the University of Akron and is one of the top scorers in that school’s history.

But this summer, Darryn transferred from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Ohio to Huntington Prep in West Virginia, just a two-hour drive from Lexington.

In addition to former No. 1 overall NBA Draft selection Andrew Wiggins, some of Huntington Prep’s other top alumni include a pair of commonwealth college basketball stars: Gorgui Dieng (Louisville) and Keldon Johnson (Kentucky).

A step toward Peterson potentially following in their footsteps should come next month, as Peterson is expected to be at UK’s Big Blue Madness, the annual season kick-off event for the Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Kentucky basketball’s Big Blue Madness date is set. There won’t be a campout this year.