UK basketball has become the top school for Overtime Elite players. Is Bryson Tiller next?

The Kentucky men’s basketball program is betting big on the potential success of Overtime Elite (OTE), an Atlanta-based professional basketball league.

In next to no time, UK has established itself as the go-to college destination for OTE athletes who are “scholarship players,” which means they have passed up a salary in order to retain their NCAA eligibility.

A pair of OTE-to-UK players are already in Lexington, as freshmen Jordan Burks and Rob Dillingham both spent part of their prep careers at Overtime Elite.

The only class of 2024 player currently committed to Kentucky, center Somto Cyril, is set to spend a second season in OTE’s 24-7 basketball environment, which is located in Atlanta’s Atlantic Station neighborhood.

Additionally, fellow class of 2024 recruit small forward Karter Knox knows plenty about UK from his older brother Kevin’s one-and-done success story in Lexington. Karter recently moved to Overtime Elite for his final prep season.

Jayden Quaintance, a center who recently reclassified from the 2025 to 2024 recruiting group, plays his prep basketball at Word Of God Christian Academy, the same school that John Wall attended. Word of God is currently part of the OTE league.

Both Knox and Quaintance hold UK scholarship offers. Knox officially visited UK for last year’s Big Blue Madness. Quaintance will be taking an official visit to Lexington on Oct. 20, according to 247Sports national basketball analyst Travis Branham.

Simply put, John Calipari and the Cats are believers in the Overtime Elite setup, and the way it can prepare top players for what’s to come at the college level.

It’s not hard to see another future star who could have the chance to continue this connection between Kentucky and OTE.

Bryson Tiller — who shares the same name as the Louisville-born music artist — is a consensus five-star recruit in the 2025 recruiting class.

A 6-foot-8, 210-pound power forward, Tiller ranks as the No. 5 overall player in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite.

Tiller joined Overtime Elite in July 2022 and holds a place in history as the first sophomore to sign with the league.

His first season at OTE helps explain why Tiller’s college recruitment has become a battle between brand-name schools: Tiller spent time with both the Cold Hearts and City Reapers teams last season at OTE, which means he was teammates with the likes of Dillingham and Amen and Ausar Thompson, the twin brothers who were both lottery picks in June’s NBA Draft.

Tiller won the OTE championship with the Thompson twins and City Reapers. In addition to averaging 11.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game during the regular season, Tiller produced a 15-point, eight-rebound effort in the championship-clinching game.

“It was a great experience playing with older guys, very high competition level,” Tiller told the Herald-Leader this month during the Under Armour Next Elite 24 event in Atlanta.

“I was in the gym a lot, working on my craft every day. That showed toward the end of the season more.”

Unsurprisingly, Tiller counts plenty of top college basketball programs in his offer list: Alabama, Auburn, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Southern California, Villanova and Virginia are just a few of the schools with a scholarship offer out to him.

Notably, Kentucky is not among this group — yet.

Tiller told the Herald-Leader that UK has reached out to him and conversations are ongoing between he and the UK program.

June 15 was the first day college coaches could make unlimited calls and send unlimited text messages to class of 2025 recruits.

“Great school, really rich history,” Tiller said of UK. “Just looking to further build a relationship with them, as (I am) with all schools that are contacting me.”

Tiller’s college recruitment has largely been kept under wraps, and he’s yet to take any official visits. No scheduled official visits have been reported yet for him.

“Me and my family are just looking to take things slow right now, just find the school that best fits me and we’ll just go from there,” Tiller said.

Kentucky currently has eight scholarship offers out in the class of 2025, reflective of Calipari’s new, early approach to recruiting that was first on display with UK’s efforts in the 2024 recruiting group.

But for Tiller — who still has two seasons left at Overtime Elite — he has his own focus areas to work on in order to maintain his spot as a highly regarded class of 2025 recruit.

Becoming a more confident player, finding more consistency with his jump shot and developing as a leader at both ends of the court were three areas of improvement Tiller said he will be focusing on in the coming years.

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