Nolan Hickman Got Homesick, Left Kentucky — Would He Consider UW?
Elite point guard Nolan Hickman is homesick, enough so that he won't be playing his college basketball for Kentucky this season. The 6-foot-2 playmaker surprised the college basketball world by de-committing from John Calipari's program within a few weeks or reporting to the blue-blood program.
Home would be the Seattle suburbs, Kent for his family residence and Sammamish where he played most of his high school basketball.
So the obvious question to ask is where does a homesick, 4-star player go from here?
Does he shorten his commute from home to about 20 miles — say, to the University of Washington?
Or simply return to the West Coast, to some place such as Tucson or Spokane, where he can catch a direct flight any time he wants?
“Honestly, we don’t even have a plan, but I assume [he’ll want to stay home]," his father, Nolan Hickman Sr., told Kentucky Sports Radio. "If I had to say anything, he would probably be staying close to home. I don’t know if it’ll be at home or how far he’ll go, but it’ll probably have to be a straight flight wherever he is for us to reach him, for sure.”
Hickman, who became a 4-star recruit while at Eastside Catholic High School, had Washington among his possible schools the first time he went through recruitment, along with Arizona, Kansas and UCLA, and a host of others. Husky assistant Will Conroy was recruiting him.
While the Huskies have suffered through a couple of down seasons, coach Mike Hopkins and his staff seem creative in nearly totally restocking a roster responsible for the most recent 5-21 season.
He's signed transfers in guard Terrell Brown from Arizona and 6-foot-7 Emmitt Matthews from West Virginia, as well 6-foot-8 Samuel Ariyibi from the NBA Africa Academy and 6-foot-8 junior-college forward Langton Wilson, who recently backed out of a commitment to Alabama.
After spending a season at Utah's Wasatch Academy, a thousand miles away from the Seattle area, Hickman expressed to his father the pandemic mixed with long miles from home was took too much to handle and he was backing out of Kentucky.
Hickman also was close with Wildcats assistant coach Tony Barbee, who left to become the head coach at Central Michigan. Losing him clearly affected the point guard, robbing him of some of support system.
“He was like, 'Dad, I can’t do it to myself,' " Hickman's father said. "More and more, he just felt like he didn’t want to be away. He’s actually home for the week, and he was like, 'I really have to think some things through. I can’t go through this again, being away, separated from you guys and family.' That’s how we got to this.”
Sports Illustrated has the following story on Hickman and the idea that more elite college basketball recruits may switch schools.
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