ATLANTA – Kentucky men’s basketball signees BJ Boston and Terrence Clarke were among the honorees of the 2020 Jersey Mike’s Naismith National High School All-America teams announced on Tuesday. Boston is one five players selected to the first team, while Clarke was an Honorable Mention All-Senior First Team recipient.
Boston was also one of five finalists for the 2020 Naismith High School Trophy awarded to the nation’s top player each year. Both Boston and Clarke have been selected to play in the premier prep events this spring in the McDonald’s All American Game, the Jordan Brand Classic and the Iverson Roundball Classic.
At 6-foot-7, 185 pounds, Boston is a consensus five-star prospect who is playing at Sierra Canyon High School (Chatsworth, California) for his senior season. Last summer, playing alongside and against some of the best players in the country, Boston averaged 22.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game in the Nike EYBL circuit.
“BJ is one of the best basketball players in the country,” UK head coach John Calipari said in the fall at the time of his signing. “He can score from anywhere on the floor with his length and his athleticism and he finishes really well in traffic. He’s versatile enough to play two or three positions. On top of BJ’s basketball ability, what I love about him is he wants to play with other great players. He’s already doing that on the high school level and wanted the challenge of competing with and against the best every day in practice here.”
Boston is considered one of the top shooting guards in the class and is ranked as high as No. 4 overall by Rivals. He earned 2018-19 MaxPreps Boys Basketball Junior All-American Team Honorable Mention distinction after averaging 18.4 points, 5.4 rebounds 1.9 steals while leading his previous high school in Norcross, Georgia, to the state semifinals last season.
Like Boston, Clarke is 6-7 and 185 pounds. The consensus five-star prospect from Boston is playing his high school ball at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire and enjoyed a sensational summer season. Playing in the Nike EYBL, Clarke showed he’s one of the game’s best young scorers with a 16.2 average to go along with 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Not only will he be an early favorite to score the basketball for Kentucky next season, but he also has the tools to be a shutdown defender.
“Terrence is one of the most talented basketball players in the country regardless of class,” Calipari said after Clarke’s signing. “He has a toughness to him that the Big Blue Nation is going to really love. When he came on his visit, he saw firsthand the type of effort and work we expect of our players and immediately decided this was the type of environment he wanted to be in. Terrence has all the tools you look for in a kid: length, athleticism, toughness and a high basketball IQ. I’m looking forward to coaching him.”
247 Sports rates Clarke as the No. 4 overall prospect in the class with Rivals assigning him the No. 5 overall rating.
UK’s current signing haul, which also includes Devin Askew, Cam’Ron Fletcher, Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware is in the mix for one of the top classes in the nation yet again. ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports currently rank UK’s class No. 1.
In every season in the Calipari era, the Wildcats have signed a top-three recruiting class according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, which tallies major recruiting rankings and plugs them into a formula to calculate a consensus ranking. With the fall additions, Kentucky has signed 59 top-50 recruits, 46 top-25 players and 25 top-10 players (according to Rivals) in what will now be Calipari’s 12 recruiting classes at Kentucky.
The current Wildcats return to action on Friday when they begin play at the Southeastern Conference Tournament. UK will take on the winner of Alabama and Tennessee at 1 p.m. ET on Friday inside Bridgestone Arena. The game will air live on ESPN.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.