Mark Pope and his staff grabbed their fourth transfer portal commit on Tuesday morning as On3 Sports reported that five-star Arizona State transfer Jayden Quaintance has committed to Kentucky.
Quaintance, a rising sophomore, was originally committed to Kentucky back in 2023, but decided to reopen his recruitment and commit to Arizona State following the departure of former long-tenured Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari.
As a freshman this past season, through 24 games played, the 6-foot-9 forward averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game on 52.5% shooting from the field, also registering 2.6 blocks and 1.1 steals per night.
Quaintance’s season-best scoring performance came on Jan. 14 in the Sun Devils’ 95-89 loss to Central Florida (UCF) when he reached 20 points. The Cleveland, Ohio, native tallied two season-high 14-rebound performances on Nov. 17 against St. Thomas-Minnesota and on Jan. 18 against Cincinnati.
He is entering Lexington with a pretty significant injury, suffering a torn ACL on Feb. 23 against Kansas State, which later on required surgery.
Quaintance’s dad told ESPN that, “He’s already ahead of schedule, the doctor says, and should be cleared for contact in September.”
The 17 year-old now joins a Wildcat transfer class that currently hosts Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe and Mouhamed Dioubate.
