Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats Land 5-Star C Jayden Quaintance

Kentucky continues to rack up big 2024 commits as they landed a commitment from 2024 Five-Star Center Jayden Quaintance out of North Carolina on Tuesday.

Quaintance, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, plays for the Word of God Christian Academy in North Carolina. He chose Kentucky over fellow finalist Missouri.

5-star C Jayden Quaintance commits to Kentucky

Quaintance is a consensus Five-Star prospect, and a consensus top-15 player in the class. He is ranked No. 4 in the class by On3, No. 9 by 247, No. 11 by Rivals, and No. 14 by ESPN. Both the On3 and 247 Composite rankings have him as the No. 8 overall prospect and No. 2 center in the class.

The 6’9 (listed by some at 6’10) center averaged 15.4 PPG,10.9 RPG, and 3.5 BPG last year on 54.2% shooting across 15 games for the Holy Rams in the Overtime Elite League. He also played for the Team USA U16 team over the summer at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship where he averaged 6.7 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 2.8 BPG for the gold medal winning Team USA team.

Quaintance has a fantastic 7’3 wingspan and is a very confident and explosive player. He dunks a lot, but is also developing a strong jump-shot and can play well off the dribble.

Quaintance reclassified from the class of 2025 to 2024. With the move, and due to his birthdate (turned 16 in July), Quaintance is ineligible to be a one-and-done prospect, and thus will spend two seasons in Lexington.

He’s such an intriguing prospect because of the mix of where he already is as a player combined with being just 16.5 years old, and the fact that he’ll be at least a two-year player at Kentucky (barring any changes in the one-and-done rules that don’t seem close to happening at this point).

Kentucky was a little late getting rolling in the 2024 class, but the Wildcats have now added two five-stars in the last three weeks. Kentucky added 5-star CG Boogie Fland (No. 20 ranked prospect according to 247’s composite) at the end of October. Quaintance and Fland join 4-stars Somto Cyril (No. 68 prospect) and Travis Petty (No. 70) as the four players currently in Kentucky’s class that now ranks as the No. 2 class in the nation (trailing only Duke).