photo by: Journal-World illustration

University of Kansas basketball recruiting

Prep point guard Tyty Washington committed to the University of Kentucky via social media just after 8 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Washington chose John Calipari’s Wildcats over Kansas, Arizona and LSU.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to come to Kentucky and chase my dreams,” Washington said in a Kentucky news release. “Coach Cal told me if you come to Kentucky, you bet on your-self, and I’ve always done that.”

One of the hottest remaining uncommitted players in the 2021 recruiting class, the 6-foot-4 point guard from Compass Prep in Phoenix cracked the top 20 and five-star status in both of the updated ESPN and 247 Sports rankings.

Analysts at Rivals.com also recently predicted that the talented guard would become a five-star prospect in their final 2021 update, as well.

Originally committed to Creighton, Washington backed out of that commitment in March and quickly narrowed his list to his final four and Kansas appeared to be firmly in the running throughout the past several weeks.

The newest Wildcat was expected to announce his decision on Saturday but pushed the announcement up to Wednesday night.

KU, which still has one scholarship to hand out, remains in the running for Georgia point guard Sahvir Wheeler and may also pursue Kentucky transfer Nolan Hickman and Arizona State transfer Remy Martin. KU heavily recruited both players while they were in high school.

In addition to looking for a new school for the 2021-22 season, Wheeler and Martin are also testing their NBA draft stock like KU’s Ochai Agbaji and Jalen Wilson.