Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats hoping for Jacob Toppin’s development

Kentucky Basketball snagged Jacob Toppin as a transfer on Thursday, though name recognition likely played a big part in that.

Obi Toppin developed into the National Player of the Year this season and will almost surely be a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. But he never had the opportunity to play for Kentucky Basketball, an iconic role his brother Jacob Toppin will take on.

Jacob Toppin announced his decision to transfer to Kentucky on Thursday afternoon, capping a strange day in the sport of college basketball after Jalen Green chose to forego college hoops altogether, leading to proclamations of doom and gloom for the NCAA. He chose the Wildcats over interest from Oregon and Iowa State.

The amount of interest in the forward was surprising, considering his output with Rhode Island was nothing special during his freshman season. Toppin averaged 18.5 minutes per game but started in just three games. He averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, shooting 42.6 percent from the field (though just 24.5 percent from three-point range).

With little to show from his freshman season – through no fault of his own, as the Rams were one of the top three teams in the Atlantic 10 – John Calipari and the Wildcats are going to be banking on Toppin’s potential. Everyone will be making the comparison to the older brother, but comparing Jacob to Obi just isn’t fair. While not the sensation he was in 2019-20, Obi Toppin was a solid player as a freshman – he’s also simply bigger and stronger than his younger brother.

A more apt comparison might be someone like former Wildcat Wenyen Gabriel. He started many more games than Jacob Toppin did during his respective freshman season, averaging 4.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. He averaged a comparable 17.7 minutes per game, shooting 31.7 percent from three.

During his sophomore season in 2017-18, Gabriel started fewer games than he did during his freshman campaign, a function of the constant stream of young talent flowing into Lexington. He saw a slight improvement in his numbers, averaging 6.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while seeing a big improvement in his three-point shooting; he declared for the NBA Draft after that season and has played 28 games in the league so far, despite going undrafted.

It’s hard to envision what kind of role Toppin will play with the Wildcats when he becomes eligible, assuming he’ll have to sit out the 2020-21 season under the current transfer rules. Calipari is always bringing in prized recruits across the positional landscape, so Toppin will likely come off the bench as a sophomore, barring a big step forward in his development during the gap year. Kentucky currently has offers out to two small forwards and two power forwards in the Class of 2021, including Jonathan Kuminga, 247 Sports’ top overall prospect of the class.

If Jacob Toppin shows any of the dynamic play that made Obi Toppin the best player in college basketball, Kentucky will be in great shape for several years. Otherwise, the Wildcats hope they’ve simply scored a solid piece to their rotation and a player who will become a rare veteran voice for the program.