Briscoe will bring confidence to UK
Because so much of the spring recruiting season for the Kentucky basketball team focused on who the Wildcats didn't land, UK fans shouldn't lose sight of the high-level recruits the Cats secured months ago, including physical, skilled and supremely confident point guard Isaiah Briscoe.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound star from Roselle, N.J., will bring a high school resume to Lexington next season as impressive as any recruit in his class. He'll also bring a swagger, competitive edge and plenty of trash talking.
"I've never second-guessed myself, never short-changed myself," Briscoe said this spring. "I am who I am. I feel as though I'm the best player, and I think everybody should feel like that. But unfortunately everybody doesn't think like that. I was just brought up that way, and my confidence is always sky-high regardless of what I'm doing."
Considered a top-15 prospect nationally and arguably the top point guard in 2015, Briscoe's high school career included success upon success. He led Roselle Catholic High School to New Jersey's all-divisions Tournament of Champions title. Last summer he won a gold medal with USA Basketball and led his travel team to the championship of the talent-packed Nike Elite Youth Basketball League.
He's a McDonald's All American, Jordan Brand All American and respected guard who can play either backcourt position with aplomb.
"He's a winner. He makes winning plays," said Tarik Robinson, Briscoe's trainer. "A lot of people don't understand what a winning play is. It's not just a bucket here or an assist here or a steal here. He's sprinting down the court, talking as a leader. He gives that added dimension of toughness."
Briscoe, who averaged 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds last season, was bigger and stronger than most guards he faced in high school, and that will remain the case many nights in college. He uses his strength to get in the lane consistently, but he's also a capable jump shooter.
"He has a pro body," said Robinson, who has worked with NBA guards and believes Briscoe will need "two years max" of college ball before he's drafted. "(In high school) he's a grown man out there amongst boys at the guard position."
Briscoe always tries to gain a mental edge over his opponent as well.
"He doesn't let anybody breathe," California recruit Jaylen Brown said. "Even if he's not playing well, he's going to talk trash. That's just who he is. Where he's from, that's his culture. Don't let him (have) a good game ... or it's going to be magnified, going to be worse (and) you're not going to have a good day, because he's not going to stop."
The fact that UK didn't land any of its other McDonald's All American perimeter targets, namely Antonio Blakeney and Malik Newman, could be seen as beneficial to Briscoe, who is in line for more playing time and shots than if those players were on the team too.
But that doesn't mean Briscoe didn't want them in Lexington or wasn't confident alongside them.
George Briscoe said that immediately after his son committed to UK last November, Isaiah used two iPhones to Facetime call Blakeney and Newman and ask them simultaneously, "Which one of y'all is coming?"
As it turned out neither did, but Briscoe's dad thought his son would have fit well with any combination of guards at UK, and he saw proof of such chemistry with USA Basketball last summer, when Briscoe shared a backcourt with Newman and high-scoring Arizona-bound guard Allonzo Trier.
Briscoe played both the point and off the ball with them to gold medal success in the FIBA Americas 18-and-under tournament. That versatility figures to serve Briscoe well when he gets to UK, which will have sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis back and likely commanding the primary ball-handling duties.
"Coach Cal said (Isaiah) does whatever he has to do to win," George Briscoe said. "That's pretty much Isaiah's makeup. Whether you want to call him an off guard, shooting guard, combo guard, scoring guard, he'll score 30 when he needs to. But if you've got a guy who can really score on the wing, then he'll go to the point guard."
It stands to reason that the presence of a top returning point guard like Ulis would deter an elite point guard recruit from picking the Wildcats, and likewise, it would be logical to think Ulis wouldn't exactly be head-over-heels for a top point guard recruit to move in on his turf.
In fact, it was the exact opposite for both players.
George Briscoe said that when his son visited UK, Isaiah went in Ulis' dorm room and Ulis ran and jumped on him in a joyful greeting.
"He was one of the reasons that made me want to go to Kentucky, because he made me feel so comfortable," Isaiah Briscoe said. "He said, 'If you come, then we'll do our thing. Don't worry about what everybody has to say.' So as soon as I walked through them doors at Kentucky, I felt like a part of their family."
What it boils down to with Briscoe is that he's comfortable in his own skin, and he was confident that no matter who was on UK's roster with him, he was going to have a big role and help the Wildcats win.
He said as much during McDonald's week, before any of UK's players had declared for the draft and before a half-dozen top recruits had committed to a college.
When a reporter began to ask him a hypothetical question about a returning UK player, Briscoe interjected halfway through.
"Before you even ask, I don't care who's coming back," he said. "I'm not into all that. I'm going to Kentucky regardless of who comes and who stays. So if that's going to be your question, I don't care. I'm going to Kentucky."
George Briscoe said that after his son excelled during the Nike EYBL and with the cream of the crop at USA Basketball, he wanted to keep facing the best competition every day in college. The family viewed UK as the clear choice for that.
George Briscoe called UK "the pro basketball Mecca of college basketball" – a professional-level challenge "just at an amateur level."
"If everybody in the gym wants to be a pro, and you want to be one, it's just going to push you to be one," he said. "That's what you get at Kentucky."