CJ Fredrick transfers to Kentucky, Izaiah Brockington to Iowa State

Former Iowa men’s basketball player CJ Fredrick, to the surprise of few, is transferring to Kentucky.

Fredrick, a 6-foot-3 guard from Cincinnati, made the announcement Wednesday. He had spent three years in Iowa’s program. He redshirted the first year, then started 52 games over the next two seasons. He missed 10 games to injuries.

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He entered the NCAA’s transfer portal last month.

Fredrick, Kentucky Coach John Calipari tweeted, “is an established college player from a terrific program who has competed at the highest level and has made big shots and big plays.

“As we all know, @cj_fredrick is a terrific shooter but what stuck out to make on tape is he takes care of the ball – he has an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio – & he can hold his own defensively. He guarded the best guard on the other team in just about everything I have seen.

“What I love about (Fredrick) is his approach in all of this. In every conversation I have had w/him, he has a great plan of how he wants to improve and where he needs to take his game to get better. He wants to be challenged, he wants to be coached and he embraces competition.”

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Fredrick averaged 7.5 points for the Hawkeyes in the 2020-21 season after averaging 10.2 points the season before. He made 46.6 percent (83-of-178) of his 3-point tries, Iowa’s all-time best in that category.

Fredrick committed just 10 turnovers in 666 minutes in 2020-21, and had a stretch of 13 straight Big Ten games without one.

He played high school basketball across the Ohio River from his home at Covington Catholic, and starred for a state-championship team in one-class Kentucky.

Kentucky had already gotten commitments from transfers Oscar Tshiebwe of West Virginia and Kellan Grady of Davidson. Grady was a four-year starting guard who has made 233 career 3-pointers.

Kentucky was 9-16 last season, easily its worst season in Calipari’s 12 as the Wildcats’ coach and the program’s first losing season since 1988-89.

Elsewhere, CBS Sports college basketball writer Jon Rothstein reported late Wednesday afternooon that former Penn State guard Izaiah Brockington is transferring to Iowa State.

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The 6-foot-4 Brockington averaged 12.6 points for the Nittany Lions last season, starting all but one of their 25 games. He also averaged 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steals.

Brockington joins guards Gabe Kalscheur (Minnesota) and Caleb Grill (UNLV), forwards Tristan Enaruna (Kansas) and Ajjac Kunc (Washingtom State), and post player Robert Jones (Denver) as players who have transferred to first-year ISU Coach T.J. Otzelberger’s program.

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