Gonzaga’s roster features a former Kentucky basketball signee. How’s he doing so far?

Kentucky’s trip out west this weekend could reacquaint the Wildcats with one of their former star recruits.

Nolan Hickman — a point guard in the 2021 class — was the first basketball prospect from that group to commit to UK for last season. He officially signed with the Cats two Novembers ago, but he never made it to Lexington for good. Instead, Hickman ended up at Gonzaga, the team Kentucky will face Sunday evening.

It’s already been quite the basketball journey for the 6-foot-2 sophomore.

Hickman was a bit of a surprise commitment for the Cats in August 2020, picking UK without ever setting foot on campus due to COVID-19 recruiting restrictions. Rivals.com ranked Hickman as the No. 76 overall player in the 2021 class at the time of his commitment — low by John Calipari era standards — but the Kentucky coaches had scouted him closely while vigorously pursuing Nike league teammate and high school rival Paolo Banchero, who ultimately committed to Duke (and later became the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft).

Hickman — a Seattle native, like Banchero — was the consolation prize in the Wildcats’ West Coast pursuits during that cycle. He signed with UK in November 2020 before backing out of his commitment the following April.

There was speculation that Hickman wanted to stay closer to home for his college career, but he told The Spokesman-Review that the departure of UK assistant coaches Tony Barbee and Joel Justus following the 2020-21 season had the biggest impact on his decision.

“That was the least part of it,” he said that May of wanting to stay closer to Seattle. “It was the two coaches leaving the staff. I didn’t feel comfortable going into that situation with those two coaches leaving. They were the ones that really recruited me and really reached out and built a bond with me.”

Gonzaga was the first school to contact Hickman following his decommitment, and the star guard was committed to the Zags two weeks later.

Hickman had been the only point guard on the Wildcats’ projected 2021-22 roster when he decommitted, and Calipari and his staff were already searching for another playmaker to join him. They ended up getting commitments from five-star recruit TyTy Washington and Georgia transfer Sahvir Wheeler within five days of each other, about two weeks after Hickman left the class.

Competition clearly wasn’t a hangup for Hickman, who committed to a Gonzaga team knowing the roster already featured several guards, including senior Andrew Nembhard, star transfer Rasir Bolton, sophomores Dominick Harris and Julian Strawther, and freshman Hunter Sallis, an even-higher ranked recruit from the 2021 class.

Hickman went into last season with a realistic outlook on his immediate future.

“My thing is, iron sharpens iron,” Hickman told The Spokesman-Review at the time. “I can’t wait to play with (Nembhard) and against him in practice. He’s experienced at this level. That’s something I may need being a rook to the college thing. He may teach me the ropes. That’s the type of thing that is beneficial in my position.”

Sure enough, Nembhard, Bolton and Strawther emerged as Gonzaga’s starters, and Hickman — despite being projected by ESPN as a one-and-done, first-round NBA pick going into the season — was relegated to a reserve role, playing 17.2 minutes per game.

He averaged 5.1 points and 1.3 assists per game as a freshman, biding his time and waiting his turn.

Hickman’s time at Gonzaga

With Nembhard off to the pros, Hickman earned the starting point guard role for Gonzaga, the No. 2-ranked team in the country to begin this 2022-23 season.

“He’s been really rock solid,” Coach Mark Few said last month. “He’s had a nice fall. He’s really, I think, made a big jump from last year to this year. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with him.”

Hickman said he spent last season watching and learning from Nembhard — already a rotation player as a rookie with the Indiana Pacers this season — and that he would try to incorporate aspects of the veteran’s game into his own this season.

“It feels good,” he said last month of earning the starting point guard role. “Just getting these guys in order, getting them suited up and ready for the big schedule this year — it just means the world to me. Learning from the older guys last year and being able to really sit back and watch and gain knowledge — that’s pretty much what my whole intention was, so I’m ready to go.”

The results so far have been mixed, at best.

Hickman had six points, five assists and zero turnovers in Gonzaga’s season-opening, 104-63 victory over North Florida. He had 10 points in a 64-63 win over Michigan State four days later, but he also committed four turnovers to just one assist while going 4-for-11 from the field. The Zags’ most recent game was a low point, with Hickman going for eight points and two assists with four turnovers in a 93-74 loss at No. 11 Texas.

During that game Wednesday night, ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla lamented the Zags’ sloppy backcourt play — they committed 20 turnovers with just 10 assists against the Longhorns — and opined that the team doesn’t have a pure-passing point guard this season.

“Nolan Hickman’s going to be very good, but he still needs seasoning,” Fraschilla said.

To make matters worse Wednesday night, Hickman suffered an ankle injury in the game’s final minutes and didn’t return. Few said afterward that the injury “didn’t look great.” Hickman should probably be considered questionable to play against the Wildcats on Sunday.

Coming into the season, ESPN projected Hickman as the No. 33 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. That website now ranks him as the No. 68 prospect for the 2023 draft, one spot ahead of All-America teammate Drew Timme.

His game has plenty of promise, but — at the beginning of his sophomore season — it’s still clearly a work in progress.

“I feel like — in the game of basketball — you can never stop learning,” Hickman said. “By the time you’re done learning about that, you should stop hooping. So I’m going to keep on learning, keep on growing, until my career is over with.”

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