After his brother Obi won the Naismith Award and a litany of other National Player of the Year honors, Jacob Toppin will get his turn in college basketball's spotlight. Toppin, who played for the Rhode Island as a freshman last season, announced Thursday that he is transferring to Kentucky.
The 6-foot-7 forward averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game for a Rams team that finished 21-9 (13-5 A-10) as one of Dayton's top competitors in conference play. The brothers played against each other twice in the 2019-20 season with Dayton winning both meetings.
Jacob Toppin is joining a Kentucky roster that's been decimated by players declaring for the NBA Draft or transferring. In total, the Wildcats are replacing eight of their nine top scorers when including freshman forward Kahlil Whitney who left the team in January.
It's unclear if Toppin plans to pursue a waiver for immediate eligibility, though the NCAA is considering a rule change that would allow all student-athletes to transfer once without sitting out for a season.
Kentucky is welcoming the nation's No. 1 recruiting class consisting of six freshmen all ranked in the top 50 of the 2020 class by 247Sports. Kentucky also landed Creighton graduate transfer Davion Mintz last week.
Jacob Toppin graduated from Woodstock Academy in Connecticut and was an unheralded prospect in the 2019 recruiting class, much like his brother was lightly recruited out of high school.