Yet another former Kentucky basketball recruit is about to face off against the Wildcats.
Somto Cyril — who was the first player from the 2024 recruiting class to commit to then-coach John Calipari and UK — has developed into Georgia’s starting center in his second season with the Bulldogs.
The 6-foot-11 Cyril, who is from Nigeria, was the first of six high school prospects to commit to Calipari during the 2024 recruiting cycle. Ultimately, only one of those commitments (in-state guard Travis Perry) followed through on his pledge to play for the Cats after Calipari left to become the head coach at Arkansas.
Cyril reopened his recruitment after Calipari left Lexington. He stayed in the SEC, though, landing at Georgia. UK fans were reminded of this last year, when Cyril produced a highly-effective six points and eight rebounds as a freshman in UGA’s home win over Kentucky. That contest was Mark Pope’s first SEC road game as the Kentucky head coach.
Cyril fouled out of that game against the Wildcats last year, but he was a plus-13 in 19 minutes prior to doing so.
Now a sophomore, Cyril is prepping to play against Pope’s program for a second time when Georgia (17-8 overall and 5-7 in SEC games) faces Kentucky (17-8, 8-4) on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena.
After coming off the bench in all 33 of Georgia’s games during the 2024-25 season — which ended with a first-round exit in the NCAA tournament — Cyril has started 24 of the Bulldogs’ 25 contests this season. He’s averaging 9.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in 21 minutes per game, all while shooting 74.8% from the field.
Cyril’s 2.5 blocks per game rank 10th nationally.
Those numbers represent across-the-board improvements for Cyril, who finished the 2024 recruiting cycle as a four-star prospect.
“(He’s) got to play like a starting mid-sophomore year guy. You’ve got to produce,” Georgia head coach Mike White said earlier this month about Cyril. “Whether that’s him getting a handful of rebounds or him negating the guy he’s matched up against, getting a few less. All the things we ask of him every day — set good screens, put pressure on the room with your dives, your ability to offensive rebound, defend without fouling.”
Ahead of his second matchup against Cyril, Pope was full of praise for the Georgia big man during his weekly radio show Monday night.
“If he’s not the biggest player in the league, he’s close to it,” Pope said of Cyril, who is listed at 260 pounds. “… He’s an elite-level offensive rebounder. He causes some real pain in there. They’ll let him sit in a drop for some part of the game and really clog up the middle. He has a huge impact.”
Things haven’t gone well for Cyril’s team in recent weeks. Georgia limps into Lexington having lost five of its past six games. UGA’s past three defeats have all come by at least 15 points, including Saturday’s 94-78 clunker at Oklahoma.
Georgia is still projected to be an NCAA Tournament team, with the Bracket Matrix currently projecting the Bulldogs as a No. 10 seed.
While Georgia’s team play has sputtered, Cyril continues to be an effective player on the interior. During Georgia’s run of five losses in its past six games, Cyril has made 20 of his 30 shot attempts from the field. He’s only averaged 3.3 rebounds per contest over this period though, which dates back to a 20-point road loss at Texas on Jan. 24.
Regardless of recent form, the Wildcats are aware of the physical presence Georgia poses, with Cyril leading the way.
According to KenPom, the Bulldogs are a top-35 team nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (31st), two-point field goal percentage (28th) and defensive block percentage (eighth). In SEC play, no team has been better at forcing turnovers: 16.9% of opponents’ offensive possessions in SEC action have ended in a turnover, with the Bulldogs taking the ball the other way down the court.
“They’re kind of similar in a way, too, just without the size,” UK junior forward Mo Dioubate said of the challenges posed by Georgia compared to recent UK opponents. “… The physicality is probably not going to be as much as (what) Florida was.”
To Dioubate’s point, the 6-foot-11 Cyril is the tallest player, by two inches, among Georgia’s contributors.
Dioubate also said that — while he didn’t know the specific numbers — he was aware of Georgia’s strong rebounding ability.
Correct again. The Bulldogs pull down an average of 39.7 boards per game, which helps power a top-10 offense that averages more than 90 points per contest.
There’s also a strong correlation between rebounding and winning for the Bulldogs. Georgia is 15-1 this season when it outrebounds its opponent, and just 2-7 when it doesn’t.
“Rebound and transition defense,” Dioubate said. “I think those are the two main things that we need to do to get the win.”
Georgia’s Somto Cyril has become the Bulldogs’ starting center during his sophomore season. Kevin C. Cox Getty Images
UK’s expected 2024 recruiting class has been part of current season
Cyril is the final member of Kentucky’s 2024 high school recruiting class under Calipari to get involved with the 2025-26 Kentucky season.
Perry — who played his freshman season at UK before transferring this past offseason to Ole Miss — was on the wrong end of a Jan. 24 result at Rupp in which he failed to score in 10 minutes of game action.
One week after that, Karter Knox also went scoreless in 16 minutes as a starter, while Billy Richmond III contributed 14 points and five rebounds off the bench, as Arkansas lost at home to Kentucky.
This past Saturday, Florida guard Boogie Fland had eight points, four rebounds and three steals in the Gators’ win over the Wildcats in Gainesville. That result came with first place in the SEC regular season standings on the line.
The final member of that six-player 2024 recruiting class is Jayden Quaintance, the sophomore big man who transferred to Kentucky this past offseason from Arizona State. Quaintance has hardly played for UK this season, seeing action in only four games (and none since Jan. 7) while he continues to deal with knee issues related to a torn ACL he suffered in February 2025.
Quaintance is listed as out for Tuesday’s game on UK’s availability report.
Before he began his college career at Georgia, Somto Cyril (6) was committed to play at Kentucky as part of the Wildcats’ 2024 high school recruiting class. Jamie Squire Getty Images
Cameron Drummond
Lexington Herald-Leader
Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas.
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