Two years ago, Louisville native Kaden Magwood was battling the nerves that accompany moving away from home for the first time.
To cope, the promising basketball player from Western High School told The Courier Journal he was "thinking about sleeping in the gym" when he arrived at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia ahead of his sophomore year.
"That's how dedicated I am," Magwood said then, "to working hard (and) perfecting my craft."
His persistence has paid dividends. The 6-foot-3, consensus four-star guard is in the midst of a meteoric rise and doesn't plan to take his foot off the gas anytime soon.
"How much I've grown as a player and a person is crazy," he said. "On and off the court, I've grown."
Over the past seven months, Magwood went from 109th to 58th in the Class of 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. He delivered at the NBA Players Association's Top 100 Camp in June and was recently crowned the Most Valuable Player of the Adidas 3SSB regular season by The Circuit.
Most importantly, his list of Division I scholarship offers has surpassed 30 schools and should only continue to grow during his senior season, when he takes center stage for Combine Academy (North Carolina) in the high-profile Overtime Elite (OTE) league.
U of L is in the mix, and Cardinals fans have had their eyes on Magwood since he made an unofficial visit to campus during former head coach Kenny Payne's tenure. His stellar play lately has only amplified their clamoring.
Is a homecoming in his future? The ball appears to be in new coach Pat Kelsey's court.
Proving himself
Magwood said his transition to the prep school ranks wasn't easy.
The confidence he gained from earning a spot at Oak Hill, which has served as a launching pad for players such as Carmelo Anthony, Ron Mercer, Rajon Rondo and Jerry Stackhouse, took a hit when he realized he wasn't going to be in the starting lineup as a sophomore.
He saw the court in only three games during the 2022-23 season but averaged 12 points per appearance.
"I felt like the coaches didn't believe in me," he said. "The coaches really never talked to me when I first got there. They knew everybody else by name; but they didn't really know my name like that. It kind of felt weird; it kind of felt like I didn't belong there."
On top of that, and being hundreds of miles away from home, Magwood had to process the death of his grandfather early on during the campaign. He pays tribute to his "Paw Paw," who was a big Louisville fan, by writing his name on his sneakers.
Magwood said he persevered through the tough times by "staying in the gym every day" and "started to prove" that he belonged with the Warriors during 15- and 17-point outings late in the season. He spent the summer heading into his junior year playing on Nike's EYBL circuit and picked up a few DI offers — the first being from one of Kelsey's assistants, Thomas Carr, to play at Charleston — and visited Alabama, Illinois and Virginia Tech.
Breaking through
During a junior year of surreal moments — from traveling to Italy for Adidas' Eurocamp to going viral for dropping 32 points during a game tipping off at 8:30 a.m. — Magwood said one moment stands out above the rest.
On Dec. 1, Oak Hill faced La Lumiere (Indiana) at the Marshall County Hoopfest. Back in his home state, on the eve of his birthday and just days after the one-year anniversary of his grandfather's death, he scored 41 points to lead the Warriors to victory in overtime, 79-75.
"That really built my confidence for the whole season," he said.
Magwood finished his junior campaign averaging 17.4 points on 45.3% shooting (43.6% from 3) with 3.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. He's only gotten better since.
Entering the championship session of the 3SSB circuit, Magwood was averaging 22.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game for Team Loaded (Virginia). He's a reliable three-level scorer whose shiftiness allows him to create space on a dime; and he prides himself on the progress he's made as a facilitator, a defender and a rebounder.
There should be plenty more where that comes from when he takes the court full time with Combine Academy in Overtime Elite this fall; because he averaged 26.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.1 steals across two sessions (eight games) of the DMV Live circuit — his first runs with the team — last month. In his final year before joining the college ranks, he said he's hoping to develop a "pro mindset."
"I think very highly of OTE and what they do for players," he said. "They've got a lot of guys who have been (selected) in the (NBA) draft, so I'm looking to be one of them and take my game to the next level."
What's next for Kaden Magwood?
This brings us to the subject of Magwood's recruitment — and the question of where his hometown school stands in it. He wasn't sure when he spoke with The Courier Journal of a timeline for making his college decision but said it's going to come down to what destination is "right for me and my family."
Magwood reported receiving a scholarship from Louisville on May 5 via X, formerly Twitter. He said Carr was, yet again, the coach who extended it to him on behalf of Kelsey.
A little more than a month later, during an interview at the NBPA Top 100 Camp, Magwood told reporters he hadn't spoken to a member of the coaching staff "in a minute" but said, "I'm supposed to be setting up an official visit down there, because I'm from there."
As of July 9, Magwood did not have a visit on the books with the Cards. He was, however, planning to stop by Ole Miss in late August and Wake Forest in mid-September.
"Honestly, I still haven't really talked to coach Pat Kelsey," Magwood said. "(With) me being a hometown kid, it's kind of weird; but I'm looking to build that relationship."
At the time of publication, U of L did not have a commitment in the Class of 2025.
In several interviews since taking the job, Kelsey has stressed "balance" in roster construction; although his inaugural team is composed of a dozen NCAA transfer portal additions and only one signee from the high school ranks.
That was to be expected, considering his regime took over in late March and had zero scholarship holdovers from the Payne era. But after he and his staff quickly amassed a collection of talented veterans that ranked among the top transfer hauls in the country, one has to wonder if they'll be especially selective in choosing how many, and which, high schoolers to prioritize moving forward.
Perhaps that rules out a homecoming for Magwood — or delays it until he has a year or two of experience under his belt.
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
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