CJ Frederick’s career was hampered by injuries, but he was a great shooter when healthy.
Former Kentucky Wildcats sharpshooter CJ Frederick, who played high school basketball at Covington Catholic High School in Northern Kentucky, announced his retirement from Basketball on Thursday in an Instagram post.
Frederick captioned his Instagram post by saying the following:
“Man what a ride,” Fredrick wrote on Instagram and Twitter. “This game has given more to me than I could ever imagine. I’ve truly been blessed to be able to play this game and go to places I have dreamed of as a kid. Even at its lowest points, it was all worth it. I will forever love the game of basketball and the relationships it’s allowed me to have for life. To all my teammates, coaches, trainers, family and anyone I have met along the way, thank you for letting me be a small part of your life. I hope to give back to the game that gave me everything. Thank you.”
A career that spanned COVID-19 and the advent of the transfer portal and NIL, Frederick redshirted twice in his seven-season career. That includes a medical redshirt in the 2021-22 season, his first with the Wildcats.
Frederick transferred to Kentucky after two very solid seasons at Iowa, where he shot 46.1 and 47.4 percent from 3-point range in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, respectively. A sharpshooter, Frederick was a member of the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team in 2020 and helped the Hawkeyes to a No. 2 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
In his healthy season with the Wildcats in 2022-2023, Frederick averaged 6.1 points per game and shot 35.1 percent from the field. He played 27 games and made 15 starts. He had 10 games in double figures, including five games in SEC play.
Frederick would finish his career at Cincinnati, where he played two seasons with the Bearcats as they began a new era in the Big 12.
The former Covington Catholic star, Fredrick led his team to a Kentucky State Championship in 2018 while being named MVP Kentucky Sweet 16 Most Valuable Player and the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year. That season, Frederick set school records with 900 points, 315 made shots and 107 three-pointers.
Frederick is married to former Kentucky women’s basketball player Blair Green, who played 121 games with 56 starts in five seasons at Kentucky. Green starred at Harlan County High School where she was a 2018 Naismith High All-American Honorable Mention.