2014 Recruit D’Angelo Russell talks UK

Recently we caught up with 2014 recruit D’Angelo Russell to see how his recruitment was going. Russell’s hometown is Louisville, but he goes to Monteverde Academy in Florida. Russell, who is ranked #10 player in the nation, according to Rivals, is a 6’4 lefty guard that can score in a variety of ways. Russell answered a couple of our questions and here is what he had to say:

When asked about his recruiting list:

“I really dont have a list right now. My recruitment is wide open.”

When asked if he had any leaders at the moment:

“I have no leaders as of now.”

When asked who he holds offers from:

“Right now I have Missouri, Indiana, Ohio State, Louisville, and Xavier.”

When asked what he likes most about Kentucky:

“I like that it is close to home and their coaching staff and winning tradition is great.”

D’Angelo also told us that he has no visits scheduled as of now. He also asked us to give his friends and family a shout out. “S/o to my family and my boys SHERTNation.”

I know it is early for Calipari to start thinking about the 2014 class when the first domino in the 2013 class has yet to drop, but one would think that Calipari and the rest of the coaching staff would pull out all the stops for an in-state talent that has the skills that D’Angelo Russell has. Russell’s game is very smooth, he has great court vision, a smooth jumper, and a great handle. I would say Russell will get an offer from Calipari very soon.

Check out Russell’s game:

Bedtime Videos

 

Aaron Harrison talks about his recruitment with Adam Zagoria:

video.jsp?content_id=23864613&source=SNY

 

Nerlons Noel and WCS at Adidas Nations:

 

And last but not least Andrew Wiggins’ summer recap:

 

 

Updated ESPN Rankings

Andrew Wiggins sits atop the 2014 Class

Dave Telep and ESPN have updated their rankings for the 2013, 14, and 15 classes. The first five in 2013 look like this:

All five of the these recruits have UK on their short list and could conceivably get 4 or 5 of the top 10 recruits. The other recruit in the top 10 with UK in his name is Aaron Gordon who said UK is in his top three. This is just once again another sign that this class could end up being the best ever.

Other UK recruits:

13. Wayne Selden

17. Kennedy Meeks

23. Xavier Rathan-Mayes

27. Marcus Lee

44. Jordan Mickey

On to the 2014 class, as expected Andrew Wiggins is atop that list, here is ESPN’s top 5 for the class:

UK is also in on everybody on this list, except Okafor. Wiggins is down to Florida State and Kentucky. Tyus Jones a PG has an offer from the cats, while Noah Vonleh and Dakari Johnson are both getting recruited by Calipari and Kentucky. 2014 could even be a better class if Wiggins doesn’t reclassify, than the 2013 class.

Here are rankings of other UK recruits:

6. Emmanuel Mudiay

7. Trey Lyles – recent decommit from Indiana, I would expect UK to be interested

10. Cliff Alexander – UK has offered

15. D’Angelo Russell

16. Jalen Lindsey

17. Jaquan Lyle

19. Chris McCullough

24. Stanley Johnson

30. Keita Bates-Diop

43. Isaiah Whitehead – UK has offered

UK has all the parts in shape for the makings of a big class. They are in on many of the top recruits, but Calipari hasn’t offered yet because he usually wait and pick and choose who he wants to give the offer to because kids are now working to get the offer from UK, and Calipari has the advantage of waiting before pulling the string.

And now on the the ESPN Ranking of the 2015 Class:

Once again a recruit UK is extremely in on is Karl Towns Jr. and he takes the top spot for the 2015 Class. Calipari coached his this summer as Towns played for the Dominican Republic team preparing to qualify for the Olympics, so you would think that UK has the inside track to getting Towns.

Here is the top 5:

Now it is extremely early to be talking about the 2015 class, and UK and Calipari has yet to dive in on this class and no offers have been handed out to any of these players. We will have to wait and see how this class turns out.

But as you can see, UK is involved with the elite of the elite and their will be some great recruits headed to the University of Kentucky here in the next couple of years and I can’t wait to see who they are.

Trey Lyles Decommitts from Indiana, UK to blame?

2014 star Trey Lyles, a consensus top-10 recruit, decommitted from Indiana today. Tom Crean is very upset because he thinks that other schools were recruiting him even after he committed. Lyles committed before he was in high school so he wants to enjoy the process and compare Indiana to other schools.

Here is what Tom Crean tweeted:

 Jeff Rabjohns, who is an Indiana writer for Rivals.com, tweeted this out.

 

John Calipari will jump at this and show Trey Lyles just what the University of Kentucky and its tradition is all about. I guess Crean and Calipari aren’t as good of friends as everybody thought, eh?

 

Here is highlights of Lyles’ game:

Oakland Soldiers Coach is Pro-UK

Oakland Soldiers is the AAU team that Kyle Wiltjer played for. 2013 recruit Aaron Gordon and 2014 recruit Stanley Johnson also play for the program. Their coach, Mark Oliver, talks to NextCats about the two recruits:

On Stanley Johnson:

Olivier called Johnson a “student of the game,” and said the 6-foot-6 forward fully understood the importance of UK’s early offer. He’s only the fourth player in the class of 2014 to receive one.

“Stanley knows. He watches a lot of college basketball, and he’s looked at the schools,” Olivier told Next Cats. “That’s one of the biggest things about Stanley. He might be 16 years old, but he’s really like 19 mentally. Very mature kid. When you meet the kid and you talk to him, he has so much information. He really studies the game.”

On Aaron Gordon:

“I think he’s looking at the winning attitude and if it’s continuing with each one of the schools that he’s going to consider,” Olivier said. “And he’s going to look at the best fit as far as academics. One thing about both Aaron and Stanley, school is very important to them. They’re not just basketball guys.”

Oliver also said that Wiltjer has spoken to both Gordon and Johnson but hasn’t put the full-court press on. But he did say when it gets closer to the decision, “He’ll do it.”

Gordon has UK in his top three, and Johnson who recently got an offer said that “Kentucky is the best program in college basketball right now.”

Very good news for John Calipari and Kentucky.

2014 Recruit Isaiah Whitehead to visit UK

Isaiah Whitehead is a 6’4 guard from NY and is going to be visiting UK in early September, according to his mother. Whitehead recently came out and said that Kentucky stands out more than any other school, even though they haven’t even offered. Great news for UK.

Check out his highlights:

UK Target Tyus Jones talks Social Media

2014 PG Tyus Jones talks to Myron Medcalf at ESPN about how social media and text messages how coaches talk to him. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“I think a call and text seems to be more personal than a letter,” said Jones’ mother, Deb Jones. “When a letter comes, it’s not really a letter, it’s a flier.”

Jones — who has offers from Duke, Kentucky, Ohio State and Michigan State among others — said he reads some of the letters, but views most as informational brochures. He’s more strategic, however, about filtering electronic communication.

Jones and his mother spoke to coaches prior to the NCAA’s rule change on electronic communication and asked them to respect his time and adolescence. In other words, don’t blow up his phone.

Social media and text messaging is going to change the game when it comes to recruiting. Coaches have to know when it’s too much, but also have to get the point across that they want that certain recruit. I think more recruits like Jones are going to tell coaches ahead of time to not “blow up” their ph0ne and social media.

2014 Recruit Keita Bates-Diop

Kieta is 6’7″ 190 pound forward from Bloomington, Illinois.

Bates-Diop is a 4-star prospect according to ESPN and Coach John Calipari and Kentucky have interest.

Im guessing the next step that Calipari would take with Bates-Diop is to get him on campus. Calipari has shifted his focus to the younger recruits as the AAU season has ended and most 2013 recruits will begin committing very soon. Here is his Beita-Diop’s highlight video.

UK Targets added to Big Strick Classic/Elite 24

Mark Aug. 11 down on your calendar because this is going to be a game loaded with recruits in the 2013 and 2014 class. The event is called “The Big Strick Classic” and will played at City College in New York City. Here are the UK targets that are included in this event. From the USA team: Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Andrew Wiggins, Jalen Lindsey, and Kuran Iverson and from the NYC team: Noah Vonleh, Troy Williams, Isaiah Whitehead, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Chris McCollough. The game will be broadcast on SNY.tv.

In the Under Armour Elite 24, the first twelve players were selected to participate in the event and once again plenty of UK flavor. The Harrison twins, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Kuran Iverson, and Marcus Lee were all selected. The next twelve players are to be selected in August and look for more UK targets to be selected. The game will be played on Venice Beach Courts in Los Angeles on Aug 24-25 and will air live on ESPNU.

Andrew Wiggins talks about AAU season

Andrew Wiggins talks about how his summer went; “I got nothing to prove.”