According to Zagsblog, Andrew Wiggins could possibly miss the McDonald’s All American game. This isn’t a huge deal to many of us being that we’ve had two of our top players, John Wall and Nerlons Noel, miss out in the legendary game. But it would also be nice to have UK on display if Wiggins does decide to reclassify and commit to Kentucky.
On September the 15th, the University of Kentucky will host an alumni game featuring the 23 wildcats currently in the NBA and a few members of the ’96 national championship team. Tickets are not on sale yet but the proceeds will go towards Cal’s charity. This is yet another example of how far advanced Coach Calipari is. He is putting on a show for fans and recruits while earning money to be put towards good use!
Don’t worry football fans, the game begins at 2 and will give you plenty of time to see the cats take on the tops at Commonwealth.
Frank Burlison of SI.com reports that things are looking good for the wildcats on the recruiting trail. He reports that we are favorites for the Harrison twins, Randle, James Young, and Andrew Wiggins. Cal gets it done, plain and simple. I just hope these reports become reality soon!
You can see the rest of the article here.
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:
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:
Kentucky basketball schedule is now released. UK will play Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, Texas A&M, and Vandy all twice. 18 games are nationally televised either on ESPN’s network or CBS.
For a full breakdown, go here.
Eric Bossi from Rivals.com recently caught up with 2013 target Marcus Lee and here is what he had to say about Kentucky:
Kentucky: “They were pretty late, but when I talked to Coach (John) Calipari, he kept it simple. He didn’t come to me like ‘Yeah, I want you to come in and start and I want you to do this or that.’ He came to me like he wants me to come because he thinks he can help make me better. He told me about coming and being part of a team. He also told me that it’s not for everybody. That kind of got me thinking in an awesomely awkward way because you don’t hear that from many coaches.”
So it looks like even though Calipari was late on getting to Lee, he is still high on UK, of course Calipari sporting a national championship ring wouldn’t help, either.
Marcus Lee, a 6’9, 200 lb PF from Antioch, California has cut his list to seven. UK has made the cut. His list also includes Duke, Cal, Louisville, Kansas, Indiana, and UCLA. His brother, Brian, recently talked to zagsblog.com and said that no visits are planned as of yet. Lee is the 27th player in the nation according the ESPN.
Here is his highlight video:
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.
The Future Of University of Kentucky Basketball 