It’s an odd source for news like this to break (at an odd time, no less), but SLAM magazine reported early Tuesday morning that mega-recruit John Wall has verbally committed to play for John Calipari at Kentucky next season. A local television station in Lexington is echoing the SLAM story, but we’ve yet to find a second reliable source so we remain a little skeptical until we hear from one of the stalwarts in the industry – Goodman, Katz, et al.
Assuming this is true, there’s little question that John Calipari has had the greatest first six weeks of recruiting in the history of the game at any school, landing the top PG (Wall) and big man (DeMarcus Cousins) in the class of 2009, as well as another top 25 player (Eric Bledsoe). He has also managed to keep two other top 40 recruits landed by his predecessor in the fold (Daniel Orton and Jon Hood) in addition to convincing all-american Patrick Patterson to return for his junior campaign. Reports indicate that UK’s other all-american player, Jodie Meeks, is also likely to return for his senior season.
This sets up an unreal potential starting lineup of:
PG – John Wall
SG – Eric Bledsoe
SF – Jodie Meeks
PF – Patrick Patterson
C – DeMarcus Cousins
With Daniel Orton, Jon Hood, DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller and Perry Stevenson coming off the bench.
All due respect to the teams domiciled in Lawrence, E. Lansing and Chapel Hill, but that looks like the #1 lineup to us…
Let’s see if it’s true.
View Comments (4)
Oh my Gosh! Zip-a-de-do-da-Day! This has absolutely made my day! Way to go Calipari, Kentucky and my fabulous Wildcats!
but isn't Wall projected as a one-and-done? KY might not have an open window for very long w/ Wall. My guess is that he'll be competing with Meeks for NBA attention (assuming he stays) which might make it beneficial for Wall to stay an extra year so that he can be KY's top dog entering the following draft. It might even benefit his game to leave as a sophomore instead of as a freshman, but that assumes Calapari is an excellent coach in addition to being an exceptional recruiter. There's no question about the latter, but I have some questions about the former.
nice grab by KY though, you should post some video of Wall tearing apart unsuspecting rims...rims thought they were out of the reach of a high schooler. boy were they wrong. stupid rims.
He's definitely 1-and-done, but with Meeks (likely), Patterson and a host of other talented frosh plus the enthusiasm of a new, big-time coach in Lexington, UK is ready to make serious noise next year.
Whenever Wall is on the floor, the rims are assuredly in danger.
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