2013 recruiting chatter

• ironman02

  How many scholarships does UK have open for 2013? I'm sure they're banking on some of their incoming freshmen leaving, right?
• Azubuike24

  

  Technically, going into next year in-terms of scholarships:
  
  SENIORS
  Jarrod Polson (former walk-on)
  Jon Hood
  
  JUNIORS
  Ryan Harrow
  Kyle Wiltjer
  
  SOPHOMORES
  Archie Goodwin
  Alex Poythress
  Nerlens Noel
  Willie Cauley-Stein
  
  FRESHMAN
  Andrew Harrison
  Aaron Harrison
  James Young
  Derek Willis
  
  In-theory, that's 12 scholarships. However, Polson could easily go back to walk-on status as he's using one of the extra rides. That would leave 11, if everyone came back. We know that won't happen. It's possible they could lose Noel, Harrow, Poythress, Goodwin, Wiltjer and Cauley-Stein if they had a big year. You have to figure, just going by averages, they lose 2 of those guys.
  
  I'd say they safely could have 4 rides left. However Calipari has never carried more than 10 "real" scholarship players. Generally, if his total number gets to 12 or 13, it's because he has given some extra scholarships to walk-on players.
• ironman02

  So there's most likely room for Lee, Randle, Lyles, and Wiggins if he reclassifies. Crazy.
• Azubuike24

  

  Lyles is 2014. Wiggins, Randle and Lee, yeah, that would be crazy. There have been rumors of Willis decommitting because of the other commits. Who knows. Regardless, the scary thing isn't necessarily the class. Even if they lost everyone, that class of 6 would be the most talented in the country. I think the scary thing would be that class (even minus Wiggins) with the return of Cauley-Stein and 1 or 2 of the others. I mean lets say Wiltjer, Cauley-Stein and Harrow returned with that class of 5...THAT'S scary.
• ironman02

  Azubuike24;1297077 wrote:Lyles is 2014.

  My bad.
  
  Yeah, Calipari is in the process of building a dynasty. Until he retires, UK is gonna be THE program, I'm afraid.
• reclegend22

  

  ironman02;1297166 wrote:My bad.
  
  Yeah, Calipari is in the process of building a dynasty. Until he retires, UK is gonna be THE program, I'm afraid.

  I'm not willing to just yet designate UK THE program of the next decade (or however long Cal ends up staying put ... winning national championships is just so difficult, no matter how much talent you have ... Just look at '91 Vegas, '98 Carolina, '99 Duke, '12 UNC ... '10 UK ...) but I am willing without hesitation to say that John Calipari is straight up the best recruiter of the last decade and more than likely will hold that title until he moves away from Lexington.
• ironman02

  It's definitely hard to win titles, no doubt about it. Even with an extremely talented team, sometimes it just doesn't work out. Calipari is always going to have to rely on a lot of young guys, but if he can also get a couple players to stick around each year, he'll have a decent mixture of talent and experience. Kentucky is a storied program, so that makes recruiting even easier for the guy who's already the best recruiter in the game. He pushes the envelope better than anyone, and appeals to today's recruits in many different ways (Jay-Z, Drake, etc). I definitely don't want it to be this way, but I truly think the other top programs are going to struggle to keep up if the current pattern continues. I mean, just look at the recruiting class he's building right now. Tough to compete with that.
• Azubuike24

  

  The last 2 years scared people because Cal proved he can take a brand new and very thin roster to a Final Four. The next year, he had the best talent, but also mixed it together with 3 returning contributors and won a title.
  
  He can get the top 5 recruits every year but that doesn't guarantee anything. The scary thing is once they hit the floor, they seem to buy-in, develop instant chemistry and perform. It's even scarier if not everyone goes pro after 1 year.
  
  Forget recruiting, forget his marketing, forget the name "Kentucky." Somehow, he's taking ultra-talented and individual superstar players and instantly changing their mindset. Similar talents go to many other schools and this never develops. It makes you wonder about a few guys who were rumored to be UK locks who ended up not coming.
  
  Quincy Miller, C.J. Leslie and Josh Selby are just some examples. Not that they are bad, but those guys were projected top 10 picks after their Senior year. Selby went 49th overall, Miller went 38th overall and C.J. Leslie is still in his Junior year at college.
  
  Out of high school, Eric Bledsoe, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller were nowhere to be found on NBA boards. DeAndre Liggins and Josh Harrellson almost didn't even make the cut on Calipari's first roster, yet both are in the NBA.
• cats gone wild

  No mention of UK picking up its 4th 5 star today from California? Marcus Lee http://kentucky.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=content.asp&cid=1423789&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=
• Laley23

  

  cats gone wild;1297941 wrote:No mention of UK picking up its 4th 5 star today from California? Marcus Lee http://kentucky.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=content.asp&cid=1423789&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=

  Probably because it was known weeks ago.
• GOONx19

  

  Laley23;1297945 wrote:Probably because it was known weeks ago.

  Reps. It is a good addition, though. He's another one of those guys who's there just for defense. I think he averaged 9 blocks a game last year.
• reclegend22

  

  Azubuike24;1297830 wrote:The last 2 years scared people because Cal proved he can take a brand new and very thin roster to a Final Four. The next year, he had the best talent, but also mixed it together with 3 returning contributors and won a title.
  
  He can get the top 5 recruits every year but that doesn't guarantee anything. The scary thing is once they hit the floor, they seem to buy-in, develop instant chemistry and perform. It's even scarier if not everyone goes pro after 1 year.
  
  Forget recruiting, forget his marketing, forget the name "Kentucky." Somehow, he's taking ultra-talented and individual superstar players and instantly changing their mindset. Similar talents go to many other schools and this never develops. It makes you wonder about a few guys who were rumored to be UK locks who ended up not coming.
  
  Quincy Miller, C.J. Leslie and Josh Selby are just some examples. Not that they are bad, but those guys were projected top 10 picks after their Senior year. Selby went 49th overall, Miller went 38th overall and C.J. Leslie is still in his Junior year at college.
  
  Out of high school, Eric Bledsoe, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller were nowhere to be found on NBA boards. DeAndre Liggins and Josh Harrellson almost didn't even make the cut on Calipari's first roster, yet both are in the NBA.

  After reading all of this and some of your other posts on this thread, I get the distinct impression that you are very scared. Or at least moderately frightened. Is this accurate? Lol.
  
  I think you have pinpointed the essence behind what makes Calipari so effective – his prowess as not only a master communicator, but also a great unifier – but I do think you might be undervaluing, or at least understating, how brilliant the Kentucky coach is as a marketer and branding expert. Think direct opposite of Dave Bliss.
  
  With a dynamic recruiting pitch perfectly tailored to today’s single-most important game-changer, the one-and-doner, John Calipari appears to be shooting Kentucky past heights of success that even Rick Pitino couldn’t have envisioned while at the helm of Big Blue Nation. The pitch: You want to be treated like a rap star and get to the NBA as a teenager? Come to Kentucky, play in front of Rick Ross and in a starting lineup of fellow NBA first round draft picks at the Final Four, and in 24 weeks I will have made you a multi-millionaire. Those are powerful selling points.
  
  Talents such as John Wall and Anthony Davis are going to end up millionaires no matter if they play at Kentucky or not, but the string of No. 1 recruiting classes, Final Fours, last year’s national championship and the annual mass exoduses to the League have fashioned such a strong model for Calipari to tout that it’s becoming increasingly hard for the true one-and-doners who are enamored by the glam and glitter of the NBA-like environment that has been created in Lexington to turn being a Wildcat down. As ironman02 has stated, it’s a brilliant strategy. It’s working so brilliantly, in my view, because Calipari, unlike what the coaches of the other elite programs across the country are doing or are willing to do, is selling the NBA, not the school. Kids like that, because that means it’s entirely about them and their futures. And that’s evidenced by the way he has turned the program into a farm system of sorts, hauling in a new crop of young talent each fall and then sending them to the big leagues in the spring. John Calipari is not allegiant to Kentucky. Kentucky is simply the most effective platform he could find to sell his own personal brand.
  
  Add in the fact that Calipari is one basketball’s brightest minds – you don’t reach four Final Fours without having a brilliant grasp of the game and a prominent aptitude for teaching it – and Kentucky automatically becomes the most attractive destination in the country for star recruits who don’t care what university they are sleeping at for a few months as long as they get to the NBA in the absolute shortest duration of time as dictated by David Stern. As long as Stern’s age rule is in existence, the Calipari formula will be hard to beat because there are many coaches who just will refuse to employ it. Of course, the formula is only as sustainable as the rule.
• reclegend22

  

  That was way longer than I anticipated. Time to lay off the Red Bull; I am probably going to have a heart attack.
  
  But I did want to add that, I agree with you, Az, it is absolutely mind-boggling how Calipari is able to get that many freshmen NBA first round draft picks -- five or six in a single year in some cases -- to buy in and play together for the betterment of the team. It's unreal.
• Azubuike24

  

  The only thing I'm scared of is going to be the incredible pressure and expectations on the guy who replaces Calipari. People talk about having to follow Coach K, Jim Boeheim, etc. It won't compare. The way UK fans are, they will expect the new coach to bring in 5 straight #1 recruiting classes and just given the normal nature of thoughts, will actually expect more. In today's society, the way records are broken, advancements are made, people will always expect today's best to be less than what is possible tomorrow.
  
  I'm not sure anyone will necessarily want the UK job...
• Laley23

  

  Indiana with a ton of recruits in for tonights Midnight Madness. I think 22 in total between 2013/14/15 and maybe some 16. I forget exaclty. But some big time names and I expect some commits by Monday.
• reclegend22

  

  Azubuike24;1299149 wrote:The only thing I'm scared of is going to be the incredible pressure and expectations on the guy who replaces Calipari. People talk about having to follow Coach K, Jim Boeheim, etc. It won't compare. The way UK fans are, they will expect the new coach to bring in 5 straight #1 recruiting classes and just given the normal nature of thoughts, will actually expect more. In today's society, the way records are broken, advancements are made, people will always expect today's best to be less than what is possible tomorrow.
  
  I'm not sure anyone will necessarily want the UK job...

  I agree. The Kentucky job is the job in college basketball. But, as you say, with that job comes a certain kind of hell. And that's because of the wildly irrational expectations of the program's fans. No offense, but a large portion of Kentucky fans are on straight crack. Although, that's what makes their passion for basketball so fascinating and the traveling phenomenon that is the "Blue Mist" so legendary. I've followed Duke around the country many places from North Carolina to Missouri and Duke fans travel extremely well. You can always count on them to be out in droves, and it makes the experience of visiting all of the different venues to watch them play that much more exciting. But nothing compares to Kentucky's Blue Mist. I have always respected and appreciated that commitment.
• Azubuike24

  

  Andrew Wiggins re-classifying to 2013. The recruiting sites are updating rankings but he has already moved to #1 on Scout. Rivals is updating as we speak.
  
  Sounds like he is not a lock for UK however. This changes the landscape of 2013 as someone else could also be in play to land the best talent. I generally don't buy the hype but I've heard many say the only comparable HS player they have seen as his size and athleticism is LeBron James and in the Nike game last year, as a Sophomore, he dominated guys 2 years older. He made everyone in the 2012 class look silly including Shabazz Muhammad.
• reclegend22

  

  I generally do not either because just this summer SI called Jabari Parker the best high schooler in the world since LeBron. Apparently SI forgot to check Canada...
  
  It's absurd what some of these media outlets will predict -- Dujaun Wagner was the next Isiah in 2001 and now he's living in Bangladesh -- but I do imagine that it's not a stretch of the imagination to assume that Parker and Wiggins will both go on to be phenomenal college players, if only for a year. I'd literally give a finger to have Parker for just a few months in Durham. I'd cut it right off.
• Azubuike24

  

  I would not trust SI.
  
  From an unbiased opinion, Wiggins is on another level even compared to this class. This class has 4 players (Parker, Randle and the Harrison's) who could be #1 in the 2012 class. Wiggins is better. I've only seen him actually play a game twice, but have NEVER really heard anything other than incredible reviews of his game.
• Laley23

  

  Troy Williams is close to verballing to Indiana after Hoosier Hysteria last Saturday. Crean was in to see him today. Sounds like he has already moved his spring signing up to a possible November signing and that "Indiana is a clear leader". Big news as he is a top 40 recruit, but even bigger that he is Boo Williams Nephew (Huge AAU ties) and Boo Williams runs a Nike AAU program, while IU is Adidas.
  
  Sounds as though BJ Anya is also close to an Indiana verbal.
  
  The bad news? Indiana will have the oversign already with 5 commitments and that might eliminate Noah Vonleh away from IU and to UNC. But IU does plan on taking 6 this class, its a question of if anyone will wait till spring to sign and who does IU "push out".
• ironman02

  I've heard that Carolina has cooled on Vonleh, or maybe even the other way around. Not sure though. I really don't understand why Roy wouldn't want him, so it may just be that Vonleh thinks he might be a better fit somewhere else.
  
  Apparently Carolina is seriously involved with Wiggins now. I still think he goes to UK or FSU, but it appears that the Heels are in contention.
• Laley23

  

  Sounds now like its Syracuse and Indiana for Noah Vonleh.
  
  Indiana got the commitment I alluded to before, Troy Williams is a Hoosier!!!
• sportswizuhrd

  reclegend22;1304432 wrote:I generally do not either because just this summer SI called Jabari Parker the best high schooler in the world since LeBron. Apparently SI forgot to check Canada...
  
  It's absurd what some of these media outlets will predict -- Dujaun Wagner was the next Isiah in 2001 and now he's living in Bangladesh -- but I do imagine that it's not a stretch of the imagination to assume that Parker and Wiggins will both go on to be phenomenal college players, if only for a year. I'd literally give a finger to have Parker for just a few months in Durham. I'd cut it right off.

  Sparked an interest to see what he's up to nowadays. Found this story on him. Says it was posted a few weeks ago but everything makes it sounds like it was written last winter. I totally forgot he had health issues including having his colon removed. Wagner says he wants to make a comeback when he is completely healthy.
  
  http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sportsweek/20120129_Whatever_happened_to_Dajuan_Wagner_.html?page=3&c=y
• reclegend22

  

  sportswizuhrd;1306977 wrote:Sparked an interest to see what he's up to nowadays. Found this story on him. Says it was posted a few weeks ago but everything makes it sounds like it was written last winter. I totally forgot he had health issues including having his colon removed. Wagner says he wants to make a comeback when he is completely healthy.
  
  http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sportsweek/20120129_Whatever_happened_to_Dajuan_Wagner_.html?page=3&c=y

  Thanks for the link. I love the title of the article: "Finding Dujaun." Kind of funny -- yet also sad -- when you think back to how celebrated this kid was before going on to play at Memphis and the NBA. Aside from reading about the historical exploits of Wilt Chamberlain or Bevo Francis, the 100 points Wagner dropped in a game for Camden High School was the first I had ever heard of a player on any level putting up triple digits. I can still remember how awestruck I was as a middle-schooler at the time. The century mark has been eclipsed by numerous high school players since, but, even though he certainly wasn't the first to ever put a hundred on the board, Wagner seemed inhuman when he did it. ESPN showed highlights of that entire game, pretty much unheard of for a high school contest at that time, in the pre-LeBron era.
  
  I too totally forgot about all of the ailments. Another what-might-have-been. Such a shame.
• reclegend22

  

  Azubuike24;1304472 wrote:I would not trust SI.
  
  From an unbiased opinion, Wiggins is on another level even compared to this class. This class has 4 players (Parker, Randle and the Harrison's) who could be #1 in the 2012 class. Wiggins is better. I've only seen him actually play a game twice, but have NEVER really heard anything other than incredible reviews of his game.

  While I think most recruiting services have now moved Wiggins to No. 1, I am not sure there is as large a gap between Wiggins and the rest of the class as you are painting. I admit that I have seen very little of any of these guys play in actual games (and have never seen Wiggins), but Dave Telep has consistently stated that he believes Parker is on the same level as Jason Williams, LeBron James and Kevin Durant at this stage in the game. If that really is a comparison reflective of Parker's true status as a prospect, then your characterization of Andrew Wiggins would seem to indicate that Wiggins has Wilt Chamberlain blood. Haha.
  
  On a related note, Parker visited Durham over the weekend for Duke's annual Countdown to Craziness. Nothing really new to report, other than the visit by all accounts went well and that Duke and Michigan State still appear to be the two likeliest destinations (although who really knows). Parker's next trip, however, is to Gainesville at the beginning of November.