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| Let's just grab Lacey, too. Please. |
... and Free Enes.
Showing posts with label Anthony Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthony Davis. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Lost Recruits: 2011
All of the given rankings are according to Rivals.
#5 (PF) Quincy Miller - Baylor
Before Anthony Davis burst into everyone's collective attention, Quincy Miller was the guard-like skilled forward who everyone was ogling over. He even crept into being the number one overall prospect at one point on Rivals, all while notoriously sporting UK gear everywhere he seemed to show up for a while. Everyone thought Miller was the third in line to join Michael Gilchrist and Marquis Teague at UK to form potentially the greatest class of all-time. Enter the aforementioned Anthony Davis as well as Kyle Wiltjer. Miller then became the odd big out. The rumblings then turned to the possibility that despite all of his unlimited potential and talent, Miller may be a little ... extra. So instead of completely overloading the talent bus with a questionable character, Cal took the safer Wiltjer commitment and moved on. This lead to a noted "death stare" that Miller gave to Calipari as he walked past him at the UK-UL football game while Miller was on a recruiting visit at Louisville. There was also complications involving Miller's coach Brian Clifton, who originally came into the UK conscious when he openly tried to steer John Wall away from Calipari to Duke. That's a double-fault, sir. You lose. Anyway ... Miller ended up spurning even UL, choosing to pair up with surprise returnee Perry Jones at Baylor next season.
#9 (SF) DeAndre Daniels - Undecided
DeAndre the Second flirted with enrolling early at UK to possibly play midseason last year. Who knows how it would've affected our team, but I would've loved the position that would've put Daniels in going towards his pseudo-sophomore season with the rest of Kentucky's monster class. But either way, DeAndre never enrolled anywhere early and has now moved on from making UK fans sweat to probably choosing between Kansas and Duke. He's a slick, super-athletic wing with a jumper who would've fit perfectly in Cal's system, but we'll see how he does elsewhere. He'll probably be one of the lasting grudges that the Big Blue Nation holds out of this class.
#23 (PF) Chane Behanan - Louisville
Here's the one recruit Pitino managed to snag in the Bluegrass battle from Cal. The local Bowling Green power forward looked like the one in-state talent who was good enough for Calipari to pick up and appease a certain branch of the fan base who want Kentucky boys to so desperately actually hit the floor. Even thought Pitino had made Behanan a major priority, it seemed like Cal was in a great position to do so, adding him to UK's already-established 2011 triumvirate. But then Calipari took a verbal from Kyle Wiltjer. Minutes gone. No one knows for sure if Cal thought Kyle was the better option or if he knew Chane was leaning elsewhere, but it happened. Behanan hasn't been shy with Wayne Blackshear to stoke the future flames of the UK-UL rivalry, so we'll see if they can actually back it up. And four years from now, we'll check back on the impact of Behanan versus Wiltjer to see the direct results of one of the few Player A-or-B recruiting decisions by Calipari.
#30 (PG) Tony Wroten - Washington
As a dominant multi-handle Twitter personality, Wroten tweeted himself onto the UK recruiting scene by teasing fans about his possible impending UK commitment. Fans checked his awesome highlights on YouTube and immediately envisioned a Wall-Bledsoe 2.0 backcourt between point guards Teague and Wroten. But as this drug on, the assumption became that Wroten was a little too loose with his words and attitude and Coach Cal preemptively backed off Wroten despite his friendship via the USA U17 team with Gilchrist and Teague. Wroten eventually chose to stay home at Washington, but not without fanning the UK flame one last time by lamenting to the Twitter universe: “@UKCoachCalipari aye coach. I just wanna know why u stopped recruiting me?” I still expect him to be a major player, but it'll be away from the spotlight in Washington. We'll see if he can stay away from trouble.
#33 (PF) Kadeem Jack - Rutgers
Once it became apparent that Kentucky wasn't going to fill out the extent of its roster for the 2010-2011 season, Calipari took a quick look at Kadeem Jack as a potential addition. After a short flirtation period, Jack spurned spots in Lexington and Chapel Hill to go to a year of prep school. I kind of wish he would've snagged Eloy's spot on the roster, but that unfortunately speaks to how Calipari had genuinely put his hope in Vargas being a contributor. Regardless, Jack reclassified to the 2011 class and picked Rutgers as his destination.
#34 (SG) Trevor Lacey - Undecided
If he doesn't commit to UK, he's immediately the most high-profile, dwelt-on miss since Jai Lucas jump-started the KSR movement. Everyone's wanted Lacey to commit for a full year now. He seems like the single missing piece to a monster recruiting class to make it the single all-time greatest. They would become the first ever legit Fab Five 2.0 with a guy at every position: Teague-Lacey-Gilchrist-Wiltjer-Davis. Lacey is a pure shooter even steps beyond the line (a la Knight and Jodie Meeks). The only reason he's not a unanimous top-15 talent is because he's somewhat limited athletically. If the going assumption is that Knight stays in the draft this summer, Calipari needs to go all-in on snagging Lacey. Since Daniels seems to be a sailed ship, Lacey is easily the top uncommitted talent left in America. One of the possible hang-ups that's been reported is Lacey's potential academic issues that may prevent him from gaining eligibility initially. Here's hoping he gets those straightened out and doesn't sign with Arkansas, Auburn, Kansas, or Connecticut.
#47 (C) Michael Chandler - UCF
Chandler de-committed from Louisville over the summer and it was quickly rumored that UK might take a major look at the big man. He was always considered an academic risk, but that hadn't previously kept Cal from getting recruits he really wanted. Some blame the Eric Bledsoe algebra situation for changing that whole angle. So Kentucky backed off of him and Chandler committed to Xavier before switching his mind quickly and heading to UCF. Chandler was once considered a top-10 prospect for the 2011 class, which originally made him a pivotal cog in UL's class, but has since fallen to the back of a loaded graduated class of big men. Hence the whole Central Florida thing.
#56 (SG) Kevin Ware - UCF
Ware was a Bruce Pearl commit who opened his recruitment back up after the annual backyard barbecue was canceled. I think that's what I read. He floated out UK as a possible destination along with Louisville and UCLA once the media swarmed to him as a newly available 2011 piece. With Lamb staying at Kentucky, the assumption is that Coach Cal never really looked in his direction all that much. Even though we were never serious with Ware, he made UK fans smirk slightly by spurning Louisville to go to Central Florida. Michael Chandler, anyone?
#92 (C) Joseph Uchebo - Undecided
Baru is from John Wall's high school, but we never got around to knowing him like C.J. Leslie because Baru committed non-dramatically to Sidney Lowe at N.C. State. But then Sidney Lowe got fired and Baru says the new coach doesn't like fancy lil' in-state talent and sent him packing. Paraphrasing. So of course Coach Cal sent a quick phone call in the direction of the kid's high school coach. This is a developing scenario.
#122 (SG) Achraf Yacoubou - Villanova
The funny-named shooter was the least known name of the immense talent that came to visit for Coach Cal's inaugural State of the Big Blue Nation speech. Weirdly enough, non-commits Harris, Leslie, and Irving all were in attendance as well ... so I guess it's safe to say that Calipari simply can't seal the deal. While it was an initial disappointment that he committed so quickly to Villanova before we even got to know him, he plummeted (un-)mightily in the rankings across the board after a less-than-stand-out senior year of high school.
Uunranked (PF) Braeden Anderson - Kansas
Anderson committed to DePaul last year and no one cared. Then he de-committed when most all of the other big men prospects were off the board and everyone cared. After seeming like an inevitable UK pick-up for awhile, it came to be known that Calipari never really went after him that hard as anything more than a last option. Hence the eventual Kansas commitment. It may have been much ado about nothing, since he's an undersized big who's not actually that talented. Unranked and all.
It's hard to even fathom wondering about players we didn't get when our class is currently the four-man juggernaut of (#2) Marquis Teague, (#3) Michael Gilchrist, (#6) Anthony Davis, and (#25) Kyle Wiltjer along with transfer (2008 3-Star) Twany Beckham. And we'll probably get one more guy. Anyways ... we'll see what happens.
... and Free Enes.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Doron's Coming Back
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| Waiting for Rivals' update and then this spreadsheet can go official. |
I almost feel like we pulled another brand new all-star recruit since Doron didn't even test the draft this year. It's a beautiful, beautiful miracle. Add him in spotting up with those pretty blue rows on my Excel spreadsheet.
... and Free Enes.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Best/Worst/Probable Case for UK 2012 Roster
Best Case: NBA LOCKOUT!!! I hate the notion as a pro fan, but UK fans want to personally go to David Stern and talk ish to ensure that he takes his wrath out on the Players Association. In this case, our only roster departure would be our resident senior, Josh Harrellson. Enes, Brandon, and Terrence would have no choice but to remain as the greatest sophomore class of all time and not take their talents straight to the lottery (as they'll pretty much be guaranteed to be drafted in, otherwise). Darius and DeAndre, who'll both have the NBA itch due to their breakout 2010-2011 campaigns, won't even have to send out draft feelers and put their names in for consideration. All the incoming freshmen will simply have to accept and make the most of their unexpected secondary roles since ... well, they've already signed in blood on their letters of intent. Besides, this would be the single most talented team in college basketball history. Ever.
C: Enes Kanter/Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Darius Miller/Terrence Jones/Kyle Wiltjer
F: DeAndre Liggins/Michael Gilchrist/Jon Hood
G: Brandon Knight/Doron Lamb/Stacey Poole
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson
Calipari would have quite a job on his hands to define the roles and playing times for all the eligible ballers on this squad. There are literally ten starting-caliber players on this roster, so he gets to divvy up the new and experienced guys in whatever fashion he deems best. My guess is that the main starting line-up shake-up is Knight sliding to the 2-guard to take advantage of his scoring prowess and Teague's pass-first mentality. It would be the ultimate Wall/Bledsoe version 2.0 combo, though I would venture to say this incarnation would be more lethal due to Knight's consistent shooting stroke over Bledsoe's streaky one.
The front court would be where all the tough choices would lie. It would be hard to bench the two seniors in Miller and Liggins, especially considering their expected stellar production along with them earning their stripes in every way imaginable. So in this case I see the 4-wing/1-big combo being used at its finest. Terrence would have to take a slight back seat after being a freshman starter, but the promise of him being the leader of the second team should still hold appeal. His skill-set sure isn't going anywhere, so neither is his draft stock even if he comes off the bench. At this point, Cal can throw out any combo of skill sets that he wants. Defense? Kanter and Davis become the longest and most feared shot-blocking tandem since Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. Shooting? Kanter and Wiltjer can pick and pop with the best, even extended to the three-point line. Small ball? Jones and Miller have the versatility to handle the ball with ease as well as the size to give nothing up to opposing big men. The best part about it all is that Eloy Vargas wouldn't be relied on to produce in any greater capacity than Perry Stevenson in 2009-2010. And that induces a sigh of relief.
The fact that Liggins and Gilchrist are interchangeable parts at this point is about the greatest situation you could ever have at the small forward position. Maybe Cal wants Dre's defensive intensity to head the back-up attack and Mike even gets the start on most nights. It wouldn't matter because they're both going to see monstrous amounts of floor time and have an impact every second. Perimeter shooting would never be a problem ever when you have the likes of Knight, Miller, Liggins, and Lamb still around in addition to Kanter, Jones, and Wiltjer being able to step out. This squad could literally put eight guys in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft. As long as they won a championship, not a single fan in the world should be disappointed in those decision. But maybe one or two of either Gilchrist, Teague, or Davis would want to stay that extra year to jump from the 25th pick to a top-5 guy the next draft. You never know at that point. Every kid who dons the UK jersey doesn't have the same mind state as Daniel Orton, ya know?
Bottom line ... this squad should and would run the table. I don't see how anyone could disagree at that point. High quality senior leadership? Two full #1 recruiting classes? Two elite, interchangeable point guards? Easily the best big in the nation? Over two-and-a-half deep at every single position? Perfection.
This is all assuming Kanter gets cleared to play college ball at all, of course. Sorry to pull you back into reality for a second ...
Worst Case: The crazy thing is that the starting line-up for our absolute worst case is still absolutely sick. That's the kind of thing you get when you net three of the top six freshmen basketball studs in the nation. But I'll focus on why we lose on everybody at this point ...
Enes, whether or not he's cleared to play a single game, is a top-3 draft pick next year. Most likely he's going to in the consensus 1-2 combo with Harrison Barnes a la Oden/Durant a few years back. It's that simple ... he's gone. Next is Terrence Jones who has far too much potential to not be capable of immediately making the jump. He really is a Lamar Odom clone; and with how well LO is killing it this season, teams will no doubt put a premium on that kind of contributor. He's got by pick #7. Next up is Brandon Knight. There's a reason why he used to be the best ranked player in his class across the board. The kid will put up monster scoring numbers, probably be the SEC player of the year, and on one of the All-American teams. Avery Bradley put up mediocre numbers as Texas' lead freshman guard and went #19 in the 2010 draft. Knight is picked by #15 in 2011.
Now for the unexpected departures. Miller and Liggins will both test the waters and will thoroughly enjoy what they hear. Both guys will be told that they're mid-first round picks due to their NBA size, skill sets, and winning mentalities displayed in UK's surprising 2011 season. Both will play the Jodie Meeks undecided game and finally choose to stay in the draft last-minute. Liggins goes #24 off the strength of his individual workouts, still farther back than he was initially told, and Miller slips to the #36 in the second round, having to fight his way into earning a guaranteed contract. But the fact remains ... the NBA stole five of our guys for the second straight year!!!
C: Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Kyle Wiltjer/Trans. or Freshman
F: Michael Gilchrist/Jon Hood/Stacey Poole
G: Doron Lamb/Trevor Lacey
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson/Trans. or Freshman
Even with our roster being overturned on its second straight binge-and-purge, the remaining guys are still contender quality in the same way as Michigan State's Fab-5 was right off the bat. Gilchrist and Teague already have proven their unselfish chemistry on the U17 Olympic team this last summer together. Neither is your traditional high school blue chipper. Gilchrist didn't notch 50-point games, he wowed the scouts with his warrior-mentality of doing every single thing necessary to win, showing off his skill set and basketball IQ across the board. He's already got a pro's mentality to the game, he didn't have to show off and shoot 40 shots a game to prove to the recruiting gurus that he was a top-ranked guy. Teague also has lesser stats than other elite league guards of the last few years, but his outrageous yo-yo handling combined with his speed and pass-first mentality has him in the position as the best point guard coming out of high school, anyway. Davis is a guy who's going to come out as an elite shot blocker immediately and be a match-up nightmare who can fit in with whoever he's put out on the floor with. Wiltjer is simply a bonus at that point who switches up the looks from the bench as a more prominent shooter than low-post guy. With this roster-gutting, though, Coach Cal will have to work his magic to pull at least shooter Trevor Lacey and one or two more recruits we haven't heard of yet. We can't be going into the 2011-2012 season expecting to even hold a complete practice with 9 guys.
Even if Doron Lamb goes off this year, he's definitely not a sneak-in NBA guard in the mold of Eric Bledsoe. People question if Lamb can even dunk or not. Ha. So he'll be back as ... *gulp* ... the most experienced leader on the floor. But it will definitely be a pain with having to put 85% of our hopes on freshman production. The '10 team had Patterson, Miller, and Liggins as prominent experienced contributors while '11 had Miller, Liggins, and Harrellson in that same role. I sure don't wanna put all that weight on Lamb, Hood, and Poole. We'd still be insanely fun to watch and a threat to win any game we play, but the lack of depth will hurt us in the long run. I love our freshies, but for them to be required to put up transcendent numbers every single game is a stretch. Wall had a couple minor struggles while Cousins and Bledsoe had quite a few major struggles. So unless Anthony Davis is Greg Oden, Mike Gilchrist is Carmelo Anthony, and Marquis Teague is John Wall, we simply can't put up a transcendent sub-3-loss season like everybody's going to be wanting out of this squad.
Bottom line ... we're a sneaky Elite 8 team fighting the odds all season since we're too incredibly thin at all positions. A single injury would be crushing, and you definitely don't want to be sitting on a roster where you stress out every single drive and rebound over a sprained ankle.
Probable Case: The NBA isn't gonna lockout, so we'll meet somewhere in the middle. Enes, Knight, and Jones will all be beckoned away. But Miller and Liggins will stay after testing the draft waters and throw their names in as a 4-year UK legends. This slates our top three freshmen as starters to go with them and Doron Lamb as our bonafide scoring 6th man. We still need to get Trevor Lacey to have any level of depth at all and probably one additional big man recruit or transfer. We definitely still have title hopes with the talent on this squad, but we'll need Jon Hood to turn the corner as a legitimate college player and for Eloy to be able to pull down boards in spot minutes during his senior campaign. But simply noted, we will still have the most feared starting line-up in the NCAA with talent bulging out the seams.
C: Anthony Davis/Eloy Vargas
F: Darius Miller/Kyle Wiltjer
F: DeAndre Liggins/Jon Hood/Stacey Poole
G: Michael Gilchrist/Doron Lamb/Trevor Lacey
G: Marquis Teague/Jarrod Polson
Bottom line ... we're a definite Final Four team. We probably stay top-3 in the rankings for the entire season and are the favorites at tourney time. It's that simple.
... and Free Enes.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Wiltjer?
For starters, he's a 6'9" power forward from the 2011 class who plays high school ball in Portland, Oregon. Terrence Jones, anyone? The weird thing about him is ... he's white. I already made the joke on Twitter, but it bears repeating: I'm pretty sure Coach Cal hasn't recruited a white kid since he was at UMASS. Whatever, though, I'll take him if he wants to come here.
ESPN:
#32 Overall Prospect
#5 Power Forward
They give him a "Scouts Grade" of 96 and say "Skills, skills and more skills along with a great feel for the game and basketball IQ are major strengths of Wiltjer's in addition to his size. He is a match up problem because he can score inside and out with great efficiency. Wiltjer's back to the basket footwork, moves and ..." but the rest is for suckers who pay the Insiders fee.
Scout:
#19 Overall Prospect
#5 Power Forward
They list his strengths as his "high-low game and perimeter shot", while his weaknesses are a "go-to move and strength". Then they go on to explain that he's a "hybrid power forward who has roots in Canada. Has legitimate touch from the perimeter and the ability to be a guy inside. Improved every season. Next step is establishing himself in the post. Made game-winning shot to give U18 Canadian team bronze medal at 2010 Tournament of the Americas."
Rivals:
#25 Overall Prospect
#6 Power Forward
They have a more succinct debriefing of his skills, listing his shooting as outstanding, his rebounding as good, his handle as good, his passing as outstanding, his strength as good, and his GPA as 3.4. That's all you need to know from them, I guess.
Add him to a 2011 class that already features Michael Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Anthony Davis, Jr. and you got yourself easily the sickest class ever assembled in history. Add another top guy in there somewhere and it entirely laps Chris Webber's Fab Five and John Wall's Sick Six to make them practically irrelevant in the all-time schematics of college basketball recruiting. I love the potential freshman front court combo of offense/defense between Wiltjer and Davis already. I really hope the kid signs here. Cross your finger for the next few hours.
... and do the John Wall.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The 2011 Trio (8/24/10 Update)
For the 2011-2012 college basketball season, UK is coming fresh off of a surprise Final Four appearance. But the NBA bell tolled and ripped the Wildcat fans' hearts out for a second straight year as Enes Kanter was drafted with the top pick, a decision that had been guaranteed since his end-of-the-season utter dominance in SEC play. Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight cemented the arrival of the 1-and-done era by going 3rd and 7th in the lottery as well. The big surprise was the fact that DeAndre Liggins broke through as the unquestioned leader of the squad and showed such a marked improvement in his long-range marksmanship and slashing ability that he was scooped up late in the first round by a championship contender banking on him filling out into a James Posey-type intangible stud.
This leaves the Wildcats heavily reliant on recruiting once again. There are pretty much two guarantees with Coach Cal: we will have the number one class year-in-and-year-out and we will have plenty of scholarships open after the NBA absorbs half our roster year-in-and-year-out. But 2012 will be the year that everyone understands that it's worth it.
Michael Gilchrist - 6'6", 190 lb.
#1 overall player, #1 SF (ESPN)
#3 overall player, #1 SF (Rivals)
#5 overall player, #1 SF (Scout)
Marquis Teague - 6'2", 170 lb.
#2 overall player, #1 PG (Rivals)
#3 overall player, #1 PG (ESPN)
#6 overall player, #1 PG (Scout)
Anthony Davis - 6'10", 220 lb.
#1 overall player, #1 PF (Scout)
#6 overall player, #3 PF (Rivals)
#12 overall player, #4 PF (ESPN)
The recruiting game is getting ridiculous. Cal is the best there is. Period. He targets in on the all-world talent specifically catered to his system and gets them. It's as simple as that. These 2011 recruits form a trio that you will hear about everyday for the entire year, right up until the NBA Draft where they're all selected in the top 10. Gilchrist has been the best player in all of high school ball since his sophomore summer AAU circuit and is said to have the skill set of a Kobe Bryant/Kevin Durant hybrid. Teague has the blinding speed and attacking ability in the same mold of Devin Harris to where he gets any and everywhere he wants with the ball. Davis is the late bloomer of the group with the ridiculously long frame whose talents range across the board to cement his comparisons as a player somewhere in-between Kevin Garnett and Antonio McDyess. A good majority of recruiting analysts have even come out of the woodwork to vouch for Davis as the newly crowned best player in his class, even over Gilchrist. The three of them together could change the dynamics of talent in college basketball altogether. Never has such a highly touted freshman trio ever been assembled. We're not talking a collective of multiple top 50 talents here; we're talking possibly three of the top five players in the NCAA altogether at that point under the tutelage of one coach while wearing Kentucky blue and white. Coach Cal defeated the entire system. You no longer hope for that five-star messiah to come in and change your program with his NBA skill level once every few years. You expect at least four of them (plus some) putting their name on the Letter of Intent papers every single year.
And Kentucky's still at least slightly in the picture for 2011 recruits Quincy Miller (PF, Rivals #5/Scout #2/ ESPN #4), Austin Rivers (SG, #1/3/2), Adonis Thomas (SF, #15/11/15), LeBryan Nash (SF, #4/12/10), and Tony Wroten (PG, #20/27/24). Depending on his performance in prep school this year, you may even be able to pencil DeAndre Daniels (PF, #9/34/28) on our 2012 roster. Hopefully we can also pull a late coup off and grab local talent Chane Behanan (PF, #23/29/73). I like our chances with pulling at least one more of those guys. Sky's the limit. And an NCAA championship banner is the sky, by the way. There'll always be someone who complains about the lack of tradition or development of players who leave school early to the pros, but once #8 is hanging in the rafters in Rupp ... I think they'll quite down at least for a little bit.
... and do the John Wall.
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