I can't believe June is almost over. All we gots to do is get through July and football will be on the horizon. We can do this.
As the summer evaluation period heats up we know where things stand with Kentucky and its top targets in 2018.
The Cats have locked in on nearly everyone of their top positional targets in the class of 2018 and you can expect John Calipari and company to keep an eye on all those players over the next few weeks.
The good news for Calipari is he is coaching a few of those players in Egypt this week.
Courtesy of Adidas
Top Priorities: After having a few conversations over the last week and following the tealeaves it's clear who UK prefers in the class of 2018. I'll write those out but what I also found interesting in those conversations is the size of the 2018 class. I've always said four but have noted that wasn't inside information, but instead me just trying to be realistic. The number will likely actually be bigger. More on that in a bit.
2018 Targets:
PG- Immanuel Quickley
SG- Romeo Langford
SF- Cameron Reddish/Zion Williamson
PF- Bol Bol
C- Marvin Bagley
If Calipari could push a button and get four of those guys right now he'd do it in a heartbeat. Quickley has proven enough to Calipari that he can be the point guard of the future.
Langford is obviously an incredibly talented two guard that's an elite scorer, but make no mistake about it, Calipari also wants to take this guy because of the other schools recruiting him.
Reddish is a guy I'll talk about in more detail but he's Calipari's Knox for 2018. If you don't understand the reference Calipari saw Knox play a few years ago and was just completely blown away and told those close to him he had to coach him. The versatility and skill-set of Reddish has Calipari excited.
Williamson is someone we haven't heard a lot about lately because he didn't play for the USA U19 team but he's still a priority for Kentucky and I think things are still looking pretty good for the Cats. One thing I was told is that if R.J. Barrett reclassifies (it's likely he will) then we'll need to watch what UK does with Williamson. That point it becomes impossible to land all three of Reddish, Williamson and Barrett, but we'll have to reevaluate if it will be first come first serve or Kentucky will get picky. If the Cats get picky I would expect Williamson to be ranked last based on talent.
Bol Bol, I'll get to him, too. This is going to be the hammered-home story of the 2018-2019 season is how Calipari cut Bol but he still wanted to prove himself to Calipari so he committed to UK and blah, blah blah.
Bagley, like Williamson, has been quiet but he's still UK's top priority in 2018. The Cats realize how talented he is and Calipari wants to coach him. Duh. I'll be most interested in seeing how things shake out for Bagley's high school season.
USA Basketball
Numbers: UK's 2018 class could be five or six players after some conversations I had this week. The 2017-2018 team may have more one-and-done players than we initially thought.
Gone- Kevin Knox, Hamidou Diallo.
Good enough to go- Nick Richards, P.J. Washington, Jarred Vanderbilt.
You never know- Quade Green, Shai Alexander, Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones.
No, I don't think UK will lose nine players of this year's team, but it's going to be more than two or three. Everything I've heard is about how dominant P.J. Washington has been at the USA U19 Camp and how his versatility is going to blow NBA teams away. I always thought it was a possibly he would be good enough to leave after one year but ultimately he'd come back for a sophomore season. I've now flipped in thinking that he goes pro after year one.
Because of injury concerns I would expect Vanderbilt to leave, even if he's not projected lottery and maybe not even if he's a first round guarantee. He also has a high enough ceiling where if it all clicks it won't even be a question.
Nick Richards may be surprising to some, and I think he has a long way to go to make a major high-level impact at the college level, but the NBA loves big guys and he will have plenty of exposure.
And with the never know guys, you just never know. Has SKJ really made the strides that we've heard? Wenyen isn't getting any younger. Will he be ready to capitalize on money somewhere (NBA or overseas) after a sophomore season?
Green doesn't scream NBA body or player, but look at Ulis and he will be surrounded by studs. Plenty of chances to show he's an NBA guard.
Alexander is a complete wildcard but he does have an NBA and folks in Lexington are excited about him.
Obviously once the season starts we'll get a much better idea about where these players are and if they will be able to make the jump next spring, but the folks in Lexington are expecting more departures than I initially thought. I'd maybe move the total over to five or six.
Nike/Jon Lopez @NikeEYB
Reddish: I'm not ready to say that UK is the leader. I think initially Reddish was honored by UK's offer and knew that Calipari was known for getting guys to the league, but ultimately was going to go somewhere besides Lexington. That's since changed where Reddish is looking at Kentucky at an actual landing spot, but I'm not sure they're the team to beat.
If you're rooting for Reddish to go to UK, hope that he has a monster USA U19 week from July 1st to July 8th and that we get some quotes of him talking about how much he grew as a player under Calipari.
I think UK has made up a ton of ground for Reddish, but I just think they were further behind from the get-go that many realize.
Jon Lopez/Nike @NikeEYB
Bol Bol: I ended up typing a bit more than expected but I wouldn't worry about him getting cut and that hurting UK's chances. I was told both him and Calipari handled the situation "professionally" and that in the end it's going to end up motivating Bol.
Also, as you all have mentioned, it's not just Calipari's decision on who was cut. It's a committee and supposedly they just couldn't justify taking Bol over some bigger, more mature and physical bigs.
I still figured Calipari would pull some strings and make it happen, but as it stands he's comfortable with how things stand in Bol's recruitment and Bol won't be vengeful when thinking of the Cats during his recruitment.
All seems well there.
As the summer evaluation period heats up we know where things stand with Kentucky and its top targets in 2018.
The Cats have locked in on nearly everyone of their top positional targets in the class of 2018 and you can expect John Calipari and company to keep an eye on all those players over the next few weeks.
The good news for Calipari is he is coaching a few of those players in Egypt this week.
Courtesy of Adidas
Top Priorities: After having a few conversations over the last week and following the tealeaves it's clear who UK prefers in the class of 2018. I'll write those out but what I also found interesting in those conversations is the size of the 2018 class. I've always said four but have noted that wasn't inside information, but instead me just trying to be realistic. The number will likely actually be bigger. More on that in a bit.
2018 Targets:
PG- Immanuel Quickley
SG- Romeo Langford
SF- Cameron Reddish/Zion Williamson
PF- Bol Bol
C- Marvin Bagley
If Calipari could push a button and get four of those guys right now he'd do it in a heartbeat. Quickley has proven enough to Calipari that he can be the point guard of the future.
Langford is obviously an incredibly talented two guard that's an elite scorer, but make no mistake about it, Calipari also wants to take this guy because of the other schools recruiting him.
Reddish is a guy I'll talk about in more detail but he's Calipari's Knox for 2018. If you don't understand the reference Calipari saw Knox play a few years ago and was just completely blown away and told those close to him he had to coach him. The versatility and skill-set of Reddish has Calipari excited.
Williamson is someone we haven't heard a lot about lately because he didn't play for the USA U19 team but he's still a priority for Kentucky and I think things are still looking pretty good for the Cats. One thing I was told is that if R.J. Barrett reclassifies (it's likely he will) then we'll need to watch what UK does with Williamson. That point it becomes impossible to land all three of Reddish, Williamson and Barrett, but we'll have to reevaluate if it will be first come first serve or Kentucky will get picky. If the Cats get picky I would expect Williamson to be ranked last based on talent.
Bol Bol, I'll get to him, too. This is going to be the hammered-home story of the 2018-2019 season is how Calipari cut Bol but he still wanted to prove himself to Calipari so he committed to UK and blah, blah blah.
Bagley, like Williamson, has been quiet but he's still UK's top priority in 2018. The Cats realize how talented he is and Calipari wants to coach him. Duh. I'll be most interested in seeing how things shake out for Bagley's high school season.
USA Basketball
Numbers: UK's 2018 class could be five or six players after some conversations I had this week. The 2017-2018 team may have more one-and-done players than we initially thought.
Gone- Kevin Knox, Hamidou Diallo.
Good enough to go- Nick Richards, P.J. Washington, Jarred Vanderbilt.
You never know- Quade Green, Shai Alexander, Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones.
No, I don't think UK will lose nine players of this year's team, but it's going to be more than two or three. Everything I've heard is about how dominant P.J. Washington has been at the USA U19 Camp and how his versatility is going to blow NBA teams away. I always thought it was a possibly he would be good enough to leave after one year but ultimately he'd come back for a sophomore season. I've now flipped in thinking that he goes pro after year one.
Because of injury concerns I would expect Vanderbilt to leave, even if he's not projected lottery and maybe not even if he's a first round guarantee. He also has a high enough ceiling where if it all clicks it won't even be a question.
Nick Richards may be surprising to some, and I think he has a long way to go to make a major high-level impact at the college level, but the NBA loves big guys and he will have plenty of exposure.
And with the never know guys, you just never know. Has SKJ really made the strides that we've heard? Wenyen isn't getting any younger. Will he be ready to capitalize on money somewhere (NBA or overseas) after a sophomore season?
Green doesn't scream NBA body or player, but look at Ulis and he will be surrounded by studs. Plenty of chances to show he's an NBA guard.
Alexander is a complete wildcard but he does have an NBA and folks in Lexington are excited about him.
Obviously once the season starts we'll get a much better idea about where these players are and if they will be able to make the jump next spring, but the folks in Lexington are expecting more departures than I initially thought. I'd maybe move the total over to five or six.
Nike/Jon Lopez @NikeEYB
Reddish: I'm not ready to say that UK is the leader. I think initially Reddish was honored by UK's offer and knew that Calipari was known for getting guys to the league, but ultimately was going to go somewhere besides Lexington. That's since changed where Reddish is looking at Kentucky at an actual landing spot, but I'm not sure they're the team to beat.
If you're rooting for Reddish to go to UK, hope that he has a monster USA U19 week from July 1st to July 8th and that we get some quotes of him talking about how much he grew as a player under Calipari.
I think UK has made up a ton of ground for Reddish, but I just think they were further behind from the get-go that many realize.
Jon Lopez/Nike @NikeEYB
Bol Bol: I ended up typing a bit more than expected but I wouldn't worry about him getting cut and that hurting UK's chances. I was told both him and Calipari handled the situation "professionally" and that in the end it's going to end up motivating Bol.
Also, as you all have mentioned, it's not just Calipari's decision on who was cut. It's a committee and supposedly they just couldn't justify taking Bol over some bigger, more mature and physical bigs.
I still figured Calipari would pull some strings and make it happen, but as it stands he's comfortable with how things stand in Bol's recruitment and Bol won't be vengeful when thinking of the Cats during his recruitment.
All seems well there.
