Cats Illustrated spent last week at the Nike EYBL Finals at Peach Jam and the adidas Gauntlet Finale, two events that featured a plethora of Kentucky targets.
UK's coaches watched a dozens of targets, some with offers and some that are hoping to receive an offer from Kentucky. Here's the latest with UK's recruiting efforts in 2018, a 2019 note, and package deal talks.
Courtesy of Adidas
Package Deal: There were plenty of surprises from this weekend but maybe the news of the week was Zion Williamson and Immanuel Quickley talking about being a package deal.
I spoke with someone that's close to Quickley that had no idea that they wanted to play together. It's not that they didn't want to play together, but there just hadn't be public conversations about those two teaming up in college. Quickley had talked about to the media about wanting to play with Cameron Reddish, but didn't mention Williamson.
However it came about, maybe they wanted to keep it quiet, maybe it's relatively new, whatever it is it's great news for Kentucky.
It was my opinion that UK led for Quickley and Williamson, with Quickley being close to a lock, but this would seem to make Williamson a lock, too.
Regardless of what happens with the rest of the class, that would be a huge two players to build around. You would have one of the best point guards in the class and the second or third best player in the class in Williamson.
By the way, go watch Williamson play. Don't just watch dunking highlights on YouTube. Go watch an entire game. You will be blown away with his effort, energy and how randomly his highlight plays happen. He makes dunks and blocks out of nowhere.
But the package deal talk is great news for UK.
Courtesy of Adidas
Quickley: There was chatter that I can confirm that Quickley has been talking to several prospects (not just Williamson) about playing at Kentucky. You can call it recruiting, or maybe Quickley is just thinking ahead or spitballing ideas, but despite not being a UK commit, he's had a lot of hypothetical conversations with other 2018 stars about Kentucky.
Quickley will take four visits to his final four schools- Kansas (9/2), Miami, Fla. (9/9), Kentucky (9/16) and Maryland (TBD). His three visits to Kansas, Miami and UK will be official visits, while he will unofficially visit the hometown Terrapins sometime in between his official visits.
He will make a final decision after those visits and I'd be shocked if Kentucky wasn't the choice. I was a little surprised that all the visits will happen in September and not August, but he will have more free time in September.
I know some folks may get nervous about Quickley taking visits elsewhere when he seems like such a big UK lean, and you never know what will happen on visits, but I've been told that these visits are just to reiterate that Kentucky is the place for him.
It was fun to watch him play in Spartanburg. He won't be Calipari's best point guard but I saw some similarities to Marquis Teague but Quickley is a much better passer at this point. With how much talent UK will have in 2018-2019, a pass first guard like Quickley will be perfect.
Jordan Wells/TheHoosier.com
Darius Garland: It was announced on Sunday that UK offered five-star guard from Nashville. Garland is an incredibly gifted score-first guard that is a priority for several big named universities.
As of now for UK, despite Garland being so gift, he's a back-up plan. The Cats feel confident about landing Quickley but they want another guard in the 2018 class and don't want to end up with just Quickley in 2018 in the backcourt.
But, I was still a little surprised. UK, as of today, is expecting Quade Green, Jermarl Baker and Shai Alexander to return for a sophomore season. If you were to bring in Quickley there wouldn't be a major need for another guard, but Kentucky disagrees.
Calipari isn't known to take a conservative approach in recruiting. He wants to land five-star players because he wants to be able to work with them. It's also an added bonus to land five-star players that you may not necessarily need because it also keeps them from going to the competition.
I wouldn't expect Garland to end up at UK, but if the Cats start to miss on Reddish, Barrett, Langford and Grimes, they will turn the heat up on Garland.
Courtesy of Adidas
Langford: UK watched Langford despite the five-star shooting guard having more back issues, but I wouldn't expect Langford to end up at Kentucky. There's a lot to like about Langford's game, but as I've mentioned, UK was also motivated to land Langford to keep him away from Duke, Louisville and Indiana.
But, Calipari was able to coach and watch Langford play for nearly four weeks over the summer and it's my opinion when I think Calipari isn't as high on Langford as he was about a year ago. Also, I don't think Langford enjoyed the Calipari experience as much as other players did.
On top of all that, Indiana is talking about how Langford will be their most important recruit in a decade and will be the player that helps Archie Miller turnaround the program. Langford could also be one of Pitino's best recruits at Louisville and he lives five minutes from the Yum! Center.
While UK thinks Langford would be a nice piece, the Cats have bigger fish to fry. Other schools are making Langford that big fish.
Jon Lopez/Nike
Marvin Bagley III: The talk of the weekend was how Bagley wants to reclassify so he can play college basketball in November. That has been talked about for months but I'll be completely honest that I didn't think there was much to it. Bagley has switched schools often during his high school career. He's unsure where he will be enrolled if he does stay in high school this year. From an academic standpoint it would seem tough at the surface for him to reclassify.
But, I admit I don't know all the details of what it takes to reclassify and I don't know where Bagley is in the process of his school work. If Bagley is able to make it happen that's great news for college basketball because Bagley is a stud.
However, if he does reclassify he won't end up at Kentucky. Even if he stays in 2018 it doesn't appear the Cats are one of his favorites. It seems unlikely that Bagley is a Cat.
But, if he stays in 2018 you never know because of the timing. It appears he's set on making the move to 2017 and if he does, the best realistic case for UK fans is that he ends up staying home and goes to Southern California.
Jon Lopez/Nike @NikeEYB
Bol Bol: I have been asked this several times since the weekend so I will address it here- I don't think UK cutting Bol Bol killed Kentucky's chances, but I don't think it helped. Bol seemed bothered not making the USA U19 team, but he took the approach to blame himself instead blaming the coaching staff.
I once thought UK was a slam dunk to land Bol. I don't think it's a slam dunk. I think the Cats will have a good chance to land him but the competition out west will be tough.
Bob Blanchard, Basketball Hall of Fame
New Name: UK watched plenty of Emmitt Williams over the weekend. With Bagley looking like a long shot for UK, the Cats will need other big targets. Williams may become that target, but it's worth mentioned that Williams said talking to Coach K of Duke was like "talking to God." The Blue Devils seem to be in a good spot.
UK's coaches watched a dozens of targets, some with offers and some that are hoping to receive an offer from Kentucky. Here's the latest with UK's recruiting efforts in 2018, a 2019 note, and package deal talks.
Courtesy of Adidas
Package Deal: There were plenty of surprises from this weekend but maybe the news of the week was Zion Williamson and Immanuel Quickley talking about being a package deal.
I spoke with someone that's close to Quickley that had no idea that they wanted to play together. It's not that they didn't want to play together, but there just hadn't be public conversations about those two teaming up in college. Quickley had talked about to the media about wanting to play with Cameron Reddish, but didn't mention Williamson.
However it came about, maybe they wanted to keep it quiet, maybe it's relatively new, whatever it is it's great news for Kentucky.
It was my opinion that UK led for Quickley and Williamson, with Quickley being close to a lock, but this would seem to make Williamson a lock, too.
Regardless of what happens with the rest of the class, that would be a huge two players to build around. You would have one of the best point guards in the class and the second or third best player in the class in Williamson.
By the way, go watch Williamson play. Don't just watch dunking highlights on YouTube. Go watch an entire game. You will be blown away with his effort, energy and how randomly his highlight plays happen. He makes dunks and blocks out of nowhere.
But the package deal talk is great news for UK.
Courtesy of Adidas
Quickley: There was chatter that I can confirm that Quickley has been talking to several prospects (not just Williamson) about playing at Kentucky. You can call it recruiting, or maybe Quickley is just thinking ahead or spitballing ideas, but despite not being a UK commit, he's had a lot of hypothetical conversations with other 2018 stars about Kentucky.
Quickley will take four visits to his final four schools- Kansas (9/2), Miami, Fla. (9/9), Kentucky (9/16) and Maryland (TBD). His three visits to Kansas, Miami and UK will be official visits, while he will unofficially visit the hometown Terrapins sometime in between his official visits.
He will make a final decision after those visits and I'd be shocked if Kentucky wasn't the choice. I was a little surprised that all the visits will happen in September and not August, but he will have more free time in September.
I know some folks may get nervous about Quickley taking visits elsewhere when he seems like such a big UK lean, and you never know what will happen on visits, but I've been told that these visits are just to reiterate that Kentucky is the place for him.
It was fun to watch him play in Spartanburg. He won't be Calipari's best point guard but I saw some similarities to Marquis Teague but Quickley is a much better passer at this point. With how much talent UK will have in 2018-2019, a pass first guard like Quickley will be perfect.
Jordan Wells/TheHoosier.com
Darius Garland: It was announced on Sunday that UK offered five-star guard from Nashville. Garland is an incredibly gifted score-first guard that is a priority for several big named universities.
As of now for UK, despite Garland being so gift, he's a back-up plan. The Cats feel confident about landing Quickley but they want another guard in the 2018 class and don't want to end up with just Quickley in 2018 in the backcourt.
But, I was still a little surprised. UK, as of today, is expecting Quade Green, Jermarl Baker and Shai Alexander to return for a sophomore season. If you were to bring in Quickley there wouldn't be a major need for another guard, but Kentucky disagrees.
Calipari isn't known to take a conservative approach in recruiting. He wants to land five-star players because he wants to be able to work with them. It's also an added bonus to land five-star players that you may not necessarily need because it also keeps them from going to the competition.
I wouldn't expect Garland to end up at UK, but if the Cats start to miss on Reddish, Barrett, Langford and Grimes, they will turn the heat up on Garland.
Courtesy of Adidas
Langford: UK watched Langford despite the five-star shooting guard having more back issues, but I wouldn't expect Langford to end up at Kentucky. There's a lot to like about Langford's game, but as I've mentioned, UK was also motivated to land Langford to keep him away from Duke, Louisville and Indiana.
But, Calipari was able to coach and watch Langford play for nearly four weeks over the summer and it's my opinion when I think Calipari isn't as high on Langford as he was about a year ago. Also, I don't think Langford enjoyed the Calipari experience as much as other players did.
On top of all that, Indiana is talking about how Langford will be their most important recruit in a decade and will be the player that helps Archie Miller turnaround the program. Langford could also be one of Pitino's best recruits at Louisville and he lives five minutes from the Yum! Center.
While UK thinks Langford would be a nice piece, the Cats have bigger fish to fry. Other schools are making Langford that big fish.
Jon Lopez/Nike
Marvin Bagley III: The talk of the weekend was how Bagley wants to reclassify so he can play college basketball in November. That has been talked about for months but I'll be completely honest that I didn't think there was much to it. Bagley has switched schools often during his high school career. He's unsure where he will be enrolled if he does stay in high school this year. From an academic standpoint it would seem tough at the surface for him to reclassify.
But, I admit I don't know all the details of what it takes to reclassify and I don't know where Bagley is in the process of his school work. If Bagley is able to make it happen that's great news for college basketball because Bagley is a stud.
However, if he does reclassify he won't end up at Kentucky. Even if he stays in 2018 it doesn't appear the Cats are one of his favorites. It seems unlikely that Bagley is a Cat.
But, if he stays in 2018 you never know because of the timing. It appears he's set on making the move to 2017 and if he does, the best realistic case for UK fans is that he ends up staying home and goes to Southern California.
Jon Lopez/Nike @NikeEYB
Bol Bol: I have been asked this several times since the weekend so I will address it here- I don't think UK cutting Bol Bol killed Kentucky's chances, but I don't think it helped. Bol seemed bothered not making the USA U19 team, but he took the approach to blame himself instead blaming the coaching staff.
I once thought UK was a slam dunk to land Bol. I don't think it's a slam dunk. I think the Cats will have a good chance to land him but the competition out west will be tough.
Bob Blanchard, Basketball Hall of Fame
New Name: UK watched plenty of Emmitt Williams over the weekend. With Bagley looking like a long shot for UK, the Cats will need other big targets. Williams may become that target, but it's worth mentioned that Williams said talking to Coach K of Duke was like "talking to God." The Blue Devils seem to be in a good spot.
