Rivals comment on Wenyen Gabriel

[Ripcord65]

Just saw this on the main page of Rivals Basketball Recruiting:

"Kentucky signee Wenyen Gabriel made a huge move up the rankings to No. 17 overall this summer. But as he showed at the National Prep Showcase, that might still be too low."

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/

The rest is a pretty good story, and not restricted to the premium "Insider."

 

[jarms24]

Just saw this on the main page of Rivals Basketball Recruiting:

"Kentucky signee Wenyen Gabriel made a huge move up the rankings to No. 17 overall this summer. But as he showed at the National Prep Showcase, that might still be too low."

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/

The rest is a pretty good story, and not restricted to the premium "Insider."

Yep, he's moving into the top 10 in the next update. May even leapfrog some folks.

 

[buckkiller]

Last update I seen he is 10.

 

[jarms24]

Last update I seen he is 10.

He's currently #17 per Rivals.

 

[buckkiller]

I dont know what Rankings i seen but 1 of them had him 10. He will for sure be top 10 no matter wat.

 

[WildMoon]

I believe Bossi said he is still waiting to see if he can sustain some of his performance.

He might be top 5, and could end up being UK's best player.

He is quickly becoming a legit SF as a 6'10".

 

[gossie21]

Yep, he's moving into the top 10 in the next update. May even leapfrog some folks.

Wouldn't that be a necessity for him to move into the top-10?

 

[WildMoon]

Wouldn't that be a necessity for him to move into the top-10?

I'm going to guess, he is saying leapfrog some of our recruits.

Fox, Monk, or BAM. One or more than one will get passed by mr. Gabriel.

 

[Rhavicc]

Rumblings that Gabriel could end up being the best of all of our recruits, which is pretty good, considering that 3 of the other 4 recruits are in the top 7, and will all likely move up due to the ACL injuries of Harry Giles and Dennis Smith Jr.

 

[jarms24]

Wouldn't that be a necessity for him to move into the top-10?

Sorry! I meant, leapfrog some players that are already in the top 10. Meaning, he'd be better than #10.

 

[UK_Johnny24]

I've been wondering if he may end up being ranked ahead of Bridges. The SF that we all wanted so bad not very long ago. And Bridges is really good. But Gabriel may end up being the better SF.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

Something is telling me next yrs class will be the greatest ever just like Cal predicted.

 

[Cat Ballou]

What you've got to like is that almost all of our guys are kids that have shown marked improvement in their game in the last year and still have tremendous upside. The one exception to that is Monk, who has been projected as a Top 5 caliber player in this class for a couple of years, but he has been consistently excellent.

 

[ThroughBlue]

Evan Daniels is all in on Gabriel

 

[rabidcatfan]

He'll be top 10 by the final ranking, giving us 4 of the top 10. No other coach comes close.

For the record, Gabriel is better than a lot of the kids ahead of him right now. He's only ranked behind them because he was such a late bloomer and grew from 6-3 to 6-9. I'd say he should be ranked 8th on Rivals, right behind Bam.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Something is telling me next yrs class will be the greatest ever just like Cal predicted.

Multiple guys with a be max players someday. Gabriel's upside rivals guys like Loul Deng at the same sage. Monk is going to be a franchise guard. Fox has everything needed to become a transcendent lead guard.

The wildcards are Bam and SKJ. Both will obviously pay for play in the league, but how far they develop will be the determining factor on whether this class surpasses the Wall/Bledsoe/Cousins/Orton class. Truly some riveting recruiting going on right now.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

Side note: Giles' and Smith Jr.'s rankings should fall, given injuries.

 

[Blue Decade]

I believe Bossi said he is still waiting to see if he can sustain some of his performance.

He might be top 5, and could end up being UK's best player.

He is quickly becoming a legit SF as a 6'10".

Gabriel is a great acquisition, still improving. Long arms, very athletic. No way he ends up being a better player than Fox or Monk, both of whom can make a case for being the top player in the whole class. Fox and Monk are up there with Wall, maybe even better. Gabriel is really good, but not very strong. The key to watch with Gabriel is whether he can play on the wing against ranked college teams. That means being able to check other college wings defensively. There is no question that Gabriel will play and contribute. But with Humphries and possibly Lee coming back next year, and with Adebayo and SKJ coming in, Gabriel will have much higher value for us if he can play on the wing.

 

[bigc45157]

The kid looks like he's gaining some needed weight in the videos of his game.

He will be scary when he gets on campus.

 

[Teachable Moe]

Schizo class. Bam and Winyard are yuuuuuge. The others make Brandon Ingram look like a muscleman.

 

[Primedfor9]

I read on the national board where Eric Bossi said that he's a year removed from his graduating class and would be eligible for the 16 draft, so while it's nice to see him blowing up I almost hope he don't blow up too much. I know it's very unlikely but I was surprised Bossi said that.

 

[.S&C.]

6'10 and 7 foot small fowards.

It's like NCAA basketball 2008 all over again.

 

[kentucky_wildcat_#1]

If it's true this kid is a year removed from his highschool class, I'm a lil more worried about this kid actually making it to Kentucky. At his size and talents, the NBA will be interested in this kids game. If he can be the SF everyone is drooling thinking about, its even more likely he's headed to the NBA without a year at Kentucky. With the class we have coming in, I think this kid will want to be a part of that and not miss out on a chance at something special.

 

[.S&C.]

If it's true this kid is a year removed from his highschool class, I'm a lil more worried about this kid actually making it to Kentucky. At his size and talents, the NBA will be interested in this kids game. If he can be the SF everyone is drooling thinking about, its even more likely he's headed to the NBA without a year at Kentucky. With the class we have coming in, I think this kid will want to be a part of that and not miss out on a chance at something special.[/QUOTE

Championships matter, and people love getting to taste the college experience. He should listen to Boogie, Wall, knight, Jones, Kat, etc. ask them if they had it to do over would they go to UK. They will say go.

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Smith Jr. shouldn't even be ranked in this class anymore given how he's going to be at NC state in a month .

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Dont worry about Gabriel at all. He'll be at UK next season.

 

[BBUK]

 

[mj2k10]

If it's true this kid is a year removed from his highschool class, I'm a lil more worried about this kid actually making it to Kentucky. At his size and talents, the NBA will be interested in this kids game. If he can be the SF everyone is drooling thinking about, its even more likely he's headed to the NBA without a year at Kentucky. With the class we have coming in, I think this kid will want to be a part of that and not miss out on a chance at something special.

He's (probably) not eligible for the NBA draft.

There's a grey area with 5th year HS players that's never really been tested. The NBA rule is 19 AND one year removed from HS. There was some talk about John Wall attempting to bypass college (he repeated a year of HS, which is why he wasn't eligible for the Mickey D game), and more talk about Andre Drummond possibly playing a 5th year in prep school, then entering the draft, but so far, no one's actually done it.

I suspect that the NBA would fight it. Someone could try to claim that a "prep school" isn't really a high school, and that, if a player had enough credits to graduate after 4 years, it shouldn't matter if he played 1 year of college, or a 5th year at a prep school. However, I doubt the NBA would look at it like that, and besides, Gabriel isn't likely to be the one to challenge the status quo. He's a solid student, and the school he attends is a legitimate academic institution, not one of the fly-by-night basketball academies that seem to be popping up everywhere, where guys take a ton of correspondence and online stuff so that they don't actually have to attend class.

 

[BBUK]

He's (probably) not eligible for the NBA draft.

There's a grey area with 5th year HS players that's never really been tested. The NBA rule is 19 AND one year removed from HS. There was some talk about John Wall attempting to bypass college (he repeated a year of HS, which is why he wasn't eligible for the Mickey D game), and more talk about Andre Drummond possibly playing a 5th year in prep school, then entering the draft, but so far, no one's actually done it.

I suspect that the NBA would fight it. Someone could try to claim that a "prep school" isn't really a high school, and that, if a player had enough credits to graduate after 4 years, it shouldn't matter if he played 1 year of college, or a 5th year at a prep school. However, I doubt the NBA would look at it like that, and besides, Gabriel isn't likely to be the one to challenge the status quo. He's a solid student, and the school he attends is a legitimate academic institution, not one of the fly-by-night basketball academies that seem to be popping up everywhere, where guys take a ton of correspondence and online stuff so that they don't actually have to attend class.

What I hear about a lot of this type player that use the "fly-by-night" academies that you state never seem to be concerned about keeping their dough even though I know they have heard about pro's losing all their dough. You'd think they'd "wise-up" but they don't. It's why I like how Cal does it even more. He demands they attend a financial management class.

It's not what you make-...It's what you keep.

 

[kubballfan23]

He's (probably) not eligible for the NBA draft.

There's a grey area with 5th year HS players that's never really been tested. The NBA rule is 19 AND one year removed from HS. There was some talk about John Wall attempting to bypass college (he repeated a year of HS, which is why he wasn't eligible for the Mickey D game), and more talk about Andre Drummond possibly playing a 5th year in prep school, then entering the draft, but so far, no one's actually done it.

I suspect that the NBA would fight it. Someone could try to claim that a "prep school" isn't really a high school, and that, if a player had enough credits to graduate after 4 years, it shouldn't matter if he played 1 year of college, or a 5th year at a prep school. However, I doubt the NBA would look at it like that, and besides, Gabriel isn't likely to be the one to challenge the status quo. He's a solid student, and the school he attends is a legitimate academic institution, not one of the fly-by-night basketball academies that seem to be popping up everywhere, where guys take a ton of correspondence and online stuff so that they don't actually have to attend class.

Ditto this. Wenyen reclassified so he will not be eligible for McDonald's game but I haven't heard him ever mention going straight to the NBA. I don't even think it's something he's ever thought about. He'll be at Kentucky next year

 

[WildMoon]

Gabriel is a great acquisition, still improving. Long arms, very athletic. No way he ends up being a better player than Fox or Monk, both of whom can make a case for being the top player in the whole class. Fox and Monk are up there with Wall, maybe even better. Gabriel is really good, but not very strong. The key to watch with Gabriel is whether he can play on the wing against ranked college teams. That means being able to check other college wings defensively. There is no question that Gabriel will play and contribute. But with Humphries and possibly Lee coming back next year, and with Adebayo and SKJ coming in, Gabriel will have much higher value for us if he can play on the wing.

No way is a strong words. I'm not a scout so i don't think i can argue.

However, Davis exploded his ranking too. Going into senior year or late Junior year, he would been in the category of "NO WAY" the top player in the class.

by end of senior year, he was clear cut favorite.

just saying.

 

[Cat Ballou]

As KUballfan23 or whatever his name is pointed out in the other thread, Wenyen has put on about 20 lbs since this Summer. That is really impressive for a kid who is not in a college conditioning program yet. Wenyen's biggest challenge right now is strength, so that's very promising.

It's also a perfect situation for Wenyen that he's going somewhere next year where he don't have to play 38 mpg. As Bossi noted, Wenyen looked like a guy who could go straight to the NBA lottery in the first half last night, but wore out in the second half. He can play at UK next year, work on his body, stamina, and strength, without getting beat down during the season.

 

[DY9ASTY]

We already know ESPN's #1 & #2 ranked players won't change again. Giles out with ACL....won't matter. Tatum could have the worst season ever and he ain't leaving that top 2 spot.

We are going to hear about how "Duke has the #1 AND #2 ranked player coming in" about 4,000 times before next November.

 

[Teachable Moe]

Dont worry about Gabriel at all. He'll be at UK next season.

Given his physique I can't imagine the NBA drafting him before he's shown what he can do against significant competition. Some people can't bulk up. (I had to get real old before I got a little upholstery on the frame. )