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Video: Immanuel Quickley not afraid of possibly playing with Quade Green, Alexander at UK.

If Cal wants him that's good enough for me. Come on down young man. Let's get this class of 18 started.
 
Hes made strides as a shooter though. Pretty good mechanics. i dont think shooting will be a weakness if he continues to improves the way he has over the last year.
 
If a recruit, even if he is the #1 recruit, is afraid of who he will be practicing with/against every day, then he is not confident in his own game and I don't want him!
 
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He shot the ball really well in the spring(?) AAU sessions I think. im sure I'm not the only one that remembers reading this about Quickley.
 
Yeah, he'll fit in because UK never had a great shooter under Cal, just like Booker, Lamb Monk, Willis, Murray etc.

You named 5 players that could shoot out of roughly 50 or so recruits Cal has gotten in his time at U.K. So yeah I'd say he values the "athlete" over the "shooter" as evidenced.
 
False. His shot is great already.

Might have a great shot, doesn't make him a great shooter. Briscoe's form looked great. Was a terrible shooter.

Diallo has already been labeled as needing to get better at shooting. He can't shoot. Period. Maybe he'll get better. But right now it's a weakness. Stop being so sensitive.
 
With the talent this kid brings to Kentucky's roster next year, I think we can forgive the kid for not being such a finished product and ace shooter from the outside. Yeah, the kid will fit in at Kentucky under Cal, being the kid is one of the most talented kids at his position. His shooting is improving and won't be known as a weakness when the kid is hitting the floor for Kentucky. Some of y'all are just so miserable, it doesn't matter how awesome things are going, you can always find a negative to throw in. I can't imagine being that way, but whatever works for you!
 
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a Green/Quickley combo has me thinking similarities of Simon/Bibby

And we know how that turned out...................
 
Might have a great shot, doesn't make him a great shooter. Briscoe's form looked great. Was a terrible shooter.

Diallo has already been labeled as needing to get better at shooting. He can't shoot. Period. Maybe he'll get better. But right now it's a weakness. Stop being so sensitive.
Briscoe's form was not great.
 
He sounds great in the interview. No hesitation in his answers proves he is pretty sure of himself on what he was asked. His answer to maybe playing with Green/Alexander was probably a huge disappointment to Tipton (I assumed it was him asking the questions) but sounded very sure of himself and mentioned the Wall/Bledsoe combination and how well that worked. Sounded pretty positive if you are a UK fan!!!
 
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Might have a great shot, doesn't make him a great shooter. Briscoe's form looked great. Was a terrible shooter.

Diallo has already been labeled as needing to get better at shooting. He can't shoot. Period. Maybe he'll get better. But right now it's a weakness. Stop being so sensitive.

Love Briscoe. Kid is a warrior. But his form is far from great. Like most your posts, you are wrong and way off base
 
Really enjoyed that Quickley video. Somebody has already been working with the kid, telling him to look into the camera, not too much of the ". . . you know . . ." stuff. Seems to be a really poised kid. He seems supremely confident, but not "cocky."

I think I understood him to say that he wants to get all of his visits completed "before Big Blue Madness." That sounds very good for us -- to me. One could reasonably infer that he's really already decided; that he's going to go through all of the usual motions with the other three suitors so as not to offend anyone; but . . . that he wants to be introduced as "a U.K. Wildcat" at Big Blue Madness. Now THAT is COOL !

I sure hope we land this kid.
 
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If he wants to commit before BBM, I'm guessing he will be the lead recruiter for some of the others.

Doesn't always work out but nice to have the PG committed early and in the ears of other recruits.
 
You named 5 players that could shoot out of roughly 50 or so recruits Cal has gotten in his time at U.K. So yeah I'd say he values the "athlete" over the "shooter" as evidenced.
James young, Ulis, Brandon Knight, could all shoot it well. How many guys per year do you think a team will have that can shoot really well?

Hell even Anthony Davis and Karl Towns had really nice shots, just wasn't what Cal was going to have them doing. Terrence Jones was above average for a guy with his strength. I could probably think of few more, but don't think I need to
 
It is highly possible we return our entire backcourt outside of Diallo, but if Calipari lands Langford (which I doubt, but you never know) at the SG position to replace Diallo, it will be interesting to see our starting backcourt next season as you will have four studs (SGA, Quickley, Green, and Langford) vying for two positions. Of course, that doesn't even mention the possible contributions of Baker, but unless he can fill it up from beyond the arc consistently, he may see little floor time this season or next season.
 
It is highly possible we return our entire backcourt outside of Diallo, but if Calipari lands Langford (which I doubt, but you never know) at the SG position to replace Diallo, it will be interesting to see our starting backcourt next season as you will have four studs (SGA, Quickley, Green, and Langford) vying for two positions. Of course, that doesn't even mention the possible contributions of Baker, but unless he can fill it up from beyond the arc consistently, he may see little floor time this season or next season.

With Green and Gilgeous-Alexander, plus Langford and Quickley, then we would play three guards depending on who we sign at the 3 spot. Probably won't sign anyone better than Quickley and Langford, though. So Green, Quickley, and Langford start with Gilgeous-Alexander off the bench, IMHO.
 
Really nice interview. I like the reference to Wall and Bledsoe and Murray and Ulis. I think we get him.
 
Love to see next year's class start coming together early.

I have a feeling it will be a mostly late forming class. I don't think we have many guaranteed one and done players (when has that stopped some from leaving though?), at least as of right now. I think we have 2 for sure one and done type players and possibly a 3rd. We have a good chance of returning a significant amount of players and some of the recruits will wait to see who goes. It will also depend on if Wynyard leaves like Humphries did and SKJ and Gabriel blow up and are ready to leave. We could have anywhere between 4 to like 8 scholarships open for next year's class.

A quick(ley) note on athletes vs shooters. Elite level athletes are much harder to come by then shooters (shooters are all over the place in Division I, but elite athletes are more rare). Sometimes you get lucky and get a Monk that can do both well, but most shooters have other flaws in their game. You might be able to hide deficiencies of 1 great shooter with your other 4 players on the floor, but having multiples together will give you a team like Duke last year. I think Cal goes at recruiting with the idea that you can try and teach a great athlete to shoot, but your not going to turn a shooter into a great athlete if he isn't already.

None of that is about Quickley. I haven't seen him play yet and I try not to watch much basketball of recruits before actually stepping on the floor at Kentucky. I don't want to raise my own expectations on them without giving them a chance to show how good they really are at this level. I don't want to say they are the next Anthony Davis or John Wall and then feel like they disappointed when they don't reach that level.
 
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I have a feeling it will be a mostly late forming class. I don't think we have many guaranteed one and done players (when has that stopped some from leaving though?), at least as of right now. I think we have 2 for sure one and done type players and possibly a 3rd. We have a good chance of returning a significant amount of players and some of the recruits will wait to see who goes. It will also depend on if Wynyard leaves like Humphries did and SKJ and Gabriel blow up and are ready to leave. We could have anywhere between 4 to like 8 scholarships open for next year's class.

A quick(ley) note on athletes vs shooters. Elite level athletes are much harder to come by then shooters (shooters are all over the place in Division I, but elite athletes are more rare). Sometimes you get lucky and get a Monk that can do both well, but most shooters have other flaws in their game. You might be able to hide deficiencies of 1 great shooter with your other 4 players on the floor, but having multiples together will give you a team like Duke last year. I think Cal goes at recruiting with the idea that you can try and teach a great athlete to shoot, but your not going to turn a shooter into a great athlete if he isn't already.

None of that is about Quickley. I haven't seen him play yet and I try not to watch much basketball of recruits before actually stepping on the floor at Kentucky. I don't want to raise my own expectations on them without giving them a chance to show how good they really are at this level. I don't want to say they are the next Anthony Davis or John Wall and then feel like they disappointed when they don't reach that level.

I tend to agree that the class probably comes together this Spring. I think Quickley and King (if offered) probably form our Fall class. I think the rest wait to see what happens this season.
 
You named 5 players that could shoot out of roughly 50 or so recruits Cal has gotten in his time at U.K. So yeah I'd say he values the "athlete" over the "shooter" as evidenced.

But those five are not the only guys who could shoot. We have had above average to good shooters every year. Counting starters in the past 4 or 5 years, only Briscoe would be called under par. And you should have read up on Quickley before making your shooting statement.
 
I have a feeling it will be a mostly late forming class. I don't think we have many guaranteed one and done players (when has that stopped some from leaving though?), at least as of right now. I think we have 2 for sure one and done type players and possibly a 3rd. We have a good chance of returning a significant amount of players and some of the recruits will wait to see who goes. It will also depend on if Wynyard leaves like Humphries did and SKJ and Gabriel blow up and are ready to leave. We could have anywhere between 4 to like 8 scholarships open for next year's class.

A quick(ley) note on athletes vs shooters. Elite level athletes are much harder to come by then shooters (shooters are all over the place in Division I, but elite athletes are more rare). Sometimes you get lucky and get a Monk that can do both well, but most shooters have other flaws in their game. You might be able to hide deficiencies of 1 great shooter with your other 4 players on the floor, but having multiples together will give you a team like Duke last year. I think Cal goes at recruiting with the idea that you can try and teach a great athlete to shoot, but your not going to turn a shooter into a great athlete if he isn't already.

None of that is about Quickley. I haven't seen him play yet and I try not to watch much basketball of recruits before actually stepping on the floor at Kentucky. I don't want to raise my own expectations on them without giving them a chance to show how good they really are at this level. I don't want to say they are the next Anthony Davis or John Wall and then feel like they disappointed when they don't reach that level.
Great post.

Add to this that Cal isn't merely looking for players that "jump high" (as some here lazily insinuate), but it's a matter of defense-first strategy.

Would you rather have guys that can shoot but are lacking in defensive ability or guys that can defend well but not as good of shot?
It's not a clear cut answer.. but look back over our past teams and think about who YOU would want on the floor. Guarantee it's the better athletes.

And spare me any of the "if I were the coach I'd recruit only elite athletes that shoot the lights out and want to stick around four years because they love UK", stuff.
 
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