2013 Recruiting Updates

Before the John Calipari era in Kentucky basketball, you rarely ever heard of big recruiting news involving the Wildcats. You could go over to ESPN, Rivals, or any other recruit ranking service and check out the high school phenoms and where they are thinking about playing their college ball. It was very rare to find someone even considering UK. My, my, how things have changed. Now, it’s shocking when John Calipari doesn’t pull in the top ranked class. I know it’s early, but there has been significant amount of buzz revolving around a slew of 2013 recruits wanting to come to Lexington. Could 2013 be another #1 class for UK? Or what about the greatest recruiting class of all-time?

Jabari Parker has been labeled the #1 player in next year’s class seemingly since he picked up a basketball. The Chicago native plays for Derrick Rose’s alma mater at Simeon High School. While Kentucky has been in the mix with Parker for a while, he has an extremely long list of scholarship offers from all over the country. The likes of hometown Depaul, BYU, Duke, Stanford, Florida, Kansas, and UK are all throwing their names into the sweepstakes. While he would be more than welcome in Lexington, many feel that he wants to make his own stamp on another program. Recent sources have guess that Jabari could land at Michigan State. He wouldn’t have to play in the “shadow” of fellow Chicago native Anthony Davis, could stay closer to home, could compete for a National Championship, and recieve excellent coaching from Tom Izzo. Keep an eye on this young fella’, he’s a Strait up baller.

The recruiting dominoes could all start falling in the Lone Star state. A trio of high profile recruits are all highly considering playing together in Lexington. Julius Randle, a 6’9” power forward from Dallas is a ferocious, high motor player that has an impressive arsenal of athletic ability. In Kentucky lingo, he has the height of Terrence Jones and the motor of an MKG. Throughout the recruiting process, Kentucky has stayed in the mix with Randle. The only other news regarding Randle maybe playing somewhere else involves his AAU teammate Matt Jones, who has signed with Dook.

Staying in the Lone Star state, we are taking a double dip into the recruiting pool and bringing you a pair of twins. Andrew and Aaron Harrison are believed to be a packaged deal to wherever they decided to play ball. Andrew is said to be the more highly regarded of the two, and at 6’5” plays the point guard position. After the likes of Rose, Wall, Knight, and Teague, does the kid have another reason to go anywhere else? His brother Aaron, also at 6’5” is a shooting guard that will stretch the defense for his slashing point guard pal. How easy would it be for them to play amongst some of the greatest talent, be in synch with one another, and transform that into a National Title. On a side note, Kentucky travels to Texas this year to play Baylor in a big primetime matchup. Recruiting tool for to get Randle and the Harrrison twins? I see you, Cal.

Now we are going to take you up to Michigan and let you meet another 6’6” shooting guard/ small forward that is regarding the Wildcats. James Young is a shooting guard that can fill it up at will. This prolific scorer is always in attack mode and seems to be perfect for Coach Cal’s dribble drive motion offense. Like Randle, Young is a south-paw that uses his athleticism to blow by opponents and finish at the rim. The knocks about his game include strength, and ball-handling. In my opinion, the strength will be there as the young man develops into a more mature body. Like the John Wall jumpshot, Young’s ball-handling can be fixed.

With everything great, there is a wildcard that makes it an over the top success. After signing a #1 recruiting class, you go and add a John Wall kind of deal. The #1 player in the 2014 class, Andrew Wiggins is already considering making his college home at UK. Why discuss a 2014 recruit? He could be eligible to play in 2013 with all of the other recruits i have previously mentioned. His AAU coach recently stated that for now Wiggins’ is a 2014 recruit, however he is taking all the necessary classes to make him eligible to play in 2013.

Rumors have been heated for many weeks about these players possibly joining forces and taking their talents to Lexington. Already another star-studded recruiting class in the works, and we haven’t even played a single minute of the 2012-13 season. Good luck to everyone starting classes, and be sure to follow @StraitPinkie and @StraitCatsSP on Twitter!