As recently as a month ago, many University of Kentucky fans, affectionately known as Big Blue Nation, were beginning to fear that coach John Calipari was beginning to lose his mojo on the recruiting circuit. After reeling in the top rated recruiting class in the nation three consecutive seasons running, Kentucky didn’t have a commitment from anyone heading towards the early signing period.
Fresh off coaching the Dominican Republic team in FIBA Worlds competition, Calipari and his all worldly 2011 Class consisting off Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjers arriving on campus, the dominoes began to fall with the first commitment coming in the form of Top 20 rated SG Archie Goodwin in late September.
With NC State transfer Ryan Harrow penciled in as probable starter at PG, and now Goodwin in the fold, Calipari chose to focus on the plethora of talented big men in the class. But after being spurned by several highly touted big men like Mitch McGary, Kaleb Tarczewski, and DaJuan Coleman, the coaching staff was able to secure the services of 6‘11 two sport HS star Willie Cauley, rated the #32 prospect in the country.
The next piece to fall into place was elite level combo forward Alex Polythress, long thought of as a major target of Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. The 6’7 multi-talented forward is the #17 prospect in the country and should fill the void left of probable one-and-doners Davis and Gilchrist after this season.
While securing the services of 3 players ranked among the Top 30 prospects in the country is a great haul, in all likelihood Calipari and staff are far from finished as they are reportedly heavy favorites for the late rising PF Jarnell Stokes, a consensus Top 25 pick that reminds many of Charles Barkley or Ron Artest and 6’9 combo forward Amile Jefferson. Of course, Kentucky is still major players for the services of the #1 rated Shabazz Muhammed, who is taking his time making a decision.
Let’s take a look at some of Kentucky’s 2012 commitments and prospects:
Archie Goodwin – SG – #13 in 2012
Alex Polythress – SF – #17 in 2012
Willie Cauley – PF/C – #32 in 2012
Prospect – Jarnell Stokes – PF – #18 in 2012
Prospect – Amile Jefferson – SF – #24 in 2012
Prospect – Shabazz Muhammed – SG/SF – #1 in 2012
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
