Report: John Wall to Kentucky [Update 10:10am]

Basketball Recruiting156

Thank God the circus is over.

Slam magazine is reporting that John Wall will sign a letter of intent to play basketball for John Calipari at the University of Kentucky.

Link to ACCNow

Considered the best point guard prospect in the country, Wall went to three different high schools in five years in the Triangle. He exploded onto the national recruiting scene two summers ago at a camp in Philadelphia.

He was first pursued by the Wolfpack, then Duke joined the fray and even UNC’s Roy Williams made a late call to Wall during the Final Four. Instead of staying home, Wall apparently went with Calipari.

This would be the second time in three years Duke has lost out on a top-flight recruit, late in the signing process, to Kentucky (forward Patrick Patterson in ’07).

This is good for the Cliftons, Wall’s family, John Calipari and most definitely the folks at Nike. I am not sure that this is bad thing for NC State. (Of course, had Lee Fowler and Jim Oblinger not found a way to *#$#-up the hiring of John Calipari three years ago then Calipari would have probably already secured Wall’s commitment to play at NC State. But, nothing is surprising with our ‘leaders’. Oh…what could have been)

In fact, you will get NO complaints from us about missing on Wall. Heck, with all of the shenanigans and ‘smoke’ surrounding Wall’s recruitment it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that Carolina and Duke would have friggin paid Wall to come to State just so that we could end up back on NCAA probation.

Coach Lowe and staff gave it their best shot and appeared to back away from the youngster in recent weeks/months. Don’t misinterpret that statement – we would have surely taken Wall’s commitment, but there was no reason to spend time and resources stroking this kid – and his entourage’s egos. I think Coach Lowe handled it in the best way possible.

And, I hope that John Wall (and any other local college talent who is not tracking to play at NC State) are not allowed on campus or allowed to participate in pick-up games with our players in our facilities. People who are not a part of NC State, should not get the benefits that NC State offers. Go play at the YMCA if you aren’t running with the Pack.

IMHO, NC State’s program is not currently in a place to have effectively managed John Wall. Had Wall and all of his local influences landed in Raleigh then Coach Lowe’s Wolfpack would have run a tremendous risk of dealing with long term chemistry issues for a phenomenally limited short term gain.

In the end, Kentucky was probably the best fit for Wall and his services. Calipari has shown an ability to succeed on the court while generally controlling kids of Wall’s ilk off the court. Calipari, Coach K, Roy Williams have the credibility and the stature to ‘own’ their programs and know how to both control egomaniacs while demanding things of them. Quite frankly, Coach Lowe and NC State are not yet at that point. ‘Hosting’ Wall for a year was a much bigger gamble than many wanted to publically admit.

This is the link to Scout.com’s article.

Well, the name on the jersey has changed and Calipari switched locations but he’s going to get to coach Wall.

“It was a great job he did the last two years with his guards,” Wall told Scout.com. “I think my relationship with Coach Cal pushed them over. The other coaches did a great job but that relationship got them over.”

By the way…if John Wall doesn’t get some academic items in order, he won’t be playing college basketball for anyone.

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Basketball Recruiting

156 Responses to Report: John Wall to Kentucky [Update 10:10am]

  1. ryebread 05/20/2009 at 8:14 PM #

    I’ll admit Lowe was behind the 8 Ball year one. There’s no other way to spin it, HSNBN left the cupboard fairly bare and LF didn’t help anything by not holding onto the recruits. Losing Brackman and Simmons hurt too. In short, Sid needed bodies and had to go after the available players. I’ll give him a pass on that, but you have to also remember that two of those three early kids (Johnson and Big Lew) are gone. We have Degand who has done okay, but we’ve effectively been able to hand those scholarships right back out. SL has had two “do overs” for early mistakes.

    While I personally really like Mays and CJ and think they’re fantastic kids, I question taking them both 2 years early. Kids taken that far in advance by an ACC school are typically McDonalds AA type players — program changers. As much as I love both of them, they’re talent that is available later in the game. I thought the move was questionable then and I think it’s questionable now. That was Lowe’s choice to make, but you can’t ignore it or just dismiss it.

    I think Lowe suffers from desperation in his recruiting. He took bodies early with Degand, Big Lew and Johnson. He took bodies two years early in his second real class (CJ/Mays). This year he’s extended at least one scholarship that doesn’t seem well positioned (JD). I am not sure that I see a cohesive plan — particularly related to scholarship spacing.

    I also think Lowe trusts Towe’s evaluations way too much (see Big Lew, Javi, Mays, etc.). If anyone didn’t understand big time talent, then I think it was Monte. I think he’d go out there with a team full of scrappy, Monte-like players if he could. While that might make for a great movie, the reality in the ACC is that it will get you shellacked.

    Larry Harris knows exactly the type of player that we can recruit and that we have to recruit to win. I thought for years that Harris was hamstrung by HWSNBN by being forced to recruit system kids to fit the Princeton. He immediately got us in with Hickson and Smith if I’m not mistaken, just like most of the big name players we’ve been involved with over the past 8 years or so. I think (particularly early in his tenure), Lowe didn’t trust Harris enough. It’s not a surprise to me at all that Lo Brown and Howell (our early commits who were good) were Harris recruits.

    To say that one can’t expect Lowe to win this year because of his roster might be legitimate, but to eliminate any expectations based on that roster would be very questionable. Lowe is in fact responsible for this roster. Outside of Horner (who honestly has performed the best out of any of the kids in HWSNBN’s final class), he brought every single player in who will play this year. If the roster isn’t sufficient, then that speaks to Lowe’s performance. He’s made this bed and now he has to lie in it.

    I actually look at it a different way. The ACC will be the worst it has been in almost 10 years this season. As a conference, we didn’t recruit well 2-3 years ago and that’s come home to roost. We have the weakest set of coaches that I can honestly remember from top to bottom. We had senior and underclassmen talent leave the league in a mass exodus. We have plenty of talent when compared to what the rest of the league has.

    If Lowe’s the coach who will get us to where we want to go, he ought to be able to take this roster, in this year’s ACC and get to 8-8 and the NCAA tournament. If he’s the guy who I hope he is, then he will. If he cannot though and we finish < .500 in the league again, then I think we should probably look elsewhere.

  2. NCSUownzJoo 05/20/2009 at 9:51 PM #

    Like I said before, some people decide to give him a pass for his first couple years, some dont. I think he deserves it but other obviously feel differently.

  3. choppack1 05/20/2009 at 10:12 PM #

    NCSUownz – when do you stop giving him a pass?

    Personally, I think if Lowe’s a solid coach, he goes at least 7-9 or better…and keep in mind, the ACC has broken plenty of solid coaches, so “solid” may not be enough.

    If he’s a recruiter extraordinaire – he can get away w/ being an average coach. However, when it’s come to landing the big fish – he needs to be a better closer. Heck, w/ Les Robinson, we almost had Donald Williams, Ray Allen, Jerry Stackhouse and Joe Smith – that should show you what “almost” means.

  4. Rick 05/21/2009 at 4:31 PM #

    “Rick, I actually do think we’re practically a lock for the NCAAT this year. I expect the ACC to be down, and for that reason alone, we could move up the ladder a bit. But I also think we’ll be better. Say we do make the tournament this year, and next year we do even better. How long are we going to harbor resentment against Sid for the first three years?”

    Either you ignored my comment that I have not made up my mind about Sid or you do not know how to read.

    I have had some moments this year when I was ready to give up on him but after the second half of the ACC I am not ready to yet.

  5. Rick 05/21/2009 at 4:34 PM #

    “The facts don’t bear that out. His first year, okay i won’t talk about that one because he didn’t have a lot of options. His second year who did he recruit/land?”

    Look at what Miller has done in Az in his first year. I can and do give him a pass on the first year but it is years 2 and 3 that he dropped the ball IMO.

    My point was and still is this…

    Saying a coach cannot put an NCAA worthy team on the floor in his FORTH year is not a strike in the plus column for Sid.

  6. ryebread 05/28/2009 at 8:03 AM #

    For those who were fans of Calipari, here’s the reason that I felt he wasn’t the right coach for NC State: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4210798

    He slithered out of town in Memphis right before the @#*% hit the fan.

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