Nov 19, 2011; Uncasville, CT, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Marquis Teague (25) , forward Anthony Davis (23) and forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (14) celebrate during the second half of game one against the Penn State Nittany Lion in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

When looking at the greatest college basketball recruiting classes since 2000, when the rise of internet recruiting services caused this to become a much bigger national story that is now an industry run for 365 days per year, Athlon Sports had several of John Calipari’s hauls among the 25 best classes, with the 2011 UK class being the greatest of them all:

1. 2011 Kentucky
The class: Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, Kyle Wiltjer
John Calipari’s best recruiting class produced a dominant regular season team (38-2, 16-0 SEC), the national champion and the top two players in the NBA Draft. Anthony Davis joined Kansas’ Danny Manning and UCLA’s Lew Alcindor as the only players to win the the Naismith Award, to win Final Four Most Outstanding honors and to go first the NBA Draft. Kidd-Gilchrist was a second-team All-American and the second overall pick while the point guard Teague was the No. 29 pick in 2012.

Also making the list were the 2009, ’10, and ’12 UK classes. The ’13 UK and Kansas Jayhawks class would likely be near the top of that list, but because none of this year’s freshman have played a college game yet, they left them at the end of the rankings.

Speaking of this year’s class, don’t expect to see UK add any late transfers ala Julius Mays this year.

In addition to the eight signed players in the class of 2013, Kentucky returns five players on scholarship for the 2013-14 season, including  Jon Hood, Jarrod Polson, Kyle Wiltjer, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Alex Poythress. That gives the Wildcats a full complement of 13 scholarships next season.

As for the latest on the 2014 recruits, Leron Black was a prospect UK had been showing interest in, but judging by this tweet, I’d say they won’t be much longer:

By the way my top schools are Baylor, Florida, Connecticut, Kansas and Illinois.

— Leron Black✈ (@Showtime_LB) May 17, 2013

Black was one of the first 2014 stars to pick a school when he committed to Baylor before his junior season, but later backed out of that commitment earlier this year.

Photo courtesy of Karl Towns Jr’s twitter account: @KATis32

It may have been the worst kept secret in college basketball recruiting, but Karl Towns Jr made it official today and he will be a Kentucky Wildcat. Towns Jr is the top ranked player in the 2015 class and there is speculation that he may reclassify into the 2014 class.  Towns also announced that he will be reclassifying into the 2014 class.  The other kind of shocking announcement was made by the announcers who said that once the announcement was made, Towns may no longer play AAU ball and may spend his summers as a normal high school student, working on his game.

Towns is already a tad over 7″ and has a wingspan of 7.5″ and he is still growing and has two more seasons of high school basketball ahead of him.  Also by making his announcement now, it should not be a problem to reclassify as he is already taking AP classes.

In the end, it really was no shock that Towns chose UK.  He spent a lot of time with John Calipari as a member of the Dominican National Team over the summer and was back in Lexington wearing Kentucky gear at the LIU Brooklyn game on 11/23.  Towns, who has just turned 17, has been compared to Kevin Durant already.  Here is a look at what Kentucky will be getting:

July 13, 2012;Alexandria, VA USA;University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari (right) watches the game between USA West and USA Midwest during the Nike Global Challenge at Episcopal High School. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

An ESPN recruiting story on former UK target Troy Williams is no longer considering UK. He will make an unofficial visit to UNC on October 12 for their Midnight Madness, as UNC was believed to be who Williams was deciding between along with UK earlier in the Spring when it appeared he was ready to make his commitment. After madness, he will take an official visit to Indiana, then eventually make trips to Louisville, Ohio State, Arkansas and Alabama. So it s likely that while the Cats were unable to get him, they’ll likely be facing him in the near future.

West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins and assistant Larry Harrison will be watching 2015 big man Karl Towns tonight at St. Joe’s Metuchen. Towns is believed to already be a UK lean after John Calipari was able to coach him and build a relationship with him during his time with the Dominican Republic team. It looks as though that was time well-invested, as Towns is quickly gaining the attention of college coaches everywhere, and is projected to be one of, if not, the top player in the class of 2015.

SLAM Magazine did a feature piece on UK target Andrew Wiggins, who’s expected to announce his reclassification into the 2013 class within the coming weeks. but whichever class he’s a part of, he’s regarded by most as the best high school basketball player right now:

In the same gym hours earlier, Wiggins put on a show that coaches from nearly every major college program—Coach Cal from Kentucky, Rick Pitino from Louisville and Roy Williams from UNC, to name a few—witnessed. He led Canada in an upset of the same USA-East squad that he’s now watching lose to Brazil. In that game, Wiggins scored 23 points, added 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and a steal in 39 minutes. He didn’t play perfectly, but the promise he showed was enough to reinforce what scouts already know: Andrew Wiggins is probably one of the most gifted prep players in North America, and he already possesses NBA-ready tools and physique.

Bullit East guard and current UK commit Derek Willis sat down with the Courier Journal for an interview in which he revealed he’s planning to come to UK for Big Blue Madness, but may not use the trip as his official visit:

I’m not sure. I was thinking about doing it for Big Blue Madness, but I’m not sure. … I’ll definitely be there (for Madness). I’m not sure yet (if it’ll be an official visit). I’m really looking forward to getting down there, but there’s a lot of stuff I need to work on and a lot of improvement I need to do before I get down there.

Despite being a walk-on relegated to the bench for his first two seasons at Kentucky, Jarrod Polson is still confident he can hang with the best players in the nation, probably because he routinely goes against them during practice.

Soon we will know the destination of 2013′s Andrew Harrison, the top point guard in the 2013 class. But this is Point Guard U, so there have to be big things in the works for 2014 as well, right? Right. So far, Emmanuel Mudiay and Tyus Jones (above) are the top two point guards in the 2014 class and could be the top two players in the entire class should Andrew Wiggins reclassify.  And they both have Kentucky offers.  So who do you want to see as a Wildcat?  Let the debate begin.

Actually Ben Roberts from NextCats has started the debate and he has a tale of the tape of the two players along with some video so check it out and choose a side.

I know this is a Kentucky site, but you can not ignore the furor over the UNC program right now. The fact that there may be an academic scandal going back a decade has to trump everything else that is going on. Now that the Olympics are over, more and more mainstrean columnists are finally turning their attention to Chapel Hill. Gregg Doyel thinks that it is time for the banners to start coming down:

Did the coaches know? Well, ask yourself this: Are we to believe that academic advisers were steering famous athletes to bogus classes behind the backs of the millionaire coaches who recruited, coached and needed those athletes to remain eligible?

Answers are coming, but already we know this: The scandal spanned the decade from 2001-11. Know what happened that decade? The UNC men’s basketball team played in three Final Fours. It won national titles in 2005 and ’09.

Did any players on those NCAA championship teams attend bogus classes? According to the News & Observer, almost 67 percent of the students in those 54 classes were athletes. Most played football, but the newspaper reported that UNC records showed “basketball players had also enrolled. In two of the classes, the sole enrollee was a basketball player.”

See, this is so much worse than what happened at Florida State — and Florida State vacated two seasons of saintly Bobby Bowden’s victories, suffered scholarship restrictions and received four years of probation.

July 13, 2012;Alexandria, VA USA;University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari (right) watches the game between USA West and USA Midwest during the Nike Global Challenge at Episcopal High School. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

So what does this all mean for Kentucky and John Calipari?  Kentucky and North Carolina are pretty fierce recruiting rivals and the top players usually have both UK and UNC on their list.  Is the academic mess going to scare off potential recruits to UNC?  It may have already started.  This week, Austin Nichols cut the Tar Heels from his list.  How much of that was scandal related?:

So what caused this swift change? College recruitments, by their nature, are fluid, fickle and fast-evolving. But that doesn’t begin to explain why a school that had put on the full-court press for Nichols, second only to its pursuit of Julius Randle, failed to earn at least a spot among Nichols’ final six. Nichols found a spot for SEC doormat Auburn, but couldn’t find one for UNC? Really?

Nichols’ apparent change of heart over the last several weeks conveniently coincides with an outpouring of long overdue media coverage regarding the North Carolina academic scandal that embroiled the football program and may or may not have extended to the basketball program as well. Though this would hardly be enough evidence to stand in court, it’s certainly conceivable that Nichols’ feelings towards North Carolina soured as more information pertaining to the fallout at UNC became known.

We’ve seen more of the lighter side of Kentucky football lately and it appears that the Cats are really bonding off the field. Yesterday was “pool day” to take a break from the two a days, so check out some of the action.

Finally with the new football season and back to school upon us, we are doing a giveaway for the Wildcat Blue Nation readers.  We are giving away tw0 $50 gift cards to Kennedy’s Wildcat Den and all you have to do is like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and sign up to win!  You can check out the contest details here and register to win.

July 13, 2012;Alexandria, VA USA;University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari (right) watches the game between USA West and USA Midwest during the Nike Global Challenge at Episcopal High School. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

With news coming out in the past few days that there may be two new targets for John Calipari to add to the 2012 recruiting class, UK fans were ecstatic to hear they may be potentially adding a veteran big man in UCF forward Keith Clanton, a 6’9 PF that averaged 14.5 ppg, 8.1 rpg and 1.8 blocks a game. Not only would the senior provide these young Cats with veteran leadership, but would give them a skilled big man that could play the role Terrence Jones played last season as the team enforcer, as well as guy who can score in a variety of ways. He shot 47% from the field and 37% from three-point range, while having 8 games in which he scored over 20 points last year.

The Cats could also be adding a late qualifier in shooting guard Torian Grahm, who the Cats had previously recruited but opted to back off after it appeared he wouldn’t qualify. While adding these two players would be a nice boost to the 2012 team, which is currently #2 or #3 in most preseason polls behind Indiana and/or Louisville, adding players this late could upset the chemistry that this team has already begun to develop. With the new summer practice rule allowing Cal to coach his players during the summer, the foundation is already being laid for next year’s team, and adding players this late could affect that chemistry that’s already been developed.

It could also affect next year’s recruiting class as well. Here next year’s top-10 according to scout.com:

1a. Jabari Parker 1b. Andrew Wiggins*
2. Andrew Harrison
3. Aaron Harrison
4. Julius Randle
5. Aaron Gordon
6. Kasey Hill
7. Chris Walker
8. James Young
9. Anthony Barber
10. Rondae Jefferson

*With Andrew Wiggins potentially about to relcassifiy to the 2013 class, he would likely overtake Parker for the #1 spot.

That’s six players in the top-10 that the Cats have a good shot of landing. Adding players this late could sway those players to look elsewhere if they think they’re playing time at UK could be less than at another school. I highly doubt Cal will add Grahm this late in the recruiting process, given that the Harrison twins are near-locks to be Cats, and James Young and Aaron Gordon play the SG spot as well.

Calipari isn’t known for adding players this late in the year, and having already held several practices with this year’s team, he’s already begun to determine how he wants his team to play going into the 2012 season. Nerlens Noel is set to join the team within the next few weeks, so he already will have his hands full implementing him into practice and getting him accustomed to the college game, and adding two more players could take way from that.

Kyle Wiltjer, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Nerlens Noel were college counselors at this weekend’s adidas Nations camp and were given the oppurtuinty to play against other college players while being evaluated by various NBA scouts. John Calipari said he talked to some of these NBA scouts, and here’s the feedback he received:

 

Kyle Wiltjer (8.75 ppg on 13-of-46 total shooting, 2.75 rpg): “They said Kyle looks stronger, quicker and more explosive. I’m told he missed some shots in the first games, but I’m not worried about Kyle missing. Just like last year — and like he did Sunday — he’s going to hit a lot of big shots for us.”

Willie Cauley-Stein (4.5 ppg on 8-oJohn Calipari Getting Good Reviews on his Catsf-20 total shooting, 4.75 rpg): “They told me Willie, like he’s been in practice this summer, was an absolute beast. He was aggressive, extremely coachable and played with confidence.”

Nerlens Noel (7.5 ppg on 6-of-10 total shooting, 3.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg): “Of course, I was really interested to hear about Nerlens because we haven’t had a chance to work with him yet. My question was, was he one of the best prospects there? They said absolutely. We haven’t had the chance to add anything to his game yet — no conditioning, no weight training, no individual attention — but they loved him because he was so coachable, so smart and picked up everything in a short period of time. In Willie’s case, we’ve (had) 16 one-hour workouts with him, so we’re seeing a different Willie than the one we saw in high school. Wait until we get Nerlens on campus to do the same thing.”

Nerlens Noel has a message for his critics: ‘I’ll Play My Own Game’

John Calipari’s next Kentucky team practiced 16 times this summer and Cal has been raving about 7-foot freshman Willie Cauley-Stein.

Could Central Florida’s Keith Clanton end up at Kentucky? 

ESPN officially announced the tip for Kentucky’s Big East/SEC challenge game at Notre Dame. The time is set for 7 p.m. est on November 29 on ESPN2, and will prove to be a very good early test for a young UK squad.

UK releases information for single-game football ticket sales.

Eloy Vargas is getting a shot to play professional basketball, as he is playing with Caneros De La Romana,  a pro basketball team in theDominican Republic.

Five Star Basketball has a great video feature on the Houston Defenders and UK recruits Andrew and Aaron Harrison.

Marquis Teague is offically a member of the Chicago Bulls as he finally signs his contract. Now that he’s finally a pro and living out his dreams of playing in the NBA, here’s what he had to say:

It feels good to finally get it out of the way. I just want to get in the gym and start working out.

Jan 15, 2012; Springfield, MA, USA; Brewster Academy Bobcats center Mitch McGary (right) shoots the ball against Tilton Rams center Nerlens Noel (left) during the first half at Blake Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-US PRESSWIRE

Yesterday we talked a bit about the Draft Express writer and the comments he made on Twitter about Nerlens Noel. According to him, Noel was barely ready for D2 ball, much less the NBA. Over the weekend, three UK players (Noel, Kyle Wiltjer, and Willie Cauley – Stein) took part in the Adidas Nations tournament. As you would expect, John Calipari got the real scoop on how his players performed and here is what Calipari was told:

Kyle Wiltjer (8.75 ppg on 13-of-46 total shooting, 2.75 rpg): “They said Kyle looks stronger, quicker and more explosive. I’m told he missed some shots in the first games, but I’m not worried about Kyle missing. Just like last year — and like he did Sunday — he’s going to hit a lot of big shots for us.”

Willie Cauley-Stein (4.5 ppg on 8-of-20 total shooting, 4.75 rpg): “They told me Willie, like he’s been in practice this summer, was an absolute beast. He was aggressive, extremely coachable and played with confidence.”

Nerlens Noel (7.5 ppg on 6-of-10 total shooting, 3.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg): “Of course, I was really interested to hear about Nerlens because we haven’t had a chance to work with him yet. My question was, was he one of the best prospects there? They said absolutely. We haven’t had the chance to add anything to his game yet — no conditioning, no weight training, no individual attention — but they loved him because he was so coachable, so smart and picked up everything in a short period of time. In Willie’s case, we’ve (had) 16 one-hour workouts with him, so we’re seeing a different Willie than the one we saw in high school. Wait until we get Nerlens on campus to do the same thing.”

July 13, 2012;Alexandria, VA USA;USA Midwest forward James Young (12) during the game against USA West during the Nike Global Challenge at Episcopal High School. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

Moving ahead to the 2013 class, Kentucky is in competition for the two top small forwards in the class. Jabari Parker is thought to be hands down the best player in the class and seems to have Michigan State or Duke as his leaders, but Kentucky can’t be discounted. The thing that surprises me is how much ground James Young has made in the rankings this summer and he seems to be without a doubt the second best SF in the class.

Hoopniks looked at the top small forwards in the class and had this to say about Young:

Just beyond Parker is James Young, a star from Michigan that was dominant from the word “go” as the spring evaluation period started, and hasn’t quit yet. He doesn’t have the overall skill or height that Parker has, but he may be a more versatile scorer, especially when he is in attack mode and can open up to the outside. He’s made no secret of his desire for a Kentucky Wildcats scholarship offer that he eventually received, but he also looks like an ideal fit for Michigan State’s system. Young seems like a surefire star wherever he ends up.

For those that remember, Spike Lee had an commercial alter-ego named Mars Blackmon who along with Michael Jordan, helped push Nike to the forefront and make Nike the “cool shoe to wear. It became impossible to turn on the television and not see Mars and MJ palling around and pimping the Nikes:

Years later, thanks to an innovative CEO in Phil Knight and the willingness of programs like the Oregon Ducks to become the poster team for the brand, Nike is still the top shoe company and most recruits want to go to a school that is a “Nike school”. Fortunately, Kentucky, like most top programs are Nike school and other schools feel that gives Nike schools an improper advantage in recruiting. Shoe companies like Adidas and Under Armour are the other suppliers of schools uniforms and they are always trying to find a way to fight the “Nike demon” and obviously they want to see college superstars in their shoes as well.

We have seen recently in the past a couple of high profile recruits choosing a certain school because of the school … or at least that was the general consensus. Most recently was the case of Shabazz Muhammad choosing UCLA, an Adidas school over Kentucky and Duke, which were Nike schools. It was something of an upset since both Kentucky and Duke made the NCAA Tournament last year and UCLA did not.

But UCLA is sponsored by Adidas. And well, where there is smoke, there is fire. Gary Parrish had this to say shortly after Shabazz’s commitment:

It would be naive for anybody to suggest the financial relationship Adidas has with people around Muhammad didn’t factor into his decision to attend a Pac-12 school coming off a disappointing season highlighted by controversy. I mean, Adidas has sponsored Muhammad’s summer team (Dream Vision) for years, and his tennis-playing sister (Asia Muhammad) has an Adidas contract even though she’s ranked outside the top 375 in the world. This stuff has to matter on some level, you know?

Gary Parrish said it. I didn’t. But now, Gary Parrish is back and he has some interesting comments about a pair of Kentucky basketball commitments and another shoe related situation:

So now the 2013 Kentucky Wildcats Recruiting Class gets all kinds of interesting. Xavier Rathan-Mayes has released a “Top 10″ list which includes Kentucky and Rathan – Mayes will take an unofficial visit to Lexington on Friday. Now the news of a top recruit visiting Lexington is not unusual and could not really be described as overly interesting since John Calipari arrived in Lexington.

But this visit is interesting because of what it can mean to the rest of the 2013 class.

Rathan – Mayes is a sharpshooter SG and is ranked anywhere from 21st to 48th in the major recruiting lists. But expect his stock to rise when the updated rankings are released as he should be a consensus top 15 player. Rathan – Mayes is also a HS and AAU team mate of Andrew Wiggins who is the best player in both the 2013 and 2014 class and is rumored to be reclassifying into the 2013 class. Rathan – Mayes and Wiggins, like a lot of high school players make noise about playing together at a college school but this rarely works out. But somehow you get the feeling that there may be something to this “package deal”.

And that would be fantastic, but the fact is that Rathan – Mayes and Aaron Harrison both play the same position and the consensus is that Rathan – Mayaes and Harrison will not go to the same school.

Unless.

Just purely speculation here but let’s assume that Wiggins does not reclassify into 2013. I don’t know if Rathan – Mayes will be a “one and done” like the Harrisons surely will be. You would figure that whatever school lands Rathan – Mayes may have the upper hand on Wiggins and if they truly want to play together, Xavier would stay at a school for a couple of years and wait for Wiggins to join him. Depending on what happens with Archie Goodwin after the 2012 season, Rathan – Mayes could still get plenty of playing time playing with the Harrisons and can set the table for a 2014 class that includes Wiggins.

That is probably the best case scenario. You also have to consider that all this means that Calipari is protecting himself in case the Harrisons go elsewhere. I still think the Harrisons are Kentucky bound, but Xavier Rathan – Mayes certainly gives Kentucky a good back up if not. And the possibility of Andrew Wiggins makes it an even more solid idea.

One thing for sure, recruiting is never boring in Lexington.

As of now, there is still debate as to whether 2014′s Andrew Wiggins will reclassify into the 2013 class. But if he does not (and it appears unlikely that he will), Andrew Wiggins could team with Xavier Rathan-Mayes and become a package deal at the University of Kentucky. Rathan Mayes has been a team mate of Andrew Wiggins at both Huntington Prep and on the AAU Circuit with CIA Bounce.

The possibility of a Wiggins/Rathan Mayes tandem at Kentucky got a bit more likely when John Calipari called Xavier on Wednesday to express his interest. Rathan – Mayes had this to say about the phone call and also about the possibility of playing at the next level with Wiggins:

“Coach Cal actually called me [Wednesday],” Rathan-Mayes said. “[He said] that he’s looking forward to seeing me when I go down to school [Huntington Prep in West Va]. They are about an hour and a half from the school, so he wants me to come up and see him and the guys… It’s pretty good to have Coach Cal call you.”

“Definitely,” the 6-foot-4 Rathan-Mayes of CIA Bounce told SNY.tv at Stockton College. “We’ve (he and Wiggins) always wanted to play together since we were young and go to school together so that’s definitely a possibility.”

Rathan -Mayes averaged 15.4 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists last season playing with Wiggins at Huntington Prep.

Kentucky is already the favorite to land the” Twin Tandem” of the Harrisons for the 2013 class but could 2014 be the year of the Huntington Prep tandem