Brandon Knight- The Newest Leader Of The Round Table

Brandon Knight, the Cats new point guard and replacement for the Great Wall, is something of an anachronism in today’s world of collegiate athletics. See, this young man is a student first. That’s right, a student. He has a 4.3 GPA. That means he hits the books before he hits the court. Seems his parents Efram and Tonya Knight want him to succeed both on and off the court.

Brandon has all of the tools that Coach Calipari looks for in a point guard. High Basketball I.Q., good shot selection, and ability to see the floor from wherever he is on it. I am not going to do the comparison deal with Wall and Co. , because quite honestly, he is not the same type of a point guard. He works defenses, he does not slash through them. He puts his man on one side and then makes him try to compensate for his ball handling skills, and while the man is doing that, Brandon has the ball off to someone else and is gone. A McDonalds High School All American, who makes the right decisions at the right time, may be the smartest point guard that John Calipari has ever coached.

He distributes the ball just as well as he handles it, and he handles it like it is an extension of his own body. He is smooth and confident, poised and relaxed at the helm of his team.

Coming off of a Senior year where he averaged over 32 points a game and over 8 rebounds, Brandon is going to have multiple targets now to distribute to on the court for Kentucky. The young man who scored 3515 points while playing Florida High School Basketball, which was good enough for second place all-time, has deceiving speed and lightning quick reflexes. On arrival at UK he was 6’3″ and 175 lbs. Expect that to change quickly as Coach Cal will no doubt be putting Brandon in the weight room to add a little muscle to that sleek frame of his.

Will Brandon be a one-and-done as some have speculated? I honestly do not know. If not for the NBA’s age rule, he probably would have been a top NBA draft pick last year, I do know that. His parents seem to want the young man to get an education, and that bodes well for him, but the lure of NBA money may be too much to turn down. However the CBA that is the focal point of negotiations for the NBA and the NBAPA is going to need some serious work to prevent a lockout next year, and could lead Brandon to stay longer. I certainly do hope so. Brandon leads an ultra-talented freshman class that is going to make it hard for defenses to key on him and try to take his game away.

The young man impressed John Wall, his predecessor, on the Cats trip to Canada this summer. Knight impressed not only Wall, but everyone who watched, as the Cats dismantled Canadian teams without much effort. Knight has the confidence of his coach, his teammates, and the fans as UK gets set to head into Big Blue Madness in the month of October. Is Brandon the next John Wall? No. John Wall is John Wall. But Brandon Knight is going to be one extraordinary point guard for the Cats, and the next in a long line of stars here at Point Guard U. Feel fortunate when you see this young man play Cats Fans. You are witnessing a part of Wildcat history. Will Brandon be able to lead his team where John Wall could not? That remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure. I guarantee you that this team will follow Brandon wherever he goes, because he is just that good a kid. On the court, and in the classroom.

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