Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Recruiting: An Update on Myles Turner
No prospect has made a bigger jump this summer than 2014 big man Myles Turner. He has gone from relatively unknown to a top 10 recruit in just a few months, all due to his performance in the AAU circuit this summer.
The 7’0″, 225 pound center now holds offers from nearly every top program in the nation, but narrowed his list down to 8 last week. Arizona, Duke, Louisville, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Texas are the programs left vying for Turner. While he only has one scheduled visit right now, to Kansas for “Late Night in the Phog” (Midnight Madness), his schedule will likely blow up with visits very soon.
Myles Turner isn’t your average center prospect. Not only does he have excellent athleticism paired with his long frame, he can shoot the ball consistently out to 20 feet. He has had to hone his face-up skills because of this, taking bigger defenders off the dribble straight to the basket. While more at home in a transition offense where his athleticism can be fully appreciated, he certainly doesn’t lack in the half-court set, running the pick-and-roll with a skilled point guard flawlessly. Turner is known for his unselfishness, and while I asked scouts about him, his willingness to pass the ball to the open man came up time after time. You don’t hear that a lot when it comes to a 7’0″ center. His willingness to get the ball out to an open teammate is even more dangerous when paired with his shooting range, making the defender be forced to respect his ability to hit the shot and not be able to play back to shut off a pass to the paint. The big man is proficient on the defensive side as well, using his length to block shots his weaker strength might normally keep him from, and has become great at exploiting his athletic advantage over most defenders.
Turner really doesn’t have many weak spots. His strength is definitely his biggest problem at the moment, but that will build with time and age. Learning to work around that with his length was absolutely necessary, and that is only going to add another advantage to his game once that strength does come. Some criticize his lack of back to the basket low post moves and the fact that he plays too soft at times, but that doesn’t look to be much of a problem for me. But again, he will get stronger with time, and being ahead of the curb with his shot and face-up ability gives him more time to build a reliable low-post repertoire.
The biggest competition to Kentucky in his recruitment will likely come from Kansas, who Turner mentions often, bringing up Kansas’ ability to get big men to the NBA. Although recruiting against the likes of Kansas, Duke and Louisville isn’t easy, I think Kentucky basketball fans should jump on board, as head coach John Calipari already has.
The Kentucky Wildcats coaching staff has turned up the heat on Turner, and while Coach Cal is known for his ability to develop top point guards, he isn’t lagging too far behind in producing top power forwards and centers. Turner’s ability to score at nearly every spot of the floor and his attacking mentality on the defensive side of the ball is literally a perfect fit for the dribble-drive offense. Coming out on top of this eight-team race won’t be easy, but Myles Turner is a game-changing talent and adding him to a class that will likely be filled with talented guards and forwards, as well as returning players from the current crop of Cats, so grabbing this commitment is definitely one of John Calipari’s biggest priorities for the Class of 2014.