Emmanuel Mudiay to Announce Later Today and Mark Stoops Deals with Attrition and the Addition of Za’Darius Smith

This is perhaps the strangest paragraph I’ll ever write but Emmanuel Mudiay will make his college choice tomorrow night at the Elite 24 Games, and he will be choosing between SMU and the Kentucky Wildcats.  Does that make sense?  Not. At. All.  Look at it this way, he is choosing between a current HOF coach (Larry Brown) who is the only one to win and NCAA (1988 Kansas Jayhawks) and NBA Title (2004 Detroit Pistons), and the best coach around now in John Calipari.  Frame it that way and now he’s got some thinking to do.  I’ve always heard of him as a Kentucky lean but apparently now the waters have been muddied a bit.

"UPDATE: Scout’s Evan Daniels talks to H-L’s Ben Roberts about Mudiay. So Texas point guard Emmanuel Mudiay shocked most everyone today by announcing he will announce his college choice Saturday at the Elite 24 games on ESPNU. Considered a Kentucky lean, the surprise timing of Mudiay’s announcement now has some thinking the 6-foot-4 guard will end up at SMU. Jerry Meyer of 247 Sports tweeted: “Changed my #Crystalball pick 4 Emmanuel Mudiay to #SMU.” It’s an interesting battle with good friends Larry Brown, the SMU coach, and John Calipari, the Kentucky coach, battling it out for what some believe is the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2014. Calipari was on Brown’s staff at Kansas in the 1980s. When Calipari was fired as head coach of the New Jersey Nets, Brown hired him to be an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers. The two got coffee together on the River Walk in San Antonio when Memphis played in the 2008 Final Four. And Brown has visited Calipari’s practices at UK. SMU went 15-17 last year in Conference-USA, Brown’s first year at the school. The Mustangs are now in the American Athletic Conference."

Though getting Mudiay is now even more uncertain than ever, that’s not the case with 2014 SG Devin Booker.  Now Booker is a straight shooter who won the Elite 24 3-pt Shooting Contest.  As you well know, Calipari’s teams occasionally have issue shooting from distance so though he isn’t the PG that Mudiay is, he could help ease the pain if we don’t land Mudiay.  Steve Jones of the Courier-Journal had a sit down with Booker yesterday and he had some interesting things to say.

"You have set up your visits recently (Michigan State, Sept. 6; UK, Sept. 9; Michigan, Oct. 5; Missouri, Oct. 19). As for Kentucky, why did you think that was a good time to visit? That’s the date that worked out best for us, and I wanted to see the alumni game and all the players that have been through Kentucky. That’s something I want to do, and I’m looking forward to it because it’s the only place I haven’t visited yet. I’ve heard so much about Rupp Arena and Big Blue Nation that I want to see it with my own eyes. What have you heard from John Calipari or his assistants about what that (Sept. 9) alumni game will be like and anything about any of the pros that will be coming back? I’ve just heard that the atmosphere is really unbelievable and you can’t really describe it with words. I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself. If Kentucky has 10 or 12 of their recent players now in the NBA there, is that something that will impress you? Yeah, definitely. I already know what players have been through there, but just seeing them play and knowing they’ve all been through a Kentucky jersey, that’ll be good. Are there any recent Kentucky players that you have particularly liked to watch or like to watch now that they are in the NBA? When John Wall was in college, I was kind of a fan of his. I would watch him play in high school and kind of followed him. And DeMarcus Cousins is from (Alabama) like 40 minutes away from where I live, so they talk about him a lot down there. Jahlil Okafor (five-star center), Tyler Ulis (four-star point guard) and Derrick Jones (five-star 2015 wing) are visiting UK the same weekend as you. What do you think about the talent Kentucky has coming that weekend? It’s really what Kentucky is known for, just building dynasties. That would be fun to be a part of. We’ll all have the same mind-set of winning championships and making it to the NBA hopefully. That’s really what you want to be around when you’re in college."