6’7 Kentucky Wildcats Basketball recruit Stanley Johnson to play PG this fall

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

We all know that John Calipari likes his guards big and with a ton of length. John Wall and the Harrisons are living proof of that. But those players topped out around 6’5 at the PG position for Calipari. What about a 6’7 point guard?

Well, he is not being recruited as a PG, but just knowing that Stanly Johnson will bring experience at the point makes him an even more valuable recruit for Calipari in my eyes.  Calipari will certainly be paying attention as that Mater Dei team features not one but two UK recruits.

"Santa Ana Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight insists he’s not joking when he says that Stanley Johnson “is my starting point guard.” Yes, the 6-foot-7 Stanley Johnson with recruiting offers from Kentucky, USC, Oregon, Arizona and Florida. The Stanley Johnson who has led Mater Dei to three consecutive state titles primarily playing the forward position. Johnson also dribbles the ball well and can shoot, and McKnight has so many tall players Johnson will get to play some point guard. There’s 6-6 junior guard Rex Pflueger, a transfer from JSerra who has offers from most of the Pac-12 and is being wooed hard by Stanford. There’s sophomore M.J. Cage, who’s 6-9 and picked up a scholarship offer from Kentucky."

Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

Now that practice is underway, the be task for John Calipari is to meld his group of All Americans into a cohesive unit. In case you wondered, Calipari does not dwell on last season, but he has learned from it.

"“The issue for us (is) how quickly can we come together? Can we get in the kind of shape you need to get in to compete at the level we’re going to try to compete?” Of course, Calipari never got the answers he wanted last season. Now-departed point guard Ryan Harrow never became the tough-minded team leader. Though the coach demanded, pleaded, cajoled and plotted, he couldn’t get the Cats to compete harder, prepare better nor shake off adversity. They didn’t grow up on command. The coach threatened benchings (an empty threat given the lack of depth). He spoke of how a fear of failure can motivate and used one of the 2011-12 season’s freshman warriors, Kidd-Gilchrist, as an example to follow. When emotional exhortations and established precedents didn’t work, Calipari tried to persuade with cold, unfeeling science. He measured heart rates, which supposedly gave an objective reading on how hard players tried. The Cats also counted calories with the idea being improved play through more abundant nutrition, a basketball updating of Napoleon’s dictum that an army marches on its stomach. None of it worked. When asked if last season, and its inglorious ending in a first-round National Invitation Tournament loss at Robert Morris, would serve as motivation in 2013-14, Calipari recoiled. “So far behind me, it’s not even in my mind-set,” he said."

Needless to say, this UK basketball team faces big expectations for the upcoming season. So it is no big surprise that the folks over at CBS Sports have made UK a unanimious choice to win the SEC over Florida and Tennessee.