Class of 2018 - General Discussion

[UK8STL11]

I don't know if Cal has fallen off. But, since K decided to start targeting the top tier one and done players he has clearly beaten Cal over and over again. I'm not talking about the guys that were likely to go to Duke or likely to go to UK already. I'm talking the toss-ups when Cal and K went head to head for them.

Additionally, in Cal's first 5 years at UK he signed 15 top 10 recruits. In the past 4 seasons he has "only" 6 top 10 guys and just 2 (KAT and Skal) top 5 guys. He is definitely missing on the top of the top guys as of late. Maybe that changes for 2018.

[Joneslab]

I don't know if Cal has fallen off. But, since K decided to start targeting the top tier one and done players he has clearly beaten Cal over and over again. I'm not talking about the guys that were likely to go to Duke or likely to go to UK already. I'm talking the toss-ups when Cal and K went head to head for them.

We don't know really who the toss-ups are looking at it from afar. Those could be the same players who were likely to go to Duke already.

Marvin Bagley, for instance: not a toss-up. As soon as they made the play to get him to recommit then he was going to Duke.

Giles and Ingram? A little harder to say. Giles was probably closer but he was a Duke lean for a solid two months before his injury. At the point they're leans I think what generally happens is the other schools drift away and start focusing on other players. Only the experts and the fans are left to say, "It's down to Duke and Kentucky!" Really, it's not. The recruiting experts play up that angle because the drama produces hits. The coaches likely know in most every case.

I can't think of a whole lot of players where it was really an honest-to-God toss-up where it could have gone either way and both schools were recruiting him all the way to the end. Cam Reddish was probably one of the closest you'll find, but when R.J. Barrett reclassified that decision got a lot easier for Reddish.

I think where Duke has pushed itself ahead is not in that it beats Kentucky for players Kentucky wants. It's that Duke isolates players that it wants very early in the process and it gets them most of the time. They're the only school that has consistently done that for the better part of the last twenty years.

[Joneslab]

Also, it should be said that folks have sounded the alarm about Cal's recruiting going back to the second year he was here.

I've seen all kinds of think pieces and fan comments on message boards that suggest Cal is slipping. That he may not sign any top five players. That Kansas is killing us. That Duke is killing us. That recruits' moms are killing us. That ESPN and the media are killing us. And so on.

So I'd suggest patience until the players he's looking at have been poached away. It almost always turns out that we get ours and only in that one year (Murray) did it get dicey. That's one recruiting season out of the eight Cal has been at UK. That's a pretty good batting average.

[lilproUK98]

Marvin Bagley fully cleared to play this season SMH...............

per Matt Norlander..

https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/status/906205524038782977

[UK8STL11]

Marvin Bagley fully cleared to play this season SMH...............

per Matt Norlander..

https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/st...05524038782977

Haha - what a shock!!! NCAA is such a joke.

[Catsrock]

No surprise at all. And look how quickly they can determine such things when it pleases them. Coach K got the expedited process. Doesn't bother me he's eligible but man it must be nice to have friends in high places.

[Catsrock]

Coach K could recruit Enes Kanter and he'd be eligible net season.

[Joneslab]

Zion Williamson went to Clemson this weekend and has set up officials to Duke and UCLA.

No scheduled visit to Kentucky yet.

[Joneslab]

Cal is at Oak Hill today visiting Keldon Johnson.

Johnson is a 6'6" small forward ranked #18 in the class.

[Joneslab]

^ Was supposed to visit Zion Williamson today but the meeting was cancelled due to the hurricane.

[J.Jennings]

^ Was supposed to visit Zion Williamson today but the meeting was cancelled due to the hurricane.

And supposedly Zion is raving about Duke and Coach K now, this isn't good...

[UK8STL11]

And supposedly Zion is raving about Duke and Coach K now, this isn't good...

Starting to feel a bit like the Jamal Murray class where everyone thought Cal was going to get a ton of top guys and then continued to miss on all of them. Still a long way to go but outside of Quickley I am not confident on any other guy.

[Joneslab]

Still think he had more offers out in the Murray year.

There's been zero movement for months. None. All summer. That's radically unusual.

Has to mean he's confident in these guys. I have to think he'd be out offering back-up plans if not. Doesn't fit Cal's MO just to sit on a class for the entirety of the summer and do virtually nothing in terms of trying to add players to the mix.

[SCBlu]

I attended UK and haeve been a die-hard fan since I first saw Roger Bird run for daylight at Stoll Field. 54 Years! I love Cal and everything he's done to make UK relevant again. BUT (and this is a big BUT)....(1) I personally rate Coach K as a better "coach" than Cal; and (2) no one can dispute that Duke is a more prestegious, well respected institution of higher learning than UK. Marry those two factors together and it's no wonder (and no one's fault) that Duke can/should out recruit UK.

[Joneslab]

Coach K might be the greatest coach to ever coach the game of basketball.

They have an incredible product to sell. But Kentucky has been right with or better than Duke in every one of Cal's years here w/r/t recruiting classes. There's no reason to believe that next year won't be the same.

It would be a highly unusual turn of events for it not to be. And if it isn't--if Cal drops below Duke to the point where we have to settle recruiting-wise--Cal will promptly resign and hand it to the next guy. He isn't in the game of getting scrappy, under-ranked players and coaching them up. He's already past that part of his career.