Clifton tells SI Wall down to UK, Duke, Miami

Brian Clifton needs to get his story straight. Yesterday he confirmed to SI that Wall was down to UK, Duke, and Miami, then today he tells Evan Daniels that no narrowing of Wall’s list has taken place. I think the only thing we know for sure right now is that UK is a strong contender in the John Wall sweepstakes:

Wall’s camp has yet to do any official shrinking of a list that’s seven schools deep (Baylor, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Miami, Memphis, N.C. State), but his advisor and former AAU coach, Brian Clifton, told SI.com on Monday that it would be “accurate” to assume that the race was now between Duke, Kentucky and Miami.

In the same article, Winn also has a good writeup on Jodie Meeks and his decision on whether to remain in the NBA draft or follow the path of his teammate/roommate Patrick Patterson and return to UK to earn his degree and make a run deep in March:

While sophomore teammate Patrick Patterson was giving a staying-in-school press conference on Monday in Lexington, explaining why he’d passed on near-guarantees he’d be a first-round pick, Meeks was in his high school gym in Norcross, Ga., training with his AAU coach, doing the work that he hopes will get him into guaranteed-contract range. Multiple NBA sources SI.com spoke with viewed Meeks, who averaged 23.7 points and hit 117 threes as a junior, as a non-guaranteed second-rounder. The main reason scouts cited was that he’s viewed as “too one-dimensional,” merely a high-volume long-range shooter rather than a complete scorer.

Whether that label sticks will likely determine whether or not Meeks remains in the draft. His father, Orestes, likes to point out that Jodie — who began last season off the media radar and finished as a second-team All-America — has a history of being misevaluated: “Out of high school, there were people who didn’t think he could play,” Orestes said, “and I remember clearly, some of them said he’s a slasher who can shoot the mid-range shot, but not a good three-point shooter. Think about that! Now, you hear just the opposite.”

Patterson was the player with higher draft stock, but Meeks’ decision matters more to the Wildcats’ SEC title (and Final Four) hopes: Although they’ll have an embarrassment of riches in the post — in Patterson, a hyper-efficient, 6-9 power forward; 6-9 senior role player Perry Stevenson and five-star recruits DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton — they won’t have a killer perimeter scorer unless Meeks returns. And there are hordes of Kentucky fans who’d love to see what Meeks could do in new coach John Calipari’s Dribble Drive Motion offense — a spread-out scheme that Meeks said “I could definitely see myself playing in.”

Meeks said he’s committed to seeing the draft process through — he has an invite to the NBA’s Pre-Draft Combine in Chicago — but he’s also only 18 credit hours away from a degree, and because his father is an executive at IBM in Atlanta, the family doesn’t have pressing money concerns that would push him into an ill-advised decision. “I love playing at Kentucky,” Jodie said, “If this doesn’t work out, I have no problem coming back. … and if I’m in the second round, it’ll be a no-brainer to go back.”