KDFC/Nike Hoops Summit Weekend Wrapup

I mean, wow. This kid is beyond special. He reminds me of Derrick Rose and he reminds me of Rajon Rondo, but truthfully, he’s a more explosive athlete than both, and that is quite a statement.

I don’t know if you had a chance to see the Nike Hoops Summit game, but it was fun to watch as a UK fan, because everywhere you looked there was a stud committed to or listing UK. I only saw the first half, but John Wall’s brilliance was in full display. He had a phenomenal two handed dunk over some European dude. Wall finished with 13 points and 11 assists as the US was upended by the international squad 97-89.

Xavier Henry also starred, scoring 22 points on an event record 6 three pointers with his left handed stroke. DeMarcus Cousins was mostly quiet. Big guys often get lost on the offensive end in these disorganized all star event. You saw the same thing last night with Daniel Orton in the Derby Festival Classic.

This was a big weekend for UK recruiting, as I’m sure there were a lot of players talking about their plans for next year. Not much has crystallized in terms of recruiting, other than Jon Hood now saying he is 100% committed to UK rather than 95%. I haven’t heard anything about the big trip to Lexington by Nolan Dennis, Eric Bledsoe, and Daniel Orton, but I do know Coach Calipari made it back in town early this morning, so he was there to work his magic.

This week is sure to be full of rumors and maybe even a little bit of news. The Jordan Brand Classic is this coming weekend, and John Wall, Daniel Orton, and Xavier Henry will be teammates, with DeMarcus Cousins as an opponent. Plenty of talking is sure to happen, and maybe Orton and Henry can work out the issues that supposedly exist between them. It’s expected that John Wall is going to at least narrow his enormously long list. I expect UK to make the cut, along with Duke, North Carolina (if they are recruiting him) and maybe NC State.

I don’t expect any news on Xavier Henry any time soon. He is still planning on making visits, so it should be a while.

One quick note about a guy who actually played for UK last year. I expected from the beginning that Josh Harrellson would be a casualty of this coaching change, and there was some more evidence pointing in that direction this weekend, in the form of a Facebook status update from Jorts himself: “Joshua Harrellson says his future is up in the air… wonder where it will fall into place at…”