Notes on John Wall, Basketball Recruiting and Football News

OK, so yesterday I introduced our series outlooks for each player on Kentucky’s roster with a breakdown of Mark Krebs’ upcoming season…and the few of you who read it made fun of me for being able to write 800 words about Mark Krebs. Reading it a second time, I realized that, yeah, it is kind of weird that I can write 800 words about Mark Krebs.

So, with that in mind, we’re going to abandon the player outlooks. We’ve got plenty of stuff together about UK football and basketball, so we’ll just move on and pretend that didn’t happen.

There’s a lot of stuff on my mind, so I’m going to go stream of consciousness here.

First up, I have a couple things to say about the John Wall eligibility issue that unfortunately still remains unresolved to my knowledge. I still have minimal concern over John Wall’s long term future as a Kentucky Wildcat, but I do know that it is unexpected that this is dragging out so long.

Anytime the NCAA gets involved, it’s concerning, but in the end I don’t see this resulting in anything worse than a few game suspension and Wall repaying benefits that Brian Clifton had provided him.

Also, thinking about the Wall-Clifton relationship, I remembered back in the summer how John Calipari mentioned his problems with the summer recruiting period, and by extension the AAU system. Calipari believes that eliminating summer recruiting would allow the power in the recruiting process to shift back to high school coaches from AAU coaches. This excerpt is from the above linked article that I wrote back in July:

Calipari says that eliminating the summer evaluation period would allow the power in recruiting to shift back to high school coaches instead of AAU coaches. The AAU system is responsible for so much of what is wrong with amateur sports. It is conducive to the culture of hangers on that so many athletes fall prey to.

Knowing that UK has been investigating the Wall-Clifton issue for months now, don’t you think Calipari’s frustration with the AAU system (ie Brian Clifton) had a little something to do with his comments back in July?

Regardless of the end result here, we need to be thankful for UK’s proactive approach in regards to this Wall issue. UK knows that watchful eyes are being cast over the Kentucky basketball program with Calipari at the helm, so things better be on the up and up. It’s much better to determine Wall’s status up front rather than give the NCAA the opportunity to take away wins from a successful UK season after the fact.

The other main reason for preoccupation among UK fans is the status of UK’s 2010 recruiting. Some people are beginning to express concern over the fact that only one prospect (Stacey Poole) has committed to the ‘Cats. I, on the other hand, am not worried. UK is in the mix for a bunch of big time players and it’s a matter of time before the pieces begin to fall in place.

The three players on that list that I am watching most closely right now are Doron Lamb, Adreian Payne, and Terrence Jones.

Doron Lamb – Lamb was on campus this weekend and took in two UK practices, including the student only practice on Friday evening. Lamb got a standing ovation from the big student crowd (one that filled up the entire lower bowl at Memorial) when he stepped on the floor and said that he has a tough choice coming up between his three favorites: Kansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

Lamb hasn’t really tipped his hand much among those three, but I think it’s a good sign that Lamb cooled on UK for a short time, but then quickly bumped UK back up with KU and OU. With Kyrie Irving off the board and Josh Selby and Brandon Knight likely to decide in the spring, it would be huge for UK to get one of the top combo guards in the country this fall.

Adreian Payne – There was some thought this weekend that Payne could make a decision as early today in the wake of cancelling his final official visit to Kansas, but nothing has materialized. As a matter of fact, word of a Payne press conference on Friday is beginning to spread.

West Virginia and Kentucky are thought to be the favorites, in that order, with Michigan State on the outside. Most believe that WVU is in the lead with his decision coming so close to his visit to Morgantown, but UK has been to visit Payne in Dayton since, so I believe it could go either way.

Terrence Jones – Jones makes his official visit to Kentucky on Wednesday for the Blue-White game. Kentucky has made each of Jones’ list cuts to this point in spite of being thousands of miles away from his home and the other schools recruiting him. It’s big for UK to get the talented combo forward on campus and hopefully the big crowd for a glorified scrimmage will wow him.

This is really the time of year when things get fun during the basketball-football overlap, especially since UK football is still in position to have a very good season. This week will a play a crucial role in determining whether UK meets its goals, as the ‘Cats have a home game against an SEC team that won’t be easy to beat. At the same time, Mississippi State is one of the few games year in, year out that you circle as a potential win.

Unfortunately, it’s looking like UK is going to have to do it without its two best defenders, Micah Johnson and Trevard Lindley. Johnson is improving, but the isolated MCL tear in his right knee has made him “questionable to doubtful” for Saturday according to Rich Brooks. Lindley has missed the past 3 games with a sprained ankle and remains doubtful in spite of practicing Sunday.

Another topic at Rich Brooks’ weekly presser today was the black out for Saturday’s game. I know a crowd blackout is a UofL kind of thing to do, but if you’re making the trip to Commonwealth, make sure you’re wearing your black. Rumors are floating around that UK’s uniforms could match the crowd on Saturday.

UK has never worn black and it’s hard to see Rich Brooks going for it. About the possibility, Brooks said “I haven’t seen black in our school colors. I think we’re blue and white. I’m an old traditionalist, I guess. They tried to sell me on black shoes a few times too and that didn’t work out.”

One more quick note. On behalf of the Strait Pinkie crew, I would like to offer condolences to Tubby Smith and his family in light of the passing of Guffrie Smith, Tubby’s father.