John Wall Recruitment

The recruiting saga of John Wall has been one of the craziest things to watch in recent memory. For those of you who don't know, Wall is the number one ranked PG in the country and the number two player overall. Many months ago he was believed to be leaning towards going to Memphis, but that was before John Calipari left to take the job at Kentucky. Since then, the recruitment of Wall has become really a national ordeal.

After Duke's loss in the NCAA tournament, Coach K made the remark that we need a point and we need a big. Soon after that, Coach K started recruiting Wall much harder. There have been a litany of reasons suggested why Duke didn't recruit Wall harder from the beginning but they definitely have been for the past month or so. Wall has made a visit to Duke and seen the campus and spoke with Coach K for a couple of hours. Duke has been in contact with Wall as much as is legally permitted and are really trying to get him to come to Durham. Duke is now considered a favorite for Wall and think they will be on his short list of two or three final schools when he cuts his list later this week.

North Carolina State has been recruiting Wall by far the longest of any of the area schools and is definitely still trying to gain a commitment from the quick and explosive lead guard. Lowe developed a relationship with Wall from the beginning and by all accounts has been doing a great job of trying to keep a strong relationship with Wall during all of these twists and turns in his recruitment. It is less well known where NCSU stands with Wall. However, any time he lists a group of schools recruiting him he does mention NC State every time. It will be interesting to see how much staying close to home means to Wall when he lists his final two or three schools later this week.

UNC also reportedly contacted Wall on a couple of occasions after their national championship run. The tricky thing for UNC is the relationship between Roy Williams and Brian Clifton. Clifton is Wall's AAU coach and, along with him mom, the person Wall is confiding in the most. Clifton has expressed publicly time and again he does not like Williams. Some people believe that it has to do with a previous recruit dispute between Clifton and Williams. Clifton has stated publicly that he does not want to see Wall at Carolina and does not have any interest in them recruiting John Wall. UNC does seem like a decent fit for Wall considering UNC's extremely fast paced offense and the speed and explosiveness of Wall. Wall has mentioned that he does not really know where he stands with UNC and as of about a week ago, said that UNC is not really recruiting him at the moment.

Then there is Kentucky, where Calipari now is. Wall has never tipped his hand during the entire recruiting process, never letting anyone know who is his leader and what he is really thinking except for ONE time. This was a while back, when Calipari was at Memphis. He publicly stated that Memphis was his leader. After Calipari jumped ship at took the Kentucky job, Wall's recruitment was wide open again. Most people do think that Kentucky will be on Wall's short list when he announces it later this week.

Baylor was also considered an early player to land Wall's services. However, hardly anything has been mentioned about them recently and it is difficult to determine what Balyor's position is in the Wall recruitment, if he has a position at all.

Wall also took a trip to South Beach this past weekend to visit Miami and coach Frank Haith. While most believe that Miami does not have much of a shot at getting Wall to commit, he says he is definitely considering Miami and they have a shot.

The going consensus at this point is that Kentucky and Duke will definitely be on his "short list" as he calls it, which he says will consist of two or three schools. If if is just two, it will probably be those two. Duke jumped in late but has made a strong push, selling Wall on running the show and being a Jason Williams type player for the Devils. Kentucky instantly became a player when John Calipari became the new head coach there. If he lists a third school, that will be where the drama resides. Will it be NC State, another school close to home, ssomething that Wall has stated is very important? It could be Miami, where he just got back from visiting. It still could be Baylor. Florida has also been in heavy contact with Wall recently, but they seem to have a lot of ground to make up on other schools that have been recruiting him longer.

This recruitment has had more twists and turns than anything that I have ever seen. New schools keep trying to jump in and wall continues to change his list when he lists schools. Wherever he does end up will be getting a player that could be a top 2 or 3 pick in the 2010 NBA draft. More to come later this week when he trims his list.

UNC wins fifth national championship

The University of North Carolina won the national championship on Monday night, easily disposing of Michigan St. 89-72. In what was the last game for Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, and Bobby Frasor and most likely Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, UNC cruised as they have done all tournament long. Wayne Ellington was named MOP of the final four and deservingly so. He was lights out for the entire tournament and that continued Monday night.

It was easy to tell that Michigan State was not going to win this game at the first TV timeout. UNC just had too much firepower that the Spartans could not match. For much of the game the only player that could muster any offense was Goran Suton. He hit a couple of threes and shots in the paint to keep it semi-respectable for a while but UNC just continued to blow it open and led by 21 at halftime. From there it was cruise control as Michigan St. could never get any closer than 13 in the second half.

With this win Roy Williams gets his second national championship of his career (and second in five years). Tyler Hansbrough now will officially go down as one of the best ever to play the college game, regardless of what he does at the pro level. This team was considered the best at the beginning of the year and it was proven to be true last night. When the Heels played consistent defense they were virtually unbeatable. That was the case for this tournament. The closest game that Carolina had the entire tournament was 12 points in the regional final against Oklahoma.

With the departure of Hansbrough, Frasor, and Green and the expected ones of Lawson and Ellington next year will be a reloading year for the Heels. They have the number one class in the country coming in led by Dexter Strickland and John Henson. They will contribute immediately and will keep UNC in the top 10 next season. While a national championship might be a stretch, another great year should be expected from Carolina.

UNC Advances to Final Four in Detroit

North Carolina continued to save face for the ACC this postseason with a 72-60 easy win over Blake Griffin and Oklahoma in the Elite 8. North Carolina used a balanced attack (that surprisingly did not feature Tyler Hansbrough, who had 8 pts. and 6 rebs.) that Oklahoma could not match.

Blake Griffin dominated inside (23 pts, 16 rebs.) for most of the game and really limited Hansbrough's effectiveness. However, as many thought, UNC's guards were miles better than Oklahoma's and this proved to be the difference. Lawson, Ellington, and Green dominated their match-up with Austin Johnson, Willie Warren, and Tony Crocker. Warren was really the only OU guard to do anything against the Tar Heels.

I have thought all year that UNC had the most experienced talent of any team in the country and this would lead them to a national championship. They have so many weapons that they can have a couple of their best guys not have good nights (as in Hansbrough on Sunday) and still win games, sometimes easily. Hansbrough didn't play well against the Sooners, but Danny Green had his best game of the postseason and Ellington knocked down shots. It is extremely hard to shut all of UNC's weapons down on a given night.

UNC plays in the second national semifinal on Saturday against the #3 seed out of the east region, Villanova. I believe this will be an extremely tough game for Carolina. Many of the national pundits I have seen have stated that Villanova has no inside presence and UNC will eat them alive inside and win the game. I don't see the game going that way, at least not with the ease that some are saying. The teams that have beat UNC this season have had great guards that have penetrated at will against the Heels and killed them with that penetration. (Toney Douglas, Tyrese Rice, and Greivis Vasquez, Jeff Teague). Villanova has GREAT guard play and two great penetrators/creators in Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher. These are the teams that have given UNC fits. Some would counter that UNC has a huge advantage inside, and while that may be true they also had huge inside advantages against Maryland (their tallest player is 6'7") and Boston College (no real inside presence) and lost those games.

Villanova has the ingredients of a team that could beat North Carolina. I predict an extremely tight game that will come down to the last four minutes. North Carolina has been very focused throughout this tournament and seem to be playing as a unit with one goal in mind: a national championship. I predict UNC will win this game and advance to the national championship game on Monday night. However, I do think it will be extremely close and it would not surprise me at all to see 'Nova pull the upset. Jay Wright is an outstanding coach and will have his guys prepared and a good game plan in place. He will know that slashing guards have given the Tar Heels trouble and will look to exploit this. Overall, UNC probably has too much talent though and they are playing maybe their best basketball of the season down the stretch.

UNC 86
Villanova 80