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.