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John Wall, the No. 1 point guard in the class of 2009, has committed to play for Kentucky next season, SI.com has confirmed. Wall, a 6-foot-4 product of Raleigh, N.C.'s Word of God Christian Academy, ended a lengthy recruiting process on Monday night by choosing the Wildcats over Miami, Duke and Florida, which were unofficially his final four options. Despite speculation that Wall's recruitment would drag out into June, Wall's mother, Frances Pulley, told SI.com last week that her son's plan had been to commit before the NCAA's spring signing deadline, which is Wednesday.
With Wall in the fold, new Kentucky coach John Calipari has assembled what's considered to be the nation's No. 1 recruiting class for 2009-10. It includes a second five-star point guard in 6-1 Eric Bledsoe of Birmingham, Ala.; two five-star big men in 6-9 DeMarcus Cousins of Mobile, Ala., and 6-10 Daniel Orton of Oklahoma City; a four-star shooting guard in 6-6 John Hood of Madisonville, Ky.; and a four-star junior college small forward in 6-7 Darnell Dodson of Miami-Dade Community College."We'll have a lot of pressure on us," Wall told Scout.com on Tuesday. "Everyone says we'll be the best class in a while, but it'll be bumpy because a couple of us will be freshmen. We'll get on the right page and make a good run at it."
Wall's advisor and former AAU coach, Brian Clifton, expressed some hesitancy to SI.com last week over the fact that Kentucky had accepted a spring commitment from Bledsoe, who plays Wall's position. "We have to revisit that situation and make sure it's going to be great to have two of the top four point guards on the roster at once," Clifton said then. But Tuesday morning, Clifton told Rivals.com, "[Wall] felt that the risks that were at Kentucky were acceptable risks for him."
The expectation is that Wall will be handed the reins to Calipari's Dribble Drive Motion offense in much the same way true freshmen Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans were at Memphis the past two seasons. Both players were one-and-done at the college level; Rose went on to be the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA draft, while Evans is a projected lottery pick in the 2009 draft.
"It's not like John is a guy who wants to take two or three years to figure it out and get things together," Clifton told Rivals.com. "He needs to hit the ground running in short order."
Wall, who has Rose-like athleticism, is widely considered to be the top prospect available in a loaded 2010 draft pool. Because he turns 19 this fall and is in his fifth year of high school, rumors swirled in April that Wall might explore a jump straight to the NBA. But, as Wall told SI.com then, "I already promised my mom and my dad, before he died [passing away from cancer when Wall was 9], that I was going to college, so I'm not even thinking about the NBA this year."
Multiple NBA sources indicated that Wall would have been a highly coveted pick even without a year of college experience. "He would have gone in the top three this year, guaranteed," one NBA executive told SI.com. Now Wall will be at the helm of a team that could feature at least four other players with NBA futures in Cousins, Orton, Bledsoe and junior power forward Patrick Patterson, who passed up on becoming a first-round pick in order to come back to Lexington for another season. Swingman Jodie Meeks, a senior-to-be, still has his name in the NBA draft pool but is considered likely to return to UK as well. He would be a strong candidate for first-team All-America status and provide much of the scoring punch in an offense with Wall at the point.
Wall's commitment was first reported by SLAM magazine on its Web site early Tuesday morning.
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