Julius Randle photo courtesy ESPN.com
By LARRY VAUGHT
Five-star recruit Julius Randle of Texas made it official today that he will play his college basketball at Kentucky.
Randle had narrowed his choices to six schools but the consensus for several weeks was that he would either pick Kentucky or Kansas.
Randle’s coach, Chris Mayberry, knows he’s biased but he thinks the 6-9 Plano (Texas) Prestonwood Christian standout is even better than he’s being given credit for.
“I think he can play anything from one (point guard) to five (center),” said Mayberry. “I really mean that he’s not just the best player in the country, but he’s going to be the best for a long time. There are a lot of talented players out there, but I’ve seen him up close for a few years now and he is that good. He’s just extra special.”
Kentucky was his first visit back in September while Kansas got a visit in mid-February.
Randle is the No. 2 ranked prospect in the 2013 recruiting class by 247Sports.
Kentucky and Kansas already have the top two recruiting classes in the country and both are also still recruiting Huntington Prep star Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 ranked player, and UK is in the hunt for California combo forward Aaron Gordon, a top five player also.
Gordon has indicated he will make his college choice at the McDonald’s All-American game on April 3 in Chicago. He’s down to Arizona, Washington, Kentucky and Oregon. Most recruiting analysts believe that Gordon will opt to play for one of the Pac-12 schools.
Wiggins has not set an announcement date.
34 Responses to Five-star recruit Julius Randle chooses Kentucky
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Hot dang! Let’s see, #1 point guard, #1 shooting guard, #1 power forward and #1 center. Let’s get Wiggins and make it 5 for 5!
By the way, congrats, Larry. You called it!
Never thought I could feel so good after that loss in the NIT….But the comments from Our Team and NOW THIS, ooooh ! It’s good to Be A WILDCAT….
Young, Lee, Johnson, Randle, Hawkins when he is offerred, Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Willis – greatest collection of talent in one year in college basketball history.
Noted…And Applauded ! OMG, What if NOEL STAYS ! Randle, WCS, and NOEL…WOW !
Let’s see now, happy days are on the way. I’m moving on. Thanks Julius! Boy we needed another Julius. Great job Cal. It will be better next year I think. A lot better. GO CATS!!!!! Now let’s love one another and talk football for awhile. Hey! I’m not mad at nobody but the devil!
This was great news….hopeully, we can all put this disaster behind and assume and trust that Cal with do the right thing re returning players.
We signed so many for next year I forget who they all are until someone list them for me. Kansas, Duke, NC, Florida all have to be shaking their heads in disbelief. Now we get some to come back for year 2 OMG, is this a dream.
I’ll take that challenge, coldspring.
Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, James Young, Marcus Lee, Derek Willis, Dakari Johnson and Julius Randle.
I think the only ones we missed was, Superman, Ali, Batman and Godzilla !
I’m not sure we’re done. I think there’s one or two more players in which we’re interested.
Superman will probably sign and Godzilla might too. They’re going to have to make the bench longer though. And scholarships are going to be doled out to the best players to be decided later. Let’s see. There’s 13 scholarships available for a team.
1. Randle
2. Andrew Harrison
3. Aaron Harrison
4. Dakari Johnson
5. James Young
6. Marcus Lee
7. Derek Willis
8. Kyle Wiltjer
9. Jarrod Polson
10. Willie Cauley-Stein
11. Alex Poythress
12. Archie Goodwin
13. Nerlens Noel
14. Ryan Harrow
15. Andrew Wiggins (?)
16. Dominique Hawkins (?)
17. Aaron Gordon (?)
18. Jon Hood
As you can see something has to give. Noel might go pro. He might not too. Polson was a walk on before. His family is said to be able to afford his tuition. It hardly seems fair after he won his scholarship though. Harrow – well we’ll see I guess. The upshot of this is it may make it hard to even offer players like Hawkins. And Gordon and Wiggins might look at that roster and think they’d actually like to play more than 10 minutes a game. I’d hate to miss out on either but they just won’t let the Cats sign 30 players in one year.
It certainly will be an interesting shift from what happened this year. There won’t be a problem benching players that won’t work hard. Still some players are going to have to go away. I don’t know how that happens fairly but some of them had their chance and blew it too. Then again some were freshmen and we really shouldn’t expect all freshmen to be like Davis and MKG or Lamb and Jones the year before not to mention Knight or Cousins, Wall, Orton and Bledsoe the year before. Those guys aren’t really the norm for freshmen players except Cal has made it seem that way.
It’s a fun problem to have though. And what a difference a day makes. The NCAA better get their jollies after keeping UK out this year (I think they deserved to be in myself even if they did bomb in the NIT – Robert Morris is better than people think – let’s talk Butler and all the other surprise teams in recent years – basketball has become a very popular sport. Lots of people can play the game well.
But the program got a much needed shot in the arm today. I was worried to be honest. Now a couple more shots in the arm and they may be the first team to be unranked and a first round NIT loser to start the season ranked #1.
BTW I didn’t mean to short shrift players like Lanter, Long and Malone here. But we all know there won’t be room for them next year except as walk ons.
Rumor has it Wiltjer is transferring to Gonzaga. I don’t look for Harrow to be back, I think Hood will just call it a night, I think he has enough credits to graduate in the spring and I look for one maybe two not to come back for one reason or another.
And George Clooney!
That could be a good fit for Kyle and I believe is will be a Star…
Great news! I can not express how much I needed this news after the very disappointing basketball season this year.
I am a little concerned though about this years players saying they a coming back. I feel like there was a player or two that thought they knew better than what Cal was telling them. I just keep remembering Cal’s comments that these guys are maybe uncoachable.
On a different note. I would like to throw out there how happy I am so far with Coach Stoops! He has impressed me so far with his and his coaches work ethic.
Thanks for the good news today, I needed to hear some for real!
In his press conference, Cal said some guys who got 30 minutes a game this year might only get 5 minutes next year. Cal is a master at blending top talent, even though it didn’t work this year. Perhaps this year’s disappointment will serve as motivation for those players who make the cut for next year’s team…..
GO CATS!
Cal will know what to do with those players next year. He’ll park them at the end of the bench if they don’t listen. No more guaranteed minutes next year.
digger phelps thinks kentucky will be cutting the nets in dallas tx next year
I hate digger but I do like the way he thinks.
He also said ” Louisville gets beat Thursday night “…Anyone can make that Kentucky Call, but Louisville beat in the first Game, Not Happening !
Watched some video on Randle. He reminds me of Terrence Jones with better ball skills. He looks like he has the beast attitude that Jones had the last half of last season. Something that we really need.
Maybe we should suit up two teams next year, that way we could play ourselves in the nat’l championship game.
Sore would be effective in wearing down your opponent !
Very thankfull that Randle chose the Cats.Very excited for the BBN because of the prospect of having an outstanding Football and Basketball program next year.Lexington could be one of the hottest college sports towns in the nation next fall.
What a recruiting class !!
I’d love to see Andrew Wiggens as a part of this experience but hey, if he opts for another school he will know that he could have won it all had he chosen UK and that he would have been welcomed with open arms.
He may well decide to go elsewhere now. I think Randle jumped while the boat was still at the dock. Wiggins may have waited until the boat already sailed.
i disagree i dont think the ship has sailed at all. && if it has if Andrew Wiggins says he wants to come to UK Calipari would do a u-turn back to the dock to get him. Randle & Wiggins are both exceptional #1 pick caliber players
If Wiggins wants to be a Cat, numbers will work out. Trust me on that
I figured UK would find him a spot. What I’m thinking is he may not want to share the spotlight quite as much as he would at UK. No way UK turns down a player the caliber of Wiggins. But they will have to ship some players out some way to make room on the roster. It’s gonna be fun to watch no matter what. The team is already incredible. With Wiggins it’s staggering.
You “may” want to notice the term “may have” in my sentence GtownCat.
Too many great players? What an outstanding problem to have! Go Big Blue!
Wow! I live in Plano, Texas so I have a special interest in Randle…and Arlington is about 50 miles from where I live, so it’s definitely time for nine-go cats!