John Calipari has spent the last two years recruiting North Carolina point guard John Wall, so it’s no surprise the Kentucky coach was more than willing to wait however long it took for Wall to make his college choice.

Wall officially confirmed today that he has signed with Kentucky — news he informally shared Tuesday — at a press conference at Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C.

“I’ve recruited John for nearly two years and I’ve gotten to know him to be not only a fine player but a fine person,” Calipari said. “He’s a terrific teammate who wants to win, yet driven to personally improve. I’m very excited for the opportunity to add him to our family.”

Wall surprised many during the press conference when he at least indicated he might stay at UK more than one year. The prevailing logic has been that Wall, the nation’s top-ranked point guard, would play one year in college and then jump to the NBA.

“My plan is to go to the University of Kentucky for the next two or three years,” Wall said.

However, he did say if Calipari told him he was ready to play in the NBA after next season, he would heed that advice. That’s no surprise, either, since Wall has made it clear that Calipari’s ability to get players ready for the NBA is one thing that made him want to play for the coach.

“My relationship with coach Cal just got overboard,” Wall said after finally eliminating Duke and Miami from his final list of schools.

Calipari sent current NBA Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose to the NBA after one season at Memphis and Tyreke Evans, Calipari’s point guard at Memphis last year, is expected to be a high draft pick this June.

Wall was a finalist for the Naismith National High School Player of the Year and earned All-American honors. He helped his team win state titles in 2007 and 2008 and this year it reached the state final before losing.

He played for the 2009 USA Junior National select team in the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland in April and set a game record with 11 assists and tied the record for steals with five. He also scoring 13 points.