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Calathes to turn pro

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/sec/2009-05-23-florida-nick-calathes-pro_N.htm

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida guard Nick Calathes, an All-SEC pick last season as a sophomore, has decided to turn pro.
Florida Today has learned that Calathes, who averaged a team-leading 17.2 points per game, is negotiating a deal to play for the Greek team Panathinaikos rather than return for his junior season at UF but is still interested in the NBA. His departure leaves Erving Walker, a freshman last season, as the only scholarship point guard on the Florida roster. The Gators recruited several elite players but failed to sign any of them.

The 6-foot-5 Calathes, who is of Greek heritage and tried out unsuccessfully for that country's Olympic team last summer, has told Gators coach Billy Donovan of his decision. The school has not made any official announcement, pending a finalized agreement.

The Casselberry, Fla., native has also been working out for various NBA teams — including Dallas and Sacramento — and hopes to be a first-round draft pick. He is attending this weekend's NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago. While Calathes has not officially signed with an agent, he has let UF know he is leaving — regardless of his draft status.

SI.com currently does not have Calathes projected as a first-round draft pick or as one of the top point guards in the upcoming draft on June 25. Insidehoops.com, however, has him going 29th to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Underclassmen have until June 15 to pull their names out of the draft and return to college if they do not sign with an agent.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Florida | Dallas | Chicago | Los Angeles | Sacramento | National Collegiate Athletic Association | Billy Donovan | Panathinaikos | Nick Calathes
Panathinaikos has won more than two dozen Greek national championships and five Euro League titles. His deal is believed to be worth more than $1 million.

Calathes was the SEC co-freshman of the year in 2008 and last season was a first-team All-SEC selection and the only player in the nation to average better than 15 points, five rebounds and six assists a game. But he leaves UF without playing in the NCAA Tournament after two straight NIT berths.

Bio - Jamal Mashburn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Mashburn

Jamal Mashburn (born November 29, 1972 in New York City) is a retired American professional basketball player. A small forward, Mashburn was a prolific scorer in his 12 seasons in the league, with a career scoring average of 19.1 points per game. He is nicknamed "The Monster Mash"[citation needed] and "Masher".

Mashburn had a very successful basketball career in college, playing for the University of Kentucky. He was the fourth-leading career scorer for the Wildcats and a consensus First Team All-American by his junior year, prompting him to declare himself eligible for the 1993 NBA Draft. Selected 4th overall by the Dallas Mavericks, he was very successful as a rookie, leading all rookies with 19.2 points per game and breaking seven separate Mavericks rookie records along the way to an All-Rookie Team selection.

In his second year, along with third-year pro Jim Jackson and rookie Jason Kidd (collectively known as 'Triple J'), Mashburn led the Dallas Mavericks to the biggest turnaround in the NBA that year. He is the third-youngest player to score 50 points in an NBA game (LeBron James is the youngest). He also broke many franchise records and blossomed into one of the best scoring forwards in the league.

However, injuries reduced Mashburn's value and he was traded to the Miami Heat in the middle of the 1996-97 season. He played a reduced role in the Heat's offense, so his offensive production dipped. In 2000, he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets where, as leader of a young squad of players, he took on more of the scoring load and in 2003 was selected to the All-Star Game in Atlanta, playing for the East. In his first All-Star appearance, he scored 10 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 14 minutes of play in a 155-145 double-overtime loss to the West.

Mashburn continued his stellar play in the 2003-04 season, but injuries plagued him for most of the year and he managed to play in only 19 games. Bothered by problems with his right knee (patella femoral irritation), he decided to sit out the 2004-05 season in hopes that his knee would recover. He had microfracture surgery performed on his knee, a risky surgery that not all players have been able to recover from.

Despite his decision to sit out the year due to his knee, the Hornets still traded Mashburn, along with Rodney Rogers, to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for forward Glenn Robinson on February 24, 2005. Mashburn was never able to recover from his chronic knee problems and never saw court time for Philadelphia. He was on the injured list for all of the 2004-05 season and the inactive list for 2005-06. On March 24, 2006, the 76ers waived Mashburn, who subsequently announced his retirement from the NBA. He had career averages of 19.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.

Mashburn lives in Miami, Florida with his wife Michelle, his daughter Taylor, his son Jamal also known as "J" and his golden retriever Scooby. He currently works for ESPN and appears on NBA Fastbreak.

UK roster not set

http://rutgers.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=948508

John, your question is the next question to be asked concerning Kentucky recruiting and its 2009 class. If Meeks does come back (and there is some optimism in the Kentucky program that Meeks will return for the 2009-10 season), Kentucky would have 17 players on scholarship, four over the limit of 13.

Something has to give, and academics are the first thing that will shake up the Kentucky roster. At least three current Wildcats are in questionable academic standing, and at least three Kentucky recruits have yet to make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse. Sources closely involved with DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe say that both prospects have the class work and standardized test score to make it through the Clearinghouse. John Wall, however, is still waiting for his test score, and there are also questions concerning his core curriculum.

So, although Calipari has signed one of the best recruiting classes in college basketball history, the class is not in the bank yet.

If the academic component doesn't drop the roster down to 13 scholarship players, then I'm certain that the players at the bottom of the roster who need to leave will easily be convinced that it is in their interest to transfer to a program where they can get more playing time. A number of mid-major programs are ready to pick up potential casualties in the Billy Gillispie-to-Calipari transition.

Will Jodie Meeks return? Andy Katz seems to think so

http://www.straitpinkie.com/sports/cats/andy-katz-anticipates-jodie-meeks-will-return-to-uk/

I posted a full update on Jodie Meeks and the NBA Draft last night so make sure you check that out, but there is some new information Jodie from Andy Katz’s blog this morning:

Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks has even more reason to return to play for John Calipari now that John Wall has committed to play the point. Having Wall alongside him would take more pressure off Meeks. NBA sources expect Calipari to convince Meeks to return just like Patrick Patterson did last week.

Could this turn out to be the best off season in the history of college sports? The roster is obviously not finalized yet, but it’s already safe to call the work that Calipari has done “Extreme Makeover: Big Blue Edition”, and his handiwork will become even more of a masterpiece if Jodie Meeks elects to return.

UK recruits ranked number one by most experts

The University of Kentucky has landed the best college basketball recruiting class of 2009. This is undisputed. The only question that remains: Is this the best recruiting class of all time?

There are many Web sites that offer opinions on high school sports prospects, but no site covers this better than www.Rivals.com (now part of Yahoo! Sports). According to Rivals rankings, Kentucky has commitments from the four five-star prospects, including the top two overall players.

Here is the list of Kentucky’s 2009 recruiting class:

1. John Wall, point guard, No. 1 overall prospect
2. DeMarcus Cousins, power forward, No. 2 overall prospect
3. Daniel Orton, center, No. 22 overall prospect
4. Eric Bledsoe, point guard, No. 23 overall prospect
5. Jon Hood, shooting guard, No. 40 overall, “Mr. Basketball” from Kentucky
6. Darnell Dodson, small forward, transfer from Miami Dade Community College

On paper, this is a very impressive class. But there are several problems with comparing recruiting class. One major issue with judging classes is that the fourth-best player one year could be much better than the fourth-best player the next year. Also, one outstanding player can be worth two or even three very good players. A third problem is that, in this day and age, so many great players turn pro after one year.

We will not be able to judge this Kentucky class for several seasons. But we can take a look back at some of the best recruiting classes in recent memory. Here is a look at three of the best.

Duke, 1997
At the time, this class was viewed as one of the best ever. Coach Mike Krzyzewski brought in three top 10 players in Elton Brand, Shane Battier and Chris Burgess. They also signed point guard William Avery. This class was terrific on paper and also performed well on the court. While Chris Burgess, dubbed by one scout as “a cross between Larry Bird and Bill Walton,” did not pan out, Brand, Battier and Avery all went on to great success at Duke.

In their sophomore seasons, this class lost to UConn in the 1999 championship game. Then Brand and Avery left for the NBA. After they left, Battier stepped up during his junior and senior seasons. This class was good because it had both immediate star power (Brand) and good sustained play (Battier).

Ohio State, 2006
Coach Thad Matta landed five good players, none bigger than the top overall prospect Greg Oden. Dubbed the “Thad Five”, the group also consisted of shooting guard Daequen Cook, small forward David Lighty, point guard Mike Conley, Jr. and junior college transfer Othello Hunter. (Conley was actually the fourth-rated player in this class.)

This is where we have to decide how we are going to judge this new wave of recruiting classes. With so many players only staying in college for one season, it is difficult to rank current recruiting class on an all-time list. I mean, who is more valuable, a one-year, Kevin Durant rental or four years of solid play from Shane Battier? Durant posted much better numbers, but he did not win a single NCAA Tournament game.

When all is said and done, this class will go down as one of the most talented of all time. However, I cannot rank them as one of the best of all time. Oden, Cook and Conley each played only one season before jetting to the NBA, while Lighty was the Buckeyes’ best all-around player last season.

In their one season together, this team made it all the way to the NCAA championship game, before losing to Florida. Had the big three stayed one more season and won a championship, they may very well have gone down as the best recruiting class of all time. But one season is too small a window to even rank them on an all-time list.

Michigan, 1991
Nicknamed the “Fab Five,” this is the gold standard by which all recruiting classes are judged. The class consisted of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. Five is misleading, as this class really had four stars. Webber, Howard, Rose and King were all selected to the 1991 McDonald’s All-American team (there were 20 players on this team).

This class was the definition of top-heavy. I have heard more than one scout say that Webber was the most dominating high school player they have ever seen. (Presumably, these people have never seen LeBron James.) Bringing four star players to one college in the same year is impressive. Their hype as well as their play put this class over the top.

What was great about this team was that the youngsters led the way right from the start. During their freshman season, they lost in the national championship game, behind four freshman starters. The next season, Michigan again made the title game, losing to North Carolina. This was the “Webber timeout” game.

After this game, Webber left for the NBA. Rose and Howard stayed for one more season, where the Wolverines lost in the Elite Eight to eventual champs Arkansas.

While this team never won it all, it has to go down as the best recruiting class of my lifetime. I remember watching Webber, Howard and Rose. It was amazing to see a group of freshman change the game the way these kids did.

Kentucky, 2009
As I said, we will have to wait a few years to judge this class. All I know right now is that Kentucky’s team looks terrific on paper. In addition to their six new players, the team also had two first-team All-SEC players last season, shooting guard Jodie Meeks and power forward Patrick Patterson. Patterson is returning next season, while Meeks is deciding whether or not to enter the NBA draft. If Meeks returns, we could be looking at one of the deepest teams of all time.

When John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky, he said he planned on restoring the tradition of excellence that is synonymous with Kentucky basketball. It now looks like he could do that in year one. Granted, he’s doing it at Memphis’ expense by taking his best recruits with him to Kentucky, but it would still be impressive.

As for this incoming Kentucky class, they are probably only going to have one year together. Similar to Ohio State’s 2006 recruits, it is difficult to rank a class on an all-time list if they only spend one season together. But perhaps this class will be different. Calipari is bringing in a lot of talented players, so this class may be able to survive if a few go pro. Then again, does anyone remember the one year Jimmy King and Ray Jackson spent at Michigan without the big three? I know I don’t.

John Wall commits to UK

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/05/19/wall.kentucky/index.html

When John Wall, the No. 1-rated point guard in the high school class of 2009, sat down for his final recruiting-deliberation meeting with advisor Brian Clifton late on Monday night, Clifton asked him a point-blank question.

"John, what do you want to do?"

Much of the college basketball nation had been waiting months for the answer, as the John Wall Sweepstakes turned into the John Wall Saga, with as many as eight schools still in the hunt for his services in April. The 6-foot-4 product out of Raleigh, N.C.'s Word of God Christian Academy had nearly committed to Memphis, but re-opened the process when coach John Calipari left for Kentucky. The number of angles into Wall's recruitment was overwhelming: He was a North Carolina fan, and Roy Williams phoned him from the Final Four, but never offered a scholarship. Wall's mother was an N.C. State fan. His advisor and former AAU coach, Clifton, was high on Duke.

Clifton's brother, Dwon, another one of Wall's former AAU coaches, was hired by Baylor. Florida pitched him on NBA-style pick-and-rolls; Kansas pitched him on joining a national championship-caliber team. Miami surprisingly secured Wall's last official campus visit, and he nearly committed there, too. Kentucky had been the destination for Wall's first out-of-state visit, back when Billy Gillispie was the coach, and once Calipari arrived in Lexington, he put the full-court press on Wall, and continued to do so even after signing another five-star point guard, Eric Bledsoe. The long-standing feeling amid the chaos was that the Wildcats remained in the driver's seat.

On Monday, Wall finally had an answer for Clifton: "I want to go to Kentucky."

Calipari's sales pitch won out. Wall cited his relationship with the coach "as the thing that pushed [Kentucky] over." Calipari had, Clifton said, managed to assuage any concerns about a glut at the point-guard position in Lexington. "They told John that even though he'd have to fight for the position, he was their guy," Clifton said. "They said they were recruiting him to start, and to run the team. And John was convinced."

A Kentucky source confirmed to SI.com that they'd been contacted on Monday night with the news. Clifton said he believed Calipari was at Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh when he received a text message about Wall's decision. The Kentucky coach they first spoke with was assistant Rod Strickland, whom Clifton said was also instrumental in swaying Wall to Lexington due to his NBA experience at point guard. When they got Calipari on the phone later in the evening, Clifton said the coach's first words were, "Thank you."

It was an understandable time to be thankful. Calipari already had Rivals.com's No. 1 recruiting class for 2009-10 prior to Wall's commitment, but with him Kentucky appears to assembled one of the best recruiting classes of the decade. It includes a second five-star point guard in Bledsoe, a 6-1 prospect from 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. "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."

The expectation is that Wall will be handed the reins to Calipari's Dribble Drive offense in much the same way that 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 next month's draft.

Wall, who has Rose-like athleticism, is widely considered to be the top prospect 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 with four other potential NBA players 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 likely to return to Kentucky as well. After averaging 23.7 last season, he'd be a leading candidate for first-team All-America status and provide much of the scoring punch in an offense with Wall at the point. "Kentucky is going to do a lot of good for John," Clifton said, "and I think he's going to do them proud, because there are a lot of people there who've been thirsting to get back to those days of old, when Kentucky was king of the hill."