Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: 2013/14 Recruiting Big Board

Projecting out two years into the future is a heady task. The dust hasn't even fully settled on the 2011 class, so why talk about high school phenoms that are currently just sophomores and freshmen? It is, after all, hard to say how good youngsters will turn out to be, as Kentucky fans and Billy Gillispie no doubt learned with Michael Avery. Even when kids do turn out to be better than once advertised, their minds change and those initial commitments do along with it (oh hi, Austin Rivers!). Nevertheless, recruiting is an ever churning machine, and John Calipari and every other major college program coach is out scouring the underclassmen ranks for the next John Wall or Harrison Barnes. And luckily for Kentucky fans, with Calipari at the helm, there's a strong chance these 5 star hopefuls will one day sport Kentucky blue.

For our initial 2013 Big Board (which includes a handful of need-to-know 2014 prospects as well), we won't delve too deeply into offer and commitment odds. Most of these kids don't yet know exactly where they're going, nor even have a short list. Although don't tell that to Matt Painter at Purdue, who already has 4 players committed for the class of 2013. Currently, Kentucky has only one outstanding offer in each class, Nerlens Noel ('13) and Wayne Selden ('14), teammates at The Tilton School in New Hampshire. Other than that, it's a pretty wide open list that won't get narrowed down for a while. But it doesn't hurt to dream, yes?

Scholarship Situation

Too early to tell, obviously. If (and that's a huge if) Kentucky keeps all of its eligible players, that 2013 list would be seniors Stacey Poole, Doron Lamb, and Terrence Jones, and juniors Anthony Davis, Michael Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer. As they say in Texas, that ain't happenin', y'all. At minimum, Kentucky currently will have 6 scholarships to allocate between the 2012 and 2013 classes.

Remaining Targets (Needs: TBD)/Outlook

The class of 2013 looks like a lot of local battles for the Wildcats, something John Calipari is quite accustomed to by this point (Wall from North Carolina, Knight from Florida, etc.). Despite interest from a lot of the top prospects, Calipari has been seriously stingy with his offers to date. It came as a bit of a surprise when the scholarship offer was extended to Noel and Selden, The Tilton School teammates, but Calipari must have felt good enough on both to do so. As the timeline progresses, this list will get narrowed and modified as mutual interest bubbles to the surface. In the meantime, expect both Calipari and Kentucky fans to keep a much closer eye on the class of 2012.

Other Recruiting Big Boards

2012 Version 1 (4/21/11)
2011 Version 2 (4/25/11)
2011 Version 1 (4/15/11)