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After a small break from the recruiting trail, John Calipari hit the road today for the beginning of the fall recruiting period.
It only makes sense that the most important player in the 2017 class for the Kentucky Wildcats got a visit from Coach Cal. That would be one Mohamed Bamba, who reportedly hosted Calipari early Friday morning.
Kentucky's John Calipari met with elite post player Mohamed Bamba this morning, a source tells Scout.
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) September 9, 2016
Bamba joins Trae Young, P.J. Washington, Kevin Knox, and Hamidou Diallo as 2017 recruits that coaches from UK are meeting with this weekend.
A five-star forward/center and ranked as the No. 3 overall player by 247Sports Composite, Bamba is the most highly-regarded prospect UK is pursuing for next year’s class. Now that Michael Porter Jr. and DeAndre Ayton are off the board, Bamba is the best player UK hopes to land next year, so it seems right that he was among the first players Calipari meant with Friday.
However, Bamba’s thirst from strong academics has other schools looking very attractive for Bamba. Earlier this summer, Bamba attended the MIT Sloan Analytics Conference, where he studied sports business and the increasing role of analytics in sports.
Bamba already has strong interest in Duke and Harvard, and recently expected interest in Michigan and their Ross School of Business. Those three schools rank among the top 50 colleges for academics.
UK is no slouch with academics, but it still doesn’t quite measure up to those schools. However, Calipari has put UK in great position for Bamba as his recruitment will likely go into the spring.