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In good news for the Kentucky Wildcats and bad news for U19 Team Canada, incoming freshman combo guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will skip the tryouts for the upcoming tournament in Cairo, Egypt.
At Hamilton Heights in Chattanooga, Tenn., the one-time Florida commit averaged 20.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game in helping lead the Hawks to a 33-7 record and a national ranking.
His play as a senior earned him 5-star status as the No. 19 overall prospect and No. 1 combo guard in the 2017 class by 247Sports.
Per the player’s twitter account:
I would like to wish my U19 Canadian Brothers best of luck over in Egypt. I have decided to stay at school to get ready for my upcoming year
— Shai Alexander (@shaiglalex) June 16, 2017
John Calipari is going to be coaching his youngest team this season, and one of the youngest teams in the history of the NCAA. It’s going to be vital that the players put in as much work as possible during the offseason so that they are ready to go when practice heats up in the fall.
Fellow freshman teammates Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Knox, and PJ Washington will be with Cal in Colorado next week for the USA U19 tryouts and it’s assumed all three ‘Cats will accompany the team to Egypt. The good news is they will be able to work directly with Cal during their time away from Lexington.
Shai is an extremely talented player that shot up the recruit rankings during the final evaluation period. He was the MVP of the Derby City Classic Game in Louisville, outshining all three Louisville Cardinal commits that were in the game, and won the three point competition.
I think he has the ability to be an Eric Bledsoe type of player at UK. A kid that came in as a four/borderline five star player and ending up as a one and done player.