Coaching Team USA helping John Calipari in Cameron Reddish recruitment

It’s no secret that John Calipari is a big fan of the positionless five-star forward Cameron Reddish. How could he not be? He’s 6’7” with a 7’1” wingspan, and he can play anywhere on the floor.

“The one kid can play one, two, three, four, five. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh,’ ” Calipari said, according to SEC Country. “The kid can play every position. I mean, he’s skilled and sees it. He’s good.”

Reddish made the 12-man U19 USA Team, which Calipari is of course coaching. So that gives Cal three weeks of face time with Reddish to help get him to Lexington. Reddish seems pretty happy about that. He’s certainly a fan of Coach Cal.

“It’s just a blessing, honestly, for a guy that caliber to recognize me for my gifts and talents. That’s just a blessing,” Reddish said. “I would say he’s a cool dude. But he really pushes you to the limit. Like, he really wants you to be great; he cares for you. I really like that about him. And I trust him. Everything he’s saying makes sense, and his current players right now are kind of backing it up for him.”

Reddish is also getting to peek behind the curtain thanks to the fact that Hamidou Diallo and P.J. Washington are his teammates on the U19 team, and he spent time around Kevin Knox before he went back to Lexington.

“I talk to Kevin a little bit, P.J. every now and then. They say it’s really good. They say it’s nice. They say they do a lot of strength and conditioning, which I need — I need a lot of that — and they say outside of basketball, it’s just a great place to be.”

Reddish’s list is currently at eight schools: Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, UCLA, Villanova, Maryland, Connecticut and Miami. He’ll cut that down sometime after the Peach Jam next month to five or six schools, according to SEC Country.

Duke is the most recent favorite, but Calipari is making sure he talks to Reddish as a coach; perhaps that could flip the favorite to Kentucky.

Be sure to read the full interview.