Memphis staff telling boosters James Wiseman to Tigers is “done,” per report

After getting blasted by the top three recruits in the 2018 class on Tuesday, John Calipari may be on the verge of his first hit from the top player in 2019.

According to Adam Zagoria at FloHoops, the word going around Memphis right now is that the college basketball destination of No. 1 recruit James Wiseman has already been determined.

“The 7-foot Wiseman has yet to set an announcement date for his college choice, but multiple sources told FloHoops.com that Memphis is optimistic it will land the big man from Memphis (TN) East who played high school and AAU ball for Hardaway,” Zagoria wrote. “Hardaway maintains a close relationship with Wiseman’s family, and one source said the Memphis staff has already told some boosters it’s ‘done.’”

TJ Walker of KSR also heard earlier this week that Wiseman is expected to announce his plans to play for the Memphis Tigers later this month. With this much smoke, there must be some fire somewhere.

Kentucky was expected to be the leader for Wiseman before his AAU and high school coach, Penny Hardaway, took the reigns at the University of Memphis. Since that time, Penny has been able to flip the commitment of DJ Jeffries from Kentucky to Memphis and, if all of the rumors are true, pull down the No. 1 recruit in all of the 2019 class in Wiseman.

Calipari has not had a No. 1 recruit in Lexington since Nerlens Noel in 2012. EJ Montgomery was the top guy that came to Kentucky in 2018, ranked at No. 9 in the 247 Sports composite rankings, and 2019 commit Kahlil Whitney currently sits at No. 7 in next year’s class.

While I do not believe Calipari has completely lost his touch, a second consecutive season of missing out on the top-five players would be brutal, especially after what happened Tuesday.