Wednesday Quickies: Makur Maker Edition

A lot of questions remain about this recruitment

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes May 13, 2020, 6:40am EDT

The recruitment of Makur Maker has definitely been a strange one. The near seven-footer once was seen as a lock to bypass college basketball to play professional basketball.

But recent reports indicate that if Maker doesn’t get the feedback he hopes for from the NBA Draft process, then he will play college basketball and Kentucky is one of the frontrunners if he does indeed go this route.

The problem with that is nobody knows how long the pre-draft process will take, and coaches can't hold a scholarship and roster spot forever. In an interview with KSR’s Jack Pilgrim, Maker’s guardian, Ed Smith, acknowledged this unique situation.

“We have to be respectful that coaches still have to recruit,” he said. “So let’s say UK still has to recruit their own guys. We don’t even know when the deadline is, we don’t know when workouts are going to be, or if there are going to be any workouts. It would be unfair to those college coaches, almost like we’re trying to string them along. … They have to move ahead, because what if he doesn’t pull out? You know? What if he doesn’t pull out of the draft and they say they’re holding a scholarship for him?”

This creates a problem for Kentucky. I can’t imagine Kentucky holds a roster spot for a significant amount of time even though Maker is very talented. With it being no guarantee he goes to college and a lot of people still skeptical of his college interest, I just don’t see it but crazier things have happened.

However, according to Smith, Kentucky along with UCLA are the programs communicating the most with Maker. So maybe Calipari and the Kentucky coaches see something there. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that Cal works in mysterious ways when it comes to recruiting.

Make sure you check out the rest of Pilgrim’s conversation with Smith here.