UK Wildcat Country

Just hear me out on this one. I hope to explain the argument in the same awesome way that Henry Fonda proved to the other jurors in “12 Angry Men” that the old man who witnessed the murder was too slow to actually witness the murder, minus the long limp around the table.

DeMarcus Cousins committed to Kentucky a week after John Calipari accepted the job. It was on a Monday, and I think the news broke some time between Leno and Conan. At that point, Kentucky’s recruiting class went from solid to great and the front court went from potentially great to potentially the best in all the land.

Then Eric Bledsoe committed.

Now, you loyal readers know all about how UK fans react to recruits committing. Even though Cousins was a higher ranked recruit than Bledsoe, and, by all accounts, a better player (all due respect to Eric, who is an outstanding player and will get some serious click this season), Bledsoe started to get the hype because he filled a gaping hole, and we didn’t know what John Wall was going to do.

Then rumor spread that Daniel Orton might end up at Kansas because of the coaching change.

Cousins was again put on the backburner. All the attention went to Orton, as Big Blue Nation begged, pleaded, and probably stalked Orton on his Facebook until he decided to stay. The recruiting class was tops in the country and Cousins was the crown jewel again.

Then John Wall committed.

I can’t stress this enough, holy crap holy crap holy crap, John Wall committed to my team. See? Even I’m doing it. I’m underrating Cousins. Wall is no doubt deserving of all of the praise given to him. Jerry Meyer said (paraphrasing) that of all the players he’s seen go to college, Wall was the best he had seen at the high school level. That’s high praise from somebody who has been a recruiting analyst as long as Meyer has. From a personal level, Wall is the second best high school player I’ve ever seen. LeBron James is #1, but he comes from Mt. Olympus, so if you want to disqualify that assessment, then Wall is #1.

Still, and this is going in all caps because it’s important stuff, DEMARCUS COUSINS IS THE #2 RECRUIT IN THE CLASS OF 2009. Thousands of kids across this country will play D-I basketball next year as freshmen, and based on potential, only one guy is better than DeMarcus Cousins. We just happen to have that guy. Meyer says that offensively, Cousins was the most developed total package he had seen among big guys ever, and that includes Amare Stoudemire. I’ve also seen comparisons to Al Jefferson, who will be a career 20-10 guy if he stays healthy and was the second most dominant big man in the NBA before his injury. Cousins is an amazing athlete, but he can also shoot, pass and block.

Here is some video.

The YouTube vault for Cousins material is thinner than i thought it would be.

Thanks for reading.