The next couple of days will determine quite a bit about the Kansas basketball program’s 2018 recruiting class.
With 2018 big man Silvio De Sousa already committed, the Jayhawks will learn this weekend about the decisions of a couple more highly touted 2018 prospects.
Around 5 p.m. today, five-star point guard Immanuel Quickley will announce his decision from the gymnasium at John Carroll High in Bel Air, Maryland.
Quickley, who is ranked as the No. 2 point guard in the 2018 class, is expected to decide between Kansas, Kentucky and Miami.
Most have pegged the point guard as a Kentucky guy for months, with the Wildcats always being high on his list and the fact that he played for UK coach John Calipari with USA Basketball this summer both adding strength to that claim.
But one source familiar with Quickley’s recruiting told the Journal-World on Thursday that the 6-foot-4, 180-pound guard ranked No. 10 overall by Rivals.com had no plans to let even the coaches know before his big announcement.
That obviously could have changed this morning, but, either way, Quickley will end the suspense — if there really is any — this evening.
His announcement, as well as a mini documentary of his journey to decision day, [will be carried live on Facebook and will begin at 5 p.m.][1]
Today also is Quickley’s mother’s birthday. Not a bad little birthday present for mom.
Regardless of what decision Quickley makes — pro-KU or otherwise — the Jayhawks will not have to wait long for another big announcement.
Five-star center David McCormack, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound beast from Oak Hill Academy, plans to reveal his decision at 5 p.m. Sunday on live television in Virginia, according to his AAU program’s Twitter feed, @teamloadedaau.
https://twitter.com/teamloadedaau/status/911232268999512064
Although he has a final list of six schools (Duke, Kansas, NC State, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Xavier) McCormack likely will be deciding between Kansas, Xavier and NC State, the three schools which he has visited.
McCormack, No. 33 overall in the 2018 class per Rivals, averaged 10.6 points and 8.6 rebounds a game as a junior at Oak Hill and 14.8 and 9.8 for Team Loaded this spring and summer on the AAU circuit.
It’s interesting that McCormack’s announcement will come before his official visit to KU, which is set for next weekend, coinciding with Late Night.
As it stands now, if the big man who was a teammate of current KU forward Billy Preston’s at Oak Hill last year picks somewhere other than Kansas, that visit may not happen. But if he picks Kansas, which pretty much every recruiting analyst out there expects to be the case, McCormack’s visit for Late Night will serve as one heck of a way to celebrate his big decision.
Adding McCormack to a class that starts with Silvio De Sousa (6-9, 245) would be a clear indication that the Jayhawks have shored up their front court situation for the 2018-19 season.
Even if Preston and sophomore big man Udoka Azubuike leave for the NBA after the upcoming season, the Jayhawks would hit the floor the following season with a big-man rotation that includes De Sousa, McCormack, Memphis transfer Dedric Lawson and would-be-junior Mitch Lightfoot, by far KU’s deepest and most talented frontcourt since the 2015-16 season.
[1]: https://www.facebook.com/Uninterrupted/
