Let the onslaught of fall visits officially begin.
This weekend, the Kansas men’s basketball program will host four-star Class of 2020 center Mady Sissoko for an official visit during the opening weekend of the college football season.
In years past, KU coach Bill Self often has talked about the importance of a quality football program and how having David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium full when visitors were in town could only help the Jayhawks’ recruiting efforts.
It remains to be seen just how full KU’s football venue will be when Indiana State comes to town for Saturday’s 11 a.m. season opener. But Sissoko’s plate will be full one way or the other.
“I’m really interested to see the player improvement at Kansas, the academics, the style of play and some other things,” the 6-foot-8, 225-pound big man told Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com earlier this week. I just want to see and learn about as much as the Kansas program that I can during my visit.”
Sissoko currently attends Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, the same program that produced current Kansas freshman Tristan Enaruna.
He told Wildeboor he was excited to catch up with his old friend and added that the pairing of seeing Enaruna at KU only made things sweeter.
“Kansas is a great program,” said Sissoko, who originally hails from Mali. “They send a lot of players to the NBA and I want to go somewhere that can help me get to the next level. When I got to the United States, Kansas was my top dream school, but that does not mean that I want to go to my dream school. I want to go somewhere that I can fit in the program and I want to go somewhere that wants me the most.”
Known by recruiting analysts as an elite shot blocker who can bully his way to baskets around the rim, Sissoko is ranked as the No. 48 overall prospect in the 2020 class by Rivals.com. That Top 50 slot is up 31 spots from his previous ranking and many consider Sissoko to be one of the fastest-rising prospects in the class.
In mid-July, after watching him at an Under Armour event in Georgia, David Sisk of Rivals site CatsIllustrated, which covers Kentucky, wrote the following about the big man’s defensive prowess: “Simply put, he is one of the most dynamic shot blockers I have seen.They are volleyball spikes. Nobody is safe, not in half court or on the fast break. He sent one to another court after an 80-foot sprint. He pinned another one with two hands against the backboard. He runs the entire game and does not take plays off.”
Although Sissoko has not yet formed a list of finalists, he is zeroing in on a handful of programs he either has visited or plans to visit in the near future.
In addition to his upcoming trip to KU, Sissoko told Wildeboor he already has visited BYU, Colorado, Michigan State and UCLA and plans to visit Memphis.
KU assistant Norm Roberts is the lead recruiter for Sissoko, who told CatsIllustrated that Kansas was recruiting him, “very hard.”
