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Kentucky Basketball: Five-star Immanuel Quickley commits to the Wildcats

By Lukas Harkins

MEMPHIS, TN - MARCH 26: Head coach John Calipari of the Kentucky Wildcats reacts in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at FedExForum on March 26, 2017 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
MEMPHIS, TN - MARCH 26: Head coach John Calipari of the Kentucky Wildcats reacts in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at FedExForum on March 26, 2017 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Another day, another recruit committing to play for Kentucky basketball. Immanuel Quickley, a five-star recruit, has now committed to play for the Wildcats.

Head coach John Calipari is one of the best recruiters in all of college basketball. Every season, Coach Cal has Kentucky competing for the best high school players in the country and he often times succeeds in receiving commitments. Kentucky has a huge basketball tradition and Calipari has helped the program become a destination for players who are on the track to becoming NBA players.

Under Calipari, several players have become important rotation players in the top league of the sport. For Calipari, he has now received a commitment from his next great point guard. Immanuel Quickley, a five-star recruit in the class of 2018 ranked at #8 by the 247Sports Composite ranking, committed to play at Kentucky on Sept. 22. This commitment came just a week after Quickley visited the campus.

Prior to making his decision, Quickley had trimmed his list of schools to three: Kentucky, Miami, and Kansas.

With Quickley joining the program, the hope is that he can follow in the footsteps of the other top guards that have played under Calipari at Kentucky. Eric Bledsoe, John Wall, Tyler Ulis, Jamal Murray, and Devin Booker all played at UK and are now having successful careers in the NBA.

For Kentucky, Quickley is the first recruit in their class of 2018. Still, it is expected that multiple recruits will be added as the year goes on. There are several players from the Kentucky recruiting class of 2017 that have the opportunity to become “one-and-done” players, which would lead to more open scholarships for Coach Cal.

The expectation is that Quade Green will be the starting point guard this season and it is possible that Green stays for his sophomore season. Coach Calipari does an excellent job grooming his players for deep NCAA Tournament runs before they enter the NBA Draft. Can Quickley be another one-and-done who helps Kentucky make a deep run in the Big Dance?

Quickley averaged 23.7 points and 7.2 assists per game as a junior in high school this past season. Then, he competed under Coach Cal for United States U-19 team this summer. He averaged 6.7 points and 2.4 assists per game while with the team. As reported by CSN, Quickley had this to say about playing under Kentucky head coach John Calipari:

"“It was really cool, just get to know him on and off the floor. We got to spend time in Egypt touring and stuff like that, getting on camels and just really getting to know him off the court.”"

Due to Quickley being the first recruit signed for the class of 2018 at Kentucky, it is impossible to say what role he will have with the team. Kentucky is a program that tends to have major year-to-year turnover and his role will depend on which recruits Coach Cal ends up signing.

As of right now, many of the top recruits in the country, including R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson, are on Kentucky’s radar for potential players to join the 2018-19 roster. For Williamson specifically, there have been rumors about him wanting to play with Quickley while in college.

Williamson has even addressed these rumors by saying this to SEC Country:

"“There’s a lot of truth to that,” Williamson said. “Me and Immanuel are good friends and we bonded over the Adidas path thing. I just love the way he plays point guard. That’s the type of point guard I want to play with.”"

With Williamson’s high-flying dunks and Quickley’s ability to see the floor, this could be one of the best one-two punches in college hoops during the 2018-19 campaign. We will have to wait to find out who else will fill out Kentucky’s recruiting class of 2018, though.

Overtime caught up with Quickley for an interview about his recruiting process:

Next: Projecting Kentucky's 2017-18 starters

Calipari got a great one in Quickley to jumpstart his 2018 recruiting class. He is one of the best business as a head basketball coach and Kentucky will continue to be a major destination for recruits thanks to his reputation of sending players to the NBA and making deep runs in the Big Dance. Will Quickley be the point guard to lead UK to the title?

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