I have reached my 50th post! It's been fun for the first 49, and this is actually my first College Basketball post. Since my last one, I have still seen fines on nfl.com and ESPN. But that was the last post. This post is about the #1 2009 high school basketball recruit, John Wall. Wall plays for John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats. He played high school ball at Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina. On Monday, Wall played in his first career regular season game as a collegiate athlete. What was the result? He hit a game winner with 0.5 seconds left.
Kentucky was at home playing against Miami (OH). Miami was down 67-70, and with six seconds left, the RedHawks senior guard Kenny Hayes hit an NBA-range three pointer to tie it at 70. Lightning-quick Wall then got the ball, dribbled all the way up the court on the left side, got just inside the three point line, took a step back and watched the ball sail through the net. Not a bad way to cap off his first game. He had nineteen points, five assists and three steals in the game. Final score: Kentucky 72, Miami 70.
Wall had a lot of hype coming into this year. Many compare him to Derrick Rose, the Bulls point guard, who Calipari also coached at Memphis for one year before Rose was the #1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft. I agree with these comparisons. Both point guards have incredible speed, but the one difference I see is that Wall is more of a scorer than Rose. Nonetheless, I think both will be great pro basketball players. But back to Wall. I think he has the chance to be an extraordinarily great pro. Watching the highlights of the Kentucky game, I saw his professional potential. He will be a very fun player to watch not only this year as Kentucky looks for their first Final Four appearance since 1998 when they took home the trophy.
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