A Plea to John Wall

Sorry about all the Duke hate, but this factors prominently into UK’s next season, ergo, it’s eminently important for college basketball in general. Much to the Admiral’s chagrin, I will compose another University of Kentucky-related post, but all in all it’s just another post on John Wall. John Wall is the top point guard in the country and it looks like he will be attending either Duke, Kentucky, or possibly Johnny come latelys, Kansas or UNC. It's hard to believe that Wall will end out at Miami, Baylor, or NC State now that college basketball's headliners have really entered the picture. Right now, it seems like Duke and UK are the leaders, so I'll leave consideration for the other suitors for another post and restrict this to his interest in becoming a Wildcat v. a Blue Devil. Wall is 6’4” and has an unbelievable handle. More importantly for Duke and Kentucky, he is neither Greg Paulus nor Michael Porter. UK has a chance to be a preseason top 10 team with Wall, and may be outside the top 25 without him, so Wall is an absolute must for the Wildcats. But how can you convince a young man like John to come to UK over Duke? Well I present to you, my friends, my plea to Mr. Wall. And just to show you it’s from the heart, I will be doing this post with ZERO internet research to compile this data.

Going back to the Bobby Hurley days, Coach K has signed seven (7) McDonald’s All-American point guards. Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that those guys weren't any good in college, but if I know John Wall like I think I do, then he’s much more interested in going someplace that will prepare him to dominate in the League. So we’ll walk through Duke’s hamburger All-American PGs in chronological order.

Bobby Hurley: Hurley was undoubtedly one of the best college point guards in the last twenty years. I didn’t root for his NBA career to get derailed by a car accident, but the fact remains that he never did anything in the NBA.

Wojo: Sure wasn’t an injury that stopped Wojo from making it to the league, unless you count his chronic case of Douchism.

William Avery: Showed great potential in college, but left early, got sabotaged by Coach K during predraft workouts, and never made it onto an NBA roster

Jay Williams: One of the most talented players to ever play for Duke. Looked to be a star in the making but his career was also cut short by an injury. In interest of this non-objective exposé, I’ll mention that he struggled his rookie season, and Duke haters reveled in the frequency of offensive fouls called on him after he went down the lane like a tidal wave for three seasons in Durham.

Chris Duhon: He had a great career at Duke as a consummate winner, although he sort of plateaued and never quite reached the potential many saw in him during his freshman year. He was a second round pick by the Bulls, and notable member of the Menudo-esque Baby Bulls.

Shaun Livingston: He never played at Duke, but we’ll include him just to point out that Wall apparently has a near 50% chance of sustaining a horrendous injury by marrying himself to the Duke program.

Greg Paulus: The Sack Lodge of college basketball. This petulant Dukie is the envy of no one, and a quick glimpse into my seeing stone reveals that John Wall is hoping for a greater professional career than how Greg Paulus’s is going to pan out.

While Coach K has been wrecking the bright futures of young point guards, John Calipari has coached two point guards in the last two seasons who are likely to have better careers than any point man from Krzychewskiville.

Now UK has only inked two McDonald’s All-American point guards since the Hurley days: Wayne Turner and Rajon Rondo. Turner had limited NBA experience after a very memorable college career. So he’s sort of like Wojo, except he gets the edge for historically annihilating him in the 1998 regional final. Rondo, meanwhile, is merely starting at point for the reigning NBA champs, and is also clearly better than any of Coach K’s guys have been at the next level.

Now it could be really fun down in Durham, watching the Plumlee brothers roaming the paint and the throwing the ball to Jon Scheyer and Jon Scheyer, but play the historical averages, Mr. Wall. Restore Lexington to its Camelot mystique and prepare yourself to make a lot of money for a really long time in the NBA.