Immanuel Quickley has committed to the Kentucky Wildcats.
In something of a surprising twist, the Kentucky Wildcats took until September 22nd to land their first 5-star recruit of the year. Today, guard Immanuel Quickley became the first member of the Cats 2018 class.
Quickley ranks as the #12 player in ESPN’s Top 100 and is the #3 point guard overall.
Why did Quickley end up picking Kentucky?
“I just picked Kentucky because of what Coach Cal has done with his point guards and what he’s done putting players like myself in situations to be in the NBA, it’s just crazy,” Quickley said.
“If you work hard and listen to what he says then he’ll put you in position to be there one day,” he added.
The “one day” part of that last quote is particularly interesting as Quickley might have trouble cracking the starting line-up as a freshman with 2017 recruits Quade Green, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jemarl Baker likely to still be on campus.
Much as it was with other bigtime recruits in the past, getting the opportunity to play for Coach Cal on the USA Basketball U19 team during the summer seemed to solidify Quickley’s desire to be a Wildcat.
“Yeah, I knew he was a great coach, but just to get to hangout with him off court, everybody sees him yelling at his point guards on the floor but they don’t get to see that he really cares off the floor,” Quickley said. “He’s always joking and smiling and having fun.”
What can Wildcats fans expect from the young guard?
“Kentucky from day one is going to get someone that’s not afraid to back down from any challenges and is going to compete every single possession and play hard day in and day out just to get wins,” Quickley said.
One last interesting element to this commitment is that there have long been rumors floating around that Quickley and his good friend Zion Williamson wanted to play together in college. Williamson was seen as a slight Kentucky-lean before the announcement and the Wildcats would have to be seen as the clear frontrunner for Williamson now.
