CHICAGO— The hype for the Andrew Wiggins-Jabari Paker matchup when Kansas meets Duke in the Champions Classic doubleheader at the United Center here Tuesday night has been over the top.
The 6-8 Wiggins from Kansas, a Canadian import who has already announced this will be his one and only year in college, was the consensus choice to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft coming out of Huntington, W.Va. Prep. The 6-8, 241-pound Parker, a versatile star forward on USA basketball’s grass roots teams who will be playing in his hometown, was considered the best American-born prospect in the Class of 2013 after leading Chicago Simeon High to the Illinois AA state championship.
But neither may be the best NBA prospect on the court.
The player generating the most buzz among NBA scouts is Kentucky’s 6-9, 248-pound power forward Julius Randle, who looks the part. Randle will get a chance to prove himself on the big stage when the top-ranked Wildcats play against second-ranked Michigan State in the first game of the best regular season doubleheader in recent history. It’s a little too early in the season to make much of a 1 x 2 matchup. But there are bragging rights to consider.
“At the end of the day, I want to win that game BAD,” Randle admitted. Randle has quickly emerged as the best of John Calipari’s magnificent seven freshmen, who are considered so talented they lifted the Wildcats to the No. 1 ranking in the AP and Coaches’ pre-season basketball polls. Kentucky’s roster is so deep with future pros it’s going to be hard for any one player to dominate. But Randle has come close with two dominant double-double performances in his first two games. He has showed he can beat his man and get to the basket, but is also big enough to take the contact and finish the play because he’s so quick off the floor and plays so hard.
Randle is averaging 22.5 points and 15 rebounds. He is shooting 60 percent and nearly 80 percent from the line. He posted 23 points and 15 rebounds, five on the offensive glass, in n 26 minutes as Kentucky (2-0) shook off a shaky start to blow by UNC Asheville in the home opener at Rupp Arena Friday. He finished two shy in both points (Terrence Jones) and rebounds (Sam Bowie) for school records for a first career game. “Julius Randle is a specimen,” UNC-Asheville coach Nick McDevitt said. “He is very, very good. Rarely do you see a guy with that kind of size and athleticism and skill level. Coach Cal’s going to have fun coaching him.”
Randle went on another tear Sunday when he ripped visiting Northern Kentucky for 22 points and 14 rebounds in just 29 minutes during a 93-63 victory, becoming the first freshman since Michael Beasley of Kansas State six years ago to total 20 point, 10 rebound games in each of his first two games.
But he is not ready to proclaim himself a finished product. “I’m still missing a lot of opportunities,” Randle said. “A lot of balls I should come up with. I think I missed like four free throws today (he shot 10 for 14), so I’m still leaving a lot out there. I’ve just gotta learn from it and improve.”
It is obvious he has consumed the Big Blue Kool-Aid Calipari has been spoon feeding him during pre-season practices as he attempts to push Randle beyond his limits. “He should be averaging 20 rebounds a game right now I would say,” Calipari claimed..
Randle is a driven competitor. The summer before his senior year at Plano North High outside Dallas, he won the Under Armour Elite 24 dunk Contest and the next day he was named one of the MVPs of the Elite 24 game, where he scored 27 points and led his team to a 164-138 victory. The weekend after Thanksgiving his senior season, Randle fractured his foot playing in a tournament and missed three months. In March, Randle returned for the TAPPS 5A playoffs and led his team to its third state title in four year college career.
Randle committed to Kentucky over Texas, Kansas and Florida later that month just before the McDonald’s All American game.
He has given the Cats what Calipari describes as “an alpha beast” who has made life easier for both 7-0 Willie Cauley Stein and 6-8 Alex Poythress in the low post. Poythress had 9 points and 7 rebounds against NKU in just 20 minutes. Cauley-Stein finished with 7 points and 11 rebounds. “It’s fun,” Cauley Stein said. “If all else fails you can just throw him the ball and he’s going to make something happen. He’s a great teammate to have on your team because he’s always going to make a play.”
The only time NKU was able to slow Randle down was when he took an inadvertent poke in the eye and took hmself out, sitting on the bench for three minutes before his vision came back. Randle will get a chance to see where the Wildcats stand on the national landscape against a more experienced, physical Spartans team (1-0), which returns four starters from last year’s NCAA Sweet 16 team that is the favorite to win the Big Ten.
Randle is not buying into the youth vs. veterans thing, though. “We play the same game,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be a war.”
