Recruiting Dominoes - Wiggins/Rathan-Mayes vs The Harrison Twins

With the news of Xavier Rathan-Mayes receiving a personal phone call from Coach Calipari and now today the announcement that he will visit Lexington on Friday, Kentucky seems to be inching closer to offering him a scholarship. Rathan-Mayes announced his top 10 school today and all of them had offered him a scholarship - minus Kentucky.

Rathan-Mayes would be a great get for Kentucky, but the real prize here is Wiggins. Kentucky may or may not be interested in Rathan-Mayes if not for Wiggins, but with Wiggins, they could potentially have a great package deal. It has been discussed a lot that they would like to attend college together, continuing their careers together in which they play high school, AAU, and in national competitions together.Wiggins is one of the best recruits to head to college in quite some time and any team would have a problem taking another top 30 player to have a better chance at his services.

It has been believed for quite some time that Wiggins is down to Kentucky and Florida State. Florida State is where his dad played his college basketball at. Last weekend though, Leonard Hamilton went to Philly to watch Wiggins and CIA Bounce play, but apparently he didn't get the memo that Wiggins didnt make the trip. That prompted folks to speculate that Hamilton and Wiggins aren't as close as made out to be and that Calipari has the inside scoop and edge on the #1 recruit in the nation. For the record, Florida State was also on Xavier Rathan-Mayes top 10 list.

Now I am making a few assumptions here, but most are pretty well accepted as fact. Wiggins should end up reclassifying to the class of 2013. The idea of Wiggins remaining in high school for two more years sounds stupid.

Now, Kentucky is also in a heated battle to land the Harrison Twins. The Harrison twins will also be coming in on the class of 2013 and they will be a package for sure. That means, they will be looking for a place where both of them can shine. At Kentucky, one of them would have to be the third option. And if Rathan-Mayes is there, he could ennd up eating into Aaron Harrison's minutes. Aaron is a scorer and I don't think he wants to be on a team with Wiggins, Rathan-Mayes, his brother, and the other 5 star recruits Kentucky will surely have.

Kentucky may ultimately have the choice on what package they would rather have. I don't think they will be able to swing all four the guys. They may have a better chance of getting just Wiggins and the Harrison twins, leaving Rathan-Mayes out in the cold, but that may be risky since Wiggins and Rathan-Mayes could turn around and go to Florida State. Plus, Rathan-Mayes could be the only guy out of the foursome who may stay in college for a few years. He is a guy you can build around.

Lets assume they choose between Wiggins/Rathan-Mayes and the Harrison twins. Who should they take?

Based of their future outlook, point guard may end up being the biggest position of need. They have Harrow now, but he could leave for the draft either this year or next year. They have no point guard coming in for the Class of 2012. In 2013, they have interest in only Andrew Harrison and Cat Barber at the moment. Having seen both multiple times, I would say there is a huge talent gap between the two.

At small forward, lets act on the assumption that Alex Poythress will be a one and done. In fact, lets assume that Nerlens Noel and Archie Goodwin will be one and done as well. All three are projected lottery picks. Noel is irrelevant, but if Goodwin did stay, that could make it more likely the Wiggins/Rathan-Mayes combo headed to Kentucky.

At shooting guard, Kentucky is in the hunt for plenty of the top guys and will end up with one of them. If a bigger talent like James Young or Wayne Seldon commit, that could be the end for the Harrison twins consideration of Kentucky.

Kentucky is in a great spot and really has the ability to play their cards in a lot of different ways. There is also Jabari Parker to consider. As a Maryland fan, I am hoping they have so many options that they end up blocking the Harrison twins plans of heading to Kentucky. With Xavier Rathan-Mayes getting closer to getting a scholarship offer, it looks like Kentucky could be in the process of doing that. If that happens, the Harrison twins to Maryland looks like a good bet.

(Note: I am not saying that the Harrison twins would be unable to start over Rathan-Mayes, but since they are a package deal, both of them need to go to a place where the are the top options. They won't have a problem standing out at Kentucky, but why choose to play beside Andrew Wiggins when the twins talent alone is good enough to take any solid big 6 school deep in the tourney?)

Scouting Report: Xavier Rathan-Mayes

I've had the chance to evaluate Rathan-Mayes about five times in person now and have seen him in a high school setting with Huntington Prep, at the Global Challenge with Canada, and playing AAU ball for CIA Bounce. 

Xavier Rathan-Mayes showed up big time in the premier matchup against Julius Randle's Texas Titans. He had 22 points on the night and really caught fire at the beginning of the second half. Rathan-Mayes is great at finding ways to shoot his jumper - maybe to a fault as he settles for a lot of jumpshots (he only shot 36% for the weekend). He has a nice crossover dribble, uses screens well, and will post up defenders around the 3-pt line to set up his shot. He also has a turnaround jumper in his pocket. With these moves, Rathan-Mayes can light up the scoring column when he catches fire. Even when his shot isn't falling, he remains very confident. The problem right now is he relies to much on his jumper. He takes too many inefficient long two pointers and is a very streaky shooter. His jumpshot is good, but he isn't elite in that area (31% from 3, 75% from the FT line) so he needs to remember to attack the basket.

It seems all Canadian guards are good with the pick and roll and Rathan-Mayes is no exception. He likes to shoot his jumper off of screens, but he also has the vision and dribble ability to find teammates. He does a nice job changing speeds and not forcing his dribble as well. His mid-range game is also able to shine through off on-ball screens.

Rathan-Mayes does need get his teammates more involved and work on doing the little things to help his team win. He has been able to be Wiggins' wingman, but he hasn't picked up on some of the hustle things that go along with that. Part of it may be that Wiggins is a unique superstar and does many of the little things himself while Rathan-Mayes compliments him with shooting. Still, Rathan-Mayes needs to show more effort and mix it up more inside. That includes both on drives and on the glass. I think his driving game has more potential than what he has shown thus far - he definitely isn't strictly a shooter offensively.

He measured with a 6'5'' wingspan at the LeBron James camp so in the future, he may need to move to point guard. That may be too much to ask of him, but it would be realistic to see him as a scoring combo guard off the bench in the NBA one day.

Rathan-Mayes has a lot of talent but right now projects as an inefficient volume scorer at the next level who doesn't make his teammates better and is undersized. Luckily he has plenty of time to grow and I fully expect he will. He kind of reminds me of a rich man's Adrian Oliver or even a Willie Green.

Rathan-Mayes has interest from around the country and a wide open list. I could see him following Wiggins to Florida State or even Kentucky if they were to eventually offer him. Other than that, where he winds up is anybody's guess.

He compares his game to Chauncey Billups and you can see that with some of his offensive moves. He plays under control and has been working on posting up smaller defenders. Rathan-Mayes also cite Billups toughness as something he sees in himself.

Andrew Wiggins: The Next Big Thing

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to check out the #1 ranked sophomore in the country up close at Washington DC's Trinity-Washington College. His name is Andrew Wiggins and he hails from Canada, but plays for a stacked Huntington Prep team located in West Virginia.

He shares a backcourt with 3 other high Division I prospects (Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Negus Webster-Chan, Javontae Hawkins), two of them seniors, but even at a younger age, he was leaps and bounds more impressive.

The first glipses I got of Wiggins was during warm ups. I saw him taking some jumpers and was unimpressed. His shot is all wrist and is very flat. I was prepared to be disappointed at this point. If this kid can't even shoot, just how impressive can this sophomore be against this high level of competition? Surely he isnt going to be able to just bully his way to the rim each possession...

The game started with Wiggins winning the tip against the taller Chris Obekpa. Obekpa is an impressive athlete in his own right and I will cover him later. After gaining possession, Wiggins took to the the post and began playing the role of a power forward. This was very good to see as Wiggins displayed plenty of positives signs while doing this. The first would be toughness. It is one thing to be a great athlete, but to be willing to battle inside when your true position is a guard is noteworthy. Secondly. he showed that he was a team player. He played his role in the offense, which looked like a relaxed version of the flex offense, and did the little things. He moved without the ball, set picks, and looked to find his teammates. He was very aggressive on the boards.

At the end of the first half, his team was trailing by 20 points. Wiggins had been efficient, but he hadn't asserted himself enough. That isnt to say he wasn't playing hard, he just didnt have the ball in his hands enough. On the opportunities he did get, he converted at a great rate. He is a terrific finisher at the rim, even when he isn't exploding out of the gym on dunks. He finished a couple of and-1 lay ups and converted all of his free throws for the game.

In the third quarter, Wiggins was ready to lead his team to victory. Our Savior's aforementioned center, Chris Obekpa, was in foul trouble and had to be taken out of the game. This opened up the lane for Wiggins, who took full advantage. Wiggins made everything look so easy, smooth, and graceful until it came time to elevate for thunderous dunks. He has that rare quick and explosive leaping ability and a calmness and smoothness to his game that reminds you of Ray Allen (minus the jumper of course).

At the end of the third quarter, Wiggins let his star shine, in what would be considered his coming out party for the game. He had a spectacular baseline drive dunk in the final minute, followed by a rebound and a buzzer beater from near halfcourt as time expired. His shot is ugly, but he can hit threes at a decent rate.

By the end of the game, Wiggins had finished leading his team to victory and I dont think he turned it over or missed more than one shot. He played a near flawless game and it is crazy to think that he is only a sophomore. Ive seen plenty of top 10 senior prospects the past few years and he is the best guard Ive seen at any age in high school. The kid is destined to be a star and I am pulling for him because he seems like a great, hard working kid as well.