John Wall Eligible to Play Now

John Wall has finally been cleared to play!  The NCAA set out a small punishment for the Kentucky Wildcat Freshman.   Wall must sit out 2 basketball games and repay around $800 in expenses while he was conducting unofficial visits to colleges during his Junior year of high school.

John Wall will miss an exhibition game against Campbellsville as well as the season opening game against Morehead State.  The punishment stemmed from Wall’s involvement with a “so-called” agent during his high school years.  It is nothing to be concerned with and hopefully we can move forward now.  Is everybody ready for the season to start like I am?

Will John Wall be Ineligible for the Wildcat Opener? WHO CARES!!

Let’s be honest for a minute, even if John Wall is suspended due to this fiasco with the agent ordeal.  The truth of the matter is that the Kentucky Wildcats have enough talent to get by without him for the first 3 or 4 games.  The reason 3 or 4 basketball games are mentioned is because if he were to be declared ineligible, it would only be for 10% percent of the regular season games (3 or 4 at most).

So worst case scenario, we don’t have John Wall playing the first four games of the season.  The opponents for these first four games are Morehead State, Miami (Ohio), Sam Houston State, and Rider.  No disrespect to these programs, but they are not exactly the cream of the crop.  I think that we will be just fine if John Wall is suspended for these games.  He would be back in time for the bigger games on the schedule.

So, Kentucky Wildcat fans, breathe a sigh of relief!  We will be just fine and this situation will blow over.  Personally, I don’t know why this situation is getting blown out of proportion right now.  I guess all the haters need something to talk about, so they are digging as deep as they can.  Bring on Kentucky basketball, GO BIG BLUE!!

John Wall’s Eligibility is in Question?

 

According to sources, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive told ESPN.com that he believes the NCAA’s agents and amateurism group (not enforcement officials) are looking into the eligibility of Kentucky freshman “John Wall” and Mississippi State freshman “Renardo Sidney”. 

ESPN.com reported that Wall’s issues stem from his relationship with AAU coach Brian Clifton, who was a certified agent in 2007 and 2008. Wall made at least two unofficial recruiting visits to Kentucky during that period.

“Those are amateur issues that arose prior to their coming to our schools,” Slive said. “Those are strictly amateurism issues. As we told our people, somebody needs to determine if they are eligible. It’s not relative to you, it’s relative to them.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

What this means for Wall’s eligibility?

It’s not as bad as it sounds.  According to “the experts”, worst-case scenario is that Wall would have to pay back all monetary benefits accepted during the 2007 and 2008 period while affiliated with coach Brian Clifton and John Wall would probably be suspended for up to 3-4 games.  That would probably be the worst punishment that Wall could get for this incident.  I personally don’t see it as being that bad and will probably blow over or at worst, John Wall will have to come up with a little bit of funds to cover the pay-back of benefits received.  For Kentucky Wildcats fans, don’t worry too much and hopefully this will be the last time we have to deal with these implications.

GO BIG BLUE!!

John Wall Makes it Official, Signs with the Kentucky Wildcats

John Wall held a press conference at his school on Wednesday to officially confirm that he was on his way to the Bluegrass.

When John Wall narrowed down his schools’ list a short while ago, it seemed to be between Kentucky, Duke, Miami, and Florida.  Sources close to Wall say that it was just between Miami and Kentucky.  In the end, Calapari won the top 2009 recruit over (per Rivals.com) even though Kentucky had already signed a 5-star point guard in that of Eric Bledsoe.

Kentucky now has a complete roster…actually, Kentucky has too many players!  One would assume that once Jodie Meeks decides whether or not he is staying in the NBA draft, the roster will be looked at and four players will have to find a new school, play as a walk-on, or just not play basketball for the University of Kentucky at all.  The only ones that seem to be safe at the moment are Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Darnell Dodson, Jon Hood, and Daniel Orton.  And of course, Jodie Meeks if he decides to return for his senior season.

Slam Magazine Reports John Wall has Committed to Kentucky

Slam Magazine has reported that #1 2009 recruit (per Rivals.com), John Wall, has committed to the University of Kentucky.  If this holds to be true, UK will have the Number 1 recruiting class of 2009 and may have one of the best recruiting classes to ever be drawn to Kentucky in the same season.

Once again, there has been no official word, just unconfirmed reports thus far.  If John Wall is going to be a Wildcat, Kentucky basketball should be considered to have the luster of what it once was and will be considered a national powerhouse this upcoming season.  GO BIG BLUE!!!