Vaught's Views: Knight-Kanter combo could be special for Cats

Vaught's Views: Knight-Kanter combo could be special for Cats

By LARRY VAUGHT
larry@amnews.com
April 29, 2010

One national recruiting analyst says it would be unfair to think Brandon Knight, a point guard, and Enes Kanter, a center, could be the next John Wall-DeMarcus Cousins combo atKentucky.

Wall and Cousins had banner freshman seasons for coach John Calipari’s Wildcats and could be the top two picks in the June NBA draft, or at least among the top five.

“Nobody should ever compare Knight to wall. A John Wall comes along once in a lifetime. Knight is special and very good in his own right, but John Wall has amazing attributes that most players just don’t have,” said Paul Biancardi, ESPNU’s national director of recruiting. “His speed and athleticism are second to none.

“He’s a great passer, good leader, coachable. He had it all, and even made jump shots. Then you throw in Cousins being the force he was and it was just special.

But he thinks Knight and Kanter can be very, very good.

Start with Kanter, a Turkish center whom Biancardi says he likes everything about.

“I like his size, strength and skill, and he is a tenacious rebounder,” Biancardi said. “He has the ability to make shots facing the basket, or you put him in a pick-and-pop game.

“You can put him a lot of places on the floor and he will contribute. He has a chance to be an excellent rebounder. He has a mature way about him and has very good instincts.

“He is not a back-to-basket and rebound player. He is a forward. I would call him a front-court player. He could play center, forward, low post, high post. He can play farther out than the high post.

“He can shoot out to the 3-point line to stretch the defense and bring guys out on the court. But at the same time, he can dominate the paint.”

What about Knight?

“If I had to label him today, I would say he is a scoring point guard. He thinks about scoring first, and he has the ability to score easily,” Biancardi said. “He just needs to learn the important nuances of playing point guard, and he will get that through coaching from Cal.

“He has to learn to think shot clock, game situation. He has to be an extension of the coach on the floor and know what Cal wants and what the team needs. That will come with coaching and experience.

“But he’s a very unselfish player and is good at finding open players. He had to score a lot for his team this year. That’s why he took so many shots.”

Biancardi said he saw Knight in AAU play with more talented teammates and that he “knew when to pass the ball to scorers” and could also defend talented players.

“Knight has a great work ethic and he is a winner. That’s a great combination to have — talent and the mental makeup. He is very coachable and mentally tough. He doesn’t have very many emotional faults on the court. He is tuned in and focused on the task at hand,” Biancardi said.

“He just needs to be coached by one of best staffs in America and learn all the little things he needs to know.”

Biancardi says Calipari sill needs “pieces to add depth” to his recruiting class to offset the loss of Wall, Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton and Patrick Patterson to the NBA.

One piece Calipari won’t add is North Carolina forward C.J. Leslie, who confirmed Wednesday he would sign with North Carolina State.

Perhaps it is because he knows Oregon forward Terrence Jones is going to pick Kentucky when he announces his decision Friday. Jones seems to be down to Kentucky, Washington and perhaps Kansas.

The Wildcats are also still pursuing Georgia Mr. Basketball Marcus Thornton, a 6-7 forward.

Kentucky still desperately needs a foward to round out its recruiting class. Losing Leslie hurt — and shows Calipari doesn’t win every recruiting battle — but adding Jones to this class would still potentially make it a No. 1 class, and even adding Thornton would still make it a class any coach in the country would like to have.

However, instead of three options at forward, UK now only has two with Leslie off the board, and that makes Jones’ decision Friday even bigger for the Cats.