7-Footer DeAndre Ayton, No. 1 in 2017, Adds Kentucky, Duke Offers

By ADAM ZAGORIA & MATT WHITFIELD

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — DeAndre Ayton, the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2017, has added scholarship offers from two basketball bluebloods.

“I heard from Kentucky, Duke just offered and I heard from Michigan State…yea Kentucky offered,” the 7-foot, 235-pound Ayton told Matt Whitfield at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, Va.

“I heard from Coach [John] Calipari. He called me two days ago in the airport. He was just saying he’d love to have me at his school and he’s giving me an official offer to the University of Kentucky.”

Ayton may not have yet heard of Calipari’s goal of getting Kentucky to supply half the NBA All-Stars, but he knows they send a lot of guys to the pros.

“Kentucky’s a great school,” he said. “They got a lot of people in the NBA that are high draft picks and great people too.

As for Duke, Ayton said: “Duke and Kentucky I’m really looking at and seeing how they’re doing with their bigs.”

Ayton has the body of a future NBA big man, but is still working his way back into shape after suffering a broken patella in his right leg during his high school season.

“[I compare] myself to Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson,” Ayton told SNY.tv at the Under Armour Association stop in New York in April. “I always study [their videos] and practice them on the court, too.”

Zack Jones, Ayton’s coach with Supreme Court (CA), says the big man from Balboa City (CA) has only begun to tap into his vast reservoir of talent.

“If you saw Kevin [Garnett] when he first came out of high school, they have a lot of similarities,” Jones said. “But right now, DeAndre’s jump shot and his ability to put the ball on the floor is a little bit better than what KG’s was at that time in his career.

“I think with DeAndre, I think that right now since he’s coming back off an injury, his timing is off so he’s not quite playing at his highest level,” Jones said. “He’s probably playing around 75 percent. But his upside is tremendous because of his athleticism but also because of his competitiveness. And then he has live, live legs so it helps him be a little quicker off the bounce, to the ball, away from the ball, defensively.

“His upside is tremendous, especially if he learns how to dominate the game on the defensive side of the floor as well as the offensive side of the floor.”

As far as colleges, a Who’s Who of high-major programs are involved.

“You got Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Kentucky,” Jones said in April. “I mean all the big schools have really been working to talk to him.”