By ADAM ZAGORIA
One week after Cade Cunningham visited Kentucky for “Big Blue Madness,” Kentucky coach John Calipari visited Cunningham on Monday at Montverde (FL) Academy, coach Kevin Boyle told ZAGSBLOG.
“Yes, Cal was here,” Boyle said by text.
Per ESPN.com, the 6-foot-7 Cunningham is ranked No. 2 in 2020. He is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, per ESPN.
Cunningham was coming off his final official visit to Washington this past weekend. He’s also visited Oklahoma State (Sept. 6), North Carolina (Sept. 27), Florida (Oct. 5) and Kentucky (Oct. 13). His brother, Cannen Cunningham, is on staff at Oklahoma State but Cade has said he’s “open” in his recruitment.
It now appears that Kentucky and Oklahoma State are the top two contenders for Cunningham. The Wildcats recently landed a pledge from Class of 2021 point guard Devin Askew, who is expected to reclass to 2020, but Calipari is clearly letting Cunningham know he still wants him to join a class that includes wings B.J. Boston, Cam Fletcher and Terrence Clarke and power forward Lance Ware.
“I think Cade has great admiration and love and respect for his brother, but I think he truly has expressed to me that he’s giving Oklahoma State a very, very strong look,” Boyle said previously.
“But he’s also looking very hard at the other schools that are recruiting him. With Ben [Simmons], I always thought that Ben was going to LSU because his Godfather [David Patrick] was there. With Cade, I really believe that if there’s a school that’s a better fit for him, that he thinks has a better chance to get him where he wants to be as a player, and he enjoys the campus and the social life and all that, I think it’s possible” he could pick another school.
Boyle said Cunningham “is arguably as good as any player in the country right now. He’s such a versatile player. He’s shooting the ball so much better. In my 30 years, he’s made as much progress in one year as any kid I’ve had. He’s gone from being a good player last year to arguably the best player in the country this year. He’s in that conversation for that No. 1 overall player. Not since Al Harrington have I had a player make such development from one year to the next.
“He’s just come on. He’s big for today’s game, a big guard that’s versatile, that can score, that can facilitate. He’s a very versatile player. He can guard multiple positions. He’s going to fill up a stat sheet and I think he’s going to have the chance at a really good career in the NBA.”
Since 2011, Boyle has coached six top-3 NBA Draft picks in No. 1s Simmons and Kyrie Irving, No. 2s D’Angelo Russell and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and No. 3s Joel Embiid and R.J. Barrett.
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