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Potential, talent, tremendous upside: all aptly describe the Kentucky Wildcats this season.
It's no coincidence that the same directly applies to freshman sensation John Wall.
Wall, a first-year guard out of Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C., chose to play basketball for Kentucky after ruling out Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, and a slew of others.
He's lived up to the hype for a Wildcat team that's seeking consistency.
So coach John Calipari's dribble-drive offense is still eluding the newer members of Kentucky's young team. So the Wildcats haven't put together the pieces on defense. So team chemistry isn't quite there yet.
Doesn't matter, because there are no significant cracks in Wall's game.
He leads Kentucky in average minutes played with 38 a game, points at 19.8 a game, and assists at 6.6 per game. His field goal percentage for the season is greater than 50 percent. He's scoring almost two points per shot.
He's the reason why the NBA should reconsider its one-year rule, which prevented Wall from entering the draft last summer. Because right now, Wall is the only thing holding Kentucky's perfect record together.
The Calipari era looked to start at .500 with the Wildcats down 18 points in the first half against Miami of Ohio. Nineteen Wall points and a buzzer-beater later, Kentucky was 2-0.
The Wildcats averted a second would-be upset when Wall hit a jumper with 30 seconds left to tie Kentucky with Stanford in Tuesday's Cancun Challenge. The game went to overtime, and Wall's team came out 6-0.
But it's not only a numbers game for Wall, whose breakneck speed has allowed for easy layups in transition—or in half-court offense, for that matter. When Wall can't get the open lane, he's found teammates to boost his 1.4-1 assist-to-turnover ratio
When asked about Wall after Rider's 92-63 loss to Kentucky, where Wall had 21 points and 11 assists, head coach Tommy Dempsey said “He's as good as I've ever seen in the open court.”
And he does it all with the growing reputation of a guy who plays with a smile on his face—maybe the reason why his teammates embrace the best talent amongst Calipari's top recruiting class rather than loathe in jealousy over his growing fame and impending fortune.
“NBA, that's all I have to say,” junior forward Patrick Patterson said, referring to where Wall's talent truly belongs. “John Wall is a pro player and he wants the ball in crunch-time situations. Whenever we need a basket or something on the offensive end John is going to be the one to do it.”
He's only 19, and yet has become the Wildcats' vocal and statistical leader. Because Kentucky's positive attributes aren't making Wall.
As long as the defense struggles, the offense sputters, and chemistry is beginning to form, Wall is making them who they are—that tape's already played six times over.
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