Julius Randle Shows Superstar Potential in Kentucky Wildcats Debut

With players like Anthony Davis, Nerlens Noel and now Julius Randle, it seems that John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats know a thing or two about recruiting in college basketball.

No. 1 Kentucky was able to cruise past UNC-Asheville, 89-57, with five players scoring in double figures Friday night. Randle was the leading scorer, putting up 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting and 15 rebounds in 26 minutes.

There might not have been another freshman who played as well as Randle did on Friday, and it really looks like he has all the makings of a superstar.

Randle was a 5-star recruit coming out of Texas and was the No. 2 player in the 2013 class, according to Rivals.com. ESPN had Randle as the No. 3 overall player behind Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins. So highly touted coming out of high school, he was named a preseason All-American by USA Today before playing a single minute at the next level. 

An incredibly aggressive scorer down low, he has no problem finishing through contact and loves to attack the basket. He also does a great job boxing out and grabbing boards, as we saw in his season debut with his 15 rebounds.

For a player at 6'9'' with the skills down low that Randle has, one might expect a weakness of his to be free throws. It doesn't seem to be an issue for the freshman power forward, however, as he made 11 of his 13 shots from the charity stripe.

The only real weakness for Randle is that he doesn't have the best jump shot, but that's not much of a problem with the way he plays. He loves to get close to the basket and won't be asked to take too many jumpers this season.

This might be one of the best freshman classes we have ever seen in college basketball, and if Randle keeps playing like he did on Friday, he will have no problem standing out from the rest of them while at Kentucky.