Jarnell Stokes?

If you haven't heard 5 star PF/C Jarnell Stokes is considering coming to college a semester early.  Stokes is ranked 17th by Scout, 1th by Rivals and 18th by ESPN.  He is clearly talented. It is unclear if he would help the team mid year or even if he would be willing to waste a year of his eligibility when he may not be truly ready for action until March.  

So why come? He was ruled ineligible from high school.  So if you can't play high school, why not try your hand at coming to college early? My how times have changed.  He was ruled ineligible because he chose to transfer schools too many times.  He refuses to go back to his previous high school because he believes he is learning at a higher level where he is.  He does have the academic ability to graduate a semester early.

He is also considering Memphis, Connecticut, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida.


It is unclear how hard Cal is pushing for Stokes.  It is a tough call.  If Stokes is just an investment for next season and not expected by Cal to truly help us this year, do you take him?  The concern may be if this deters Anthony Bennett from coming.  Bennett is by far more talented and we really need some talented bigs for next year losing likely Vargas, Jones and Davis. 

On the other hand will Stokes be able to develop this year at the college level and provide us with some experience next year on what may be the youngest team ever at UK and that is saying something for Cal's teams.  Not to mention, we don't know if it would deter Bennett.  It didn't deter Cousins that Orton was already signed on.  It didn't deter Wall and Bledsoe from playing together.  It didn't deter Kidd-Gilchrist that we had an experience Miller at his spot.  So you never know with recuits.

It may not matter how much Cal wants him, we do have a few things hurting us.  One, we haven't been on Stokes for that long compared to some other programs like Memphis.

Thanks to Poole holding a scholarship still and Polson holding one, we do not have any open scholarships until next year.  He would have to pay his own way for a semester.  Many of the other choices does not have this issue. 

Some may argue that Stokes is quite aware of this and hasn't cut UK with this knowledge in mind.  This is true but it is one thing to keep listing us and another to end up deciding to dish out thousands of dollars when he doesn't have to else where.  Of course us bias UK fans believe this is a small price to pay to lace up with the Cats but if in fact Stokes is torn between us and another school, something like this may tip the scales. 

I can't give you any insight into what Stokes is thinking.  My connections are not connected with this recruit. 

Maybe its just me being pessimistic but I haven't seen any insight from anyone claiming he is ours to lose, so at this point unless something changes I would expect Stokes to go elsewhere if he does indeed decide to come to college early.