Epic DJ Wagner Recruitment Kentucky vs Louisville

LOUISVILLE – The College of Louisville’s males’s basketball program retired with solely 5 jersey numbers in its gilded historical past. Of those 5 well-known gamers, three are nonetheless alive. Saturday evening, the three have been in the identical place and on the identical time – watching an AAU recreation, of all issues.

They have been observing a risk that could possibly be the bridge between the Cardinals’ previous and their future.

Daryl Griffiths, the 1980 Nationwide Championship Crew Champion and the 81st NBA Rookie of the Yr, sat on an aluminum bleacher close to heart court docket. Pervis Ellison, star of the 1986 tag group title and No. 1 NBA Championship in 1989, stood behind one of many benches. Ross Smith, the scoring dynamo who led the 2013 champions*, continued from baseline.

The topic of their consideration flashed up and down the sphere at Nike’s EYBL occasion on the Kentucky Honest and Conference Middle, enjoying at a velocity nobody else may match. DJ Wagner was blasting former defenders into the basket, displaying junior group Ja Morant’s prowess. Befitting a third-generation star, Wagner’s basketball IQ complemented his talent and sportsmanship in a method that made him assume and take a step ahead within the competitors.

Kentucky and Louisville are chasing Wagner exhausting.

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Wagner, the most recent within the Camden, NJ, Royal Hoops collection, is the No. 1 participant within the 2023 class, in response to 247Sports and ESPN. That is regardless of being on the youthful aspect of his class; He turned 17 in early Might. The 6’2″ guard’s alternative may boil right down to Kentucky’s largest recruiting showdown towards Louisville because the ’80s—when Rex Chapman selected blue over pink in 1985, and his Camden teammate Billy Thompson selected pink over blue in 1982.

Wagner has household issues both method. His father, Daguan, the nation’s prime candidate in 2000, was the good recruit of John Calipari in Memphis. His grandfather Milt was one in every of Louisville’s former greats who performed on the title group in 1986 – and he was simply employed Final week as Cardinals’ new Director of Participant Growth and Alumni Relations. And one other thread connecting DJ to each applications: William Wesley. King-maker, fixer, mover and shaker of fame and thriller, “Worldwide Wiss” has long-standing relationships with the Wagner household, Calipari and new Louisville coach Kenny Payne.

There isn’t a scarcity of people that assume DJ Wagner is destined for Kentucky. However Louisville is in fierce pursuit, as the group watching Wagner on Saturday made clear. The bat sign got here out sturdy – each followers and, most significantly, ex-players. This grew to become an unofficial reunion.

Along with the fellows with their jerseys hanging from the rafters, there have been at the least 15 well-known basketball gamers in Louisville. They ranged from the Nineteen Sixties (Wade Houston, who grew to become a senior assistant to Denny Crumb after which head coach in Tennessee) to the ’80s (at the least 10 have been members of the ’80s or ’80s bands) to the 2000s (plus Smith, the beginning of 2013 was Chaney Behanan at residence). There have been additionally 4 present Cardinals in attendance.

Kentucky followers have been surprisingly uncommon. Sure, this was an actual Louisville residence recreation, however there are tens of hundreds of Kentucky followers residing within the metropolis. The Massive Blue Nation takes the recruitment course of very severely.

Maybe probably the most fascinating individual within the constructing was Daddy Wags himself, Milt Wagner. It is a draft off interval, which implies school coaches have been unable to attend the three-day event, however the latest member of the Louisville basketball group was there. Milt Wagner’s pre-existing relationship with this EYBL station star goes again to the crib.

Soften was dressed as neutrally as doable: a black shirt with white stripes, an Below Armor jacket, and denims. Maybe the one trace was to rent him afloat: He was sporting black Adidas sneakers, the model’s go-to for the Cardinals. His position on Saturday was ostensibly that of a proud grandfather.

The Wagner household en masse declined to remark—nothing from Milt, none from Dajuan, none from DJ. Maybe as a result of Milt’s all-new job creates an ambiguous NCAA compliance standing.

That is straight from the Federation Rulebook: “In males’s basketball, in the course of the two-year interval previous to the anticipated enrollment of a potential student-athlete and the two-year interval after the possible student-athlete’s precise enrollment, the Company shall not make use of (both on a wage or on a voluntary foundation) or enter right into a contract for employment. potential with a person related to the possible student-athlete in any of the non-trained personnel positions within the athletics division or in a power and conditioning place.”

Louisville officers mentioned there’s nonetheless nothing definitive about Milt Wagner’s standing and its potential influence on DJ employment. However the college could make two arguments for using Milt as one thing greater than a ploy to land his grandson.

First, Wagner has prior school basketball teaching expertise, it is simply outdated. He was an assistant at UTEP and Auburn beneath Tony Barbie (former assistant at Calipari) from 2006 to 2014. Previous to that he was the basketball operations coordinator for Cal in Memphis from ’00 to ’06. (Extra on that in a second.)

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Second, Wagner has a pre-existing relationship with Payne that predates the delivery of a DJ by 20 years. Payne enrolled in Louisville as a freshman in 1985, which was Milt’s ultimate season as a cardinal. Considered one of Payne’s first experiences on the U of L was a meal at Milt’s condo, and a lifelong friendship quickly established.

When you’re on the lookout for a current precedent with regard to hiring Soften, contemplate Oklahoma State Hiring Brother Cady Cunningham and Missouri Hiring Michael Porter Sr. Father of Michael Jr. and Jontay, Porter Sr. was an assistant for a yr in Washington and earlier than {that a} feminine assistant at Mizzou.

Neither Kanin Cunningham nor Michael Porter Sr. educated in these faculties after their family completed enjoying there. The rip-off was fairly simple, nevertheless it obtained the go-ahead by the NCAA. Maybe Milt’s hiring would not be an impediment to signing a DJ, both.

Milt Wagner has joined Louisville as the brand new Director of Participant Growth and Alumni Relations.

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The humorous half is that that is the second chapter of Rent Milt Recruiting Stratagem. To borrow a favourite line from former Louisville legend Crum: What goes on comes.

In 2000, when Crum was extensively anticipated to land Dajuan Wagner and revive faltering recruiting efforts, Calipari pounced as an alternative and obtained him. One massive cause for that: Cal employed Soften Wagner for the aforementioned place, then went the additional mile by hiring marginally proficient Daguan highschool classmate and finest pal, Arthur Barkley. Karam resisted stress to make Daguan a bundle deal.

“This was a Louisville boy from the beginning, they usually misplaced him.” It is a quote from Might 2000 at one other Al Ain College occasion in Louisville. The subject was Daguan Wagner, then the circle was torn. The speaker was Worldwide Wes, who had been an enormous affect on Dajuan from a younger age. Wes’ involvement with a gaggle of younger Camden gamers started within the Nineteen Eighties with Milt Wagner and Billy Thompson.

Wagner’s lack of getting was one of many ultimate blows in Crum’s Corridor of Fame profession—the 2000-01 group went 12-19, and Crum was ultimately pressured out. In the meantime, with Wagner as his solely feat recruit a yr later, Calipari went 27-9 and received a share of the Convention Championship.

Quick ahead a era, and Louisville is making an attempt to do to Calipari what Calipari did to the Cardinal. And the place Wes World lands on this battle could possibly be necessary.

I referred to as Wes on Thursday. He answered and instantly requested what he had all the time requested once we spoke previously, “Is that this unpublishable?” My reply: “No matter you need it to be.” His reply to my reply: “We’re unofficial.” And so we have been.

Wes is now a CEO with the New York Knicks, an American success story by the use of courageous basketball tradition. Even when he wished to formally speak about DJ Wagner or no matter was happening on the school degree, he is prohibited by NBA guidelines. So he wasn’t going there, and would not supply his ideas to submit about an outdated pal and short-time fellow at Nyx Pine who lastly obtained a job as a grasp teaching.

However it could be naive to assume that Wes did not supply his approval for Payne to get a Louisville job after he was overtaken in 2018 by Chris Mac, and it stands to cause that he advocated hiring Soften for a second time. Now comes the query: Does Wes have the juice behind the scenes to affect the selection of a DJ school the way in which Dajuan did? And in that case, will he defend his outdated associates in Louisville or will he as soon as once more go right down to the aspect of Calipari?

Here is what we frequently know: After years of some outdated champs feeling disconnected from the present, Louisville is buying and selling closely on nostalgia at this level. He is bringing the ’80s band collectively as soon as once more in a present of help for Payne and making an attempt to assist him get off the bottom quick. “You’ll be able to see that the environment has modified,” says Ellison, who’s this system director for the College of New Jersey group of Al Ain College Students the place DJ Wagner performs. “You’ll be able to perceive the thrill constructing – the fan base is worked up, the previous gamers are excited. It should be an thrilling interval beneath Coach Payne. His message is super. This younger man has been profitable on each degree, and I believe the League has made an excellent alternative.”

It is nonetheless how a lot of an influence final yr’s champions have had on the 2023 recruit – however they beloved what they noticed from DJ Wagner final week.

Griffith’s jaw dropped after one recreation for Wagner – stealing, fluid dribbling from behind the again to his proper, and crossover backwards to skip the defender and end together with his left hand. I requested Dr. Dunkenstein – Louisville’s all-time prime scorer – if he made this transfer on the age of 17. He shook his head no.

Ross Smith, who has scored greater than 1,900 factors as a cardinal, cares in regards to the DJ recreation. “It is superb the regression,” Smith says. “He has vary, however he has to get just a little extra constant. I believe he matches in properly with any vary of rangers you place him in. I really like his construction and measurement – that can take him to the following degree. He can see the ground and take into consideration the sport. But when he desires to, he can have you ever. 30 or 40″.