Cats offer Lecque: The latest on recruiting and his development
The college basketball season has been over for weeks but John Calipari still has everyone talking about UK in the offseason. That's par for the course.
There's been a steady stream of recruiting news coming out of early EYBL and AAU action, with coaches watching players and the Wildcats extending rare early offers to 2020 prospects.
The news continued late Monday when Calipari extended another offer, this one to five-star 2019 point guard Jalen Lecque.
It's become a running joke in recent days that Kentucky might end up with "all the guards," in part because of who the Wildcats have signed or committed and who's thinking about reclassifying.
The offer to Lecque continues Calipari's laser beam focus on rising backcourt options.
Lecque, the No. 9 prospect in the current class of high school juniors, has roughly two dozen offers in addition to Kentucky's, his most recent.
Let's get up to speed on Lecque's recruitment and what's been said about his development recently.
The latest on Lecque: No one will be conceding Lecque to the Wildcats, and certainly not archrival Louisville under new head coach Chris Mack. In recent days, Rivals' Eric Bossi reported that Lecque is one of the players the new UofL staff is trying to make a hard play for.
Less than two weeks ago Cats Illustrated's David Sisk spoke with Lecque's father, and while he didn't tip Jalen's hand in great detail, he did confirm that Kentucky was recruiting him as hard as any other school he's been hearing from. Lecque's father also mentioned Tennessee, Oregon and NC State as other schools that have been in frequent communication.
Reclassification is a buzz word with seemingly every other top prospect these days, and Lecque's father didn't close the door on that possibility.
"That is certainly not out of the question," his father said on the topic. "The plan is for him to play the first two to four EYBL sessions, and we will see how he does. It is solely based on him."
Lecque the prospect: Rivals' Corey Evans recently said that Lecque will be in the conversation for the nation's top 2019 point guard, which is obvious given his lofty ranking, but that spot is currently occupied by New York five-star Cole Anthony and it might be tough to unseat him.
However, Bossi believes that top point guard spot is within Lecque's reach if he develops in key areas.
"The more I look at the class of 2019, the more I believe that Jalen Lecque could ultimately make a run for top point guard in the class honors," Bossi said when discussing Rivals' new hoops rankings. "In a perfect world, Lecque would be a bit better shooter but the fact is that the jump shot is the same area of work that Ashton Hagans and Cole Anthony need work on. What I love about Lecque is the pressure he puts on defenders because of his extreme athleticism and driving ability. I’m not saying he is Russell Westbrook, let’s be clear about that, but he does a lot of Westbrook-type things on the high school level and that’s why we moved him up to No. 9 overall.
Last month Lecque told NYCHoops' Maurice Wingate that his goals going into the AAU sessions currently underway was to improve his consistency, defensive intensity and the range on his jump shot.
In the same story, Lecque's AAU coach, Andy Borman, praised his intangibles and feel for the game as a facilitator.