4/20/2017 basketball Edit

Five-star PG Smart had good meeting with Calipari

Justin Rowland • CatsIllustrated

Publisher

Justin Rowland has been CatsIllustrated.com's publisher since 2015. He covered college football recruiting at programs nationwide for 15 years prior to that.

Earlier this week there were reports, since confirmed, that Kentucky's John Calipari had visited with five-star Scotlandville, La., point guard Javonte Smart.

Smart, the nation's No. 11 player from the 2018 class, told CatsIllustrated.com that the visit went well.

The 6-foot-4, 180-pound guard received a visit from Calipari this week, even while Kentucky's coach has also been on the road trying to piece together the remaining part(s) of his 2017 class. That's a sign of just how important Smart could ultimately be to the Cats in the next recruiting cycle.

How did the visit with Calipari go?

"Great," Smart said in a brief text exchange with CatsIllustrated.com. "We talked ... my mom, coaches and him and his assistant. It was great."

Rivals.com's team of basketball recruiting analysts recently gave their "way-too-early predictions" for where the top players of the 2018 class will land.

National analysts Eric Bossi and Corey Evans predicted that Kentucky will land the five-star Smart, while Krysten Peek picked Baylor and Dan McDonald projects LSU.

The group wrote, "Smart hasn't said a lot about his recruitment. However, expect new LSU coach Will Wade to make him a priority and there's been some talk of late that Smart prefers Kentucky early."

Smart didn't confirm that on Thursday, but at the very least it's a good sign for Kentucky that Calipari's visit was such a hit.

Calipari's message for Smart during the visit?

"Be a dog on the court and stay hungry," the player told CatsIllustrated.com.

Calipari is already heavily involved with the nation's 1, 2 and 3 players from the 2018 class, in Marvin Bagley, Zion Williamson and Romeo Langford. Other top 2018 prospects on Calipari and Kentucky's radar are Cameron Reddish (No. 5), Darius Garland (No. 8), Nazreon Reid (No. 14) and Immanuel Quickley (No. 15), and that's top from the top 15 alone.

With most projecting that Garland will end up elsewhere, it would seem that Smart and Quickley are Calipari's top point guard targets from the 2018 class at the present time.