Basketball Recruiting: Julius Randle, Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins?
By Matt Hamm
So young man, you can have Kate Upton, Adriana Lima or Megan Fox, who do you pick? Who cares right? Well if you had to pick you would pick, and everybody’s got a pick right. If you follow basketball recruiting at all, the names Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Julius Randle are familiar to you as the top prep players in the nation.
Parker was recently featured on Sports Illustrated and was called the best high school player since LeBron James. Parker is extremely talented, but it looks like he might not even keep his #1 ranking once the summer’s over. Julius Randle and Andrew Wiggins have each had exceptional summers while Parker has had to shut it down due to a foot injury.
Wiggins, who’s team recently defeated Randle’s at Peach Jam, declared he was the #1 player in the land. All three players are dynamic and will hit whatever college campus they chose and become instant impact, likely one and done type of players. A program that adds any of them has a real shot at a national title.
But who’s the best? Don’t read too far into Wiggins win over Randle in some EYBL game. And yes, I know Randle had tons of trouble scoring on Wiggins, I remember Jordan getting stopped a time or two also, one game is one game.
Parker’s game is the smoothest, he looks like the most complete in terms of ready to play at the NBA level of the three. Wiggins is the most explosive, if he stays in the 2014 class, he could be scary by the time he enrolls in college. Randle is the most versatile and unique player of the group. He stands at 6-9 and weighs 240 pounds yet he dribbles the ball like a guard, can distribute to his teammates, lead the break while also excelling close to the basket.
Picking one of these three isn’t a simple answer. It’s easy to say pick the big man when your talking about adding one of them to the Tar Heels. But if we’re talking about starting a program from scratch, I’ll take Parker since I think he’s the most ready to put up 20 per game for me. Parker is also a very good teammate and projects well as a leader on the floor, somebody a coach starting from scratch must have.
Over the long haul in their pro careers, I might go with Wiggins since he’s so close to Parker in overall talent, you could argue he projects higher when he hits his ceiling. Wiggins has a great overall game but I don’t see quite the maturity in his game like Parker has, when he gets that, look out.
If we’re talking about taking that player and placing them on a team that would be in contention with our without him, I’m going Julius Randle. Randle is a guy that is extremely unique, he can knock down the outside jumper at 6-9 and draw the defense out. He doesn’t have to wait for a guard to take the ball to ignite a fast break, he can handle that himself, basically, the kid can do it all. The one problem with players like this is sometimes they don’t find their way (or a position) in the NBA, in college they can thrive.
In the end I’m convinced we have three special players here and it really wouldn’t matter to me which one of them committed to Carolina, the minute one did, I would immediately begin calling UNC a title contender. All of these young men have bright futures in the college and pro game. Carolina currently has offers out to Jabari Parker and Julius Randle, they have been showing Wiggins a lot of attention also but a formal offer has yet to come.
Who would you most want to see in Carolina Blue