The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team’s top-ranked recruiting class has five stars rated five stars.
They’re all headed to the McDonald’s All-American Game in April.
Five of UK’s six 2013 recruiting commitments – signees Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Marcus Lee and James Young and verbal pledge Dakari Johnson – were selected Thursday to the 36th annual McDonald’s boys’ game. It’s the most players bound for the same college ever named to the game.
Indiana University signee Noah Vonleh was also among the 24 players picked for the boys’ game, which will follow the girls’ game on April 3 at the United Center in Chicago.
The top candidates for Kentucky’s Miss Basketball, Marion County’s Makayla Epps, who has signed with UK, and Owensboro Catholic’s Rebecca Greenwell (Duke), were selected to play in the 12th annual girls’ game. They’re just the second and third girls from the state to be named McDonald’s All-Americans.
Another UK women’s signee, guard Linnae Harper of the Chicago, also was selected to play in the game in her hometown and will be on Greenwell’s West team. Epps is on the East team.
The Harrison twins, Lee, Young and Johnson of the give UK 15 total McDonald’s All-Americans since John Calipari was hired as coach in the spring of 2009. All five are ranked among the top 13 prospects in the senior class by 247Sports.com analyst Jerry Meyer, and UK’s super-sized McDonald’s could end up even larger in the end.
Top targets Andrew Wiggins, the nation’s No. 1 player, and Aaron Gordon, a consensus top-10 recruit, were also named to the game. They each have UK in their final list of four colleges.
Having five McDonald’s All-Americans in one class “is pretty unbelievable, and they could have even more than five, depending on how the rest of their recruiting goes,” said Meyer, who is on the McDonald’s game selection committee. “… Having five guys in the top 13 is phenomenal, and it’s a great day for Kentucky. It’s no surprise. All five deserved to be in the game.”
Meyer said that UK’s class is the “best on paper” in the history of college basketball.
UK has had 39 McDonald’s All-Americans in all, according to a list on the game’s website that associates players with the schools where they finished their college careers. The total is 47 if you count players who started out at UK but ended up elsewhere.
The Harrisons, Lee, Young and Gordon are on the West team. Johnson, Vonleh and Wiggins are on the East.
Vonleh, a 6-foot-8 power forward from New Hampton, N.H., reclassified from the 2014 class this fall and immediately became a consensus top-10 player in 2013.
“Without a doubt he deserves” to be in the McDonald’s game, Meyer said. “He’s that type of player who is very versatile, can make plays outside and inside and is going to be a great college player at Indiana.”
The University of Louisville had no selections to either game. One of the Cardinals’ top men’s signees, five-star point guard Terry Rozier of Hargrave Military Academy, was not eligible for selection because he’s a fifth-year prep school player.
Meyer, who ranks Rozier as the nation’s No. 17 player, said that “he definitely would have been in this game if he was eligible for it.”
Bullitt East’s Derek Willis is UK’s only men’s signee who didn’t make the game.
Three Indiana players made the games: Mishawaka’s Demetrius Jackson (Notre Dame) for the boys and Indianapolis Hamilton Southeastern forward Taya Reimer (Notre Dame) and Brownsburg’s Stephanie Mavunga (North Carolina) for the girls.
Greenwell, one of three Duke signees in the girls’ game, and Epps are just the second and third Kentucky girls to be named McDonald’s All-Americans, joining Rockcastle County’s Sara Hammond, a 2011 U of L recruit.
“I’m really excited and really thankful, and it’s been a goal of mine for a long time,” Greenwell said. “I just feel really blessed to be a McDonald’s All-American. … I think we’ll do a good job of representing Kentucky well. It’s a huge honor for both of us.”
Greenwell, who set a national record this season by hitting 17 three-pointers in a game, has been bothered by a knee injury that will require minor arthroscopic surgery after the season. She plans to have the procedure after the McDonald’s game and the April 6 WBCA All-America game in New Orleans.
Epps has averaged 23 points in leading Marion County to a 30-0 regular season and a No. 1 Courier-Journal Litkenhous Rating and No. 6 USA Today national ranking.
“The talent in the McDonald’s game is amazing … and all of them are phenomenal players … and seeing me selected in there with them makes me know that I’ve worked hard and it pays off and people pay attention to it,” she said.
Five-star Texas power forward Julius Randle, a consensus top-five prospect who is a target of UK, has not played all season because of a foot injury and was not selected for the team, but he is being considered as a potential special addition at a later date.
UK’s five McDonald’s All-Americans, Vonleh, Wiggins and Gordon also all were named the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game to be played in April in Brooklyn. Because high school players can participate in only two all-star games, none will be available to play in the Kentucky Derby Festival Classic, which will be held April 19 in Louisville.
Jackson, Willis, U of L signees Anton Gill and Akoy Agau and IU signees Troy Williams, Luke Fischer, Stanford Robinson, Collin Hartman and Devin Davis would presumably be top candidates for that game. Randle, who will be in the Jordan game, could be as well, depending if he’s picked for McDonald’s participation.
Steve Jones can be reached at (502) 582-7176 and followed on Twitter at @SteveJones_CJ.