Wall, Cats ready for first big test of season

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His favorite team was North Carolina. His favorite player was Vince Carter. His hometown was fewer than 50 miles from campus. But Raleigh, N.C., native John Wall wasn’t recruited hard by UNC head coach Roy Williams.

Coming out of high school, Wall was the top-ranked point guard in the country. Normally, head coaches at local universities are salivating for the opportunity to land that type of player from their own backyard. On Saturday, Wall will have the opportunity to take on the coach and the school that overlooked him.

John Wall, who received the MVP award for the Cats' game on Monday night at Freedom Hall in Louisville, wasn't recruited by North Carolina even though he grew up in Raleigh, N.C. Photo by Britney McIntosh | Staff

“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” Wall said. “I think it’s going to be a great game. It’s going to be our first time being really challenged this year by a great team that’s coached by a great coach who’s Roy Williams.”

After facing seven mid-major-type schools, the Cats will face off against the No. 10 Tar Heels in one of the more highly anticipated games in all of college basketball so far this season. The Cats have lost their last five meetings with UNC. The Heels are coming off a seven-point victory over Michigan State where they trailed the No. 9 Spartans for only 33 seconds the entire game.

“They have key big men who score in the post for them and they look to get them the ball as much as they can,” Wall said. “… If you don’t stop their big men it’s going to be tough. And coach Roy Williams is doing a great job of coaching them and preparing them for the upcoming season.”

Wall said he still doesn’t know why Williams and UNC didn’t recruit him as hard as other schools did, but that it’s behind him and he’s happy with his choice to come to UK.

“That’s behind me and they didn’t decide to offer me and didn’t decide to let me come there,” Wall said. “That’s their decision, I chose the University of Kentucky to play for Coach Cal so I’m happy with my decision.”

While Wall says that, fellow freshman DeMarcus Cousins isn’t so sure. Cousins said he believes there’s still bad blood from Wall — who currently ranks third nationally in assists and first in the Southeastern Conference with 7.8 per game — and his hometown school, and it’ll come out Saturday at Rupp Arena.

“Y’all should see another side of John (on Saturday),” Cousins said. “He’s playing his hometown and I believe there’s a bad blood between the two. So, John should come out pretty intense himself.”

With such a big game and it being UK’s first game broadcast on network television, some worry the Cats will come out overhyped. UK head coach John Calipari said he may talk to Wall separately to try and keep his emotions in check.

Throughout the season, Calipari has said he believes his team is overrated and isn’t where he thinks it can be. Calipari said Saturday’s game will be a good barometer to see exactly where they stand and they may get punched in the mouth.

“I want them to understand the level of play as you move up and how hard you have to play,” Calipari said.

“This is going to be a hard game for us to win. This is going to be a vicious – you’re going to see one team playing just absolutely life and death and the other team trying to do their stuff … There’s no lying, the ball’s thrown and there it is and we go.”