Top players in Class of 2014 may come as a package deal

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By Brett Bibbins | Recruiting beat writer

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If national recruiting experts agree on one thing in the Class of 2014, it’s that this class is riddled with more potential package deals than any recruiting class in history.

UK head coach John Calipari has already received two commitments from the Class of 2014 in center Karl Towns Jr. and point guard Tyler Ulis.

Towns is the No. 6 overall player and the No. 2 center in the Class of 2014 and Ulis is the No. 38 overall player and the No. 8 point guard in the Class of 2014, according to ESPN.

Ulis has expressed interest in playing with two other highly ranked players in the Class of 2014: center Jahlil Okafor and shooting guard Devin Booker.

Booker, the No. 16 overall player and No. 2 shooting guard in the class, according to ESPN, listed UK, the University of Florida, the University of Missouri, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan as his final five schools, according to his Twitter account.

“I’m trying to get him to come with me,” Ulis said of Booker in an interview with Ben Roberts of NextCats.

Okafor is the No. 1 overall prospect in the class, according to ESPN, and is listed at 6-foot-10, 265 pounds.

“I talked to Jahlil when I was down there, trying to get him to commit,” Ulis said to Roberts.

The three player package deal would sound ideal for the Cats, were it not for another package deal that has been in the works for far longer.

Okafor has been in a package deal with point guard Tyus Jones, according to Okafor’s blog on USA Today last month. Jones is the third-ranked overall player and the No. 1 point guard in the class, according to ESPN.

Jones and Okafor scheduled visits to Baylor, Kansas and Duke together, but their visits to Lexington are separate, with Jones visiting on Sept. 28 and Okafor having already visited on Sept. 9, during the UK Alumni Game.

Another package deal may be in the works with two players at the small forward position.

The No. 12 overall prospect, small forward Stanley Johnson, and the No. 20 overall prospect, Kelly Oubre, according to ESPN, may be forming a package deal.

Johnson is the No. 2 ranked small forward in the class, and Oubre is the No. 5 ranked small forward in the class, according to ESPN.

Johnson has hinted of plans to attend college with Oubre at the same school.

“If @K_Ctmd22 (Kelly Oubre) commits to UK it just betters the situation just making it clear,” Johnson said on his Twitter account on Sept. 17.  The tweet has since been deleted, but he clarified later that the tweet meant that a potential Oubre commitment to UK would help the Cats’ chances of landing Johnson as well.

The package deals are forming and falling apart by the day, and no one knows for sure where each will choose to take their talents as the next college basketball season approaches.