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Karl Towns Jr. made his college decision today and picked the University of Kentucky. He also made the decision to re-classify into the 2014 class and moved to #3 immediately in that class according to ESPN. Today I spoke with the newest Wildcat about his decision.
Towns made his decision based on a variety of factors but the leading factor was academics, “academics is big with me, I felt like UK, with their kinesiology program, really was in line with what I want in a university.” Academics was the main focus of his decision as he told me, but when speaking about the basketball program he said, “the program speaks for itself, they are the defending national champions and Coach Cal and Coach O are great coaches.”
Towns refuted that playing for Coach Calipari this past summer had any real impact on his decision, “it honestly didn’t have much of an impact,” adding “it really only showed me that he is a really good coach and cares a lot about his players.” He also spoke about what he liked about playing for Calipari this past summer and Calipari’s knack for pushing players is one reason that he chose UK, “Coach Cal really pushes his players and challenges them everyday, I like to be challenged and wanted to play for someone who would push me to get better and Cal does that.”
It is always a big decision for a young player to pick his college destination, but committing early also shows that a player is ready to get the mayhem of recruiting finished. Towns said, “I was just ready for it to be over, that way I can finish out high school and enjoy it instead of worrying about where I am going to school.” Parents always play some role in the decision-making process and Towns said about his parents favorite schools, “my dad was up in the air, he said he would be happy wherever I went, but my mom’s favorite was UK from the beginning.” Towns added “she didn’t try to push me there and told me she would be happy wherever I went, but I knew where she wanted me to go.” Even though he listened to his parents during the process, they didn’t find out until everyone else did about where he was going, “I told them they would find out when I announced, even when I was going on stage I wouldn’t tell them,” he said laughing. That is probably the reason you saw the excitement on his mom’s face when he said UK during the announcement.
Towns decision to re-classify into the 2014 class wasn’t really a move that he made a list of positives and negatives about, he simply said, “I honestly just felt like it was the right decision for me and it felt right.” He added, “when I thought about it I felt like that class would give me the best opportunity to go to UK and win a national championship.”
Known as a shooter, Towns said his biggest strengths are his jump shot and the fact that “I take a lot of pride in my defense, especially after playing this past summer on the Dominican team.” The Dominican team also gave Towns the opportunity to improve his low post game, “I have a lot of low post moves I didn’t have before last summer; working with Coach (Del) Harris really helped my low post game a lot.”
Towns is the newest Wildcat and one that the entire Big Blue Nation is very excited about, and based upon his mood after speaking with him, he is as excited as anyone.
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