Wildcat's Three-Man Class Has It All
No, Kirk Walters isn’t a household name for recruiting fanatics. In fact, if it weren’t for the stellar week he enjoyed at the Big Time with the Michigan Mustangs, we probably wouldn’t be mentioning him in this article.
But, the fact is Walters played well enough in Las Vegas to draw interest from high-major programs. One program in particular became extremely comfortable with their evaluation of him and tendered an offer. On Tuesday, Arizona landed Walters and made him the third member of their current recruiting class, joining Ndudi Ebi and Mustafa Shakur.
Walters, a 6-10 and 200 pound center, will play his best basketball at Arizona. Right now, he’s a borderline Top 100 player in our mind who hasn’t made his way onto a Top 100 list yet, but he sure could. He’s one of those guys who aren’t quite strong enough isn’t the best athlete on the floor – though he’s not bad – and won’t have NBA guys looking at him out of high school.
What he is and what he will be could be two different things. No, he won’t be expected to have an Ebi-like impact as a freshman but don’t be surprised if he plays. Why? He has what coaches can’t bring themselves to ignore: skills. Walters makes plays, has offensive moves and he hasn’t peaked.
He’s just scratching the surface.
Sometimes recruiting skeptics like to point out all of the analysts misses – Tim Duncan, Steve Francis, and on and on. In fairness, it’s tough to anticipate how guys like Walters develop. But, we should pay more attention to guys like this because the game of college basketball has plenty of room for them now. College basketball is friendly to kids who know how to play and have room for personal growth.
So, Kirk Walters might not be the “sexy” recruit right now, but give him a few years of practicing against great players, hitting the weights and being coached and the results just may surprise you.