By ADAM ZAGORIA
Louisville assistant Danny Manning and Kentucky’s Orlando Antigua were among the coaches to watch D.J. Wagner, the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2023, and his Camden teammate Aaron Bradshaw on Sunday at Philly Live.
Louisville recently hired Milt Wagner, D.J.’s grandfather and national champion with the school in 1986, as Director of Recruiting and Alumni Relations. D.J. recently played a Nike EYBL event in Louisville with his NJ Scholars program, and a slew of former Louisville stars came to watch and meet him, including Darrell “Dr. Dunkenstein” Griffith of the 1980 national championship team.
Kentucky currently has two players from Camden High on its roster in Lance Ware and Kareem Watkins, Wagner’s brother. Calipari, of course, also coached Dajuan Wagner, D.J.’s father and the all-time leading scorer in New Jersey prep history, at Memphis.
The 7-foot-2 Bradshaw recently visited both Kentucky and Louisville and holds offers from both schools.
Wagner was initially expected to be at the USA Basketball U17 trials this weekend in Colorado Springs but a USA Basketball official said he wasn’t able to attend because he’s still in school. Still, USA Basketball will still consider him for the final 12-man team and will use previous evaluations to consider him.
“Obviously, when you watch him play, obviously he’s very skilled,” USA Basketball coach Don Showalter told NJ Advance Media of Wagner during a mini-camp at the Final Four in New Orleans. “But he really makes the players around him better and so I think that it’s really a complement to his skill level where he’s skilled but the players around him get better, too.”
Camden was coached this weekend by former Villanova guard Maalik Wayns after former coach Rick Brunson reportedly was set to join the Knicks staff.
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