As expected, Tyler Ulis verbally committed to Kentucky Friday night, seemingly solving coach John Calipari’s point guard issues for at least a year or two.
The 5-foot-9 Ulis fast became the object of Kentucky’s desires after losing out on Emmanuel Mudiay (SMU) and potentially Tyus Jones.
Back in early July, Ulis was working with a list of Michigan State, Iowa, Florida State, USC, Purdue, DePaul and Northwestern.
After Kentucky expressed interest following the Mudiay commitment, Ulis cut his list to Kentucky, Michigan State, Iowa and USC.
“We talked about Kentucky being a place where the expectations are high,” James Ulis told the Herald-Leader before the commitment. “You’re expected to win and you’ve got a fan base like no other.”
Ulis joins St. Joe’s-Metuchen 7-footer Karl Towns Jr. in Kentucky’s 2014 recruiting class.
“Say hello to my floor general,” Towns Tweeted, adding the hashtag “#hungryforchampionship.”
With his height, Ulis is not your typical Calipari-sized point guard the way Tyreke Evans, John Wall, Brandon Knight and Marquis Teague have been.
Yet his high school coach told the Herald-Leader that Ulis has a chip on his shoulder due to his stature.
“He started for me since he was a freshman,” Marian Catholic (Ill.) Coach Mike Taylor told the paper. He was 5-4 then. He’s guarded people anywhere from 5-8 to 6-7. So he’s played against every kind. He’s played against long, he’s played against strong, he’s played against quick. So when he went up against those guys in the summer — as good as they are, it’s really nothing that he hasn’t seen in the last three years. And when I talk to coaches about him playing against the top guards – they had more trouble guarding him than he had guarding them. Because of how low and how quick and how clever he is with the ball.”
Taylor added that Ulis can defend bigger guards despite his size.
“He gets up under them,” he said. “He can watch a guy — watch a film clip of him — for 10 minutes, and he’ll know that kid’s moves and he’ll beat them to spots all the time. It’s amazing to watch him. He is so quick. Those bigger kids — he gets under them — and they can’t do anything with him. Because he’s so low and so quick laterally. That’s where those tall guards have a problem. And I’ve said this to coaches for the last two years: I haven’t seen too many college teams post up guards anyways. I don’t see it in the NBA. With the shot clock and with defenses being as sophisticated as they are, there’s not many teams running an offense predicated on posting up their point guard. And if the point guard gives the ball up, that kid’s not getting it back. You talk about a chip on his shoulder, that’s kind of what he does. You have to watch how smart he is and how he positions himself and how he leverages. He’s a step ahead of them, both with his feet and his mind.”
Unlike Calipari’s previous point guards, Ulis may not necessarily be a one-and-done type of guy, meaning Kentucky may have its point guard of the future for at least the next two seasons after Andrew Harrison presumably heads to the NBA Draft in 2014.
“He could be a coach, but maybe he’d be more like Jordan,” Taylor told the Herald-Leader. “Because he’s really hard on people. He really expects people to compete as hard as he does all the time. He expects a lot from his teammates. Just a couple of weeks ago, he tweeted that he was not going to lose an open gym game all fall. He hasn’t lost yet. And I have stacked teams against him. And he just won’t lose. He’s that competitive.”
