Calipari trying to add Frank Anselem for 2020. ‘He thinks his ceiling is incredibly high.’
The past couple of weeks have been packed with phone calls and video conferences as promising basketball recruit Frank Anselem learns more about the college coaches pursuing his commitment.
Dozens of schools reached out to Anselem — a 6-foot-9 center with a 7-5 wingspan — when he announced last month that he was reclassifying to 2020 and had an open recruitment. Late last week, he cut his list to six: Kentucky, Arkansas, San Diego State, Seton Hall, Syracuse and Western Kentucky.
Anselem’s grassroots basketball coach, Julius Smith, has been helping him navigate the recruiting process and said they’ve been in contact with coaches from all six of those schools every day since the list was cut. In some cases, they’re talking to representatives of a college multiple times a day.
And in Kentucky’s case, John Calipari has played a large role in the recruitment. Smith said Anselem has spoken to UK’s Hall of Fame coach — both through phone calls and Zoom meetings — three or four times since their first conversation early last week.
Calipari added a transfer from Wake Forest center Olivier Sarr on Wednesday, but UK will still be searching for frontcourt help to join Sarr and power forward recruits Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware in Lexington next season, and Anselem has clearly emerged as a serious target for the Wildcats.
“He thinks his ceiling is incredibly high,” Smith told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday. “He thinks he would be one of the most athletic guys that he’s ever coached. And his 7-foot-5 wingspan, Cal is just in love with. And he’s only been playing five years. He thinks he has to just buy in to wanting to work hard and develop and get better. He thinks the sky’s the limit. He has to continue to become a better player offensively, but Cal keeps telling us that no one is better in the country than him at developing bigs.
“So that’s kind of been his selling point: if he wants to develop, then that’s the place to go.”
Calipari has stopped short of directly comparing Anselem to any of his former post players now in the NBA. Smith said the UK coach told Anselem that he has the ability to switch defensively and guard multiple positions, like Willie Cauley-Stein, and that his game is still “raw,” like Nick Richards’ was when he first arrived in Lexington. Anselem came to the United States from Nigeria in 2016 and is in only his fifth year of playing basketball, a similar amount of experience as Richards at his age.
With Richards gone — along with the departures of EJ Montgomery and Nate Sestina — Calipari needed more bodies in the frontcourt. UK has already landed Sarr, who will presumably be the Cats’ starting center next season if he is granted immediate eligibility from the NCAA. Jackson and Ware are both talented prospects, but neither was recruited to play the “5” spot.
Anselem could play some minutes behind Sarr as a freshman and has a high amount of upside for the future.
“If he buys in and commits to getting better and playing hard 110 percent of the time, then he thinks he’ll be a pro, whether that’s in one year, two years, four years,” Smith said. “If he buys in and plays hard all the time, he thinks he has a chance to be a pro, because he says he can run and jump, and those are two things that you can’t teach.
“He says he could come in and make an impact defensively right away, and how much time he plays depends on how hard he works and how rapidly he can develop on the offensive end.”
Sarr and Anselem?
Smith told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that he was fully expecting Kentucky to land another center for next season, so Sarr’s commitment to the Wildcats on Wednesday came as no surprise.
He said UK’s coaches have been up front about Sarr and how he might affect the Cats’ pursuit of Anselem.
“They addressed that before we even had a chance to ask about it,” Smith said. “Of course, they would love to have him. (Calipari) said if they could get another big, they would love to have another big. And if it’s another big, it’s a big like Olivier or somebody that’s going to come in and play one year and be out.”
Smith has said previously that Anselem — ranked outside the Top 100 by both Rivals.com and 247Sports — is more of a long-term prospect and doesn’t have one-and-done expectations. Playing behind someone like Sarr in year one on a college campus would allow Anselem to come along at his own speed, gain valuable experience against other talented bigs in practice, and have an impact on the court without oversized expectations to be a primary contributor right away.
The 2021 class appears to be relatively light on instant-impact centers. That could put Anselem in a position to make a major impact as a sophomore after Sarr moves on from Kentucky.
Originally, Smith had hoped for Anselem to have his recruitment wrapped up early this month, but there’s no exact timetable for a college decision. With no in-person recruiting allowed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Anselem will be committing to a school without visiting campus or meeting with coaches in person. He wants to take his time and make the right decision, and those recruiting him are encouraging him to do just that.
“Kentucky has told us to take our time, and another school that we’re favoring is also giving us the same message,” Smith said. “They think a lot of kids are going to transfer, because of the coronavirus — they’re not getting to know the schools and build relationships and visit. They want to make sure that this is really where he wants to be.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 7:28 AM.
