Is Malik Newman Slipping From Kentucky?

If you are talking elite talents in the Class of 2015, only two come to mind for me, Ben Simmons (headed to LSU) and Malik Newman. Newman is an explosive athlete, a phenomenal scorer and the type of player that is tailor-made to go to Kentucky and play for Calipari. That is why for so long, he was considered a lock for the Cats. At one point, the 247 Sports "Crystal Ball" (maybe the best way to predict recruits' future homes) had UK as a 100% selection and the assumption was he would be in Blue. But this assumption is slowly changing...over the last month, most experts have been putting Newman with different schools and UK seems to be losing ground. In the latest Crystal Ball, 247 Sports' head recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer has moved Newman to a Mississippi State selection, Jeff Borzello of CBS has put him with UCONN and others have moved him to Kansas. The consistent theme? Everyone is switching from Kentucky. So is there anything to this move or is it just the natural progression of a recruiting wave? This is becoming a slightly difficult recruiting year for John Calipari (for reasons we will talk about more tomorrow) and schools are ganging up against the Cats. And the addition of returning players is making Calipari's job harder this year. But it can't be ignored that the buzz around Newman is not going UK's way. While experts cannot agree as to which school he will attend, they are in agreement that the school will not be Kentucky. The buzz around recruiting circles is that even if he is not a "package deal" with Diamond Stone (that is not assured), UK has lost ground and is not the obvious choice....an opinion seemingly validated by the Cats making offers to three new players. We will learn more at Peach Jam this week, but it once seemed as if Malik Newman was assured to be the next superstar to come play for Calipari and the Cats. That assumption no longer looks nearly as solid.