The Kentucky Wildcats just received a commitment from De'Aaron Fox a five-star recruit in the class of 2016 and they look to be building yet another impressive class. The Wildcats still look like the leaders for fellow five-star Malik Monk and they also have their eyes on Thon Maker. Maker is not as far along in his recruiting process as many others in his class but on Thursday night he cut his list down to six schools and Kentucky made the cut, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN.
Maker is still not all that close to a decision as he has yet to take any official visits but cutting the list down does indicate some progress. The early signing period is currently going on so Maker will most definitely sign late with whatever school he ultimately chooses. Besides Kentucky St. Johns, Notre Dame, Arizona State, Kansas and Indiana also made Maker's list of six.
Maker is a seven-foot tall power forward who is extremely skilled in that he can play both inside and outside. Maker is from Canada so a lot of websites don't have him ranked among the top 100 recruits but 247 Sports has him ranked as the eighth best player in the class and the second best power forward.
Because Maker is so early in his recruiting process and hasn't taken official visits yet it is hard to get a read on which school he is leaning towards. 247 has Arizona State as the heavy favorites but there are other publications that are thinking differently. Some have assumed Kentucky is the favorite to land the Canadian forward all along, including Ryan Greco of Fansided, and a quote from Maker's guardian only enhanced that thought process.
"When Thon goes through the process of selecting a school, it will be based off of a number of things. What is the strength of the roster that will allow him to play his natural position? He wants to play a stretch four and doesn't want to be buried in the post," said Ed Smith, Maker's guardian.
The style of play Maker wants seems to fit right in with what Kentucky typically does so it seems like they have as good of a shot as anybody and it doesn't hurt that John Calipari is the best recruiter in the nation. Overall though this recruitment seems pretty wide open and we will have a better idea of where Maker is leaning once he starts to take some official visits in the near future. He has until the middle of April to sign so expect this process to speed up pretty soon.
