Zion Williamson might have more buzz than any high school basketball player since LeBron James. The 17-year-old from South Carolina became a social media sensation last year off the strength of his amazing dunking ability. Now he’s preparing to make his college decision as a consensus top-three recruit in the class of 2018.
Zion Williamson might be a package deal with 5-star guard Immanuel Quickley
The high school sensation has his eyes on playing with an elite point guard when he gets to college.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Williamson said this weekend that he hopes to commit before the start of his senior season at Spartanburg Day School in November. He also told reporters he’s interested in playing with five-star point guard Immanuel Quickley.
“That’s the real deal. I want to play with Immanuel Quickley when I go to college,” he said. “If he goes to Kentucky, then I’m going to look into Kentucky really hard.”
Quickley, a 6’4 point guard from Maryland, has cut his list down to four schools: Kentucky, Kansas, Miami and Maryland. He’s rated as the No. 10 player in the class of 2018 by Rivals.
Williamson posted a picture with Quickley on Snapchat this weekend with the caption “Future teammates?”
Quickley also acknowledged the rumors on Twitter:
It’s been widely speculated that Quickley is headed for Kentucky — the Wildcats have 100 percent of the predictions on 247 Sports’ crystal ball. Does this mean Williamson could be headed to Lexington?
It’s possible. The schools most frequently mentioned for Williamson are Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, South Carolina and Clemson. Kentucky is the front-runner in 247 Sports’ crystal ball and also earned three of the four votes from Rivals analysts during a prediction poll in April.
Williamson missed most of the spring evaluation period with a knee injury, but he’s healthy now and has been creating a stir this weekend at the Adidas Gauntlet Finals in his hometown of Spartanburg.
Of course, Williamson is mostly known for his thunderous dunks. You’re going to be seeing a lot of this in the winter when the high school season gets underway.
With the news that consensus No. 1 player Marvin Bagley III could try to reclassify to play college basketball next season, it’s possible Williamson becomes the top player in the class of 2018 by the time he’s making his college decision. Even if Bagley is considered a superior prospect by scouts, there’s no doubt Williamson has much more national notoriety.
Kentucky does not have a commitment in the 2018 class yet.
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