De’Aaron Fox is the latest in a long line of elite point guards for John Calipari

Starting with the 2007-08 season, here are the starting point guards for John Calipari: Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall, Brandon Knight, Marquis Teague, Archie Goodwin, Andrew Harrison, Andrew Harrison (again), Tyler Ulis.

That’s a, um, pretty good group. Calipari recruits talented players across the board, but there’s no position where Calipari’s seal of approval is as strong an indicator as the point. And De’Aaron Fox, a 6’4”, 170-pound freshman out of Katy (TX) Cypress Lakes High School, is the next in line. Rivals, ESPN, and 247 Sports all rank Fox as the #6 prospect in the country. (UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball is the only PG rated ahead of him.) And, of course, he’s a McDonald’s All-American.

You can see on the highlight tape what Calipari (and recruiting services) like about Fox. He’s got elite length for a point guard, he’s extremely athletic, and has good vision and handles. (One thing I don’t see on that tape? A jump shot. Highlight tapes usually emphasize the positives, so if they’re not showing footage of him taking jump shots, you can probably guess it’s not so good.)

Kentucky landed the #2 recruiting class in the country per 247 Sports, and Fox is the highest-rated player in it. That’s really about all you need to know.

How does he fit onto Kentucky’s roster? It’s Kentucky, so there isn’t a ton of experience on the roster. Isaiah Briscoe, one of last year’s top-rated point guards, is back for his sophomore season after struggling as a freshman. So we can’t just assume that Fox will be the starter, but we’re going to go ahead and guess that Fox will start at the point for Kentucky and will be one of the top freshmen (and players) in the SEC.