Recruiting insider suggests DJ Wagner to Louisville is “Done”

Since he first picked up a basketball, it has been expected that DJ Wagner would follow in his father’s footsteps and play under John Calipari.

Of course, a wrench was thrown into that plan when Kenny Payne became the head coach for the Louisville Cardinals, having close connections to the Wagner family. Wagner’s recruitment became even more complicated when his grandfather, Milt Wagner, was hired as director of player development at the University of Louisville.

Since Milt’s hiring in late May, Louisville has seemingly captured all the momentum and have even become the favorite to land DJ amongst recruiting insiders.

One of those insiders, On3’s Jamie Shaw, claims that Wagner to Louisville is “done”.

“Recruiting can go in any number of directions, but intel from around the situation says the Wagner recruitment has been done for a few weeks. All the reasons above led to the decision; however, the family’s trust in head coach Kenny Payne is what got the job done.”

However, this has since been refuted in a tweet by The Athletic’s Kyle Tucker, who has been one of the most connected media members to the Kentucky basketball program.

Regardless of whether the recruitment is actually done or not, it does look like Louisville continues to pull away as the favorite. Yet, as Shaw admitted, “Recruiting can go in any number of directions,” and with Kentucky having two extremely close connections to DJ — Dajuan Wagner (father, played under Calipari at Memphis) and Kareem Watkins (stepbrother, current UK walk-on) — they will continue to fight until he announces his commitment.

The Kentucky Wildcats‘ most recent commitment, No. 1 point guard Robert Dillingham, has expressed interest in playing alongside Wagner. Hopefully, Calipari and Co can turn the tide and can make that happen, but time appears to be running out.