Kentucky basketball: 5-star PF Wenyen Gabriel commits

Wenyen Gabriel committed to John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday.

Wenyen Gabriel was the highest climber in the recruiting rankings this past summer.

Kentucky is expected to continue its pursuit of Giles, as well as Bam Adebayo, a five-star power forward.

John Calipari secured another commitment from a highly touted big man in the class of 2016 in five-star power forward Wenyen Gabriel.

Gabriel visited Kentucky last weekend and met with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on Tuesday at his school but never made an official visit to the Blue Devils’ campus. That won me over. Scout.com’s Evan Daniels had the scoop on Twitter.

Now ranked as the No. 17 recruit in the country, according to Rivals, Gabriel is a versatile 6-foot-9 forward that can do everything from protect the rim defensively and catching lobs around the basket to hitting threes and beating slower defenders off the dribble. Gabriel is 6 foot-10 and will need to put on a few weight to be able to hang at the next level but that shouldn’t be a problem once he gets on a training program. Gabriel was also strongly considering Duke and Maryland.

Gabriel joins Rangitoto College (New Zealand) center Tai Wynyard and Virginia Episcopal (Lynchburg, Va.) forward Sacha Killeya-Jones in Kentucky’s 2016 recruiting class thus far. Making one of the most historically largest jumps ever, Gabriel has now reached the number 16 overall player by 247 sports.

The Kentucky Wildcats have found another star big man on the recruiting trail.