The timing of Immanuel Quickley's commitment to Kentucky on Friday night couldn't have been much better for the Wildcats had John Calipari set the date himself.
As Quickley was announcing his pledge to UK from his home state of Maryland, one of his closest friends in the class of 2018 _ five-star small forward Zion Williamson _ was preparing to begin the first day of his official visit in Lexington, Ky.
That means Calipari will have Williamson _ the No. 2 overall recruit in the country _ on campus for two days, and he'll be able to sell the South Carolina native on the idea of playing alongside Quickley in college, knowing the talented point guard is already part of his program.
It's a powerful pitch.
Quickley and Williamson _ friends and competitors on the Adidas circuit and regular roommates at international events this summer _ haven't been shy about their wish to play basketball together at the next level.
Quickley first mentioned the possibility to the Herald-Leader at USA Basketball training camp in Colorado Springs, and the two players talked more in depth about the "package deal" at an Adidas event in Williamson's hometown of Spartanburg a few weeks later.
"There's a lot of truth to that," Williamson said at the time. "Me and Immanuel are good friends. ... I just love the way he plays point guard. That's the type of point guard I want to play with."
Quickley has confirmed that the two players have continued to talk about teaming up, and those discussions should only intensify now that he has publicly committed to the Cats.
He told the Herald-Leader at that Adidas event in July that he planned to openly recruit on behalf of whatever school he picked, as soon as the commitment was announced. Quickley has also made it clear that Williamson _ a dynamic offensive talent already made famous by his highlight-reel plays _ would be his top priority.
"I complement him, and he complements me," Quickley said then. "I think it would help us if we went to the same school."
Williamson's official visit to Kentucky this weekend is the first of his recruitment, and he's already scheduled trips to Duke, Kansas and UCLA for later in the fall. North Carolina is expected to get his fifth and final official visit, and home-state schools Clemson and South Carolina remain in the mix, too.
The Herald-Leader asked five national analysts to handicap Williamson's recruitment earlier this week, and that panel came up with UK as the favorite to ultimately land his commitment.
This weekend will be a prime opportunity for Calipari to solidify frontrunner status for Williamson, and Quickley's timing should only help Kentucky's cause.
