Get To Know Mychal Mulder

DrewFranklinKSR

If (or when) Malik Newman commits to Mississippi State tomorrow afternoon, all eyes will turn to Mychal Mulder to be that scoring threat in the backcourt with Tyler Ulis and Isaiah Briscoe. (And hopefully Jamal Murray.) Mulder will visit UK this weekend and there are reports that he is expected to sign while in town. He received an offer from John Calipari last weekend and his interest in becoming a Wildcat is very high. All he needs is a quick tour of campus to try out the Lodge's mattresses, the rims in the Craft Center and the water pressure in the showers and he should be good to go. So as we await Mulder's John Hancock on his scholarship papers, let's get to know what Kentucky will be getting if (or when) he signs this weekend. ***** He is Canadian. Mulder hails from just across the water from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario, a city near and dear to our hearts. (The UK basketball trip of 2010, never forget.) He was considered one of the top ten players in Canada coming out of high school when he chose to attend Vincennes University in Indiana, citing its track record of sending players on to four-year universities as the reason behind his decision. The year before Mulder signed with Vincennes, the Trailblazers sent nine sophomores to Division I and II programs to finish their careers. One of those players was Darius Carter, a key component to Wichita State's success the past two seasons. Man, that Vincennes coach must be really good at his job. I bet he's a good guy, too. Probably from a really great family with good genes. I heard he lost to his cousin in HORSE on Thanksgiving a couple times, though. Moving on... He knows what it's like to win. While Kentucky was chasing perfection last season, Mulder was on an undefeated streak of his own with Vincennes. He and his Trailblazing teammates were unbeaten through 32 games before losing to John A. Logan in double overtime in the District 16 championship game. A perfect regular season? That sounds familiar. He can shoot. I mean he can REALLY shoot. Maybe better than Devin Booker. Mulder shot over 46 percent from downtown in his sophomore campaign at Vincennes, and that's with 190 three-point attempts on the season. No one in Division I college basketball shot 46 percent with 175 or more attempts last year. It's not crazy to say he can be next season's Devin Booker (or better), although he is an inch or two shorter than Booker with a slightly smaller frame. He does have a longer wingspan, however. He can dunk. Mulder is being labeled as an outside shooter, but don't think for one second he won't rise up on someone and throw it down. Let this video called "Mychal Mulder dunks" from his senior year of high school serve as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzuc1ORPHk Or you can ask the poor defender caught on the wrong end of this drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32EsusySMZc Then there's that one time when... He dunked on James Young. https://youtu.be/R5AWMC4SrCE See what I mean? Mistake him for a limited outside shooter and you will get crammed on. He finished the year strong. Here, have a look at how he closed out the season... Pts. (FGM-A / 3PM-A) 21 (7-10 / 6-7) 17 (6-10 / 2-4) 8 (1-5 / 0-3) 24 (9-14 / 4-7) 38 (13-20 / 6-11) 20 (9-13 /2-4) 12 (5-12 / 0-3) Then again, those numbers aren't too different than several other games throughout the year. He was the top priority for Wichita State and Creighton from Day 1. Both of those programs recruited him all season long and he would've started at either school right away. (I suppose he still can, should he choose one over Kentucky.) Several top tier programs jumped on him later in the year before Coach Cal and UK reached out about a month ago, essentially changing the entire game. Rick Pitino made a trip to see him hit six of seven three-pointers in mid-February, while Michigan State, Mississippi State, Missouri, and Indiana also got involved. Indiana eventually extended an offer as well. (Way to go, Tommy Crean. He was under right your nose the entire time.) He wanted to commit to Wichita State in the fall. Mulder was ready to sign with the Shockers in the early signing period, but his coach has a policy prohibiting VU players from committing to schools in the fall. Catholic Central High School in Windsor even posted a congratulatory message to Mulder on its website, thinking he had signed with Wichita State. But that was not the case. Mulder had to wait until the spring to make any final decisions, leaving his recruitment open until now. Insert Kentucky. He was named First Team JUCO All-American. And averaged over 15 points, coming off the bench in 18 of Vincennes' 35 games. He will play in the NJCAA All-Star game on May 9th in Las Vegas. Did I mention he can dunk? [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="409"]