Arizona target Kerwin Walton announcing commitment Saturday

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Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Creighton, North Carolina and Georgetown are his other finalists

This is your reminder that Arizona Wildcats recruiting target Kerwin Walton will be announcing his college decision sometime Saturday.

The likely destination? Who knows.

Zero Crystal Ball predictions have been submitted for the 6-foot-5 swingman, who’s also considering Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Creighton, North Carolina and Georgetown.

The Hopkins, Minnesota native is the No. 99 player in the country, and this is what his 247Sports profile says about him:

Good size and length for position. Projectable frame with room to gain strength. High level shooter who can hit shots off the catch and pull. Not a specialist but three-point shooting is best attribute. Respectable handle but more of a straight-line driver. Has midrange/floater game. Sees floor well and is a good passer for position. Moves feet well laterally and is plus on ball defender. Improvement throughout high school gives optimism for future. Projects as starter at high major program.

Minnesota beat writer Marcus Fuller of the Star-Tribune had a good breakdown of Walton’s mysterious recruitment:

The 6-foot-5 sharpshooter would be ideal to fill the role of starting guard Payton Willis, who transferred away from the U earlier this month. Still, word is the Gophers are not the favorite at this point. North Carolina coach Roy Williams made Walton a priority and opened up a scholarship for him recently. Arizona turned Walton’s former high school teammate Zeke Nnaji into a potential first round pick in the NBA Draft in one year. Creighton has the chance to be a top-10 team in the country next season, which is appealing. Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse has continued to give Walton a lot of love, and his program has maybe the biggest need for him to be a prominent piece as a freshman. Can the home state program beat out those schools? We shall see fairly soon.

For Arizona, Walton would bring much-needed 3-point shooting to the table. He shot close to 50 percent from 3 as a junior at Hopkins High School and would immediately be one of Arizona’s best marksmen, if not the best marksman, on the roster.

Arizona is also thin at small forward, another reason Walton could crack the rotation and maybe even start from the get-go. If the Wildcats are fortunate enough to land him, that’s probably why.

“[I’m looking with my parents and coaches at] my initial role on the team as a freshman,” Walton recently told Inside Carolina. “Who am I going to be playing with? Is it going to be a situation or environment where I can develop as a player because hopefully, I’m looking to make a big impact right away when I show up on campus, that’s pretty much the goal. I’m pretty confident I can do that. I’ve put in a lot of work along the way. I’ve had some successes and failures, and that’s just bred confidence.”

The Wildcats currently have two scholarships left after the recent addition of French forward Daniel Batcho. Their other known 2020 target is four-star Turkish forward Tibet Gorener, another guy known for his shooting stroke.

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