It's hard to say that the nation's No. 1 recruit is exceeding expectations. But I think early on, especially given his delayed enrollment at UK, fans and media alike tempered their expectations for Nerlens Noel a bit. Most figured he'd be a bit of a project, a slow and steady work in progress. For one, Anthony Davis is a rare player and, as John Calipari has said repeatedly, it's simply not fair to compare Noel to him. But also because it seemed Noel's offensive game was significantly more limited than Davis' and he just generally wasn't quite as skilled.
But Noel is coming on strong – and fast. He was all over the place in tonight's 52-point rout of Lafayette (during which Kyle Wiltjer also hit 7 of 11 3-pointers and Alex Poythress poured in 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting, and about which here is a complete game story). Noel filled up the box score in a distinctly Davis way: 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block. That's the one thing about him that's fair to compare. He does a little bit of everything, the way Davis did, and has other ways to contribute when he's not scoring.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.