Kentucky Wildcat Basketball Recruiting: Xavier Rathan-Mayes has a top 10, will visit UK on Friday

So now the 2013 Kentucky Wildcats Recruiting Class gets all kinds of interesting. Xavier Rathan-Mayes has released a “Top 10″ list which includes Kentucky and Rathan – Mayes will take an unofficial visit to Lexington on Friday. Now the news of a top recruit visiting Lexington is not unusual and could not really be described as overly interesting since John Calipari arrived in Lexington.

But this visit is interesting because of what it can mean to the rest of the 2013 class.

Rathan – Mayes is a sharpshooter SG and is ranked anywhere from 21st to 48th in the major recruiting lists. But expect his stock to rise when the updated rankings are released as he should be a consensus top 15 player. Rathan – Mayes is also a HS and AAU team mate of Andrew Wiggins who is the best player in both the 2013 and 2014 class and is rumored to be reclassifying into the 2013 class. Rathan – Mayes and Wiggins, like a lot of high school players make noise about playing together at a college school but this rarely works out. But somehow you get the feeling that there may be something to this “package deal”.

And that would be fantastic, but the fact is that Rathan – Mayes and Aaron Harrison both play the same position and the consensus is that Rathan – Mayaes and Harrison will not go to the same school.

Unless.

Just purely speculation here but let’s assume that Wiggins does not reclassify into 2013. I don’t know if Rathan – Mayes will be a “one and done” like the Harrisons surely will be. You would figure that whatever school lands Rathan – Mayes may have the upper hand on Wiggins and if they truly want to play together, Xavier would stay at a school for a couple of years and wait for Wiggins to join him. Depending on what happens with Archie Goodwin after the 2012 season, Rathan – Mayes could still get plenty of playing time playing with the Harrisons and can set the table for a 2014 class that includes Wiggins.

That is probably the best case scenario. You also have to consider that all this means that Calipari is protecting himself in case the Harrisons go elsewhere. I still think the Harrisons are Kentucky bound, but Xavier Rathan – Mayes certainly gives Kentucky a good back up if not. And the possibility of Andrew Wiggins makes it an even more solid idea.

One thing for sure, recruiting is never boring in Lexington.