Nike sponsored summer team will move to Kentucky, could feature 2014′s D’Angelo Russell

Big time basketball is headed to Kentucky in 2014 and we are not talking about the possibility of a NBA franchise landing in Louisville.  The Tennessee Travellers have been one of the nations top youth programs since 1988 and they will be taking up residence in the Bluegrass.  The are one of just 40 Nike sponsored teams that participate in the EYBL. This move was made due to an influx of talent in Kentucky and will offer greater exposure for Kentucky’s HS players:

Andy Rines, director of the Travelers program, told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that the move coincides with an influx of talent in Kentucky.

“It’s a state where there was not a Nike team,” Rines said. “We began talking about it in the spring and as we began researching Kentucky high school basketball more and more we felt like it was just a good situation for us all around.

“Talent goes through cycles and we feel like there’s a really good cycle of talent coming through Kentucky right now.”

 

One of the top targets for the travellers will be Kentucky target D’Angelo Russell from Louisville.  The EYBL is probably the premeir summer league and ends with the Peach Jam tournament.  This summer, names like  Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, James Young, and Aaron Gordon all played in the EYBL.

 

Anthony Davis was the top player in the 2011 class and he just won Olympic Gold.  Karl Towns, Jr is the top player in the 2015 class and he came one game away from playing in the Olympics. Besides the eerie Kennedy/Lincoln aura the two share, they also have one big common point of reference:  John Calipari.  In addition to tweeting the above picture from NBA rookie day, Towns said that he and Davis spent some time talking about Calipari.  Let’s not get too excited though.  It appears that it will be quite some time before Towns is going to get serious about recruiting: 

Though Towns has said he hasn’t spent much time thinking about his recruitment, spending a few weeks with Calipari in Lexington could have only helped UK’s chances. But the 2015 big man will have plenty of high-profile suitors. And he took photos with several former college stars at Tuesday’s shoot. Among them were North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Duke’s Miles Plumlee, Baylor’s Perry Jones, Michigan State’s Draymond Green, UConn’s Andre Drummond.

Many, if not all, of those schools are expected to be on Towns’ list once his recruitment starts heating up.

 

Karl Towns Jr was not alone in tweeting out pictures from the NBA rookie day.  Terrence Jones sent this out of five of the NBA Cats (sans Darius Miller):

Big Blue Madness has become an iconic event over the years and has hit near legendary status since John Calipari came to town. But the actual camping out for tickets for BBM has turned into it’s own social event and campers will be looking to break last years record number of tents. And now we have a date as to when the tickets will be distributed:

As usual, tickets to Big Blue Madness are free. They may be picked up at Memorial Coliseum or ordered online when the distribution begins. At Memorial Coliseum, fans will be limited to four tickets per person. Online, tickets are limited to four per household, and there is a service fee attached to the order.

The ticket distribution begins at 7 a.m. on Sept. 22 at the Memorial Coliseum ticket windows on Euclid Avenue and online at UKathletics.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Campus public safety officials are asking fans who wish to line up for tickets ahead of time at Memorial Coliseum do so no earlier than 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19.