Calipari, Cats still have their sights on 9 of Rival's Top 21 players for 2010
By Staff
“Yea, four of the top 21 sounds nice”
The new player rankings from Rivals.com has been released and a quick scan of the listings show that UK is pursuing actively at least nine of the top 21 basketball players in the country for 2010. While it is unrealistic to expect more than one or two of these to commit to UK, the optimism is high that Calipari can land 3 or more of thise top studs. Of course that seems extremely unrealistic in most years, but let’s just say that with Cal, all things are possible. So let’s do a quick look at the new player ratings and what recruiting developments have occured lately for the players that may be in the Blue and White.
#1 Brandon Knight , G, Ft Lauderdale, FL
Things have been quiet on the Brandon Knight watch lately as he has said that he will pare his schools soon, but there has been no official word. It appears that Florida and Duke are falling by the wayside in the battle for Knight as there really has been no buzz about them for a while. From all appearances however, it seems that UK and Miami are in the lead for the services of Knight, with some reports saying that UConn and Kansas are also contenders.
#2 Harrison Barnes, SG, Ames, IA
Equally quiet on the recruiting front is news from Harrison Barnes. Barnes has been something of an enigma for UK, as most UK fans assumed he had no interest, but there were some quotes from him around the first of July that he was still interested in UK. Since then, there has been no activity from the Barnes camp, yet he has said in the past he would trim his list around the end of the month. It’s a good sign for UK that Harrison plans to make his visits during basketball events, not attend football games like a lot of recruits do. Not to diss the UK football program, but it would be hard to walk away from a UK game at Rupp without feeling really, really good about UK.
#4 Josh Selby, PG, Baltimore, MD
It’s going to be a long wait before we find out where the former Tennessee commitment is headed. While he was rumored to be a Wildcat shortly after he de-commitment, Selbys mom recently said that he would not sign until the late signing period in the spring and that more than a dozen schools are showing interest. No matter what source you look at, UK is still in the top 2 or 3 for Josh, and UConn appears an early challenger. The Selby’s will set up in home visits soon and then plan official visits in October.
#5 Tobias Harris, PF, Glen Head, NY
Kentucky was a late player in the Tobias Harris sweepstakes, and apparently have made up a lot of ground in just a short time. Torrel Harris, Tobias’s dad is a key figure in the recruitment and recently had some good words about UK and Calipari. Harris plans to trim his list to five sometime “after Friday, and it appears that local contender Rutgers may have taken a hit with some coaching changes that Harris’s dad was not that happy with. Tobias recently visited UK and met with President Lee Todd and it was just announced that UK will have the in house visit with Tobias on September 9.
#8 Jelan Kendrick, SF, Atlanta, GA
I hesitated putting Kendrick on this list as he does not seem to be a big UK target, but according to rivals, UK is one of a handful of schools that have offered a scholarship. SF is not an area of priority for UK in 2010, but Kendrick is one of the best. I don’t really see a lot of buzz about other schools or that Kendrick is close to signing wiwth anyone so this may be a spring time decision.
#9 Kyrie Irving, PG, Elizabeth, NJ
Irving had a great summer and propelled himself from 21 in the previous rivals list to number 9. It appears that UK has fallen out of the recruiting race as it has become a two team race between IU and Duke and Indiana feels they have the upper hand. Irving has said he will take all five school visits however but only Duke and Indiani were listed. UK has a shot to be in his final five when it is released soon, but Irving is feeling like a sure Indiana commitment.
#14 CJ Leslie, PF, Raleigh, NC
In a way, you have to like the laid back approach of CJ Leslie, who has admotted he did not spend his summer debating where he was going to go to school. CJ freely admits that he is “wide open” when it comes to deciding where he will be going to school. Certainly UK is a player, due to the John Wall connection, and CJ has stated that he will be taking an official visit to UK very soon. He has also stated his intent to take several “unofficial” visits to see his former team mate Wall play at Rupp.
#20 Adreian Payne, C, Dayton, OH
The talented big man recently cut his list to a top 5 of Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State, Arizona, and West Virginia. Depending on what sources you look at, this is shaping up as a UK-Kansas, UK-Mich State, or a UK-WVU battle. Either way, it definitely looks like UK is in this one till the end.
#21 Doron Lamb, SG, Mouth of Wilson, VA
Lamb has been a UK lean for a few months now and there is no indication that UK has slipped in his view, but he is taking visits to Kansas and Oklahoma soon. Lamb was at one time considered one of Calipari’s top targets in this class and there is no indication the interest from UK has waned.
Bottom line is, it is NOT hard to see a possibility that UK can land four of these elite players. I think that Lamb, Leslie, Payne, and Knight are realistic options. Of course, this is a PG, SG, C, and PF so there is not the concern of having two top PG’s or two top freshman battling each other for playing time. As much as I think that Cal can pull in more than one top PG, I think it can be Knight or bust for the Cats. In keeping expectations down, even a top 3 of this class would be an amazing feat for Calipari.
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