UK and Calipari "gain by subtraction" in the recruitment of Kyrie Irving, Josh Selby
By Staff
While we are still waiting to hear how the official visits of Brandon Knight and Stacey Poole went this weekend, UK advanced themselves in the recruitment of Kyrie Irving and Josh Selby … by hardly lifting a finger.
OK, I am sure that Calipari was “on” and stated his case during the recent in home visits and that has a lot to do with UK still being in the mix for the two talented guards. But both players cut their lists after their in-home visits and the results is a little surprising.
Indiana, long rumored to be a leader for Kyrie Irving is ‘no mas’. Sometime after Irving’s in-home visit with Tom Crean and Indiana, Irving decided that IU was not for him, cancelled his official visit to Bloomington and cut them from his list. Duke is now the solid leader for Irving and you have to figure that UK is in second but rapidly picking up ground. Irving is slated to visit Duke next weekend, and if there is no official announcement from the Irving camp by say, October 1, I would think UK has a very realistic chance.
In a very classy and eloquent and lengthy statement Irving’s uncle Sye Dean explained the cut of IU:
“Indiana is out. We respect the program. We respect Tom Crean. We feel blessed that a university of that caliber would recruit Kyrie, but sometimes in regards to this recruiting process you have to eliminate certain programs. That’s part of the process. It’s always a process of elimination and I think Tom Crean and their program did a wonderful job. We just felt that Indiana wasn’t the place where he could develop and that’s no disrespect to Tom Crean. Although Indiana is a great program and has great coaches, we just felt it was conducive for us to go in another direction. Although Kyrie will not be taking an official visit to Indiana University, as a family we have the utmost respect for the Indiana University program, its coaches and players. Unfortunately, during this arduous and lengthy recruiting process, certain perspectives and perceptions changed in what would be best for Kyrie and his future.”
After that I am not sure if Irving was cutting the school or breaking up with Tom Crean. Regardless, Indiana fans have felt the need to harass Irving on his Twitter page. Maybe Tom Crean can take a break from trying to crackwise on Cal on his twitter page and tell his fanbase to chill on harassing a 17 year old.
And now that Irving has cut Indiana, Indiana is trying to get in on the Josh Selby sweepstakes. Selby is another school that UK made another elimination round on as Selby’s mother announced that Texas and Tennessee were officially out of the running:
“Schools that we’re not considering anymore are Texas and Tennessee”
Granted, she gets her point across but she does not have the gift of gab like Sye Dean. Can we just say that Josh Selby is one of my favorite recruits for dumping Bruce Pearl, not once but twice? Maeshon Witherspon did say that UK has an in home visit with Josh on September 24, and shortly after that visit they would attempt to cut their list to five. It looks like the decision may not be made till near the end of the college basketball season saying they are going to sit back and see “how most of the teams seasons play out“.
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