It's a Cali-party!! Cal a genius at using Big Blue Madness to recruit for 2010 … and beyond

This Big Blue Midnight Madness thing is going to catch on, I think. We already know that John Calipari is bringing in top 2010 recruits Tobias Harris, Kyrie Irving and possibly CJ Leslie to partake in the Bluegrass’s kick off to basketball season. And it is just getting bigger and better.

Now normally, I have stayed away from discussing the 2011 recruiting class because I am basically the only writer for this blog and it’s hard enough keeping up with the 2010 class without bringing a whole new class into the conversation. But this is to good to NOT talk about.

In a sign that John Calipari will continually dominate the basketball recruiting world, it has been announced that 2011 recruits Marquis Teague and Michael Gilchrist will BOTH be attending the Big Blue Midnight Madness. Having two of the Top 4 players attend Midnight Madness is definitely an eye opening statement on how much John Calipari has advanced UK basketball in just 6 months (Happy 6 month anniversary yesterday, Cal).

Marquis Teague is the top PG in the 2011 class and while he has been rumored to be a Louisville lean for quite a while and was supposed to have committed to the dirty Cards months ago, but gosh darn it, he has not done so yet and he seems to be very interested in UK. Teague has been ranked #4 in ESPN’s “Super 60” for 2011 and you can’t help but salivate a bit when you read the first line of the latest ESPN scouting report on him: Teague was a terror in the open court today (LeBron James Skills Academy). He attacked the rim with crossover and hesitation dribbles and finished through contact.

For the uninitiated, Michael Gilchrist is the high school team mate of UK prospect Kyrie Irving and Gilchrist will be attending the Big Blue Madness with Kyrie Irving. It also helps that Gilchrist is probably the number 1 player in HS basketball right now and is rumored to be a Kentucky lean. There is a popular story that Irving and Gilchrist have talked about playing basketball together at the next level at Kentucky, so this will be fantastic opportunity to experience the most electric Big Blue Madness in recent history. There are still rumors that Irving is very much a sure-fire Duke commit eventually, but you don’t see him and Gilchrist going to Cameron Indoor Stadium together on October 16. Just saying.

While we are on the 2011 recruiting kick, I have to give props to Dustin Rumbaugh and his piece on fellow 2011 recruit PF Quincy Miller, the #8 player in the “Super 60” for 2011. Seems that Calipari paid a visit to North Carolina yesterday and met with Miller’s HS coach Isaac Pitts Jr. Seems that Calipari had the option of taking Miller out of class and joining the meeting, but Cal stressed academics and kept Miller in class, a point that obviously was not lost on Pitts. And today, from the twitter world, came a single word text from Quincy Miller that just read “Kentucy? ;)”

It should also be noted that some scouting reports have Gilchrist, Teague, and Miller as 1,2,and 3 for 2011. The good thing about Miller is that it would be taking another player from the state of North Carolina. If Cal can get Wall, Leslie, and Miller and successive years, the girly blue nation may implode.

Finally this morning, if you have not heard, the UK campus has become a “tent city” filled with Wildcat fans camping out to get a chance at Big Blue Madness tickets. Here’s a great video showing the scene near Memorial.

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