by Paul Jordan
Make no doubt about it. The eyes and ears of the top remaining 2010 recruits will be closely watching John Calipari and his Wildcats as they make their way though March Madness which hopefully will ultimately culminate in title number eight for UK.
But how much will UK’s success in the NCAA Tournament affect the minds of Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Terrence Jones, C.J. Leslie, and Doron Lamb among others? Probably not as much as you would think. Kentucky has been solidly perched in the top five all season and has been the most written about/discussed team in the country. Personally I think most of the recruits minds are made up, but when they announce and for whom could still set off a recruiting dominoes of sorts. Let’s take a look at the latest for UK’s top targets:
BRANDON KNIGHT: Knight was thought to be close to an announcement, but apparently that is being pushed back to April. There is a lot of speculation that this is a Kentucky/Florida battle and that Knight preferred Florida and his parents were pushing Kentucky. Now apparently, they are close to a decision and he and his parents are now in agreement on the school. Knight will not announce this month, but will make his decision in April on ESPN.
Some in the Florida media think that the Gator’s making the NCAA Tournament improves their chances for Knight picking the Gators, but this writer say that means Donovan will stay at the school longer because of this. That is not really a factor as Donovan can not look at another NBA for another two years due to a deal he worked out with the Magic when weaseling out of that contract. So Donovan will stay put, regardless. I am of the camp that Florida is a real PG away from being possibly a top 10 team next year and I know everyone is telling Knight that. It also boils down as to who can prepare him for the NBA better: Calipari or Donovan.
JOSH SELBY: There has not been a lot of news on Selby lately, except the common consensus is that he will go to Kansas if Brandon Knight picks Kentucky. What happens if Knight goes elsewhere? You would think that Kentucky is still in the running for Selby. A lot of people think that the recent announcement of Jim Calhoun’s contract extension at Connecticut was designed to keep Connecticut relevant in the minds of Knight, Selby, and Doron Lamb. It is going to be a watching, waiting, and commiserating for Selby for about another month as he has announced he will be making his decision on April 17 at the Jordan Classic.
TERRENCE JONES: There have been a lot of rumors that Jones was headed to Washington and that rumor was supposedly confirmed by a UK source, but apparently there is no truth to it whatsoever. The thing I do like about Jones is that he is a proven winner, and he recently led his HS team to a third straight state championship.
Despite the rumors, Jones appears wide open to his recruitment. Jones’ mother said recently that they had their “five people” and would wait “until April” to make a decision. Jones re-iterated that statement and said that he “has not even thought about that”.
C.J. LESLIE: Leslie has been seemingly leaning to Kentucky for quite some while and he has made a lot of good comments about UK and his former team mate John Wall, yet has not pulled the trigger on his announcement. And it appears that it may be a while for this to happen. The common rumor has been a final two of North Carolina State and Kentucky, with Florida still an option. The recent de-commitment of four star Luke Cothron from NC State has some thinking this may lead Leslie to eventually re-commit to the Wolfpack. As recently as today, Leslie says that he is still wide open in his choices:
Well, I’m going to announce sometime in April. Probably during the spring signing period. The crazy thing is I have the same list, but I read stuff that says I’ve cut my list of schools. It’s still UCLA, Oregon, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and N.C. State
In that same article, Leslie doe state that he thinks UK will win the NCAA Tourney, so we know he will be watching his good friend John Wall.
DORON LAMB: Doron Lamb has been a hard one to read and from all indications, he is still undecided. At this point, that would probably mean that he is waiting on the other guards to make their decisions. His dad recently said that his son will probably make his decision after the McDonald’s All American game on March 31 and would make his announcement on April 17 at the Jordan Classic. His dad did not think that the decisions of Knight and Selby would affect his son’s choice and that he wants to play for a winner and he wants to play right away.
There you go. It appears that the five players in the top 25 will not be making a decision until probably after this month and April 17 is shaping up as a date to circle on the calendar. I will have some updates next week on other UK targets such as Enes Kanter and Luke Cothron.
Keep in mind that you still have the chance to make your decision and join the Wildcat Blue Blog Tournament Challenge, hosted on ESPN. It’s free, so click here.
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