by Paul Jordan
“I’m pure evil in an all white suit and I’m selling my soul
to compete with Cal in 2011″
Hold on to your horses, BBN. The 2011 recruiting class is on the verge of reaching a whole new level of interesting. It appears that Rick Pitino and his Cardinals are starting to get involved with some of the same players that John Calipari is coveting and for now it just means I have another reason to mock Ricky P’s white suit and add a new level of Cardinal bashing to the site. In the long run, it could mean that the 2011 Kentucky/Louisville game could be the most hyped game in the history of the rivalry and easily the game of the season in college basketball.
Of course, this is purely rampant speculation mixed with a bit of paranoia right now. But I have started to get a bad feeling that Kentucky may not land a couple of their targets for the 2011 class. The biggest target of course would be Quincy Miller. Miller has been on Calipari’s radar seemingly since he has arrived in Lexington. And Miller has seemed to revel in the attention from the BBN, and has been seen wearing UK gear frequently. Recently, Miller has seemed to cool on the Wildcat’s a bit.
One potential roadblock to a Miller commitment has been the Deuce Bello situation. Miller and Bello are close friends and practically family. Both have twitted extensively about attending the same school together. While Bello is a nice player, he does not seem to enter into the Wildcat’s plans. Enter Rick Pitino into the equation and he seems more than willing to take both Bello and Miller and almost overnight, Louisville popped up on Miller’s list of contenders.
The second roadblock is now appearing to be Tony Wroten. For a while, Michael Gilchrist and Marquis Teague were twitter happy about bringing both Wroten and Miller to to Wildcats. That chatter has kind of cooled down a bit and now Quincy Miller is making statements on his twitter like “My bro @ToneTone13 is def a pass first pg…he has to be my pg in college! Hopefully lol” .
Now I understand that twitter is twitter and not a reliable source, even though it is coming right from player’s keyboard. But it is looking more and more like Quincy Miller is now going to take three scholarships to land him. And recently Tony Wroten has added the Dirty Birds to his list of teams as well and has been talking about Peyton Siva being one of his best friends and even the most paranoid of Kentucky fans can envision a scenario where Miller, Wroten, and Bello head off to the Ville. It’s just speculation, mind you, but it makes for an interesting theory in July.
Also interesting is the recent comments from Quincy Miller that he wants to be a real villain in basketball:
"“Once I get in college, I definitely want to be a rival. I want to be somebody that everyone hates”"
Interesting that this comment came on the heels of Duke’s increased interest in Miller. And of course, if Miller wants to be truly hated, signing up for the dirty birds will certainly qualify him as a major villain. I know it’s speculation and a study in paranoia, but you are kidding yourself if you think that Pitino is not going to make a run at these two.
And not to sound snide, even if Miller and Wroten sign elsewhere, Kentucky still looks to have the upper hand in that 2011 matchup at Rupp. Kentucky already has Michael Gilchrist and Marquis Teague in the fold and are in good with former Cardinal commit Michael Chandler and possible number one over all recruit Anthony Davis, among several other upper tier targets.
And of course, there is always the chance that Kentucky still lands Miller and Wroten. John Calipari is not going to back off a recruit based on some twitter comments. Calipari recently made a trip to visit Miller so he is not conceding any ground to anyone, much less Pitino.
The only thing for sure is that recruiting is going to be very interesting in the Bluegrass as long as Pitino decides he wants to keep taking the beating.
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