Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: This week in recruiting
By Tyler Adkins
This is supposed to be a huge week in recruiting being the week after all of the Midnight Madness events, but to be honest it has failed to live up to the hype. No one really got a big recruit and there hasn’t been much news in the way of recruits leaning a certain way after a ton of visits. But there is some news so let’s get to it:
-Amile Jefferson, a four star recruit from Philly, is scheduled to visit UK this weekend. He is a 6-7 PF and is rated by ESPN as the 24th best player in the class. He is a thin, agile post player who is good defensively but still progressing offensively. He is a player that is relatively new to the UK recruiting scene but is one I think Cal could get early if he really wants him.
-Everyone who attended Big Blue Madness basically said they loved the visit and it exceeded expectations except for one: Willie Cauley. Don’t get me wrong he didn’t say he didn’t have a great time, in fact he said he had a good time, but in his interview with Steve Jones seemed to really not say anything. For him to be a guy many thought may commit at BBM he has been extremely quiet and indifferent, maybe he isn’t as much of a lock as we all thought.
-Gary Harris, a five star shooting guard from Indianapolis, is also supposed to visit UK this weekend. He is a major recruit and UK is trying hard to get him away from Indiana and a number of other schools recruiting him. He and Goodwin have talked about playing together and both seem open to the idea, but if they get both of them other schools will hate life when they have to play this backcourt. Let’s hope he has a great visit.
-Evan Daniels from Scout.com who is always on top of the recruiting scene said on Twitter this week that he still thinks Shabazz Muhammed is leaning toward UCLA. He might be, but Muhammed’s dad reportedly said Shabazz was making sure with him they could come back to a UK game this season and his visit “exceeded expectations.” Sounds like the visit really helped UK and a return visit this year would be huge especially considering Muhammed’s father said it would have to be unofficial and they would have to pay for it themselves but it “wasn’t a problem.” Also Muhammed will visit UCLA again and let’s all hope they go there for a game, if so, there is no way he leaves the game thinking “I really like UCLA’s slowdown, 12 passes before a shot, hoosiers style offense better than UK’s wide open offense.” No chance.
-BBM visitor and five star center DaJuan Coleman will be visiting Ohio State this weekend. It is a 3 way race for Coleman with Syracuse, UK and Ohio State being the finalists. It is really hard to get a read on the big guy and no one really knows which way he is leaning. It will be an interesting next few months to see who wins out.
-Archie Goodwin you are awesome for committing early, thank you for keeping a few grey hairs from my head this winter.
-2013 studs and twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison really seem to be a heavy UK lean. Their comments and all of the scouts seem to think they are going to be eventually headed to UK but it may be next year before they commit anywhere. These guys are amazing and seem to really get Cal’s philosophy of “Be my Brother’s Keeper.” Get it? Good.
That is all for this week folks. Maybe we will get some more good news next week on the recruiting trail and until then, Go Big Blue.
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