Huge week ahead for Kentucky Wildcats NCAA Basketball Tournament Hopes

Dec 2, 2012; Lexington , KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops waves to fans before being introduced a the new football coach at the University of Kentucky in the Nutter Field House. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

As football recruiting goes, this was a wild weekend for Mark Stoops and company. The news of a couple of commits (James Hearns, Marcus McWilson) leaked out, but were quickly refuted and retracted. Not that it means that they won’t happen … just not being announced yet. Larry Vaught has a great rundown on the weekend’s activity and here is a bit of what he is reporting:

"Franklin County receiver Ryan Timmons and his mother attended the UK-LSU basketball game. It was his second trip to UK in three weeks, and first time to bring his mother to a basketball game. He’s apparently down to Kentucky, Ohio State, Florida and Illinois. — Safety Marcus McWilson of Youngstown, Ohio, a top 200 recruit, de-committed from Nebraska and could be close to giving a commitment to the Wildcats after making a visit over the weekend. He committed to Nebraska in September, but was recruited there by new UK tight ends coach Vince Marrow. McWilson attends Cardinal Mooney High School — the same school that new UK head coach Mark Stoops and Marrow attended. — Another top 200 recruit, Florida linebacker James Hearns, also visited UK after breaking nearly a year-long commitment to Florida. While there have been questions about his academics, he seemed intent on possibly making a commitment to UK as well because of Stoops and new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot. Hearns also has Louisville, Auburn, Houston, Florida State, South Carolina and South Florida on his list of potential schools and had offers from Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia, LSU and Ohio State. — Trinity defensive end Jason Hatcher was rumored to have made an unofficial visit to Lexington Saturday also rather than take a planned visit to Louisville. He recently de-committed from Southern Cal and, like Timmons, would be a huge signing for Stoops considering he did not have Kentucky on his radar six weeks ago."

Photo credit: Orlando Sentinel

Orlando WR Jeff Badet and QB Asiantii Woulward are still big targets for Kentucky and he was on the west coast visiting UCLA this weekend. Larry Vaught (hey, the man does good work) talked to the Orlando Sentinel’s Chris Hays about the possibility of Badet and Woulward becoming Wildcats:

"Question: Do you think Kentucky has a realistic chance at signing one or both of them? Hays: “I think Badet is a Wildcat from what I am able to gather in conversations with him. I’m looking for him to don a blue-and-white hat next week sometime unless something drastic changes everything. As for Asiantii, it’s far more difficult to get a read on him. I know he is living it up with this UCLA trip this weekend and they are going to give him that Hollywood treatment that might be hard to match. If UCLA really wants him I have no doubt they can sew it up with an overwhelming shower of affection during this trip. Otherwise he’ll be down to Kentucky and Clemson, and I’m not sure how committable the Clemson offer is.”"