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Who is the first Top 10 recruit that you can remember UK signing?

I don't think Mashburn was a Top 10 player. Someone correct me if I am wrong. The one I first truly remember is Rex.


Mash was a Parade All American so he was close. He didn't beat out Damon Bailey for the USA today Top 5... [eyeroll]
 
Remember my old man taking me to blue and white night and kept saying keep an eye on #10. He turned out to be Keith bogans. And I did a lot of watching for the next for years
 
I really never paid attention to recruit rankings until UK signed Bill Willoughby and the papers made such a big deal out of it. I had no idea Larry Conley was a Parade AA.
 
I started listening with Cotton Nash but I guess it would be Pat Riley and Larry Conley. I really wasn't watching the recruiting rankings back then but I am guessing they were both ranked near the top of the class.
 
Derrick Hord since there was such a huge backlash when he didn't live up to the expectations of the pundits.
 
As someone alluded to previously in this thread, the further back you go the less definitive and numerous were national rankings of h.s. prospects. I first became aware of such lists through the old Street & Smith yearbooks, so the earliest "top 10" players in my memory were probably Robey and (I believe) Jack Givens.
 
I didn't really pay attention to the recruiting until right before the season until probably when Mashburn came.
Tony Delk graduated the same year I did, and I had a teacher that would drive to Memphis and watch him then give us a report.
I guess the first one I remember following closely on here was Mohammed Abukar. That was when Billy Donovan was starting to make strides and Tubby was slipping a little. We ended up losing him to Florida, I guess that was 2002.
 
I don't think Mashburn was a Top 10 player. Someone correct me if I am wrong. The one I first truly remember is Rex.

You might be tight but he was the first bigtime player I truly remember reading about etc. Someone know what he was ranked? I just cant remember many players that would of been ranked above him at the time.
 
The Ranking system must of sucked back then. Mashburn was a Dominate player. If tbey had it set up back then like today no doubt Mash was top 5 if not the o erall #1. Him and a bunch of walk ons almost beat duke and then ended up reaching FF later on. Who else could of lead a bunch of pretty much walk onslike that as a freshman?Todays rankings he had to be top player in that class coming out of high school. He probably is a one and done today.
 
Mine would be Bill Willoughby a 6'8" skywalking wing forward out of Englewood N.J. from the class of 1975. Willoughby along with Darryl Dawkins was considered as the 2 best high school players in America that year.
Willoughby signed with UK and then went in the draft??
 
Its kinda hard to put my finger on one. I do remember the Bowie and the Ralph Sampson recruitment's.
 
Grevey was my first favorite player. Recruiting, it was Bowie, Minnifield, Hoard, Givens, Macy. Born in 68, so Grevey was at a very young age to remember. Remember Joe Barry Carroll playing at Purdue and the Notre Dame kids in the 70's, Digger slowed it down and the final was like 32-25 or something low.
 
Cotton Nash. Outside of someone like Wilt or Jerry Lucas, recruiting was pretty quiet in those days so even though he was a big time get it wasn't front page news. I remember a TV broadcast of UK vs. Georgia Tech his freshman year in which the announcer said during the freshman game played right before the varsity he saw the best player he had ever seen.
 
I think Chapman for me too..LHL was my source of info then...remember him and 7'2 Spencer ranked #2 and 3 in the Country from KY ..Chapman may have won a title had they both gone to UL...And i thought that was going to happen..had heard Rex grew up a UL fan..
 
The great '74 class of Givens. Heitz, Lee, Phillips and Robey. 1 NCAA title, 1 NCAA runner-up, 1 Elite Eight and 1 NIT title.
 
The great '74 class of Givens. Heitz, Lee, Phillips and Robey. 1 NCAA title, 1 NCAA runner-up, 1 Elite Eight and 1 NIT title.
 
The Ranking system must of sucked back then. Mashburn was a Dominate player. If tbey had it set up back then like today no doubt Mash was top 5 if not the o erall #1. Him and a bunch of walk ons almost beat duke and then ended up reaching FF later on. Who else could of lead a bunch of pretty much walk onslike that as a freshman?Todays rankings he had to be top player in that class coming out of high school. He probably is a one and done today.
Mashburn was considered lazy and didn't have much of a work ethic in HS. That's one of reasons he wanted to play for Rick so he would be pushed.
 
It was probably Rex Chapman. He went to school at Apollo and I went OHS. I'm a year older than him. He was a heck of a player and I couldn't stand Apollo. He was a great player and I'm glad he went to UK.
 
Mashburn was considered lazy and didn't have much of a work ethic in HS. That's one of reasons he wanted to play for Rick so he would be pushed.

This is correct. Mashburn wasn't ranked nearly as high out of high school as some people think. I thought he was in the 20-25 range at the time.
 
No-one remember Dan Issel ? He was a fair player and if he wasn't top ten, Rupp did one helluva job coaching him UP!!!!!
 
No-one remember Dan Issel ? He was a fair player and if he wasn't top ten, Rupp did one helluva job coaching him UP!!!!!
Issel played for a small school in Illinois and wasn't close to top 10. In fact, Mike Casey was considered a bigger recruit that year.
 
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