As Kentucky fans wait on the next breaking recruiting story, we could be getting close to a big couple of days before Big Blue Madness rolls around.
The quantity may not be huge, but the quality is immense and surrounds two five-star talents: Scottie Lewis and Oscar Tshiebwe.
The hay is pretty well in the barn with Lewis. There will still be some jockeying for position with him, but now it seems the two remaining questions are where will he go and when will he announce.
Florida had long been considered the leader to get him. Plans were set up a few weeks back for two official visits in September: Gainesville on the weekend of September 7, and Lexington the following week. Although, the criteria was for two officials, some looked at no commitment after leaving The Swamp as a victory for the Wildcats.
The lines continued to blur after Lewis left Lexington and headed back to New Jersey. Several projections by national analysts changed from blue and orange in the past seven days. The only thing we knew for sure was that Lewis's AAU coach, Brian Klatsky, said last Monday that there definitely wouldn't be an announcement during the week.
So here we are, a week after the visit, and there seems to be more questions than there are answers.
As with many tight lipped recruiting processes, most if not all of the evidence tends to be circumstantial. But much of that has tended to trend toward Kentucky in the past few days.
1) Lewis announced that his recruitment was officially down to two schools: Florida and Kentucky. That was a feather in the cap of John Calipari in itself. Up until a couple of weeks ago, few considered the Cats to even be in the top three. If Coach Cal can land Lewis, this will be considered to be one of his greatest coups, but to get into the top pair is an accomplishment within itself.
In narrowing down the finalists to a duo, a scheduled official visit for early October to St. John's was cancelled, and the Red Storm was eliminated. This was one reason there was speculation that an announcement might come within 72 hours after the trip to Lexington until Klatsky refuted that. But with no more trips planned, the feeling is that the final decision may come sooner rather than later.
2) Adam Zagoria spoke with Lewis after the Kentucky visit. Lewis said that he has played with Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson, and Quade Green all of his life. He also stated that he is in a group text with Kahlil Whitney and Tyrese Maxey. He certainly had a lot of very complimentary things to say about Kentucky that many weren't familiar with. In fairness, he also gave plenty of reasons he likes Florida.
3) As trivial as this may seem a picture surfaced last week with Lewis on the beach in New Jersey in a Kentucky jersey. What that means, nobody can say for sure, but obviously that raises eyebrows. In the picture relaxing with him was his best friend, and Florida signee, Alex Klatsky.
The information that Corey Evans and I have both been getting has been very similar. In last week’s Twitter Tuesday, he wrote that getting Lewis is not a done deal for the Gators although he is leaning that way. He also said Mike White is sweating this one out.
I spoke with Corey Sunday morning, and he admitted that like everyone else, he doesn’t know all of the answers and much of what he is saying are “educated guesses.”
His thoughts haven’t changed. Corey told us that “it is not set in stone” but he still sees Florida as the leader.
The buzz is trending on Lewis making an announcement soon, and there is the definite possibility that we could know where he is going by this time next week. Evans says he expects it to happen within the next two weeks. Staying on that subject, Russ Wood of the Florida site, spoke with Brian Klatsky of Team Rio this evening and he said Lewis has said nothing about an announcement date.
That brings us to a confirmed date that we do know about. Oscar Tshiebwe will be taking his official visit to Lexington this coming weekend. This follows visits to Baylor and Illinois. He will wrap up the trips at West Virginia the first weekend in October.
An official to Kentucky is always a prime event, but this one may be more important than usual. Not being from the United States, Tshiebwe is not as familiar with the schools as American talent, who know all there is to know about basketball programs at an early age.
Here is why that is an issue. West Virginia has been the leader since day one. He has a great relationship with Bob Huggins. But everything has been basically done over the phone. He has no idea what the basketball program in Lexington has to offer until he sees it with his own eyes.
Right now, just about every Crystal Ball and Future Cast has Oscar in Mountaineers’ gear. But the process really hasn’t started yet, and it won’t until this weekend. Just like things got hazy with Scottie Lewis after his trip to the Commonwealth, expect the same thing to happen with Tshiebwe, and some projections might even start swinging in the Cats’ favor.
One final note, Kentucky recruiting is always a fluid situation, and there will most likely be storylines pop up that we don’t know about right now, but we will also be digging on Isaiah Stewart. Although there is nothing there that is going to happen soon, it appears Calipari is making himself a player in this one.
The quantity may not be huge, but the quality is immense and surrounds two five-star talents: Scottie Lewis and Oscar Tshiebwe.
The hay is pretty well in the barn with Lewis. There will still be some jockeying for position with him, but now it seems the two remaining questions are where will he go and when will he announce.
Florida had long been considered the leader to get him. Plans were set up a few weeks back for two official visits in September: Gainesville on the weekend of September 7, and Lexington the following week. Although, the criteria was for two officials, some looked at no commitment after leaving The Swamp as a victory for the Wildcats.
The lines continued to blur after Lewis left Lexington and headed back to New Jersey. Several projections by national analysts changed from blue and orange in the past seven days. The only thing we knew for sure was that Lewis's AAU coach, Brian Klatsky, said last Monday that there definitely wouldn't be an announcement during the week.
So here we are, a week after the visit, and there seems to be more questions than there are answers.
As with many tight lipped recruiting processes, most if not all of the evidence tends to be circumstantial. But much of that has tended to trend toward Kentucky in the past few days.
1) Lewis announced that his recruitment was officially down to two schools: Florida and Kentucky. That was a feather in the cap of John Calipari in itself. Up until a couple of weeks ago, few considered the Cats to even be in the top three. If Coach Cal can land Lewis, this will be considered to be one of his greatest coups, but to get into the top pair is an accomplishment within itself.
In narrowing down the finalists to a duo, a scheduled official visit for early October to St. John's was cancelled, and the Red Storm was eliminated. This was one reason there was speculation that an announcement might come within 72 hours after the trip to Lexington until Klatsky refuted that. But with no more trips planned, the feeling is that the final decision may come sooner rather than later.
2) Adam Zagoria spoke with Lewis after the Kentucky visit. Lewis said that he has played with Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson, and Quade Green all of his life. He also stated that he is in a group text with Kahlil Whitney and Tyrese Maxey. He certainly had a lot of very complimentary things to say about Kentucky that many weren't familiar with. In fairness, he also gave plenty of reasons he likes Florida.
3) As trivial as this may seem a picture surfaced last week with Lewis on the beach in New Jersey in a Kentucky jersey. What that means, nobody can say for sure, but obviously that raises eyebrows. In the picture relaxing with him was his best friend, and Florida signee, Alex Klatsky.
The information that Corey Evans and I have both been getting has been very similar. In last week’s Twitter Tuesday, he wrote that getting Lewis is not a done deal for the Gators although he is leaning that way. He also said Mike White is sweating this one out.
I spoke with Corey Sunday morning, and he admitted that like everyone else, he doesn’t know all of the answers and much of what he is saying are “educated guesses.”
His thoughts haven’t changed. Corey told us that “it is not set in stone” but he still sees Florida as the leader.
The buzz is trending on Lewis making an announcement soon, and there is the definite possibility that we could know where he is going by this time next week. Evans says he expects it to happen within the next two weeks. Staying on that subject, Russ Wood of the Florida site, spoke with Brian Klatsky of Team Rio this evening and he said Lewis has said nothing about an announcement date.
That brings us to a confirmed date that we do know about. Oscar Tshiebwe will be taking his official visit to Lexington this coming weekend. This follows visits to Baylor and Illinois. He will wrap up the trips at West Virginia the first weekend in October.
An official to Kentucky is always a prime event, but this one may be more important than usual. Not being from the United States, Tshiebwe is not as familiar with the schools as American talent, who know all there is to know about basketball programs at an early age.
Here is why that is an issue. West Virginia has been the leader since day one. He has a great relationship with Bob Huggins. But everything has been basically done over the phone. He has no idea what the basketball program in Lexington has to offer until he sees it with his own eyes.
Right now, just about every Crystal Ball and Future Cast has Oscar in Mountaineers’ gear. But the process really hasn’t started yet, and it won’t until this weekend. Just like things got hazy with Scottie Lewis after his trip to the Commonwealth, expect the same thing to happen with Tshiebwe, and some projections might even start swinging in the Cats’ favor.
One final note, Kentucky recruiting is always a fluid situation, and there will most likely be storylines pop up that we don’t know about right now, but we will also be digging on Isaiah Stewart. Although there is nothing there that is going to happen soon, it appears Calipari is making himself a player in this one.
